Warriors owner Joe Lacob says “we might very well regret” having traded off James Wiseman to Detroit

Golden State’s owner Joe Lacob admitted recently that he wasn’t too happy about letting go James Wiseman to the Pistons just before the latest trade deadline, as he really thought the former No.2 overall draft pick was destined to be the future of the Bay Area franchise. 

Lacob said to The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami that he ended up trusting his basketball staff’s decision to trade the seven-foot-one player, even though it was “very hard”.

Warriors Owner Joe Lacob on trading James Wiseman:

“You know, we might very well regret that one, longer term or even intermediate term.”

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— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 3, 2023

“You know, we might very well regret that one, longer term or even intermediate term,” Lacob got sincere with the press after their latest victory over the Clippers at the Chase Center. “But as much as I love the guy, I can’t overrule what our basketball ops and our coaches and our players felt was the right thing to do.”

As the Warriors owner said before, it was an unanimous vote to go foward with it. “So it’s a consensus thing,” he said. “We’re ‘we,’ we’re not ‘me’. And we’re going to do what the best thing is, and we felt it would improve our team short term and kind of went for it for Gary [Payton II].”

Even though Lacob admitted that the transfer took some convincing for him, he comprehends the player was given very few opportunities and was feeling frustrated. As for the coaching staff, it seems he wasn’t in Steve Kerr’s future plans as we all thought Wiseman was.

“I think James is a really good young player, and we’re not going to get many opportunities to draft a young guy like that again,” the Golden State holder said. “And he really didn’t … let’s be honest, he didn’t really have a chance; it’s partially his fault, partially bad luck, partially our fault for not playing him enough.”

“But we’re not getting an opportunity to get a big talent like that with size very often. I mean, it was a very hard decision for the organization, to be quite honest,” Lacob assured.

The young center was part of a four-team trade to finally be bound to Detroit, as the Warriors welcomed back Payton from Portland, even though bringing him wasn’t the reason behind the Wiseman transfer. “I don’t think [when] we started out we thought he’d be available, to be honest” Lacob said.

“He was expensive last year, that contract, we couldn’t really afford it,” he continued. “But given what we did with Wiseman, we took some money off the books. Our biggest weakness, you could argue, has been perimeter defense. So we felt it was a good move to make.”

The 21-year-old seems to finally be enjoying the playtime he’s been looking for in Michigan, and improving every night. Just two days ago, Wiseman dropped 21 points, won 5 rebounds and stole the ball twice in the Pistons two-point loss against Washington.

Look at the big man’s highlights from the Wizards’ clash in Detroit:

The last question that reporter Kawakami asked Lacob was if he is following Wiseman’s progress competing for the Pistons. “Sure I am,” he responded, as it seems the Warriors owner will keep observing his former player for some time now, hoping this won’t come back and bite them someday.