The James Wiseman Era ended with a whimper on Thursday as the Golden State Warriors unexpectedly came alive and did a damn thing before the end of an already wild trade deadline to ship out their most contractually and metaphorically significant albatross. Engaging with Detroit, Atlanta and Portland, the Warriors wheeled and dealed until James Wiseman was bound for Detroit and Gary Payton II was en route back to the Bay Area, where he belongs. But much more than swapping a benchwarmer and five recently purloined second-round picks (via Detroit) for the joyous return of both Payton II and his joie de vivre, this was a move that revealed quite a lot about the current state of Golden State’s back-of-house factionalism and the tug of war between lofty dreams of the future and the cold hard, mediocre reality of the present day.
The Wiseman trade is only a short truce in the Warriors' war over the future
