Q. James, can you give a general update of how you're feeling? How your knee is, get a general timeline, when you think you might be 100 percent?
JAMES WISEMAN: My knee is great so far. Really just taking it day-by-day. The time and the date is unknown but I can do individual work outs and training camp and stuff like that. So just getting myself ready.
Q. What had your rehab consisted of and has there been any on-court exercises you've been able to do while you're also rehabbing? I know the skill development hasn't been as far along as you want, but have you been able to get on the floor?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yes, sir, I've been doing a lot of shooting and watching a lot of film and doing footwork and stuff like that to keep my lateral movements sharp and just do a lot of lateral movements and just doing a lot of the intangibles that I can do so I can get back to 100 percent. Just taking it day-by-day.
Q. Can you talk about the coaching staff and your relationships with them so far and coaching style?
JAMES WISEMAN: He's great. Everybody is great on the staff. I love everybody on the staff but really no one he's teaching me the basic fundamentals of the game and telling me like things that I need to work on and we work on them in the gym and we just working every day, so yeah.
Q. Is there something that you learned from last year or things that you learned from last year, that you say, okay, I'm going to be different at this or that near?
JAMES WISEMAN: Just reading the pattern on defense. Make sure I call out the patterns on defense earlier and just staying out of foul trouble so just defending out fouling and just use my verticality more because I can be a threat at the rim if I use that correctly.
So I'm just pounding it every day, just watching film and doing stuff like that so I can improve.
Q. Can you take us through your initial reaction when you found out the injury and that you would have to miss the rest of the season and how did you move past that initial disappointment?
JAMES WISEMAN: It was a crazy moment, that game, I was down in tears, and I was out of it because I wanted to be out there playing, and that's life and that's part of the game. Sometimes you get thrown a lot of curveballs, but you have to keep going with the flow and keep moving forward.
Q. What's it like to have two guys now on the team younger than you do you feel like you're a veteran? Does it make you feel older or younger to be with them?
JAMES WISEMAN: I'm not a veteran yet. I have to earn my stripes. It's my second year and I just turned 20 so I'm still learning as well but I can get the body of information from what I had to go through last year, so I get a lot of advice and just keep getting a lot of encourage.
Q. What have you added from a strength standpoint that's different than when you arrived in terms of strength and weight?
JAMES WISEMAN: My upper and lower body, since I couldn't do any basketball stuff yet. So I was just in the weight room every day and just watching a lot of film and just keeping my mental sharp in terms of outside of basketball, meditating and doing stuff to ease my mind.
Q. Have you been able to bond with Klay more, because you guys are in this situation?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yeah.
Q. In what way?
JAMES WISEMAN: I've been bonding with Klay a lot. We just been going through a lot of games, especially when the playoffs was on, so we were watching it together and he was telling me stuff that I can do to be a better center in terms of my role. So yeah, we were talking a lot.
Q. How much did you focus on shooting, since you couldn't do much lower body, did you get a lot of shots up?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yes, focused on my technique in terms of my form, shooting, and I've been working on that every day for the past three or four months. It's came a long way.
Q. As a rapper from Memphis, when did you see Hustle & Flow for the first time?
JAMES WISEMAN: I watched Hustle & Flow when I was real young but I can't remember how old I was. I was young.
Q. Like eight?
JAMES WISEMAN: No, not eight. Not eight. Definitely not eight (laughter). Definitely not eight.
Q. Saw you were on boat with Klay. What was that like?
JAMES WISEMAN: That was fun. He was teaching me the waves, so one day if I get my boat, I learn how to drive it. He taught me a lot of stuff like that. We were talking and vibing and having a great time. I actually enjoyed myself. I was also his deckhand, so I was doing all that stuff, man, it was crazy.
Q. What do you think about Jonathan Kuminga driving --
JAMES WISEMAN: I mean, that drop-top was nice. I actually seen it but I actually didn't see the post like that because I don't get on social media a lot. Other than that, it was cool.
Q. What's that aspect of this team like? Last year, you were the young guy, obviously the rookie and now you have two rookies under you, and Jordan Poole is part of the younger core. Do you like that that you kind of have this emerging younger core?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yes, sir. It's better this year because last year we were in the pandemic. It was weird. We didn't have no fans and I got thrown right into the fire.
So this year is going to be way better because I learned a lot and then like having a young core, it's going to be way better, too, in terms of our development, so I can't wait for that.
Q. You had an up-and-down rookie year; what are you most proud of?
JAMES WISEMAN: I'm proud of still going and not giving up. I'm proud of that. I learned a lot from last year, even though the injury sucks and it happens but none of that gets me down because I'm strong. I can withstand anything.
Q. What did you learn from last season and the nights and days that you worked hard and the triumphs? What can you take and say, okay, I got through this and this, this didn't go right, this didn't go well?
JAMES WISEMAN: Nobody's perfect. Nobody on this earth is perfect. So really, I just go day-by-day just want to work hard. I have a courageous mind and I ask all the questions. That's going to help out a lot because without adversity, you can't grow anyway. I just took that, ran with it and made out of it a positive and I'm going to be way better this year because I learned all that last year.
Q. You said courageous mind. Tell us what that means and how you developed that and when in your life?
JAMES WISEMAN: Just having 4th courageous in my heart. I wanted to get better and I wanted to learn and that's one of my attributes is I want to be better and I want to be the best I can being as a player. I just ask as much questions as possible and in games.
Q. Watching the finals with Klay Thompson, was there something you saw from Ayton's development last year that you can draw inspiration from?
JAMES WISEMAN: Really just simplifying his game. I say simplify his game in terms of like the usage rate and really just him being able to read the floor and just being able to call out patterns early. I would say in terms of that, just like simplifying my game and just playing my role. Playing my role, keeping it simple, not putting too much pressure on myself and just going out there and doing what I do best.
Q. What's your excitement level to have a season with fans this year?
JAMES WISEMAN: I'm really excited because I get to see the whole Warrior nation, and excited to play hard for the fans and the team. I can't wait.
Q. When you say "usage rate," does that mean like don't have to shoot the ball every time or don't have to try to make a play every time?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yeah, basically just like not force everything. Just going with the flow of the game, going within the flow of the system and just staying confident within myself and just playing my goal and just simplifying, keeping it simple for myself.
Q. Steve said that he had a conversations with you about social media and you said you're not on social media very often. Were you on it before and what kind of stuff did you hear that maybe you pushed it away? A lot of people are saying stuff on social media and it's affecting people's mental health.
JAMES WISEMAN: I use it as you'll, but also negativity sells in today's society, so I don't associate with myself with that. I look at a lot of inspirational videos to keep myself uplifted so I can go out there and play my best, yeah.
Q. You say you've been improving your techniques and shootings and muscles, so how is your practice on Chinese? A lot of fans in China actually is asking about this.
JAMES WISEMAN: I kind of haven't been able to learn more stuff because of the rehab and stuff like that but I've been trying to stay on top of it, so I'm getting better.
Q. How do you work on that two-man game with Steph Curry now that you haven't had an off-season to play and saying what Kevon and Draymond do with Steph, are you eager to get back out on the court and get that chemistry going?
JAMES WISEMAN: Yeah, just ready to simplify my game, play my role to the best of my ability and just like get as much sessions in as I can with Klay and Steph in terms of pick-and-roll, so we can be a one, two combo every time, just be natural.
Q. Who inspires you or who has been inspirational?
JAMES WISEMAN: It's a lot of different ones but I would say Kobe has the most quotes, I watched a lot of interviews that he did and he's very inspirational to me.
Just you can't go through life trying to impress other people so make sure you impress yourself and stay uplifted and stay confident and make sure you don't let nobody tell you what you can and cannot do anything because you can do anything that you put your mind to. That's a fact.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports