Kurtenbach: James Wiseman is discovering his super powers at a rapid rate

The Warriors have not had a player this talented since Steph Curry.

And while it’s undue pressure to say that James Wiseman will change the sport, there could be a time where the Warriors’ center, like Curry, can do whatever it is he wants on a basketball court.

Given his current trajectory, that time might not be far away.

Sometimes it’s an excuse. Sometimes it’s a compliment. But Wiseman really is only 19 years old, and the start to his NBA career is going better than even the most ardent optimist could have imagined.

I wasn’t around for the early days of Curry’s Warriors tenure, but those who were there speak about those Dubs the same way I talk about my puppy or for others, their children. There’s a glee in their voice as they discuss the milestones of Curry’s early career — the nights that he figured out each of his many super powers.

Yes, the championships and MVPs are fun, but for my money, the origin story is always for the best movie in the series.

And seeing the little moments that built into something big — that’s the fun stuff.

The big man from Nashville is providing plenty of those moments in his first few games.

No, he’s not closing games yet, and coaches and veterans have taken advantage of his youthful ignorance, too, but every night, Wiseman has done something that has wowed me. It’s the little things, too. Every game, there has been a subtle moment where it’s evident that he learned from a recent mistake.

Wiseman is already a better player than he was a week ago, a month ago. I can’t even fathom how much better he’ll be at the end of the season if he continues to grow at this rate.

So here’s the part where I do the mea culpa:

I was wrong.

Boy, was I wrong.

I thought it prudent for the Warriors to avoid taking a big man with the No. 2 overall pick. A center wouldn’t provide enough value, I argued, in an NBA that is becoming more and more perimeter oriented by the day.

While I maintain that the center position isn’t what it used to be even a few years ago — that this is a wing league, through and through — I was wrong in thinking that Wiseman was just any other center.

Sunday night I saw a 7-footer go coast-to-coast, cruising past one of the toughest defensive teams in the NBA without breaking his stride.

He took 12 steps to go roughly 90 feet, picking up his dribble at the 3-point line to throw down a one-handed dunk with ease.

The whole operation was so fluid and fast that I didn’t realize it was Wiseman until after the play was over.

And I had to remind myself that he was only 19 years old. He can barely vote, much less drink. He’s only a handful of games removed from playing high-school basketball.

There’s only two other 7-footers in the league who can do what Wiseman did the way he did it. One is Kevin Durant — arguably the greatest scorer in the history of the sport and the game’s greatest enigma. The other is Giannis Antetokounmpo, the reigning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

By the way, it’s the second time Wiseman has done it in his young career, though the Sunday was the better of the two dunks.

It’s a super power. One of many.

There are bad moments, too. The Clippers picked on him in their two-game series last week, with Serge Ibaka pulling him onto the perimeter and then taking advantage of every one of the rookie’s missteps.

The Warriors might be fighting for respectability on a nightly basis these days, but those moments of failure from Wiseman have a charm to them because they are so quickly corrected.

Like when the Raptors tried to do the same thing on Sunday. Wiseman was sound. He learned.

The Warriors are pushing Wiseman, despite the fact that center is a position that takes years for young players to learn to play competently at the NBA level. The defensive end, in particular, is exceptionally challenging — it’s hard to be the hub.

But the Warriors are in win-now mode, unlike most teams that draft No. 2 overall. They have to push him.

And they can do it because Wiseman is so talented and so coachable. One could argue it’d be malpractice not to push a talent like him.

“He’s a willing learner,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He doesn’t take coaching personally. He absorbs it and accepts it because he understands it’s all part of the process.”

“It’s insane,” Kerr said. “What we’re asking James to do is insane. [But] he’s handling it beautifully, because he’s willing to take those early lumps.”

The Warriors are learning about themselves, too. The team’s talent development in the championship era has been underwhelming. Since 2015, the Warriors have drafted eight players. Two, at best, developed into starter-caliber players: Eric Paschall (the Warriors’ third selection in last year’s NBA Draft and a four-year college player) and Kevon Looney.

Meanwhile, Patrick McCaw is hanging onto a roster spot in Toronto, Jordan Poole isn’t in the Dubs’ rotation, and Jacob Evans is in the G League now.

Things are even more dismal when it comes to big men. Jordan Bell is out of the league and Damion Jones is a backup for the Suns, his third NBA team.

If the Warriors want to be a Spurs-like dynasty — sustainably regenerative — they have to produce an All-Star player behind the three from their championship core.

And while they’ll have another shot at a high pick with Minnesota’s first-rounder either next year or in 2022, but they can’t mess up Wiseman.

So it’s all hands on deck from the coaching staff with player development coach Theo Robertson leading the way.

It helps, of course, to have players like Curry and Draymond Green as teammates and tutors.

Curry is the best pick-and-roll partner anyone could want and his steady, understated leadership is the sets the right tone at the facility for a sharp kid like Wiseman. Kerr has called Curry the tiny Tim Duncan. Could that temperament create an environment that nurtures a modern-day version of the all-time great big man?

Green is a bit different, obviously, but that fire and defensive genius creates a necessary balance with the Dubs. Green can teach the tough lessons that are necessary to learn to make it in this league.

And Green’s excitement in tutoring Wiseman is genuine.

How could he not be? Green, above all else, is a basketball fan, and just like us, he’s in at the ground level of something that could be truly special.