Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr recently talked about youngster James Wiseman and his road to recovery from a major knee injury. Unfortunately, Kerr did not have a very positive update about the 20-year-old's current status.

Kerr could not hide his frustration as he discussed Wiseman's injury. The Warriors shot-caller admitted that their prized big man has fallen behind on his initial recovery timetable and that at this point, Wiseman's return is far from imminent:

“There’s just no blueprint for this,” coach Steve Kerr told KNBR on Wednesday (h/t Josh Schrock of NBC Sports). “This is such a unique set of circumstances, and we will just have to see how it plays out, and we thought it was going to play out very differently. We thought he would be back by now. I just feel so bad for James. He is working every day. He is keeping a really good, positive spirit about him. But we want so badly for him to get his career started and off the ground. The poor guy is dealing with the injury, with the knee, and we just don’t know when he is going to turn the corner.”

Wiseman was selected second overall by the Warriors during the 2020 NBA Draft. The former Memphis standout had a relatively strong start to his rookie campaign before he suffered a torn meniscus on his right knee during the second half of the season. Wiseman had to undergo surgery and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the year.

Towards the start of the 2021-22 season, the general expectation was that Wiseman was going to return some time in December. Unfortunately, his supposed comeback hit a major snag when he was forced to go under the knife again in mid-December. According to reports, he had to undergo an arthroscopic procedure in his knee to clean out some loose bodies. To add insult to injury, Wiseman also entered the league's health and safety protocols later in the month.

At this point, the Warriors have yet to announce a target date for Wiseman's return. He has reportedly been progressing in practice, but even Kerr is unable to provide more details on the seven-foot center's new timetable:

“I do know that when he is back, the ability that he has to give us that lob threat can be huge,” Kerr said. “You think about all the shooting we have—you throw Steph and Klay and Otto Porter and Wiggs and all these guys who are shooting great from the 3-point line—you add a lob threat, that’s a pretty devastating weapon. It would be great to see what that looks like, but we’ll just have to see how it all plays out.”

Most recent reports indicate that Wiseman has already resumed individual drills and that he should be able to progress to 5-on-5 work sooner rather than later. He should be able to return at some point this season, but exactly when that will be remains a big mystery.

As coach Kerr implied in his statement above, Wiseman's return could have a major impact on the squad. He's no superstar (yet?) but the addition of a legitimate threat down low—both on offense and defense—could be the missing piece for the Warriors as they look to reclaim championship glory in the NBA.