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Before being unloaded at the Warriors under a deadline deal, before being labeled “lazy” and “overpaid,” before being booed by the local crowd, Andrew Wiggins offered a dysfunctional franchise a reason to hope again.
It was April 2015 and Wiggins had just received his 2014-15 Rookie of the Year award. As he leaned over a black leather sofa in the bowels of Target Center, Wiggins – two months away from his 20th birthday – told reporters, “I hope I’ll be here forever.”
Those five words made some Timberwolves fans dream that Wiggins would lead a league-wide hitting line to national relevance. What really happened – 4½ more seasons defined by loss, internal fights and Wiggins ineffectiveness – was much less enjoyable. Now quarterback into his first full season with the Warriors, Wiggins thinks again he’s found his longtime home in the NBA.
When asked Monday night if he would like to end his career with Golden State, Wiggins said: “I would love to. It’s a great organization. They treat me with love and respect here, treat my family well. I don’t see why not. I would love.”
After struggling to be the face of a dysfunctional franchise in Minnesota, Wiggins found a stable environment with the Warriors. Teammates praise his humble and low-key approach. Since being challenged in the preseason to play at the All-Defensive Team level, he has become a perimeter striker capable of making life difficult on the upper wings of the league.
Long derided for his questionable shot selection, restlessness and basketball IQ, Wiggins is averaging career-highs in field goal percentage (46.2), 3-point percentage (40. 7) and in blocks (1,6). In his first game against his former team on Monday, he showed the Timberwolves what a difference a change of scenery can make, smothering Malik Beasley down the straight as Wiggins finished with 23 points on a 10-for-19 shot (2 in 5 of 3 points), six rebounds (all offensive), three steals and three blocks in 30 minutes.
Perhaps more important than Wiggins’ stat line in that 130-108 win over Minnesota, however, was how he delivered it. In constant motion, he worked off screens to find open gazes. During the lulls in the action, Wiggins, a self-proclaimed introvert, joked and laughed with his teammates.
“I was excited,” Wiggins said. “It was good to play against my old team, obviously. They still have guys left from when I was there. It was good to see them, to catch up with them and to compete.
Moments earlier, Stephen Curry told reporters he was eager to see what Wiggins said about facing the Timberwolves. Wiggins’ tame sound bite, though on the mark of the mild-mannered Canadian, did not carry the animosity some might have expected from someone who was once the scapegoat for Minnesota’s problems.
Even when Wiggins – the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft in Kansas – was named Rookie of the Year after averaging 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists, he demanded critics to question his intelligence, character and work ethic. The negative comments only escalated when he signed a five-year, $ 147 million contract extension in October 2017.
With Jimmy Butler dominating the ball, Wiggins spent much of the next two seasons perched along the perimeter waiting for a shot opportunity. Some nights when his rattling jumpers started to go up, Wiggins could hear Timberwolves fans booing him.
Towards the end of Wiggins’ tenure in Minnesota, it was fashionable to blame him for the team’s problems. In March 2019, deadspin.com published a story with the headline, “Andrew Wiggins is one of the worst goal scorers in NBA history.” Seven months later, SB Nation published an article stating that Wiggins “has lost all hope of greatness.”
Such accounts did not take into account Wiggins’ unenviable circumstances. He played for four different coaches, each with their own systems and philosophies, during his 5½ seasons with the Timberwolves. Several days, Wiggins struggled to understand what the organization expected of him.
“It’s different because everything here is organized,” Wiggins said of the Warriors. “You know what you do every night. You know what you’re getting yourself into. You know the minutes you are going to play. You know your rotation. “
Wiggins (8,710 points) is second on the Timberwolves’ all-time scoring list behind Kevin Garnett, but his legacy in Minnesota is that of a monster athlete who has never failed to maximize his physical tools. Basketball historians look back on his days with the Timberwolves and identify what he does not have accomplish.
To someone with his height and athleticism, Wiggins wasn’t much of a lob threat or rebounder. His defense was so erratic at one point that the FiveThirtyEight.com website named him the “Least Defensive Player in the NBA.” Forced to lean on Wiggins, the Timberwolves totaled 174-286 and only reached the playoffs once – a first-round outing in 2018 in which Houston ousted them in five games. .
When the Warriors acquired Wiggins in February with two future draft picks for a package that included D’Angelo Russell, they banked on the possibility of putting Wiggins in a position to succeed. This helped Golden State think it would only need a better version of Harrison Barnes – a combo forward who could play the ball, work hard on defense, and knock down the open 3-pointers.
After Klay Thompson suffered an Achilles injury that ended the season in November, the Warriors suddenly had to rely on Wiggins as a valid No.2 option for Curry and a locking perimeter defender. At training camp, coaches often dismissed Wiggins for one-on-one discussions, detailing what was expected of him and reminding him that they believed in him.
It was what Wiggins had sorely missed earlier in his career. His problem in Minnesota wasn’t that he could not produce, but rather didn’t feel like the organization had equipped him to thrive as an offensive focal point.
With the Warriors, Wiggins is free to benefit from the spacing provided by Curry, act as the occasional playmaker for the second unit, and use his length to disrupt fire on defense. In his last five games, he’s shot 54.7% from the field, with 50% or more in four of those outings. Wiggins’ 28 blocks this season rank seventh in the NBA.
“Andrew filled a role here that was desperately needed,” said head coach Steve Kerr. “Totally different role from what Minnesota asked of him.
“I always say that there are maybe 10 or 15 players in the league who determine the circumstances of a team. The other 450 are victims or people who excel depending on their situation. I think with Andrew our circumstances are perfect.
Contrary to what NBA message boards might suggest, the Warriors aren’t trying to trade Wiggins for an All-Star-caliber wing by the deadline. They see it as their long term answer to the baby step.
As for Wiggins? He hopes to be with Golden State forever – or at least until he retires until he is 30.
“It’s very positive here, very positive,” Wiggins said. “Everyone gets along. No ego, none of that. Everyone just wants to win. … That’s all the love here.
Connor Letourneau is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Con_Chron
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