With Jordan Poole already banished to Washington, another key player from Golden State’s 2022 title team could soon be next to go.
Tim Kawakami of The Athletic wrote on Thursday that the Warriors may now be open to trading veteran forward Andrew Wiggins.
“Though I’ve said in the past that the Warriors might be reluctant to trade Wiggins so soon after he signed a relatively bargain-rate contract extension specifically so he could remain with this team, I’ve since heard this would not be a major barrier for the Warriors to explore Wiggins’ trade market,” Kawakami reported. “Especially if he can’t play with [Jonathan] Kuminga and the Warriors decide that Kuminga is their full-time small forward.”
Wiggins, whose effort and motor were widely questioned before becoming a Warrior, had seemingly found his niche with Golden State. He was thriving in a complementary role for the team and was arguably the Warriors’ second-best player behind Stephen Curry during their 2022 championship run (taking on the hardest defensive assignments, giving great effort on the glass, and hitting shot after shot in big moments during the postseason when opponents helped off him).
But the wheels have completely fallen off for the former No. 1 overall pick this season. Wiggins is averaging a career-worst 12.6 points a game on ghoulish 43/30/70 shooting splits and has been demoted to the bench by the Warriors as Kuminga, a younger, higher-upside player, now starts instead.
In fairness to Wiggins, he had to take a family-related leave of absence last season and hasn’t looked the same since. But reported frustrations the Warriors have with Wiggins have already started to seep in, and it seems Golden State will now consider moving the 28-year-old just one year into his new four-year, $109 million extension with the team.
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