‘Foregone Conclusion’ Warriors Will Seek Blockbuster Andrew Wiggins Trade: NBA Exec

Getty Warriors wing Andrew Wiggins

The Warriors are getting into the meat of their NBA offseason confronted by a pair of seemingly counteracting objectives. On one hand, they want to get younger and deliver a shakeup to a rotation that has clearly gotten stale. On the other hand, they want to find their way—after years of bloated payrolls—under the luxury tax to allow themselves more future flexibility.

They could get themselves comfortably under the tax by waiving veterans Chris Paul and Kevon Looney, which would give them a cushion of more than $30 million. They could then afford to bring back Klay Thompson on a contract worth $15-20 million per year, and still add another player with a free-agent exception.

But then there’s the issue of giving the roster a jolt. And there is only one real path to achieving that goal: Trading Andrew Wiggins and the remaining $84 million left on his four-year, $109 million contract.

“That is the big chip they have to play,” one NBA executive told Heavy Sports. “They looked at trading him in (February) at the deadline but there was not anything there for them, nothing serious. But it is a foregone conclusion they’re going to look to do it again. They will have to put in young pieces, but he’s their only real path to retooling that roster.”

Andrew Wiggins Had Worst Career Season

Wiggins did not much help things by putting up what was, arguably, the worst season of his NBA career in 2023-24. He averaged a career-low 13.2 points on 45.3% shooting, and made 35.8% of his 3-pointers, his worst in a full Warriors season since he joined the franchise. The Dubs would not exactly be selling high on Wiggins.

But he is only 29 and the view generally is that he was simply having a down year in 2023-24. He will have room to bounce back, but probably needs a change of scenery away from the Warriors, who figure to lean more heavily on Jonathan Kuminga going forward.

The $26.2 million cap number in 2023-24 also makes Wiggins relatively attractive on the market. That’s hardly cheap, but he is not massively overpaid, and given his defensive capabilities, he is on a reasonable contract—assuming his offense can bounce back.

“My season was not too good,” Wiggins admitted in his exit interview last month. “I feel like I started picking it up the second half of the season, the first half wasn’t too good.”

Warriors Could Find a ‘Desperate’ Team for a Blockbuster Trade

There’s reason to believe Wiggins can re-ignite his offense next season. He is a career 18.5-points-per-game scorer, after all, and is only two years removed from earning an All-Star berth. And he is right about playing better in the second half. In fact, in the final 34 games of the season, Wiggins averaged 14.7 points on 48.7% shooting and 42.2% 3-point shooting.

Still, Wiggins struggled with injuries and personal issues in 2022-23 and played only 37 games that year. Don’t expect the Dubs to give him away, though.

To get another team to buy into his future value and send back a significant player in return, the Warriors will need two things—one, they will have to sweeten the pot with at least one young player, like Moses Moody, and a draft pick or two; and, two, they will need a team a little desperate to take a gamble.

“There will be desperate teams out there,” the exec said with a laugh. “The (luxury-tax) second apron is coming, there were a lot of injuries, there are a lot of contenders who were really, really disappointed this year. So there will be teams that will be OK with making a change just for the sake of making a change.”