Getty Golden State Warriors wing Andrew Wiggins looks on during a game against his former team, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Stephen Curry was a dominating force through the first two games of the NBA Finals, averaging 31.5 points and knocking down 46.2% of his triples for the Golden State Warriors. And his performance throughout the postseason has been the driving force behind the team’s success.
However, the two-time MVP couldn’t have done it without the aid of his cohorts. To that end, Andrew Wiggins has been as valuable (perhaps even more so) than anyone.
Wiggins is averaging 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this postseason. And his net rating of 10.0 is the No. 3 mark team-wide (and the best among the Dubs’ starters).
His All-Star play during the regular season and two-way efficacy throughout the playoffs has some calling the 2020 trade that brought him — and, eventually, Jonathan Kuminga — to the Bay Area one of the best moves in franchise history. If Golden State goes on to win another title, it’ll warrant consideration for the top spot.
Amazingly, though, the deal, which saw D’Angelo Russell join up with the T-Wolves, came perilously close to not happening, according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
Wolves Balked at the Trade Proposal
In his retrospective on the franchise-altering, Wiggins-Russell trade, Lowe revealed that the Warriors at first had a bigger return in mind when negotiating the swap. That kitchen-sink approach apparently angered then-Wolves decision-maker Gersson Rosas to the point that talks stalled.
“The Warriors initially asked Minnesota for two unprotected first-round picks and two second-rounders, sources say. Rosas grew so incensed by what he viewed as overaggressive demands, he briefly cut off talks,” reported Lowe.
To save the deal, team president Bob Myers opted to slow Golden State’s roll. But even then, the thing nearly fell apart.
“Myers stepped in and relented on the first-rounders: One would be enough, provided it was unprotected. With the trade deadline about four days away, Myers indicated the Warriors would settle for a top-one protected first-rounder,” Lowe wrote. “Rosas said no.”
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Somehow, It All Worked Out in the End
From there, it became a waiting game for Myers and Co. as Rosas and Minnesota went into radio silence.
Wrote Lowe: “About two days passed, sources say. The night before the deadline, Myers called Rosas and asked for the most Minnesota might concede on pick protections. Rosas suggested a pick protected around the top seven, eight, or nine selections, sources say.”
In an alternate reality, the story probably ends there. And in the one we’re all living in now, Myers had resigned himself to that likelihood as well, telling ESPN: “I went to bed thinking we were not going to get a deal done… Deals die over picks all the time.”
Alas, things somehow came together in the 11th hour and Wiggins was suddenly Bay-bound. But the move was hardly met with universal acclaim (hello, Nick Wright!), and the draft compensation Myers received was nowhere near what he originally asked for.
There’s no doubting now, though, that trade was a major win for his front office. And it worked out pretty well for Wiggins and Russell, too.
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