Getty Andrew Wiggins guarding Jalen Brunson.
The Golden State Warriors have had as rough a season as they could’ve imagined. With a 38-34 record, the Warriors sit in 10th place in the Western Conference and are just one game ahead of the Houston Rockets. Due to the struggles this season, they may head in a different direction this offseason and look to retool around Stephen Curry.
Saving money will be a priority for the Warriors and Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report put together a trade that helps them accomplish just that. In Swartz’s proposed trade, the Warriors would send Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton II, 2026 and 2028 second-round picks via the Atlanta Hawks, and a 2029 second-round pick. In return, they’d receive just a 2030 second-round pick.
“By offloading Wiggins and Payton, Golden State would be setting itself up to have significant cap space this summer. With Klay Thompson hitting free agency and Chris Paul’s $30 million salary for 2024-25 fully non-guaranteed, removing Wiggins and Payton from the books would mean clearing over half of the current team salary ($107 million of $206 million).
“The Warriors would have roughly $101.7 million in salary committed next season to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody and Trayce Jackson-Davis (along with the $3 million guaranteed in Kevon Looney’s contract). Based on the current cap projection of $141 million, the Warriors could suddenly be a major player in free agency.”
While this scenario allows them to save money, adding the picks to the deal takes away from assets the Warriors have to make other trades. Wiggins, an All-Star in the 2021-2022 season, could get a better return than having to salary dump him.
Warriors Offseason Plans
The Golden State Warriors have decisions to make this offseason, none bigger than Klay Thompson hitting free agency. Thompson is shooting a career-worst 38.3% from three-point range and averaging the fewest points in his career since the 2012-13 season.
Thompson isn’t worth the money he once was due to his downplay in recent seasons, but there’s a scenario where the Warriors sign him on a cheaper deal and he finishes his career in Golden State.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob spoke about their offseason plans, saying he wants to avoid the luxury tax, according to “The TK Show” with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami,
“Our Plan 1, or 1A, is that we’d like to be out of the tax, and we think that we have a way to do that,” Lacob said.
“That kind of is the plan, not just under the second apron. I’ll tell you why that’s important because the truth is, we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four in order to get this repeater thing off our books. We don’t want to be a repeater. It’s just so prohibitive, not to say we wouldn’t do it if we had to, but you’ve gotta look at what the downside is to doing that.”
In order for them to get below the luxury tax, Wiggins would essentially have to be traded.
Should the Warriors Keep Wiggins?
In his All-Star season, Wiggins was regarded as one of the top defenders in the NBA. He played a big part in shutting down Jayson Tatum in the NBA Finals, the main reason why the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals.
Final Jayson Tatum stats when guarded by Andrew Wiggins: 21/56 FG (37.5%) across 236 possessions. 9/21 from 3 (42.9%). 2 FTA. 18 AST. 8 TOV. 53 PTS.
Not as bad as I expected, but Warriors couldn’t ask for better point of attack defense on Boston’s star. Brilliant effort.
However, Wiggins’ defense has taken a hit since that season and he’s averaging 12.9 points after averaging more than 17 in his four other seasons with the Warriors.
With a $26 million salary next season, moving him while they can could benefit the Warriors next year. Factor in Lacob’s comments and it looks likely that the Warriors will end up moving him.