Getty Klay Thompson reacts to a play during the NBA Finals.
Andrew Wiggins has been a key part of the Golden State Warriors‘ run to the NBA Finals, turning in some career-best performances as he blossomed into one of the most important pieces of the team’s small-ball lineup.
But while Wiggins’s play has the Warriors competing for what would be their fourth title in the last eight seasons, over the longer term his rise could create new and difficult questions about the makeup of the roster. As ESPN’s Zach Lowe noted, it could mean an earlier-than-planned exit for one of the best shooters in franchise history not named Steph Curry.
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Tough Decisions Ahead
As Lowe noted, there had long been an expectation around the league that the Warriors would allow Wiggins’s deal to expire after next season as the franchise would not be able to afford to keep every part of its core — Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and the emerging Jordan Poole.
As it already stands, the Warriors are on the hook for a historic payroll just keeping the current roster intact.
“Poole is up for an extension this summer. Deals for Thompson and Green expire after the 2023-24 season, though Green could opt out a year earlier,” Lowe wrote. “Factoring in realistic sub-max estimates for those five players — plus Gary Payton II and Kevon Looney — Golden State’s payroll could hit the $475 million mark, including luxury tax penalties, per an analysis from ESPN’s Bobby Marks. That is unprecedented.”
Lowe noted that the situation will force the Warriors to raise some “uncomfortable questions,” which could include an exploration about whether to keep Wiggins over Thompson.
“Depending on the team’s appetite for that kind of spending, it could raise uncomfortable questions: Do the Warriors have to choose between Wiggins and Poole?” Lowe wrote. “Or even worse: Does the choice become two among Wiggins, Green, and Thompson?”
On June 13, 2019, Klay Thompson tore his ACL in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Exactly three years later, he’s back in the Finals and preparing for a pivotal Game 5:
There could be some help on the way, Lowe noted, as the Warriors and owner Joe Lacob have advocated for some luxury tax relief for contracts given to “homegrown players” like Thompson, who was drafted by the Warriors with the 11th overall pick in 2011. While he wrote that it would be hard to imagine Green or Thompson playing anywhere other than Golden State, Wiggins has grown beyond his supporting role and could take on an even bigger one as Curry starts to decline.
Wiggins Explodes in New Role
The start of the NBA playoffs brought an unprecedented opportunity for the Warriors. After a season with a series of long-term injuries, it was the first time that Curry, Thompson, Green, Poole and Wiggins were able to take the court together. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr unleashed the small-ball lineup on the Denver Nuggets to great success, thanks in large part to Wiggins’s ability to guard all positions and serve as the primary rebounder.
The results have been outstanding. After averaging 4.7 rebounds a game for his entire career, Wiggins has 7.3 boards per game in the playoffs. When the Warriors won Game 4 of the NBA Finals to even the series, he grabbed a career-best 16 rebounds.
Andrew Wiggins tallied 17 points and 16 rebounds in Game 4.
The last Warrior to put up such numbers in an #NBAFinals game was Nate Thurmond in 1967 💪
After Friday’s win, Wiggins said he’s willing to do whatever it takes to bring the Warriors to a title.
“We all just got to do our part. We have a lot of guys that can go in the game and affect the game in different ways, and right now, everything is needed,” Wiggins said, via SI.com. “Whatever anybody has to give, you don’t want to look back a couple weeks from now and be like, I should have done that, I should have done that. You’ve got to leave it all on the floor.”
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