Why a Steph-Wiggs backcourt could give Warriors their most balanced lineup yet originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
For the first time in six months, the Warriors got a microscopic look on Tuesday night at Andrew Wiggins in an NBA game. They didn’t expect much, and didn’t get much, as he scraped off considerable rust.
But the presence of Wiggins and position provided a preseason glimpse of what’s possible. And sensible.
Wiggins started not at his usual small forward position but at shooting guard, where he never started a regular-season game with Golden State. He shared the backyard with point guard Stephen Currya role made legendary by the two-way talents of top Klay Thompson.
Curry and Wiggins formed two fifths of a lineup – along with Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis – that might be the most balanced the Warriors can assemble.
“The key is JK and Wiggs running the floor,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Las Vegas after a 111-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at T-Mobile Arena. “It puts a lot of pressure on teams. And they set a good tone tonight, the way they just went down, with or without the ball, they were away. I really like the way both of those guys played and the impact they can make with his athleticism and strength.”
Wiggins played 21 minutes, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field, including 0-of-3 from distance. He was 5-of-5 from the line and added one assist and one steal.
The minuscule sample size of Golden State’s fifth starting lineup in five games offered nothing telling — much less definitive — largely because Wiggins, who missed most of training campwas new to the act.
Kerr has been envisioning a potential Curry-Wiggins backcourt for the better part of a year, since then acknowledging the increasing likelihood that Klay Thompson will leave Golden State. Kerr has long considered Thompson and Wiggins, of similar size and two-way ability, as interchangeable wings; this was an opportunity to examine that notion.
Although Wiggins will never be the sniper Thompson is, he is now a better on-ball defender. He has the tools to do a decent to great job against most of the league’s playmakers, and that was one of Golden State’s most glaring weaknesses last season. General manager Mike Dunleavy addressed this in July, signing De’Anthony Meltonelite point guard. Gary Payton II, who missed most of last season, is another on-ball hell.
But Wiggins is more ranged and offers more offensive versatility. Since coming to the Warriors in February 2020, he is 38.1 percent from beyond the arc. Not Klay, but very solid. In 2021-22, when Wiggins made the Western Conference All-Star team, he shot 39.3 percent from deep. Again, not Klay, but more than acceptable.
One of several clear messages from Kerr to Wiggins is to raise his volume of 3-point shots.
“I already told him: six 3-pointers a game,” Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke last week “He’s a really good 3-point shooter. It was down a little bit last year. But since he’s been here — 39, 40 percent. I want a lot of threes, and I want a lot of drives to the rim. He shot 80-plus percent from the gross line in the second half of the year last year.
“He looks really comfortable in every facet of the game. And let’s face it, with Klay out, we need him to step up and be our second scorer behind Steph, and we know he’s perfectly capable of that.”
If Wiggins shoots six more threes per game, that provides more spacing for Kuminga, whose 3-ball looks better but may always be secondary to his ability to attack the rim. Both were in the starting lineup because Kerr’s dream scenario is to play them together — to have two athletic 6-foot-7 wings to challenge opponents on both ends.
Although Melton is a legitimate scoring threat, it’s a stretch to ask him to approach 20 points per game. That’s more than double his career average. And GP2 is a defensive first player that is suitable for some corner threes, but not heavy scoring.
Wiggins, by contrast, is averaging 18.5 points per game for his career. He surpassed the 20-per-game bar four times in his 10-year career, all while with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With Thompson gone, Wiggins is no longer a good third scoring option. The request is that he now becomes a good second option. He has the tools, and now he must make the most of them.
