The book on Andrew Wiggins had mostly been written through his first seven NBA seasons: good person, decent player, but only great when he wanted to be.
It was the last part that was the problem. The former first overall pick from Thornhill by way of Kansas seemed to drift from game to game, season to season, putting up consistent numbers and impressive totals – he’s 10th in the NBA in points scored since his rookie year in 2014-15 and averaging 19.5 points a game - while occasionally delivering a performance that revealed how good he could be when the mood strikes.
You had to look no further than Wiggins’ performances against the Toronto Raptors over his career where his scoring average is 22.2 points a game – his highest against any team other than the Cleveland Cavaliers (22.9) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (26), the two franchises that traded him away.
Some of Wiggins best games have come when the feelings were most acute: in his two games against LeBron James and the Cavaliers after he became the first No.1 pick to be traded without playing a game for the team that picked him in 20 years. Wiggins put up 33 points (his rookie year high) and 27 points in his two games against Cleveland that season. In his first game against the Timberwolves as a member of the Warriors he put up 27.
In that context, it would have been interesting to see what Wiggins had up his sleeve for the Warriors visit to Toronto Saturday against the Raptors.
Alas, the Warriors desire to proceed with caution with their key players on the second night of a back-to-back and their fifth road game in eight days has spoiled that storyline: Golden State announced after their win over the Boston Celtics Friday that Wiggins (knee soreness) would be among five rotation players held out due to rest (Steph Curry) or injury management. Draymond Green (hip), Andre Iguodala (knee) and Otto Porter Jr. (foot) are the others. With Jordan Poole already in COVID protocols the Warriors will be without four starters and six of their top seven in terms of minutes played.
Weirdly, it would have been Wiggins' first game against his hometown team since Jan. 30, 2018, when he was still with the Timberwolves. He wasn’t in the lineup when Minnesota visited Toronto at the start of the 2018-19 season and missed both the Timberwolves and Warriors visits to Toronto when he was traded in the middle of the 2019-20 season, and Wiggins never made it home last season with the Raptors in Tampa.
In that sense the Raptors may have caught a break in more ways than one: The possibility of a big game by Wiggins at Scotiabank Arena would have built on a recent trend. A quirky downside of so many Canadians populating the NBA now – Wiggins is one of 18 on opening rosters this year – is that games against the Raptors and especially on their home court are circled on the schedules of a lot of good players.
A whole generation of Canadian hoopers want to come to Toronto and show out.
“It’s an exciting feeling, knowing all my friends and family are in the stands, [playing] on the court that I grew up watching,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 26 points and set up the game-winning basket against the Raptors last week. “The atmosphere was electric. Every time I’ve been here, it has been. It’s very fun to play here.
Said Knicks forward RJ Barrett, who had a big game against the Raptors in New York (27 points on 9-of-13 shooting) earlier this season and nearly led the Knicks to a comeback win over Toronto at Scotiabank Arena: “Just being in the arena, being in Toronto itself, is fun. I’m very appreciative and very thankful for that too. ... I remember it being loud and being fun in here as a kid.”
It’s become a minor issue that’s unique to the Raptors. The NBA’s Australian or French players, for example, don’t have a ‘home team’ to get excited about playing against once or twice every season. Add in that Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is the men’s national team head coach and several members of the Raptors staff work with Canada Basketball as well, and there’s a lot of reasons for Canadians to get their engine running.
“I think basketball in Canada has, [with] this being the team [and] the team being really good and winning a title, these guys, I mean, they love coming back here,” said Nurse. “And when we have [national team] camps and things, they’re always hoping it starts over here in Toronto before it goes to wherever it needs to go, so there’s a bunch of things that go into it. They sure are playing well against us, a lot of them.
“I think it’s kinda cool … I mean, I wish they wouldn’t -- I root for them like crazy -- but I’m still trying to beat them,” said Nurse. “[But] It’s good for Canada Basketball.”
Wiggins was good for Canada Basketball when he the national team in scoring at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria this past summer and helped engineer a miracle comeback from down nine with 44 seconds left to play to force overtime against the Czech Republic, only to lose in the extra frame.
But in some ways, it’s fitting that he’s sitting out alongside Curry, Green and the rest of the Warriors key rotation pieces: Wiggins has moved on from the burden he used to struggle under as a first option with the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier in his career.
With the Warriors off to a league-best 24-5 start after their win against Boston, Wiggins is playing the best basketball of his career as a complementary to piece in support of the Warriors superstars. His 27 points and six rebounds against the Celtics – which included 5-of-7 shooting from deep – is just the latest data point.
“He’s been awesome,” says Nurse.
It appears that he’s found a perfect niche after seven losing seasons in Minnesota. With so much attention focussed on Curry and with so much of the organizing – offensively and defensively – being handled by Green, Wiggins can play a much simpler game than he had to as a primary option.
The evidence isn’t in his box score totals – 18.7 points and 4.5 rebounds a game are in line with his career averages.
But it’s how he’s scoring. His usage rate with the Warriors is down compared to what it was with the Timberwolves (23.7 vs 25.6) while the percentage of his field goals generated by assists are at career highs: 59.5 per cent on twos and 90 per cent on threes, compared with 36.5 per cent and 73.6 per cent during his last partial season with Minnesota.
He’s basically eliminated mid-range shots from his diet while taking a higher proportion of threes than ever before, from where he’s shooting 42.2 per cent, another career best. He’s not attacking the rim as much as he did when he was trying to force his offence with the T-Wolves, but he’s finishing better than he has ever before at 73.8 per cent.
According to NBA.com, nearly 60 per cent of his shots this season have come after one dribble or less while in his last full season in Minnesota it was closer to 40 per cent.
“There’s a better rhythm to offence when the ball doesn’t stop and he’s really feeling more and more comfortable playing that style,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerry said of Wiggins earlier this season. “… no ball stopping, not a ton of dribbling. He’s just been great.”
Perhaps most impressive has been Wiggins’ defensive contributions. For most of his career, the six-foot-7seven wing has frustrated fans and coaches alike because his ability to be an elite defender is so obvious – spectacular lateral quickness, great size and a strong, wiry frame – but it never seemed to translate other than for brief bursts.
The Warriors have given Wiggins the role of stopper and lived to tell about it. They were fifth in the NBA defensively last season and are first so far this year.
“He’s had a huge impact defensively, we’re putting him on the toughest offensive player, night after night,” said Kerr. “… he’s been fantastic.”
He’s been fantastic for the Warriors and for the most part, he’s been some version of that against the Raptors throughout his career – something that Toronto has become used to seeing as NBA players with local ties swing through Scotiabank Arena.
With Wiggins out that won’t be a factor Saturday night -- unfortunate for his fans, though perhaps a small blessing the home side.
