Wiggins’ play key to Warriors success
Not Curry. Not Oubre. Warriors will only go as far as their wing will take them
Stephen Curry is cooking. Kelly Oubre is creating chaos in the best kind of way. The Warriors have professionals coming off the bench for a team that’s pushing the pace and chucking more 3-pointers than usual.
We can say this with impunity: these Warriors should win more than the 15 games they won last year.
How many more is anyone’s guess.
Still, after three preseason games — even with Klay Thompson’s
season-ending injury and the delayed start of the campaign for Draymond Green and No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman — there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Golden State heading into the new season, which will open Tuesday at Brooklyn.
But the crux of this upcoming season has also come into focus in those three game games:
Basketball can be a complicated sport, but for the Warriors, success is simple:
This team will go as far as Andrew Wiggins will take them.
Even if Curry plays at an MVP level, even if Oubre provides more impact than anyone could reasonably expect, even if Green helps the Warriors’ defense become elite and Wiseman looks like a next-generation Rudy Gobert as a 19-year- old rookie, this team’s success will still be tied to Wiggins’ play.
With the loss of Thompson, this team simply does not have a viable, reliable No. 2 scoring option.
Green might be a maestro as a point guard and a defensive genius, but he’s not a player you want shooting the ball.
Oubre might bring energy, confidence, and a nice stroke from the corner, but if he’s your No. 2
option offensively, you’re a bad team — Oubre’s last two teams in the NBA are evidence to that.
No, it must be enigmatic and often laissezfaire who steps into that role.
If the wing can carry that mantle on a nearnightly basis (no one’s asking for perfection), the Warriors could be a team that competes to host a first-round playoff series this spring.
Without that kind of
play, though, these Warriors will be a team that remains consistently on the brink — one injury or illness away from possible catastrophe.
On Thursday night, we saw what an engaged Wiggins can do for the Warriors. He was a difference-maker on both ends of the court in his 30 minutes, scoring 19 points and coming out as a plus16 on the evening.
Wiggins also played well when Curry wasn’t
on the floor — a key to any success the Warriors will have this season.
Make no mistake about it: when Wiggins plays direct and efficient ball, like he did Thursday, the Warriors are formidable.
“When he’s going like that,” Kent Bazemore said. “We’re a different team.”
But there’s also a sevenyear track record of the No. 1 overall pick following games like Thursday’s with duds.
So is it time to admit that this is the player Wiggins is or does he have something more in the tank for 2020 (and beyond)?
The frustrating part is that the ceiling doesn’t need to be lifted for Wiggins in year eight, but the floor to his game does.
He doesn’t need to give the Warriors 20, 25 points per game — he just needs to make things happen when he’s on the court.
With his talent, that action alone will help the Warriors win.
And so much of their 2021 season rides on that.
Buckle up.