Warriors counting on Wiggins to step up
SAN ORANCISCO >> Near the end of Andrew Wiggins’ 12-game trial run last season, head coach Steve Kerr asked the 6-foot-7 wing to defend opposing point guards. It was a hedge in case Klay Thompson, coming off a torn ACL, could not pick up those assignments as he once did during the Warriors’ championship runs.
But with Thompson suffering yet another season-ending injury — this time a torn Achilles — Wiggins’ trial run becomes more prescient. The former No. 1 pick may have left high expectations behind in Minnesota, but now he’ll be asked to fill a Thompson-sized void in Golden State.
“Just gotta do more,” Wiggins said during his media day interview Thursday. “Do as much as I can to fill that spot.”
Wiggins, 25, will never be a shooter of Thompson’s caliber, but improving his career 33% mark will go a long way in helping the Warriors space the floor in Thompson’s absence. Listed last season at 197 pounds, he’s also giving up a few pounds to the 215-pound Thompson. In Minnesota, Wiggins earned a reputation as a below-average defender, while Thompson is widely-regarded as one of the top two-way players at his position.
Training in Los Angeles in the offseason, Wiggins addressed these points. He added “a couple of pounds” of muscle, watched film and scrimmaged to improve defensively, and worked on his 3-point shooting.
“A lot of shooting,” he said. While it’s unfair to expect Wiggins to fully replace what Thompson does on both ends of the court, tapping into the potential that made him the top pick in the 2014 draft would push Golden State’s ceiling higher.
In 5½ seasons in Minnesota, Wiggins was asked too often and too soon to save the team’s offense and simultaneously blossom into an all-pro defender. The Warriors are asking him only to make open 3-pointers, cut to the basket and defend with earnestness. Doing just that would lead to a career year for Wiggins, who says he can still reach another level.
“I was coming into the season with the mentality that I got to go,” Wiggins said. “I always feel like I can get better.”
Though he’s averaged more than 20 points per game for a season four times in his career,