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Scotto: Rival executives and Bobby Marks, who previously joined me on the HoopsHype podcast, agreed that Andrew Wiggins is a trade candidate they’re monitoring with the Warriors. I tried to brainstorm who could make sense. I heard Dallas has always liked him, and they’re looking to upgrade at the three.
This is just my opinion, but Houston is looking for a starting-caliber upgrade and has expiring contracts that can get them to Wiggins’ number if they find him an attractive trade target.
Have you heard any teams specifically that have real interest in trading for Wiggins at this time on essentially what some could view as a buy low guy who’s having a bit of a down year thus far?
Slater: I’d start by saying everyone, pretty much every team in this league, in theory, could use what Wiggins could be and was in 2022 during that playoff run. He was a 3-and-D wing, hitting 40 percent of his threes, and he was one of the better wing defenders during that playoff run. He guarded Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic. He was great.
They got him back that summer on a four-year extension. This is year one of the extension. You know, I think it’s somewhere around $24 million this year. That was viewed at the time as a bargain deal and team friendly. The way the last two seasons have gone, and particularly this season where he’s having the worst offensive year of his career, all the lineup numbers and on-court data have been terrible for him and have tanked his value. It would be kind of a sell low time for the Warriors. As far as teams, you mentioned those Dallas rumblings have been out there.
I think a lot of teams could convince themselves into a buy low situation. What the Warriors want is the big question. Maybe it’s just getting off his future money, and you can get him on the cheap because the second apron really matters here, and what’s looming for the Warriors and how they have to potentially rearrange the deck chairs. The fact that he makes big money for the next three seasons, if they can get off that for some expiring deals, maybe that is appealing enough for them to even maybe have to attach a small asset.
If they decide they want Kuminga here long term – he’ll be eligible for an extension this summer – that’s the pivot point.
Scotto: A lot of rival executives, scouts, you name it, anybody that’s keeping an eye on the Warriors around the league have two questions that I always seem to get from them. One, what happened to him this year? Why is he struggling? Two, does it have to do with stuff going on behind the scenes with him, personal stuff like that?
Slater: I think the fact that he just was away for a few months late last season impacted his rhythm. He came back and played in the playoffs and tried to get through it. He was actually okay during that playoff run, but he just hadn’t played that much basketball for a long period of time.
Then people often forget this, but in Game 5 against the Lakers he broke his ribs. He had a six-to-eight week injury that was basically going to be a two-month recovery. Now, he put a flak jacket on and played in Game 6. In the first play of that game, I can remember LeBron just powering into him. I remember sitting there very close in Staples Center where we sat, and you could see the grimace in Wiggins’ face as he’s getting posted up. I remember talking to him leaving the arena that night. They’d been eliminated that night, and he was like, it’s going to be basically a two-month recovery. That really affected his offseason, where he was not able to play that much basketball. He came into camp completely out of rhythm and struggled early in the season. His handle was really loose. The shooting numbers are as bad as they’ve ever been in his career.
It snowballed because the team’s performance was snowballing, which didn’t help. His rebound numbers were down, and that’s usually a sign that he’s not as engaged as he needs to be. The personal life stuff, I think it always kind of looms over the conversation about him. But I mean, he’s there. He’s there every day. He’s trying. He just hasn’t been able to generate a rhythm.
The other thing is they’ve had to go away from him and limit his minutes because of how poorly he’s played and how well some of the young guys like Kuminga, Moses Moody, and Brandin Podziemski have played.
Scotto: Anybody else besides Dallas you see as teams that maybe could make a run at Wiggins?
Slater: Yeah, and this is speculation. I’m not reporting I’ve heard these teams are interested, but Charlotte, I can see since they have some expiring contracts. Do they want to get in that market? Cleveland has always been in desperate need of a three. Indiana had been, but that’s over now.
