Andrew Wiggins will seemingly play 20-25 minutes off the bench for the Golden State Warriors on Saturday of their sequence opener towards the Sacramento Kings, in keeping with The Athletic’s Anthony Slater and Shams Charania. This will likely be Wiggins’ first sport since Feb. 13; he was away from the workforce for greater than a month due to a household situation.
If this plan sounds acquainted, it is as a result of that is precisely how the Warriors dealt with Stephen Curry’s return this time final 12 months. Curry had missed the ultimate few weeks of the common season due to a sprained ligament in his left foot, so, as a substitute of throwing him into his common function in Game 1 of the primary spherical towards the Denver Nuggets, he logged simply 22 minutes off the bench.
In this one explicit method, then, Wiggins is the brand new Curry. And Golden State has to hope that his ramp-up course of is as profitable. Curry wasn’t fairly himself in his first sport again final April, however exploded for 34 factors in 23 minutes in Game 2, main Nuggets coach Michael Malone to name him “the best sixth man ever within the playoffs,” which, I imply, yeah. Definitely. (Curry’s minutes elevated to 30 in Game 3 and 37 in Game 4, however he did not rejoin the beginning lineup till the fifth sport of the sequence.)
In an ideal world for the Warriors, Wiggins will instantly flip the defending champs into the workforce that they had been final season. Golden State went 44-38 within the common season with a mediocre level differential (+1.7 factors per 100 possessions), however, as Sam Quinn famous on this very web site at this time, it was elite when its full beginning 5 was on the ground. The Warriors want Wiggins’ rebounding, athleticism and flexibility, and, with Gary Payton II within the combine once more, coach Steve Kerr will have the ability to use lineups that haven’t been out there to him at any level this season.
“We’ve been attempting to get thus far for a very long time,” Kerr instructed reporters Wednesday. “We’ve had an fascinating season, to say the least. But now that we’re right here, and we have got each Wigs and Gary, it modifications the dynamic of our workforce athletically. And simply the puzzle and the way it matches collectively. So it is nice to no less than have a shot. To be the place we’re and have an opportunity, that is all we needed.”
Kerr added that Wiggins “would not appear to ever fall out of practice” and “by no means appears to get drained.” Seems promising!
