Wiggins has February to forget, despite All-Star Game originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO — Everything about February of 2022 should have been perhaps the best month of Andrew Wiggins’ NBA career. Now feeling like he has found a home here in San Francisco, Wiggins in his third season with the Warriors and second full season, was named an All-Star for the first time. He wasn’t just named an All-Star, he was named a starter.
In the city that first taught him the business of basketball, shipping him from Cleveland to Minnesota after being the No. 1 pick by the Cavaliers in the 2014 draft. Wiggins played 15 minutes and scored 10 points for Team Durant while Steph Curry stole the show, and Wiggins loved every second of it.
That was a bright spot in what was a mostly cloudy and questionable month for Wiggins, heading into the stretch run of the regular season. Sunday night’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks was a perfect example.
Wiggins, like the rest of the Warriors’ offense, was rolling in the first quarter. In fact, he looked like their best player to start off the game, and the numbers back that up. He scored 11 points in the first frame, went 4-for-5 from the field, made both of his 3-point attempts, had two assists and two steals and was a plus-13.
He also missed two of his three free throws when fouled on a 3-point attempt, an ugly trend all month long.
“He’ll be fine, he’s always been a good free throw shooter,” Steve Kerr said after the Warriors’ loss. “He’s in a bit of a rut, it happens. He’s working hard on it. It got him a little bit tonight, but he’ll bounce back.”
This isn’t something new for Wiggins, though, and his aggressiveness took a bad turn after his free throw issues following that hot first quarter. Wiggins didn’t attempt another free throw until the fourth quarter with 6:14 left and he missed one of his two attempts. On the night, Wiggins went 2-for-5 from the charity stripe.
He also was a flat-out different player in the final three quarters, showing signs of his Minnesota days the Warriors hoped were in the past. Wiggins didn’t make any of his four 3-point attempts, went 3-for-9 from the field, grabbed only two rebounds, didn’t have another assist or steal, fouled out and scored only seven more points.
The fact is, Wiggins never has been a knockdown shooter from the free throw line. He now is a 72.5 percent shooter for his career at the line, but it doesn’t get as bad as it did this month.
Wiggins attempted only 17 free throws in nine February games, averaging fewer than two free throws per game. He made just seven of those, good for a lowly 41.2 percent. Wiggins made 73.5 percent of his free throws in November. That number dropped to 64 percent in December, 60 percent in January and then barely over 40 percent this month.
Overall, Wiggins averaged only 13.8 points per game in February, by far his lowest of any month this season. His 41.9 field goal percentage was his worst of any month this season, as well as his 49.8 true shooting percentage and his 101 offensive rating per 100 possessions. He shot 36.5 percent from deep, which is 0.5 percent better than he did in November.
It wasn’t just the offensive side of the ball, too.
Wiggins averaged only 3.4 rebounds in February and had a 114 defensive rating per 100 possessions. Both were the worst of any month this season.
Sunday night’s epic collapse of blowing a 21-point lead came without Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and James Wiseman. Nobody has missed Green’s absence more than Wiggins.
Draymond missed his 23rd straight game to a back injury Sunday night, if you include the seven seconds he played in Thompson’s return. Wiggins has averaged 15.3 points and 3.0 rebounds since Green went down, while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 38.3 percent on 3-pointers. Those numbers clearly went down in February, too.
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When the Warriors brought Wiggins on board, it certainly was with Steph, Klay and Draymond in mind. He fit not as a No. 1 or No. 2 but as a piece full of a talent on both sides, which could be highlighted to the best degree in a perfect situation. That has been Golden State for the most part, especially with a healthy squad.
The Warriors don’t need Wiggins to be a star. They were elated when he was announced as an All-Star starter, an honor he deserved. He now has 22 more regular-season games to again prove that to be true.
He just can’t be Harrison Barnes in the 2016 playoffs, especially when the game slows down and tightens up in the postseason. Which Wiggins will we see when it matters most? The Warriors are confident in him, yet it has to be a question in the back of their minds when it comes to a player who didn’t exactly light it up the one time he did find himself in the playoffs.
Luckily for him, his next test comes Tuesday with a fresh month against the team he loves playing the most: His former franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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