Andrew Wiggins can be a difference maker for the Warriors in the playoffs, but how long he takes to get back to his elite two-way form will impact how far the team will go.
Wiggins missed 22 straight games and has been away from the team since Feb. 14 to deal with a family matter. While he’s been training on his own during his absence, individual work is much different than live-action speed and physicality.
With his arrival coming with a week left in the regular season and two weeks before the first round of the playoffs, a few questions arise.
For starters, when will he be cleared to play and back to the “two-way Wiggs” who locked down stars like Luka Doncic in the conference finals and Jayson Tatum in the finals whom fans adored during last year’s title run?
Wiggins is expected to be at Tuesday’s home finale against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Warriors are scheduled to have two practices between their two additional road games, which are scheduled for Friday at Sacramento and in Portland Sunday.
The play-in tournament opens April 11 and ends April 14, and first-round action begins a day later. (More on this later.)
That’s not a lot of time for Wiggins to find his stride.
After getting off to a hot start this season, Wiggins struggled earlier in the season to find his groove after missing then-career-high 15 games due to a strained thigh muscle in subsequent illness. His shot wasn’t falling and he didn’t have the same spring in his step on both ends.
Wiggins’ 3-point shooting percentage dropped from 45% in his first 22 games to 28.9% in the 15 games after his December absence.
Wiggins opened up in January that his initial return proved more challenging than he expected. He admitted he “felt slow.”
“Just felt a little rusty out there,” Wiggins said Jan. 8. “Just trying to get my feet right, get back into rhythm, but I know it’s going to take a little time, put in the extra work and I’ll be good.”
It took him 37 days before Wiggins had a breakthrough 29-point night against the Washington Wizards on Feb. 13.
Wiggins hasn’t played since.
It’s unclear whether his father’s “severe medical situation” — the reported reason why he’s been away the last seven weeks — was looming over him at that time.
Another and as important question is whether the Warriors be able to avoid the play-in and finish with a top-six seed.
If Golden State won its last four games, it would’ve finished no lower than sixth in the close Western Conference race. The Warriors looked poised to do this, building a 15-point first-half lead on the road Sunday against the top-seeded Denver Nuggets, arguably the hardest remaining opponent on their slate.
But the Warriors fell apart midway through the second quarter and didn’t pick up the slack until the final four minutes. They rallied from down 12 to make it a two-point game, but that would be the closest they would get.
Coach Steve Kerr didn’t mince his words after the 112-110 loss, saying his team played “mindless” basketball. He said the Warriors were undisciplined and lacked toughness and focus — a harsh but accurate assessment.
With that loss, there are four teams — the Warriors, Clippers, Lakers and Pelicans — who enter the final stretch of the season with 38 losses. All three of those teams own the head-to-head tiebreaker against Golden State. That means, even if the Warriors win out, their fate is largely out of their hands and more dependent on how the rest of the Wild West shakes out.
Avoiding the play-in has been the priority for the veteran-led Warriors all along. But now it’s even more important with Wiggins back in the picture. The week off between the regular-season finale and the first round of the playoffs would be crucial for Wiggins to get up to speed and ensure his body is right for another potential run.
If they are in the play-in, however, there’s no guarantee Wiggins would be cleared in time by the training staff to contribute given the amount of time he’s missed.
