It’s been 15 years since a point guard or true center has won NBA Finals MVP.
Yes, like Paul McCartney in 1972, the NBA playoffs are all about wings.
This wing dominance is a byproduct of so many things — the elimination of the hand-checking rule, the 3-point revolution, LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s existence on this planet — but no matter what the initial source, it has required championship teams to have long, versatile players who can impact the game on both ends of the floor.
The Warriors are back in the NBA Finals because Andrew Wiggins has taken his game to a new level this postseason. The Golden State wing was an All-Star starter for the first time this season, but the best basketball of his surprisingly long career has come over the last 16 games.
Two-Way Wiggs has fully actualized: Wiggins has been the best wing in the Warriors’ three playoff series to date.
That will likely change in the Finals.
With apologies to Denver’s Will Barton, an injured Desmond Bane of Memphis, and Dallas’ Dorian Finney-Smith (I guess), Wiggins has not exactly faced elite wing competition. Of course he was the best of that bunch.
But not only does Boston boast All-NBA first-teamer Jayson Tatum, but it also has former Cal star Jaylen Brown who, while mercurial, has been fantastic this postseason, averaging 23 points per game. Tatum and Brown are two of the best two-way players in the game. Tatum is a future MVP.
So if Wiggins can outplay both of them, the Warriors will coast to a title. It’s really quite that simple.
But being outplayed by both is likely a recipe for disaster for Golden State.
X-factor, linchpin, whatever you want to call it, Wiggins is the key to the Warriors raising a fourth banner in five years.
And while the 27-year-old Canadian has a reputation for creating frustration, he has given the Warriors every reason to believe he is up for the challenge this postseason.
As soon as the Warriors acquired Wiggins in February 2020, we started to hear a similar message from Dubs coaches and veteran leaders about Wiggins:
“He needs to be more aggressive.”
Now, Wiggins is an elite athlete even among NBA players, but those attributes mean nothing without activity. The former No. 1 overall pick had made great money, but he had spent so much of his early NBA career watching games from incredible vantage points on the perimeter.
Yes, there would be bursts and flashes of legitimate excellence, but no one could deduce what made the mild-mannered Wiggins tick.
Maybe it was playing his former team. Maybe it was a song he heard on the way to the arena. Maybe he just felt like being the man that day.
Because no one could figure out why Wiggins would have these great moments of engagement and elite output, no one knew how to regularly spark them. Like everyone else, the Warriors saw the potential. Lacking a two-way wing, they decided to give unlocking Wiggins a try.
Sure enough, the Warriors found a bit more of that spark to start this season. Wiggins had found a level of comfort in the Warriors’ motion offense at the end of the 2021 campaign and carried that momentum into the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
This formula was simple: The Warriors were going to run, run, and run some more. And Wiggins — who never tires, according to teammates — could do that forever.
Sure enough, the Warriors jumped out to a brilliant start, Wiggins became an All-Star starter with the help of a K-Pop star on Twitter, and things were looking lightyears ahead for the Dubs once again.
But around the same time Wiggins was named an All-Star starter, Klay Thompson — the Hall of Fame Warriors wing — returned from a two-and-a-half-year absence from a torn ACL and ruptured Achilles tendon.
Suddenly, the refrain was back:
“Wiggins needs to be more aggressive.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was making such statements publicly in the final month of the regular season. There were countless factors beyond Wiggins, including Steph Curry’s foot injury, but No. 22’s activity level had dipped in the wake of Thompson’s return, and the Warriors’ post-All-Star break record was below .500.
The Warriors began the playoffs with far more questions than answers. Their ceiling was as high as any team in the NBA, but their floor had proven to be quite low, too.
But in that first postseason game, the Dubs alleviated some fears. The team looked quite different now that the contest was high-stakes.
And it was Wiggins who transformed the most.
Warriors forward Draymond Green has long said that there are 82-game players and 16-win players.
While there’s no doubt plenty of crossover between the two, the playoffs do require a different, specific skill set. An emphasis is placed on versatility, intelligence, and unselfishness. You have to be able to play some defense, too.
And boy, did Wiggins look the part of a 16-win player in that first playoff game.
“Andrew Wiggins showed his two-way ability,” Green said after the Warriors’ blowout win. “[A] Near double-double with some great defense, and his play at the rim is so needed for our team because we don’t have a lot of explosive guys like him.”
But that was just one game. The environment might have been different, but we’d seen Wiggins turn in a game or two like that in the regular season.
Now 16 games into the postseason, and Wiggins has not relented.
The Warriors still have four to go, but Wiggins has proven to be a 16-win player.
“I’m just trying to win,” Wiggins said earlier this month. “That’s the most important thing. If they need me to score, I’m going to score. Need me to defend? I’m going to defend. Rebound? rebound. Whatever it is to help this team win, that’s what I’m going to do.”
A lot of players say stuff like that. It sounds good in a press conference. But Wiggins is practicing what he preaches.
“He’s just having a great run,” Kerr said. “He’s a fantastic two-way player. You don’t win in the playoffs without guys like Wiggs.”
The biggest change for Wiggins between the regular and postseason?
Yes, he’s shooting a little better when he doesn’t dribble — catch-and-shoot guys are worth their weight in gold in the playoffs, and Wiggins has been really good at that all season.
And yes, his work defending Luka Dončić in the Western Conference Finals confirmed that he is an elite perimeter defender. No small feat there.
Even his passing — non-existent in the regular season — has been better in the postseason, too.
But for Wiggins, this breakout is all about playing above the rim.
Before Wiggins was selected first in the 2014 NBA draft, a photo of him testing his vertical leap was posted to Instagram. It looked like he was flying.
At 44 inches, Wiggins’ vertical and that photo still maintain a legendary status.
This postseason, he’s utilizing all of it.
He’s already embarrassed Memphis’ Brandon Clarke and Dončić with posterizing slams that will live on for years to come on YouTube.
But it’s the less glamorous use of that leaping ability that has the Warriors’ teammates and coaches buzzing.
Wiggins has turned into an outstanding rebounder seemingly overnight.
His box-out rate has more than doubled this postseason. In 16 postseason games, he has already registered half of the box-outs he had in 73 regular-season games.
His offensive rebound rate has skyrocketed, too — it’s up 127%.
Having some serious grit on an athlete that can put nearly every other NBA player to shame is an outstanding combination.
“I think sometimes we get caught up in rebound numbers but when you’re a guy that box[es] out, you don’t always get the rebound. He’s been doing an incredible job,” Green said.
He’s around the rim, he’s seeking the ball — it forces him to be engaged with the action — no more standing around and watching the play unfold.
“That’s what we’ve been asking Wiggs to do all year, for two years, or however long he’s been here,” Green said. “ ‘Put your head down and get to the hole.’ It’s very hard to stop him from getting to the basket”
“We need him with that mindset. It’s huge for us.”
Why the change? Why the seven years of underachievement (by external standards), only to be the best version of himself now?
For that, there are too many reasons to list. Maybe Wiggins was just waiting for the games to truly mean something. As Green would tell you, some guys are just built for the postseason.
And no one is better built to have an impact on a playoff game — a Finals game, even — than Wiggins.
“This is an opportunity that players dream of, to be put in a position to win it all,” Wiggins said. “I’m thankful. We still got more work to do.”
