SAN FRANCISCO — Warriors coach Steve Kerr has recognized several promising developments in the first week of action, but no one has shined brighter than Andrew Wiggins.
Coming off his first All-Star season, where he played a vital part in the Warriors’ championship run, Wiggins has picked up where he left off last season.
Through three games, he’s averaging 22.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest while shooting 52% from the field and 38.1% from deep. That’s a better start than a year ago, when he averaged 15.3 points, 5,7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in the first week of the 2021-22 campaign.
“This is the best I’ve ever seen Wiggins,” Kerr said Monday. “He used that momentum he gained a year ago to springboard into this season and I don’t think he’s ever looked more confident not only in his own game but with what we’re doing, the way we play.”
The former top overall pick is now in his prime at 27 and will be instrumental in the Warriors’ pursuit to win back-to-back titles.
James Wiseman also received praise from Kerr.
After missing all of last season with a pesky knee injury, Wiseman’s confidence has continued to grow over the last few weeks. He looks to be more aware of his positioning on both ends of the floor and has been an aggressive rim protector, using his 7-foot frame.
The 21-year-old center posted 11 points and six rebounds per game this season while shooting an outstanding 72.2%.
“Wiseman has been really good,” Kerr said. “It’s easy to see where he fits into the team, what his role is, he’s really catching on to what we’re trying to accomplish on both ends, he’s still got a lot of work to do but we’re really happy with his development.”
DiVincenzo injury update
Donte DiVincenzo will be sidelined for at least a week after injuring his hamstring in Sunday night’s game.
The backup point guard, whom the Warriors picked up in free agency this summer, tweaked his hamstring while contesting a shot in the third quarter of the win over the Kings.
DiVincenzo won’t travel to Phoenix for Tuesday’s game and it’s unclear whether he’ll make the Warriors’ five-game road trip out east, which begins with a game Saturday in Charlotte and ends the following Friday in New Orleans. He’ll be reevaluated next week, coach Steve Kerr said.
DiVincenzo’s absence for the foreseeable future and minutes restrictions for Klay Thompson and Draymond Green complicate the Warriors’ plans to tinker with lineups while they try to scheme for the season.
“It means we’ll continue to look at different combinations and different lineups so we’ll have to adjust,” Kerr said.
The Warriors will activate two-way forward Ty Jerome to join the team in Phoenix for Tuesday’s game.
“He can hoop and he can play,” Moses Moody said of Jerome. “In practices and scrimmages, he had a nice pace to his game, shoots the ball really well and creates buckets.”
Rookies head south
In other news, the Warriors’ two rookies are heading down to Santa Cruz to spend some time with Golden State’s G League affiliate as it opens training camp Monday.
The Warriors sent Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins to Santa Cruz on Sunday night as the 2022 draft picks continue to develop their games.
“They need the work, they need to play in every environment, they need to feel all the patterns at both ends of the floor, they need the competition,” Kerr said. “This will be really good work for rhythm for the next three days and then we imagine they’ll play a lot of minutes in Santa Cruz this year because of our roster situation and how many vets we have and how much they need to play.”
Baldwin, the No. 28 overall pick of this year’s draft, hasn’t made his regular-season NBA debut yet as a sprained thumb suffered in the Warriors’ preseason finale against the Nuggets sidelined him for the first three games of the season.
Baldwin, who played last season under his father at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, played in five preseason games, averaging 7.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in 14.7 minutes.
Meanwhile, Rollins, who went No. 44 overall, has appeared in two NBA games after making his debut in the season opener Tuesday. He checked in for about a minute in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ win Sunday, but was replaced after the Kings scored five quick points.
The Toledo product averaged 7.8 points, 1 rebound, 2.3 assists and 0.8 steals across four preseason games with the Warriors.
The Santa Cruz Warriors are set to begin camp this week before opening their season with back-to-back games against the Ontario Clippers Nov. 4 and 5.
