Andrew Wiggins needed 13 shots to score 12 points in Thursday night's 128-109 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and one of his highest-rebounding totals of 2023-24 was nearly matched by his team-high five turnovers. Still, anyone closely watching the Golden State Warriors' fifth straight defeat and the team's performance over the first few weeks of the regular season knew those at-best underwhelming and at-worst flat-out poor numbers marked a step in the right direction for Wiggins easily during the toughest stretch of his career.
Asked Friday if he'd ever experienced similar struggles over such a sustained period, the 10th-year veteran offered a sheepish smile, shaking his head with a solemn negative.
Wiggins is averaging 10.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game. He's shooting a subpar 49.5% on twos and ghastly 13.5% from beyond the arc and 50% at the free throw line, with steal and block percentages comfortably less than half his career peak.
Making matters worse even worse for Wiggins is that his lack of production and rank inefficiency has so clearly affected the Warriors. His on-off net rating is a five-alarm fire of -22.5, per NBA.com/stats, and Wiggins has failed to pick up any of the offensive slack left by Stephen Curry's absence over the last two games, scoring 21 points on 23 shots and missing all but one of his 11 three-point attempts. He's combined for nine turnovers in loss to the Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, too.
Wiggins' issues weren't supposed to persist through mid-November. Steve Kerr insisted last week that he was “looking much better physically,” and Wiggins himself has consistently maintained he knows better times are imminent—the same optimism he shared on Friday.
“For sure, for sure,” Wiggins said when asked if he can feel the tide turning his way. “Shot's not falling right now, but still just trying to stay aggressive and do whatever I can just to help the team win whether it's rebounding, defend. Just trying to take care of that side of the game while knowing my shot will fall. Just gotta keep going.”
Andrew Wiggins' issues are widespread
Wiggins' long-range shooting looks even worse than the numbers suggest. He's been throwing up wildly errant jumpers since the season tipped off, barely skimming the right side of the rim with a left wing triple and air-balling a baseline runner over the top of Josh Giddey on Thursday. Wiggins has never been a marksman, though, far more aptly described as a capable shooter than reliable one.
His jumper is in a truly dire strait, but at least a still-small sample size allows for hope going forward. Maybe Wiggins finds his rhythm from the perimeter soon, prompting the type of weeks-long heater he enjoyed last season before going down with injury in early December. It's possible.
Far more troubling about the current state of his game is Wiggins' clear lack of comfort handling the ball in traffic or even putting it on the deck at all, let alone making plays for teammates. He coughed up three turnovers in the first six minutes against the Thunder, looking completely out of his element with the ball in his hands.
The only times Wiggins has looked even close to his typical self this season have come with his back to the basket. Most of his buckets on Thursday were the result of post-ups or duck-ins, Wiggins' length and perpetually underrated strength at times proving too much for Oklahoma City defenders. But he's still been shaky with the ball down low overall, hardly functioning as the type of post operator who demands regular double-teams or has the vision and passing ability to produce efficient offense out of them.
Kerr has gone out of his way to mention Wiggins' improved on-ball defense of late, a development backed up by the film—sometimes, at least. But he's clearly a long way from his 2022 playoffs peak as a bonafide stopper, and was hardly immune to confusion on ball-screen coverages that infected all the Dubs Thursday as the hot-shooting Thunder racked up a 128.0 offensive rating.
The notoriously mild-mannered Wiggins has let his frustration show on the floor at times this season. Whether aggressively slapping his hands together, grabbing the net between plays in obvious exasperation or looking up while letting out heavy sighs, it's obvious Wiggins knows he needs to be much better—not just for the Dubs' hopes of winning another title, but to re-cement himself as a top-tier two-way role player.
Don't let his palpable on-court irritation or perpetual vocal monotone fool you, though. Wiggins' confidence persists, right along with his struggles.
“I know what I can do,” he said on Friday. “Like, I remember the playoffs, the Finals, all that. I know what I can do. I just gotta stick with it, keep my confidence up and just know what I can do. Keep getting up extra shots, extra work, preparation, and the game comes.”
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