Wiggins’ All-Star Nod Shows How Warriors Maximize Players
Tonight, Andrew Wiggins will play in the NBA All-Star game for the first time. His selection — not just as an All-Star but as a starter — served as the latest step on a journey that has seen Wiggins evolve from an overpaid bust to a strong all-around talent who can be one of the better players on a title contender.
Upon the announcement of Wiggins’ All-Star status, many commentators pointed to the work he put into his game, as well as to the ability of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to raise their teammates. But Wiggins’ growth is also due to the organization-wide system the Warriors have in place, which seems to have consistently drawn the most out of players during the Steve Kerr era.
Wiggins was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 but was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves before playing in an NBA game. After winning Rookie of the Year, he spent four and a half more years in Minnesota largely falling short of expectations. He was inconsistent on offense and rarely played to his potential, often appearing to be scared of being assertive. He was also among the worst defenders in the league, and the fact that he was under a $148 million contract didn’t help matters. Eventually, the Timberwolves had enough of him and traded him, along with two draft picks, to the Warriors for a package centered around former All-Star D’Angelo Russell.
The trade was met with a polarized reception from Warriors fans and the national media, and for good reason. A backcourt of Russell, Curry and Klay Thompson was an exciting possibility. Now the Warriors were dismissing that idea without even trying it in order to bring in a player who had appeared in just five playoff games in his career and had never proven he could contribute to a team with ambitions of reaching so much as the second round.
On the other hand, Wiggins was entering a new situation. The Warriors had developed a reputation for having one of the best organizational cultures in the NBA, and Wiggins would be taking on a new role in Golden State. Maybe he would embrace the opportunity and become a Golden State Warrior in the truest sense of the term.
Two years later, it’s clear that — at least so far — the latter school of thought has been correct.
Wiggins has transformed into a different player since coming to San Francisco. He has improved his shooting numbers considerably and looked more confident on offense. His defense has gone from terrible to bordering on elite. He usually makes good decisions on both sides of the ball. And he plays a team-first style of basketball that is a huge reason for the Warriors’ current record of 42-17, second-best in the NBA.
A huge amount of credit for these developments should go to the Warriors organization. The Warriors gave him a role that played to his strengths. They developed him to fit into the style they wanted to play. They have convinced him to buy into their system focused on team chemistry, sacrificing stats for the sake of winning and giving maximum effort, accountability for all five players on the court, and attention to detail on both offense and defense. Not every team could have pulled off such a feat, but the Warriors managed to do so.
The culmination of all of this, at least so far, has been his All-Star selection. Yes, he probably shouldn’t be starting. And yes, the Western Conference frontcourt is weaker than usual this year due to some notable names being injured. But Wiggins is still a deserving All-Star and has gotten to this point because of how much he has improved. The Warriors as a franchise are a huge part of that improvement.
“I’m around greatness,” Wiggins told ESPN last month. “Being around Steve, being around Bob [Myers], being around Steph, Draymond, Klay, people that have won multiple championships and that ran the league for a long time. And those guys believe in me. Every day, whether it’s offensively, defensively. Offensively, they trust me with the ball. Defensively, they put me on the other team’s best player. That right there is motivating.”
Wiggins may be the most notable example of the Warriors’ ability to turn players into the best versions of themselves, but he is far from the only one. JaVale McGee was known far more for his appearances on blooper reels than his work on the hardwood when the Warriors signed him in September of 2016. He had been waived by the Dallas Mavericks earlier that offseason, then went unsigned for more than two months. But the Warriors gave him a chance, put him in a role that capitalized on his skills and taught him how to be a part of a smart championship team where everyone was treated correctly.
“Being able to be in Golden State and see a real, winning organization and the way it’s ran was amazing,” McGee said during a September 2021 appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast. “Every place I went to after that, I got to take that piece with me and add it to another team.”
The list continues even further. Harrison Barnes garnered a max contract on the strength of his time with the Warriors. Quinn Cook and Alfonzo McKinnie both made major contributions to Warriors teams that made the NBA Finals and received meaningful minutes in the playoffs. Both subsequently departed Golden State, and as of the publication of this article, neither are in the NBA. Other players who have had the best stretches of their career with the Warriors include Jordan Bell, Marquese Chriss, Shaun Livingston, Marreese Speights and Ian Clark.
Beginning with an NBA championship in 2015, the Warriors have in many ways developed the model for how to run an NBA franchise. Nowhere is this more prominent than on the court, where time and time again the team manages to find ways to get players to play up to their potential. Andrew Wiggins becoming an All-Star is a fantastic example of this phenomenon — but it’s merely the latest in a long line of similar scenarios.
(Photo credit: Jeff Chiu / AP)