Fresh off his first NBA title and All-Star selection in 2021/22, Warriors starting small forward Andrew Wiggins is hoping to prove his mettle as one of the NBA’s best defensive players, as he told Vince Carter on the retired eight-time All-Star’s podcast, The VC Show with Vince Carter (h/t to Andrei de Guzman of TalkBasket).
“One thing I’m really gonna strive for this upcoming season is being on the [All-]Defensive Team,” Wiggins said. “That’s a big goal of mine, and hopefully I opened some eyes in the playoffs and I can be on the radar. I ain’t get not one vote this year! I took it personal in the playoffs!”
There’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- With Lakers All-Star forward LeBron James newly signed to a lucrative extension that will at least keep him in Los Angeles through 2024, it’s possible that L.A. will be more receptive to including draft capital in a trade to get off the contract of embattled point guard Russell Westbrook, opines Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. Pincus suspects that Westbrook could be moved to the Nets, Pacers or Spurs, should the Lakers indeed be willing to part with their 2027 and 2029 first-round draft picks. Pincus notes that the Jazz also have the assets to possibly pique the interest of the Lakers’ front office in a deal. During his first season with his hometown team, the 33-year-old veteran proved to be an awkward on-court fit alongside James as a ball-dominant guard without a jump shot or much defensive effort.
- Prior to his inking the aforementioned extension with the Lakers, James was “privately adamant” about wanting the Lakers trade for his former Cavaliers teammate Kyrie Irving, writes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Whether such a transaction for the seven-time All-Star, currently with the Nets, comes to pass remains to be seen.
- The new two-year, $97.1MM contract extension James signed with the Lakers can benefit both James and Los Angeles, opines Dave McMenamin of ESPN (YouTube video link). By opting to commit to the Lakers at this juncture (the extension could have been signed as late as next summer), James has given the team the green light to make moves around him in order to hopefully resume deep playoff runs. In turn, the 17-time championship-winning Lakers want to showcase themselves as a desirable landing place for marquee free agents in the years to come. McMenamin adds that, should L.A. prove unable to compete at a championship level within the next two seasons, James is able to retain some of his future flexibility to an extent by making the second year of the deal, the 2024/25 season, a player option.
Lebron should have gave back Salary like Harden. He can suffer with Westbrook for his greed.
@Spike
I kinda sorta agree that he should’ve taken less money but that should’ve done NOTHING for this upcoming season because he signed an extension that starts next season not this one. So it does nothing to help this year’s team.
Harden is only faking it… he will end up making more money by signing 5 yr contract next offseason.
lol lebum can only win with super teams. what a joke. might as well give him Curry too
@Splash
Yeah and Curry has done it all by himself. Thomson, Durant and Draymond in the past and Klay, Draymond, Wiggins and Poole this year. Whether or not the players or the GM were responsible doesn’t negate that the GSW are/ were a team filled with multiple allstar caliber players that helped Curry win 4 chips. You GSW fans are such hypocrites.
Don’t group people together. I am not a hypocrite am I? I think I’m a true basketball fan who presents cases fairly. I’m biased yes I love the Warriors yes but I don’t think I’m a hypocrite.
That isn’t true he took a homegrown Cavs team to four finals and a championship, but winning in LA is a difficult bag, the Lakers need to make a couple big trades, they’ll need those picks down the road, best to play Westbrook this season and look at trading Anthony Davis. Pass on the Kyrie talk and look at getting Collin Sexton.
He done gone get my vote dis year. #UKansas.edu
LeBron ? Two years. Lakers ruining their future to have Kyrie with his buddy ? A decade of no future draft picks. Not an even trade off
Lakers have been ruining their future for several years now, all for one mickey mouse ring and a whole lotta empty talk
Lakers do have draft picks. N.O. can swap in 23. Lakers will have one of 24 or 25. Then they own their first round picks from 26 to 30. But they can’t trade them all. Only every other year (can’t trade 25 due to New Orleans having the option to take either 24 or 25). But you can’t trade away consecutive first round picks. That’s why they can only trade 27 and/or 29.
And 17 banners. Must hurt huh?
No one cares who won 5 years ago let alone 30+lmao
Wiggins gonna have some serious comp for a spot on that All-Defense team. My boy Dre Hunter obv gonna be 1st team. Mikal Bridges is Coop level great as a wing defender. Herb Jones, JimmyB, ScottieB, Saddiq & RO’Neale all great defenders as well
While Wiggins certainly has the talent, the knock on him (which is still true, no matter how hard he caked off Curry’s gravity in the finals) is that he goes missing for 2.5 quarters a game, which usually coincides with GSW playing badly. That happened both with and without Curry, so its just who he is. All-defensive guys don’t take a few plays off, they are in the mix trying to turn it over on every single play.
It’s true he has tendency to be passive, unselfish but he’s learned to be a force defensively especially in postseason. It’s all learning process entering his prime…
Glad you are finally seeing what I have been saying about Brooklyn all along! Yes, Royce O’Neal is a great defender. O’Neal and a guy named Ben Simmons will be anchoring the Brooklyn defense. Kyrie and Kevin Durant (Yes, he will be here) and that gets paired with Joe Harris and Seth Curry, who happen to be the best 3 pt shooters in the league not named Steph Curry. T.J Warren, Patty Mills, Nic Claxton. Wow!
Which duo would you rather have on your team if you could have em their entire career, LeBron/Kyrie, Bird/McHale, Magic/Worthy, KG/Allen, Kobe/Pau or Brown/Tatum? Rank a top3 if you have less than 2 alt accounts
Magic/worthy
Kg/Allen
Bird/mchale
To b fair I really don’t like kyrie the earth is flat
Curry/Thompson >
Curry/Green >
Curry/Poole >
Curry/Iguodala >
Curry/Looney >
Curry/Kuminga >
Without Wiggins, Warriors would not have a championship.
Brown/Tatum???? You are completely disrespecting EVERYBODY else named in this listing. Good players who have accomplished nothing! No MJ/Scottie???? Isiah Thomas/Joe Dumars??? Steph Curry/Klay Thompson??? If you are including guys with NO titles like Brown/Tatum. Stockton/Malone.
Entire career huh, prolly gotta Ding Magic and Bird a little here, Kyrie too
Kobe/Pau for the longevity
In addition to be being more consistent defensively, would like to see Wiggins improve on a FT line. His scoring average easily will increase 2 points! Kuminga too…
Does draymond deserves a max contract?
Heck no. If he pushes for one let him walk and he’ll find that no one else will give him the max either. His place on the Warriors is very valuable because he has Top Notch shooters and they need his defense and passing and all the rest of it. On another team he’s a guy who plays good D but can’t shoot. Took Gary Payton jr 10 years to find a job with those skills.
@ garywarriorsredsox The Golden State franchise is printing money right now. Draymond has been a significant part of what caused the money printing. He deserves the $$$$ from Golden State. They owe him the money. He deserves the same NBA maximum contract that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have gotten. Draymond was one of the pillars that built Golden State into what is currently the premier franchise in the NBA all things considered.
Boston ABSOLUTELY owed whatever maximum money was to Isaiah Thomas for what he did for the franchise. Instead, they traded him away. That was trash!
Better to be early than late on goodbyes
It’s a business at the end of the day. Concur with Gary/No Max