Andrew Wiggins is no longer in the mix for the Canadian national team this summer, according to Doug Smith of The Toronto (Twitter link), who says the Warriors are “playing hardball” with a player they are “looking to move.”
Wiggins was insured and medically cleared by Canada Basketball, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, but it sounds like the Warriors don’t want to risk his health during trade negotiations after he dealt with an ankle issue last season. While Grange says the veteran forward isn’t thrilled about the decision, Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link) refers to it as a mutual one.
According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, Wiggins is one of several Warriors veterans who is considered a potential outgoing piece if Golden State makes a major deal. Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II fall into that category, as does Chris Paul, whose $30MM salary remains non-guaranteed for the time being. The Warriors’ decision on Paul’s non-guaranteed salary is due on Friday, but it’s possible the team will give him a partial guarantee in exchange for pushing back that deadline, says Fischer.
Here are a few more trade rumors from around the NBA:
- While some trade rumors earlier this week linked Kevin Durant to Houston, the Rockets are more interested in pursuing younger trade targets whose timeline matches up better with their core, according to Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Amick and Slater name Suns guard Devin Booker, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, and Pelicans forward Zion Williamson as some players who would fit that bill for Houston, acknowledging that there’s no indication any of those players will be available this summer.
- Exploring potential trade partners for the Pelicans and forward Brandon Ingram, Fischer mentions the Kings, Sixers, Hawks, and Cavaliers as possibilities. However, he says that Atlanta and New Orleans haven’t had substantive discussions since talking about Dejounte Murray in February, while Cleveland remains reluctant to part with any of its four core players, including potential Pels target Jarrett Allen. It’s also unclear how high Ingram ranks on Philadelphia’s list of possible targets, Fischer adds. Sacramento, meanwhile, has been in the market for help on the wing this offseason, though Fischer doesn’t explicitly say the Kings have talked to New Orleans about Ingram.
- Although rival teams are expected to continue calling to register interest in Lauri Markkanen, the Jazz‘s goal continues to be extending the veteran forward and acquiring another star to complement him, Fischer writes. Adrian Wojnarowski expressed a similar sentiment during ESPN’s draft broadcast this week. Utah talked to the Hawks about Murray in February and also expressed interest in Mikal Bridges before Brooklyn agreed to send him to New York, says Fischer.
No more “nice” with Wiggins. He’s as good as gone this offseason. It’s unfortunate because he was awesome 3 yrs ago, but he is simply not reliable.
Sounds like the warriors are going to do something but I hope they get under the 2nd tier so in the future they can bring in some real free agents not ones off the scrap heap.
Warriors can delay it as much as they want, but eventually they will have to do a total rebuild.
Nope, GSW cannot do a “total rebuild” while they have Kuminga, Moody, Jackson-Davis, Podziemski, Curry and Green – that’s too much of a core that already has cooked teams in this league, you add to that, not tear it down.
Curry talks about playing til he’s in his 40’s – that’s how long GSW can contend for. Steph was still magnificent last year despite getting no help, its really odd, Michol, how you don’t think this is true.
@michol I don’t think they’ll need a “rebuild”, but they’ll need to find a superstar to replace Curry and Draymond in 2-3 years. That’ll be the hard part, but they’ll have a lot of cap space.
The Warriors already have in place the core of young players that would otherwise require a rebuild:
Kuminga 21 yrs
Podz 20 yrs
TJD 24 yrs
Moody 21 yrs
That’s at least 2 solid starters, likely 3, and maybe 4. The non-starters are solid rotation players. In a “rebuild”, you typically hope to add 1 new, high quality young starter every year for 3 years, and be competitive again the 4th.
The Warriors have retained their 1st round picks for the next 5 years, so they should be able to gradually supplement that young core.
Clippers, Bucks, Phoenix, and Lakers have either 0 or 1 such players. Those are the teams that are on the verge of a “rebuild” (except they have no picks.)
Understood. However, Warriors will never be able to compete with elite team going forward like Thunders for example.
By second tier I’m assuming you mean 2nd apron. As of yesterday, they are hard capped and can’t go into 2nd apron…as I understand it.
They will not get better if they keep spending money. I don’t see them as a top 6 team in the west even if they add George. The younger teams are getting better and teams like OKC and Rockets have money to spend to get better.
arc I believe the Warriors will continue to go for it as long as Steph Curry is on the roster. He’s generational and still playing at High level.
@arc89 Agree 100%. The new rules favor younger teams with a larger number of good players vs small number of max players.
Aristotle but with the young guys that are great players the price tag will eventually come to the door. What will you do then if you’re OKC? You pay up or you act like the Oakland A’s or Tampa Bay Rays in baseball, or what Donald Sterling always did with the Clippers in the 90s. When guys get good you trade them away for more pics. Then you stay in lottery land forever.
@GaryWarriorsRedSoxx When you say “eventually”, yes, but that “eventually” is 8-9 years into a players’ career. The way the rules work, years 5-9 are when you get value for young superstars. In other words, the bill on this group of players doesn’t come due for at least 5 more seasons, and it’s likely 7 seasons.
Consider that Brown and Tatum each played for ~$32M this year, and the Celtics get still 1 more year of Tatum for $32M. In their year 9 or 10, players start getting Max deals.
After this season, the Celtics will be paying Brown, Tatum and White about $150M combined, and that will squeeze out 2 of Porzingis, Holiday and Horford. (Tatum and Brown will both be on max deals, and White is being offered ~ $33-$37M). This year, they paid the three of them about $80M combined. As in, the Celtics will reach the peak of the cycle, 9 years after their rebuild started, and face a gradual decline due to the cap rules..
Max contracts (>$50M) to multiple players in their 30’s kill your team.
It works both ways. You would probably let him play for Canada and give him lots of leeway but as you say, you can’t rely on Wiggins.
He’ll abandon the team for 2 months and not be ready when he dies return, or need personal time off on another occasion. Well then the Warriors must protect themselves too. No leeway because they can’t trust you.
He screwed Warriors the last 2 yrs. They want him to be #2 player but he’s just happy collecting a paychck. I think he will retire at the end of his contract. He just doesnt enjoy playing.
I don’t think he cares if he plays for Canada or not. Raptors should trade for him then he can play for Canada. Bruce Brown and some other player added and both teams make out on the deal.
Brown for Wiggins makes a lot of sense. Brown is more of combo, gives you backup for Steph and Podz.
Losing Wiggins makes room for JK, Moody and, possibly, Klay.
Wiggins can go to Toronto in a 3-team deal, we don’t have to limit it to just Raptors players coming back. Brown isn’t great and there’s better matches out there.
If anything it would be the other way around. Brown is a more valuable player than Wiggins is presently, and Wiggins still has three years left on his deal, whereas Brown is a FA after this coming season. Warriors would have to include an asset to move Wiggins for Brown.
What would work out is Brown and Boucher for Wiggins and Moody. That would help out both teams and gives Toronto a chance to see if Moody can be a starter.
Does Wiggins come off the bench, then? The Raptors have three starting spots totally locked up with Quickley/Barnes/Barrett. Add in Moody and that’s all the non-Center spots filled (and they have Poeltl/Olynyk there currently, though Poeltl could get traded).
@EonADS you might be right, perhaps Detroit is a better landing spot for Wiggs? Or one of those midwest/east conf teams….
Where do you think the best fits for Wiggs are? I think he fits on the Clippers too, if they lose George.
Moody was a starter last season, here? And he should be the starting SG next year next to Curry. Trade Podz instead.
Podski is twice the player Moody is.
We will disagree forever on this!
Funnily enough last season both Podz and Moody had the same WS/48 at 4.1, which is pretty decent although Podz had like 800 more minutes than Moody, that stat proves Moody has the higher ceiling here.
Bruh, WS/48 is a per minute stat. That means they provided the *exact same* value each minute they were on the floor.
I know! But you understand getting more playing time means more time on court to improve your game, right?
Yeah, and? Moody has played two entire seasons over Podz. By that logic, he should be clearly better. Nine more minutes per game is not *that* much that he’s some superstar while Podz is an afterthought.
Moody started nine games. He played alright in those starts, but he’s not better than Podz. Should he have started over Wiggins? Yes, absolutely. But Podz is the better player.
Podz only collects stats in losses, he isnt a winner, he plays like Russell Westbrook with lesser everything. We only started playing very poorly when Podz entered the “Top 5 MPG” group. Podz is a natural PG, we have Curry for that.
Moody is a natural SG who has a ring already – he knows what it takes to win a chip. He also has improved steadily in limited playing time. Podz should have never leapfrogged over Moody last season, we finished 10th because of this sole move. If Moody got more minutes, we would have won more games, as he’s a “catch fire if you play him regularly for like a month” type guy. Podz got most mins on court numerous times. Cant fault Moody for Kerr loving Podz too much.
The Warriors were 12-7 in games where Podz played 32+ minutes and 17-9 when he played 30+. That’s just utterly incorrect.
30-28 when Podz played 23+ minutes though. Moses Moody would have gotten us a better record than that if Moody got those minutes he should have.
Those were Moody’s minutes that Podz got gifted without earning.
37-27 when he played 20+. So whenever he played more minutes than Moody’s average, the Warriors had a 47 win pace for the season. Basically EXACTLY where they actually finished.
I’m not going to say Moody isn’t a good player. He absolutely is, and should have been starting. But him starting over Podz would not have improved their situation much at all. Over Wiggins? That’s a different story. Especially since another consistent shooter and good playmaker like Podz could easily set him up.
Wiggins had a .105 WS/48 in his 21-22 season All-Star. .070 this year. Podz had .100. Moody had .101. So replacing him with Moody AND letting Podz play basically gives you his best value twice. Or maybe they replace Klay’s .070 with either one off the bench as the 6th man. Either way, it’s a big upgrade to use both of them, rather than trying to pick one over the other when both of them are valuable to a similar extent in different ways.
@EonADS It’s all good info, but win-shares are notoriously bad at measuring value when a player goes from, one, a starting role, and playing with the best players on the team as Wiggins did in his first three seasons, to, two, a starter/rotation role, as Wiggins did last year.
Previously, Wiggins had the benefit of playing most all his minutes with Steph, Draymond, Klay, and Looney. That combination was extremely effective. Last year, Wiggins played much more with lesser players, which hurt his win-shares.
@EonAdds, I’m with you that Moody should have played more based on what he showed, and I also think he would have improved more if he played.
I really like Moody’s demeanor and toughness. But I’m not sure he projects as a starting wing on a championship caliber team. At worst, he’s a strong rotation player on a championship team. We need to keep him.
> Podz only collects stats in losses, he isnt a winner, he plays like
> Russell Westbrook with lesser everything.
You won’t find a single NBA scout or coach who has that take on Podz. Whatever his limitations, Podz is unselfish to a fault, makes winning plays, and plays hard all the time. He led the league in charges taken, for God’s sake. Podz can also shoot, which Westbrook can’t.
I’m optimistic about Moody also. He’s only 21 years old, and has held up well to not being played as much as he deserves. But giving Moody credit for having a ring and “knowing what it takes to win” is strange. Moody, at 19 yrs old, played a few minutes in 1 key game against Dallas, and otherwise wasn’t given a chance to play in that post-season.
@aristotle there’s a commenter in here who watched him at Santa Clara who agreed with that take though? Podz might be an ok shooter, but he’s a horrible scorer, which Russ is much better than him at, even now.
Takes charges? Uhh he averaged 1 charge every 2 games, thats not enough of a stat that matters. He camps in the key and gets like 40 points put on his head anytime a big switched onto him, I saw it firsthand all last season.
@arc89 Raptors are stocked with wings, most young. Moody will not play before Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, and probably not Grady Dick.
Brown has one year remaining on his contract. Warriors have rights to match best offer for Moody after this year, they can sign hi under market value for multiple years if the want to.
I am not sure on players Rockets looking at. Booker, Zion and such. KD sorry do not see him in Houston.
I don’t think those players are even available in a trade. Sounds like wishful thinking on the Rockets part. Simply a pipe dream.
It’s just bizarre to me that I see so many commenters both here and on twitter blaming Draymond for the last 2 years of underperformance, but Wiggins has now missed over 50 games for “mystery reasons” in those 2 years that were never explained to us fans, the people who pay his salary. And then when he did play last year, Wiggins was absolute garbage, but Draymond was awesome when he did play? Makes no sense how Wiggins gets no smoke for not stepping up and instead taking steps back.
Trade Wiggins, GP2 and and CP3 off this team immediately, please. Replace them with guys who at least will play.
GP2 days are numbered since the 2 way player they signed yesterday is a defensive guard. So it looks like MDJ is looking at the future defensive specialist for the warriors.
Kerr has an outsized appreciation for GP2, which has kept Moody on the bench, which worries me.
But I’m assuming GP2’s $9M salary is used for salary matching purposes this week.
Do you really think MDJ is ready for minutes in the NBA?
Again, GSW needs to totally restructure their team so there’s as few guards as possible. Last year we had Curry, Thompson, Paul, Podziemski, Moody and Payton, and too often did 3 or 4 of those guys play on court at once, and we got destroyed every single time.
Take all these starting-level guards away. Make it impossible for Kerr to “go small”. Klay, Paul and GP2 can go.
Wiggins doesn’t owe Warriors fans s..t. He took time off for PERSONAL reasons. He told his employer and they supported him. Everybody has a right to privacy, even professional athletes.
and I have the right to criticize him for taking so much time off, on here!! Not locking in when he came back is really what Im more mad at him about. He didnt play hard at all last season.
For 2 consecutive seasons?? Why not take care of personal problems in the offseason? Why not take care of it during All Star Break? Why even sign 4 yr extension?? Looking back it was a bad sign that Wiggins gave the team a major discount. Should have traded him then.
I don’t know why Wiggins took the time off but if rumors are You’re right, he should’ve told his dad that it wasn’t convenient for him to get sick and to wait until the All Star break and Dray should’ve waited until the off season to be a jackwagon.
The first time was not something anyone can criticize him for. His dad being so ill there were concerns he could *die* is not something you can get pissed at Wiggins for.
Ok but there’s plenty of other things Wiggins has done to be criticized, so forgive the fans for blurring the lines here. He’s not a high character player, no one has ever put a “leader” tag on him, for good reasons.
Things to criticize like going against his personal beliefs and getting vaccinated for the good of team? Or taking a pay cut and signing what at time was considered a below market extension? Low character things like that?
Everyone should have gotten vaccinated without a second thought, the fact he made it all about him, proves my point even more.
“Pay cut”, “below market” lmao thats just a lie.
Also show me anyone who ever called Wiggins a “team leader” – still waiting.
You are -this- close to being muted. I know an online debatelord when I see one. You dont believe in any of this, its just “arguing the opposite to whatever you say” its an exercise to you, you arent interested in discourse.
Might have something to do with Draymond making an ass out of himself and the Warriors every chance he got
Don’t get what’s up with Wiggins. Never saw him as a problem child. He was MVP with Curry for their chip run. As a basketball fan. I’d really like to know what has happened.
Warriors might have a good trade left. But the window is shut. They will always be a tough out in playoffs.
So much of life in general and Sports in particular is mental. If you’re distracted you can’t perform at 110%. And if the distraction is something very real and close to home that could send a guy into orbit and his play on the floor will show it.
I get that. But he did come to Warriors with questions about attitude. I’m just wondering. Cause I always liked his game and talent. Few of us get that in life.
Yes I see. I was trying to cut him a little Slack by only referring to his disappearing act the last 2 years.
But you’re right, he came into the league with a Superstar potential label and never lived up to it even part way.
I think it’s just a lack of Killer Instinct. There’s not a hint of Jordan or black mamba in him whatsoever. All the tools are there but he’s a 90% effort guy. I don’t think he’ll ever be a 150% All in performer.
The Warriors and perhaps the league for that matter with fan votes as support, tried to go with the positive feedback route in his all-star year, which he barely deserved in my opinion. That was a nice effort to Kickstart his backside but didn’t work out.
@Gary you know it, I completely agree with this take on Wiggs. He broke through in 2022 and we won a chip but he seems to be trying to play his way off the team ever since.
Wiggins is a mystery. I’ve watched closely and suspect, as a completely unqualified opinion with no inside information, suspect that he has problems with depression.
Or, it may be related to his Dad’s reported ongoing health problems.
There is also the possibility that he comes back strong this year. If he doesn’t, he’s close to the end of his career.
Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson fires NBA accusation amid Joel Embiid incident….
Yeah Mitch throw down Bro ….
Totally agree with Mitch
link to clutchpoints.com
Agreed. If the situations would have been reversed, it would have been a flagrant 2 and ejection, possibly a suspension.
There’s no place for grabbing a guys leg while he’s going up while you’re on your back. That’s a Draymond Green level play.