Why Steph-Wiggs backcourt might give Warriors their most balanced lineup

Why Steph-Wiggs backcourt might give Warriors their most balanced lineup originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

For the first time in six months, the Warriors got a microscopic look on Tuesday night at Andrew Wiggins in an NBA game. They didn’t expect much, and didn’t get much as he scraped off considerable rust.

But Wiggins’ presence and position provided a preseason glimpse of what is possible. And sensible.

Wiggins started not at his customary small forward position but at shooting guard, where he has never started a regular-season game with Golden State. He shared the backcourt with point guard Stephen Curry, a role made legendary by the two-way talents of peak Klay Thompson.

Curry and Wiggins formed two-fifths of a lineup – along with Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis – that might be the most balanced the Warriors can assemble.

“The key is JK and Wiggs running the floor,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Las Vegas after a 111-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at T-Mobile Arena. “It puts a lot of pressure on teams. And they set a good tone tonight, the way they just got downhill, with or without the ball, they were gone. I really like the way both of those guys played and the impact that they can make with their athleticism and force.”

Wiggins played 21 minutes, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field, including 0-of-3 from distance. He was 5-of-5 from the line and added one assist and one steal.

The minuscule sample size of Golden State’s fifth starting lineup in five games offered nothing declarative — much less definitive — mostly because Wiggins, who missed most of training camp, was new to the action.

Kerr has visualized a possible Curry-Wiggins backcourt for the better part of a year, ever since acknowledging the growing likelihood that Klay Thompson would leave Golden State. Kerr has long considered Thompson and Wiggins, of similar size and two-way ability, as interchangeable wings; this was an opportunity to examine that notion.

Though Wiggins will never be the deadeye shooter Thompson is, he is now a better on-ball defender. He has the tools to do a decent-to-excellent job against most of the league’s playmakers, and that was one of Golden State’s most visible weaknesses last season. General manager Mike Dunleavy addressed that in July, signing De’Anthony Melton, an elite point-of-attack defender. Gary Payton II, who missed most of last season, is another on-ball hellcat.

But Wiggins is rangier and offers more offensive versatility. Since coming to the Warriors in February 2020, he’s 38.1 percent beyond the arc. Not Klay, but very solid. In 2021-22, when Wiggins made the Western Conference All-Star team, he shot 39.3 percent from deep. Again, not Klay, but more than acceptable.

One of several clear messages from Kerr to Wiggins is to raise his volume of 3-point shots.

“I’ve already told him: six 3-pointers a game,” Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke last week. “He is a really good 3-point shooter. It was down a little bit last year. But since he’s been here — 39, 40 percent. I want a lot of threes, and I want a lot of attacks to the rim. He shot 80-plus percent from the foul line in the second half of the year last year.

“He looks really comfortable in every aspect of the game. And let’s face it, with Klay gone, we need him to step up and be our second scorer after Steph, and we know he’s perfectly capable of that.”

If Wiggins shoots six more threes per game, that provides more spacing for Kuminga, whose 3-ball is looking better but might always be secondary to his ability to attack the rim. Both were in the starting lineup because Kerr’s dream scenario is to play them together – have two athletic 6-foot-7 wings to challenge opponents at both ends.

Though Melton is a legitimate scoring threat, it’s a stretch to ask him to approach 20 points per game. That’s more than double his career average. And GP2 is a defense-first player who is good for a few corner triples, but not heavy scoring lifting.

Wiggins, by contrast, averages 18.5 points per game for his career. He has topped the 20-per-game bar four times in his 10-year career, all while with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

With Thompson gone, Wiggins no longer is a good third scoring option. The ask is that he now becomes a good second option. He has the tools, and now he needs to make the most of them.

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