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The best plays of the season were made by Andrew Wiggins.
Andrew Wiggins has had his greatest moments of the season so far. (1:41)
8:00 AM
The Golden State Warriors' gleaming spaceship, the Chase Center, is about to transform into a vibrating dance party after dark on a Monday in early December.
The frenzy will be the same as Stephen Curry's one-man scoring sprees, but Curry will be dancing and swaying with everyone else for a key stretch of this particular soiree.
The onslaught begins with a whimper, with a sellout crowd of 18,064 looking on. There's an early foul, a turnover, a miss from deep, and a blocked layup. His distractors say it's a pattern in a disappointing career.
He makes a 26 foot 3-pointer from the left wing in the first quarter.
He is in the same spot at the end of the first half. A smooth, effortless motion gave the Warriors a 60-39 lead. Curry feeds him in the right corner, where he launches another bomb. The Warriors are rolling, and he is 3-of-4 from deep.
He drills a trey with a defender in his face with 6:28 left in the third. 39 seconds later, another one was recorded from the same spot. A dagger 37 seconds later. A second 3-pointer was made 42 seconds later.
"Oh, my god!" Warriors coach Steve Kerr is on the sideline. Curry can only smile and put his hands on his head.
Thirty-two seconds later, in front of the Warriors' bench in the right corner, he shakes a defender and launches again. The crowd at the Chase Center is tense. All his teammates on the bench are unsure of what to do. 16 points in 160 seconds is what the crowd explodes for as the final 3 curls in.
The Warriors win by 31. The 26 year old is smiling and looks like he's having fun.
The narrative that defines his NBA career was the topic of a folding chair that was sitting in the guts of the arena eight hours earlier.
Kevin said that he's one of his favorite players to watch. He makes me angry because he has the ability to be on another level.
There have been flashes, like this one in San Francisco, but they've been rare.
"Consistency has always been the question mark for Wiggs, not if he has the ability to be a superstar, but the consistency of being a superstar."
He says that Garnett wanted to light a fire under Wiggins. Nothing worked.
"Listen, the one thing I learned about Andrew was that nothing's going to get done to Andrew until Wiggs says it's going to happen," says Garnett.
Back in the arena, he smiles when he hears about how he was pushed on the court, off the court, and always wanted more by his mentor, Garnett.
A group of people throughout Wiggins' life have said that he and the Warriors are a perfect fit. They say it more loudly now that he is a vital player on a championship front-runner.
Andrew was never supposed to be a role player. It's a damning indictment of either him or the people who made him one of the most popular players in NBA history. The pick was supposed to be a cornerstone.
The Warriors did not need that. They needed the kind of player that Andrew had always wanted to be.
The Warriors thought that Stephen Curry could open looks in a read-based offense. He could guard the opposing player. He's shooting 43.5% from 3 and playing the best defense of his career.
LOFTY EXPECTATIONS increased when Andrew Wiggins did. Mitchell played in the NBA for Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia from 1984 to 1992. Marita Payne-Wiggins won a medal in the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays at the 1984 Olympics. Those who knew all three would say that the fourth child, Wiggins, was the reincarnation of his father's and mother's humor. He received athletic gifts from both of them.
A highlight appeared on the video sharing website. It was called "best 13 year old in the nation" and it featured a tall boy, who was actually 14 at the time. The first glimpse into a hype machine that drove the idea of Andrew Wiggins, the future NBA superstar, was the video that has gotten nearly five million views.
The hype increased a year later in Germany, when a 15-year-old player for Canada was the youngest player on the court. He stood at 6 feet 7 and 11 inches in his first international event for his home country. In the semifinals against the United States team, the player on the left side of the floor was the one who drove down the floor outside the 3-point line. Then, as he moved through the lane, he spun one way, then another, and laid the ball in.
"Simply effortless," says former Canadian coach Leo Rautins. It wasn't just how skilled he was. It was how easy the game was for him, that was a primary tension point for coaches, teammates, and scouts.
Every evaluation for the next decade had that theme.
If it was a big game or if he was against a specific team, he delivered. When they felt he wasn't engaged, the coach searched for the button to push.
During one game in high school, coach Gymnopoulos felt that Wiggins was too many 3-pointers. Wanting to drive to the rim, Gymnopoulos tapped him on the knee, and he summoned an -8 run by himself. During the first half, Rob Fulford laid into Wiggins about his rebound skills. In the locker room, he mentioned the stat sheet. Fulford said that Wiggins should have had 28. "You always leave thinking, there's more in there," Fulford says.
He's one of my favorite players. He makes me angry because he has the ability to be on another level. Kevin Garnett is a man.
At Kansas, where he was featured on a Sports Illustrated cover alongside an image of fellow former Jayhawks star Wilt Chamberlain, he broke Danny Manning's freshman scoring record, was the conference freshman of the year and made all-conference first team and All-American teams. Bill Self said that he had coached the best athlete he had ever coached.
In the Jayhawks' final regular-season game at West Virginia, he scored 41 points, but he only took six shots and was held to four points in a second-round NCAA tournament upset loss. Self tried to make Wiggins angry, but he couldn't. Self instituted a practice rule that only Wiggins could shoot because he felt his star freshman deferred too much.
"He didn't want to be different," says Jay Triano, who coached him on the Canadian national team. He wanted to play the game in a certain way.
But he was different.
On Wednesday, January 5.
The Warriors are at the Mavs.
The Jazz play the Nuggets at 10.
On Friday, January 7.
The Nets are at the Bucks.
Hawks at Lakers.
All times Eastern.
The P3 Applied Sports Science Lab is a training center in Santa Barbara, California, that specializes in advanced athlete assessment. More than 800 NBA players walked through the doors at P3.
But he separated himself quickly. He jumped off both feet. He jumped off his left foot and right foot. P3 has assessed about two-thirds of players who are on NBA rosters this season, and even as a 19-year-old, Andrew Wiggins' numbers remain outliers, among the top 10 marks that P3 officials have ever assessed for any athlete.
"The amount of force that he puts into the ground relative to his body weight when he's running is higher than any athlete we've ever assessed," says P3 founder Dr. Marcus Elliott.
He's one of the cleanest athletes we've ever assessed. "This guy has an incredible performance system and doesn't look like he's set up to break in any way."
On June 26th, 2014, Wiggins sat with family at a table next to the stage at theBarclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Anthony Bennett, a Canadian player, was declared a historic bust by the Cleveland Cavaliers the year before. He was the new face of the country.
Tom Konchalski once said that a player who was drafted first by Cleveland could be "The Michael Jordan of Canada", and then traded to Minnesota for All-Star forward Kevin Love.
The Wolves were the franchise of the player. He was 19 years old.
Andrew Wiggins never reached his potential with the Wolves.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune had a headline the day after the deal with Golden State that said, "After six years in Minnesota, Andrew Wiggins was dealt to Golden State in 2020."
It was the end of the narrative that the expectations of his talent never materialized on the floor.
Jimmy Butler told the sports network that he was the "most God-gifted" player on the roster. Sam Mitchell was a former coach of the Timberwolves. Glen Taylor offered a $150 million max contract extension to Wiggins after meeting with him. Taylor told the Associated Press that he was speculating that his contribution to the team will be more in the future.
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Mitchell expands on what he believes has been overlooked, such as the fact that Wiggins played in three of his first four seasons. Or the fact that he was named the top newcomer. He averaged 19.7 points per game with Minnesota. "You have to look at Andrew and say, 'OK, this is who he is,'" Mitchell says. He's great at this. He's not as good at this. You try to work around it.
Tom Thibodeau, who was the coach of the Wolves for three seasons, says that he did what was asked of him.
"You can score a lot of points on a team that's not winning and no one pays any attention to it," he says. I did my first couple of years because of that.
The NBA scout who evaluated Wiggins prior to the draft says the expectations never matched the personality. Maybe he's fine the way he is, and that's a pretty good NBA player for 12 to 15 years.
He can't be the next Jordan or Kobe. Maybe he's not wired that way, says the scout. Maybe he's just a talent. He can't be the first guy. He can't be your friend. He can't be your second guy. Maybe he's your fourth guy, that's pretty good.
Which is what the Warriors needed.
Expectations are brought about by being one of the best prospects in a generation. Being a No. 1 pick brings more. The Minnesota franchise had never won a title and was being carried by the 19-year-old. He is asked to simply be a part of one that has.
Steve Keller is near the Warriors locker room inside the Chase Center and thinks about the trade that brought Andrew to the Bay Area. He had seen the famous flashes from the scoring production.
Kerr says the key to the trade was simple. The team had lost several players. They were without their defensive core. "He can guard all the guys that we can't guard anymore, because he's 6-8," Kerr says. "So that was the first thing we said to him, and he was absolutely capable of it."
There was a belief that the read-based system would work well with open looks generated from defenses focusing on Curry. There was a belief that the workload for his teammates would be lightened by him defending the other team's best scorer.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers said that the thing that people don't see in athletes is that they want to enjoy going to work. They want to work with people they enjoy working with. The NBA is tough. He was put around teammates that could bolster him.
The supporting cast of the Warriors could push Wiggins in ways that perhaps he had always needed.
He's playing with Michael Jordan of his era. He can't come in and be less than Steve Kerr and the rest of the Golden State coaching staff. Those are the people who are champion. The guys have won. They've been through it. They've been together in the foxhole. I think it motivates him.
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"We're winning," he says. We're top of the West. Everyone pushes each other. I'm close to greatness. People that have won multiple titles and that ran the league for a long time are around Steve, Bob, and Draymond. The guys believe in me. It's every day. They trust me with the ball. They put me on the other team's best player. That is motivating.
This season, Wiggins is on pace to average career highs in field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. The Warriors' closest defender this season has been Wiggins, who has 358 shots to defend. When he contests the shot, opponents have shot the ninth-lowest percentage in the NBA among 87 players to contest at least 300 shots this season. On December 17th, the Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum shot 1-of-7 from the field. Ja Morant shot 2-of-7 from the field on Oct. 28 with his closest defender.
More names were rattled off by Wiggins. He feels like he scored a lot in Minnesota and no one cares. I'm working my ass off now that I'm here, I'm playing winning basketball. I'm playing the best defense I can. I'm still giving you 18 and 19 points.
The Warriors believed that they were aligned with the player because he wanted to be part of a team.
"We could have had a guy that wanted his numbers and was a guy that would take over games, but that person probably doesn't fit in what we have," Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraser says. For the way we play and the way we do things, that's all we need.
"You have to have five guys who fit together," Kerr says. He's a great fit for us.
"We're winning," he says. People that have won multiple titles are around Steve, Bob, Draymond, Klay and others. The guys believe in me. That is motivating.
It's October. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are in Los Angeles to face the Timberwolves. In the corner of the visiting locker room is where the final NBA game of his career will be played. In his second season, he is right beside him.
The man wraps his arm around the man. "He's the next, he's with his spare hand," said Garnett, pointing at the 19-year-old. He says it again. And again.
The man smiles and turns away.
Six years later, he is asked what he meant. "Andrew was the next wave of players that was going to be special, that was going to come and entertain us and lead our league," says Garnett now. He was the next group of young superstars that were on the rise.
That hasn't happened.
"I still believe in him, I still believe in what he says," he says. He's at a great age to be able to take it to the next level.
He has his best chance yet to do so with Golden State.
The narrative was already defined for him when he was a No. 1 pick, Curry says. He's 26 years old. He's been in the league for a long time, but he still doesn't know who he is. Everyone has to be important for us to win games. You don't have to worry about what that looks like in terms of numbers, expectations, or anything like that. It's about what you're doing right now. Are you getting better? Are you winning? I think he's enjoying it.
The point was shared by scouts throughout the basketball life of Wiggins. Garnett was frustrated by the perceived gap between his talent and performance and wondered about the passion for the game that Wiggins had.
"I thought he liked basketball, but I don't think he loved it," says Garnett. Wiggs has other interests. I have to respect that he has other things that are stimulating.
"I can't tell someone to love something in a way that I can't tell you to love it in a way that I can't tell you to love it in a way that I can't tell you to love it in a way that I can't tell I love basketball, but it's temporary. I can only play basketball for a long time.
He leans in his chair. It's a few hours before the Magic game, against whom he'll offer a window into the talent and ability that has been so attractive to so many for so long.
He talks about the ease and certainty of NBA life, the product of the hype machine, a player long considered the next.
