If the Warriors are going to defend their title, they will need the Andrew Wiggins they had last postseason, the one that was the second-best player on their team during the NBA Finals.
Wiggins missed the Warriors’ final 25 games of the regular season taking care of a family matter, but Steve Kerr said he is set to return and “ready to go.”
Steve Kerr shares that Andrew Wiggins looks great and is ready to go 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Mxts9XAnVu
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 13, 2023
Shams Charania of The Athletic the Warriors are planning to bring Wiggins off the bench in Game 1 Saturday, with a minutes limit of around 20-25 minutes.
Wiggins has played in some 5-on-5 scrimmages and Stephen Curry said he looked good. The concern is conditioning after having not played for 10 weeks, however, when he did play this season he put up impressive numbers: 17.1 points per game shooting 39.6% from 3, plus five rebounds a night. More importantly, it draws the toughest wing defensive assignments and could find himself on De’Aaron Fox at points in this series.
The Warriors and Kings tip off one of the more anticipated first-round playoff series Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
