If you think Andrew Wiggins is not fully aware of his critics, you are wrong.
If you think he has no competitive fire, he wants to burn you with it.
And if you think he doesn’t care about his reputation for being less than the sum of his gifts, don’t pay attention or listen.
After setting a team record with 17 points and blocking four shots, his career record, while the Warriors held the Toronto Raptors to a 106-105 victory on Sunday, Wiggins in a post-game interview for the NBC Sports Bay Area he voluntarily acknowledged what he would like to do with the image that clung to him for most of his six-year career.
“I’m just trying to make a statement, you know?” he said. “I’m just trying to change that narrative, I come here and work hard and do what I have to do to win. And go after it defensively. “
Wiggins’ “narrative” is, and has been for several years, of inefficiency in attack and indifference in defense. He brought it with him last February, when it was acquired by the Warriors in an exchange that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The “statement” that Wiggins is making is that he is not an inefficient marker of empty calories. He’s shooting well, making smart decisions and making crucial kicks – all while playing defense so effectively that coaches and teammates line up to send praise in his direction.
“He’s been amazing,” said Steph Curry on Sunday. “He accepted the challenges in 1-on-1 defense, being able to be physical, use his length, just make the guys work.”
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After defending Clippers star Kawhi Leonard in 2 of 12 shots in two games, Wiggins on Sunday was assigned to Toronto star striker Pascal Siakam, who scored 25 points, most of them on switches or when Wiggins was off the field.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr not only praised Wiggins’ defense, but cited it as essential to the team’s aspirations this season.
“Now we have someone we can put on as the best player on the opposing team, be it Pascal Siakam, LeBron, Kawhi or Paul George,” said Kerr. “The ability to put Andrew on these types of players to use his size and athleticism is really the key to building our current squad.”
Andrew Wiggins as a defensive centerpiece? This is a revelation. He’s moving into that realm.
Wiggins ’15 blocked shots tie 2.13-meter James Wiseman as team leader, and his 110.8 defensive rating is superior to defensive players like Raptors’ Fred VanVleet and Oklahoma City Thunder Luguentz Dort – the same Luguentz Dort who gave James Harden fits in the last postseason.
While coaches and teammates, including the hard-to-impress Draymond Green, are giving credit to Wiggins, the seventh-year Canadian cites the environment as having a positive impact on his entire game, especially in his defense.
“I feel like I’ve always made a good defense; I just feel that the culture here is different, ”he said. “Everything is different here, especially with the guys behind me. It’s not just me in defense. We have Draymond, we have Steph, we have Kelly [Oubre Jr.] doing a great job. The guys behind me, I know they’re covering me and it’s great here. “
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Still, while Wiggins is drawing praise for his defense, his 10-game attack is also opening holes in the “narrative”. He averages 17.5 points per game, shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 38.5 percent beyond the arc. The latter would be the best of his career.
“He’s coming, integrating with the attack and finding his way,” said Damion Lee. “Defensively – not to mention I didn’t know he could defend like that, I didn’t watch much of Minnesota unless we were playing – but he definitely takes on the challenge every night. For him, this is huge. He is a two-way player.
“It will be fun to look forward to Andrew being a two-way player and when Klay [Thompson] comes back next year with another great two-way player too. ”
In the Warriors organization chart, Lee is not a general manager or CEO. But Bob Myers and Joe Lacob must love what they are seeing from a guy whose contract calls for nearly $ 95 million over the next three years.
If Wiggins continues to rise, he will be worth the money. His name may even disappear from NBA commercial gossip. And the new narrative will be that the Warriors were astute in conquering it and visionaries in unlocking its potential.