NBA Rumors: Warriors Assistant Coach Ron Adams Shares His Assessment Of Andrew Wiggins
Before the 2020 February NBA trade deadline, the Golden State Warriors engaged in a blockbuster deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves involving young stars D’Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins. The Warriors made the deal with the belief that Wiggins could fill the huge hole left by Kevin Durant in their wing. Though rumors continue to swirl around his future with the team, the Warriors have made it clear that they traded for Wiggins with the intention of keeping him long term in Golden State.
In a recent appearance on The TK Show podcast with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams shared his assessment of Wiggins’ first few games in Golden State. Though he admitted that Wiggins still has inconsistencies with his game, Adams is somewhat pleased with his performance on both ends of the floor.
“I really thought he did a good job for us,” Adams said, as quoted by NBC Sports. “People always look at scoring or shooting. I didn’t think he shot the ball very consistently from the perimeter. But good grief, he really showed himself to be a really, really outstanding all-around player. I was particularly pleased with his defense, especially on the ball. I just thought he did a really good job. And against the best players in the league, he really enjoys playing against them and actually picks his game up when he did play against those guys. I thought his floor game was good — his passing, his penetrating.”
Wiggins is still familiarizing himself with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s system, but he did manage to post decent numbers in his first few games with the team. In the 12 games he played before the NBA season was suspended due to the spread of coronavirus, Wiggins was averaging 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.3 steals while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 33.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Some people may think that it’s too early to say whether Wiggins is a good fit with the Warriors. Wiggins’ current statistics as a Warrior may be impressive, but he is yet to share the court with their three best players — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. However, instead of negatively affecting his game and limiting his role on the offensive end of the floor, Adams strongly believes that Wiggins would “flourish” once he starts playing alongside elite three-point shooters like Curry and Thompson as it would make it easier for him to penetrate the basket or kick the ball out when he’s trapped by the opposing team’s defense.
From the time he arrived in Golden State, the popular belief around the league was that the Warriors would use Wiggins as the main trade chip to acquire their fourth superstar in the 2020 NBA offseason. However, Adams thinks that the Warriors no longer need to look somewhere else since they already have a “star player” in Wiggins. From what he sees in his first few games as a Warrior, Adams believes that the sky is the limit for Wiggins.
