In the latest sign that the Golden State Warriors aren’t looking to break up their core, All-Star forward Andrew Wiggins has agreed to a four-year, $109 million contract extension. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the contract includes a player option in the final season. Wiggins, 28, is for sure under contract through the 2025-26 season, but the additional player option gives way for him to stay in the Bay Area through 2027 if he wishes.
Wiggins averaged 17.2 points per game and became an NBA All-Star for the first time in his career, helping the Warriors win the NBA Finals in the 2022 season, and establishing his fit with the team.
Wiggins had been set to become a free agent at the end of the 2022-23 NBA season, but few believed the Warriors would ever let their two-way wing hit the open market. This extension has been expected, but until Wiggins signed the dotted line, one can never be too sure.
For the Warriors, it’s the second $100-million deal they’ve struck today. Golden State also agreed to a four-year, $140 million extension with Jordan Poole on Saturday morning, keeping another piece of their championship-winning core together for the foreseeable future. Wiggins will be 31 once his latest contract expires.
While getting Wiggins under contract for a few more seasons is something to celebrate in the short term, it only raises more red flags in the long run. Golden State now faces a $483 million bill during the 2023-24 season with the current players they have on their payroll.
Obviously, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson aren’t going anywhere, so you do the math. Fresh off getting new contracts, Poole and Wiggins also seem secure. Draymond Green? That could be a different story, eventually.
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Andrew Wiggins has made great strides with Warriors
It’s been a heck of a ride since becoming the No. 1 overall pick back in 2014. Wiggins has always been able to get buckets, when he wants to. Only that desire and consistency weren’t always apparent early on in his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Wiggins was always deserving of a starting role, and he also was a top-scoring option, but he offered very little else.
That completely changed since getting traded to the Warriors in the D’Angelo Russell deal at the 2019-20 NBA trade deadline.
Wiggins has since morphed into one of basketball’s best two-way players, with his defensive consistency being lauded more than his scoring capabilities. He always had the talent, as Jimmy Butler loved to remind, and he had the length and athleticism, but putting it all together was a challenge for the young ballplayer in an atmosphere that never really knew how to win.
Now Wiggins is averaging slightly more rebounds, blocking more shots, and is even shooting a much higher percentage than he ever did in Minnesota. The former Kansas Jayhawk is well deserving of his latest extension, and if Wiggins continues to work on his game as he has throughout his career, it won’t be his last big basketball contract.
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