Why the Golden State Warriors won the Andrew Wiggins and D’Angelo Russell trade
The case for the Warriors
The case for the Warriors is all about the fit. Next year the Warriors will have a healthy trio of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. Every other player on the 2020-21 roster has to be able to fit with those three, and after half of a season with D’Angelo Russell, they decided he wasn’t what they were looking for.
Russell not being a good fit with those guys was probably what most people expected though. Russell is a ball-stopping, high usage guard that thrives when the offense runs through him. That style doesn’t gel with the high motion offense revolving around the Splash Brothers.
I already mentioned how poor of a defender he is, and the fit on that end is just troubling. Can you really close a game with Steph and Russell trying to get stops against elite guards? At their peak, the Warriors were great on defense, and it’s hard to imagine any team with Russell being great on that end of the floor.
Even on paper it never looked like this experiment was going to work and the Warriors saw enough while he was in Golden State to confirm that and move on.
In return, they, of course, get an expensive and flawed player in his own right – Andrew Wiggins. But despite his flaws, it’s conceivable that Wiggins can mold himself into the Harrison Barnes role on the team. Wiggins has the physical tools to be the athletic 2-way wing that this team needs, and it’s very possible that a change of scenery and a reduced role will help him focus in and be a productive player for a winning team.
The real prize asset though could be the 2021 protected draft pick the Timberwolves sent in the deal. Per ESPN, the pick is top 3 protected for 2021 and will be unprotected in 2022 if it doesn’t convey next season.
That pick has a chance to be really good if the Timberwolves can’t turn things around, and at a minimum, it gives the Warriors another chip at the table to package in a deal that brings in more help for their stars.