Buddy Hield spoke recently in an interview with 95.7 The Game’s ‘Steiny and Guru’. When talking about the reaction of the Warriors‘ locker room when they pulled off the trade for Jimmy Butler, he noted that everyone, especially Steve Kerr, was emotionally devastated at losing Andrew Wiggins. Hield added that he wished he had been traded rather than Wiggins because of what he meant to the franchise.
“When guys were traded, it was a rough day for [Warriors coach Steve Kerr]. Especially with Wiggs, it was emotional in that locker room. I was even more emotional because I wish it was me that got traded because Wiggs did so much for this franchise.”
“For a guy like that, I hated to see him go like that because he’s done so much for this franchise. And I said, ‘Man, I wish that was me,’ because he’s put his mark on this franchise, and I know how much he meant to this franchise and the city of San Fran.”
Hield is far from the only person to speak about what Wiggins meant to the Warriors. Steve Kerr had nothing but amazing things to say about the 2015 Rookie of the Year. Clearly, Andrew was a very popular member of the Warriors roster, and losing him was an emotional blow to the squad.
Wiggins was sent to the Miami Heat as part of the Jimmy Butler trade. The trade marked the end of a five-year stint with the Warriors, where he experienced a lot of success. Arriving in February of 2020 as part of a trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wiggins didn’t get off to a very hot start.
But in the 2021-22 NBA season, Wiggins took a massive leap. He got named to his first All-Star team and played a key role in the Warriors’ run to the NBA championship. Many considered Wiggins the second-best player on the Warriors that season and their best defender.
After the 2021-22 season, Wiggins’ form began to dip, mostly because of some personal issues that he was facing off the court. This ended up impacting him well into the 2023-24 NBA season as well. But this season, Wiggins was starting to turn things around, as his performances improved in the wake of the aforementioned personal issues being taken care of.
The Warriors made the decision to trade Wiggins in an effort to improve their team after a poor start to the season. And while losing Wiggins is tough, there is no denying just how good the Warriors have been since Butler joined the team. They have a 13-1 in games where Butler has played.
Despite looking like they would miss the play-in at one point before the trade, the Warriors currently sit sixth in the Western Conference with a 38-28 record. They are just three games shy of the Los Angeles Lakers, who sit fourth in the West. Perhaps the Warriors will consider the decision to trade Wiggins a good one if it translates to them winning a championship.
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