Andrew Wiggins will not be made available by the Golden State Warriors for their last two games in this 2022-23 regular season, coach Steve Kerr announced in his Tuesday guest on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs.”
Wiggins, who missed the last 23 games for the Warriors, will continue to ramp up his activities for conditioning purposes.
“He’s not gonna play in these last two games of the regular season,” Kerr said, per 95.7 The Game’s Alex Espinoza. “He’ll continue to work and he’ll ramp it up pretty quickly.”
Golden State is set to close out its regular season on Friday against the Sacramento Kings and Sunday by facing the Portland Trail Blazers. Those games will heavily determine the defending champs’ playoff positioning with less than two weeks remaining in the calendar.
Wiggins only appeared to the team Tuesday, as he spent a long time attending the important medical attention of his father, Mitchell Wiggins from Feb. 13. He was spotted on the team’s sidelines on their recent victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder and was showered by cheers and public ovation by the Dub Nation within Chase Center.
“Full court, 5-on-5. He looked good,” Kerr said about Wiggins’ current status. “One thing with Andrew is that he’s got that god-given athleticism. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t seem to get too tired easily. A lot like Andre Iguodala. He hasn’t played in two months and he’s out there running around and looking pretty good.
“He still has to stack a number of days like this before he’s ready to go out and play in an NBA game. We can’t put him in a bad spot, health-wise. We gotta make sure we build him up, get his strength and conditioning in a good place before we put him out there.”
Wiggins will conclude his regular season with an average of 17.1 points, 5.0 boards, and 2.3 assists, shooting 47.3 percent from the field in 37 games played.
Given that the upcoming playoffs will offer extreme competition, especially in the wild Western Conference, Kerr made it known that the star wingman’s availability, preparedness, and two-way play are highly significant as they will face some dangerous opponents down the road.
“Great to have Wiggs back in the building,” Kerr added. “If we’re gonna make some hay in the playoffs, we gotta have him. Because of what we were just talking about – the two-way ability. Wiggs is in that group. You think about all our playoff series a year ago, he was taking the best guy – whether it was Luka (Doncic) or Jayson Tatum or whoever – and then he’s giving up 18-20 points per night, four or five offensive rebounds.
“He was brilliant. … We’re thrilled to have Wiggs and hopefully we can get him back up and running before too long.”
