Warriors front office optimistic they’ll have Wiggins for home games

The Golden State Warriors front office, along with many players, spoke on the Andrew Wiggins‘ dilemma.

To briefly catch you up if you haven’t heard, San Francisco put in a mandate on any sizable indoor event which requires vaccination. Wiggins is not vaccinated, meaning he wouldn’t be able to participate in events at the Chase Center.

Andrew Wiggins has yet to be vaccinated, but given the rules, the Warriors front office still seemed upbeat regarding having all players for home games.

Ultimately meaning, he’d miss 41 games and also lose out on around $15 million, half of his annual salary. That doesn’t just put his earning at stake, but it puts the Warriors’ postseason hopes in jeopardy.

Now, the Warriors do have players like Otto Porter Jr. and Andre Iguodala who can step up in his absence, but Wiggins, who was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, will be missed if he can’t be on the court.

Wiggins’ shot career-high percentages from both the field and from downtown. Losing a player like that for a reason like this isn’t going to resonate well with some teammates.

San Jose Mercury News’ report Dieter Kurtenbach apparently caught newcomer Bjelica telling Wiggins to “get the shot.” The tone of that is unknown and many players do understand the decision is Wiggins’ to make.

However, while it seems bleak now, the Warriors’ front office seemed hopeful at media day. CBS Sports nicely make an article having all the reactions to Wiggins’ status. The most upbeat seemed to be from head coach Steve Kerr and general manager Bob Myers.

Here’s what Kerr said per Colin Ward-Henninger.

"“I haven’t spent any time thinking about that. Nor will I,” Kerr said. “We’ll just see how everything plays out. We’re hopeful that it’s all resolved over the next couple of weeks. We’re going into tomorrow with a plan to have everyone out on the floor and ready to roll.”"

And here’s what Myers said on the situation.

"“We’re optimistic that we’ll have our full complement of players,” Myers said of the Wiggins situation. “We’ll just leave that at that.”"

As you can tell, Myers was “optimistic” that they’d have all their players, and Kerr is “hopeful.”

The positive notes are there which is nice to see, but for now, it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, Wiggins needs to get vaccinated to play. It doesn’t seem likely regardless of how the front office feels on the matter.

With the team’s first game at the Chase Center on October 21 following their season opener against the Lakers on October 19, we’ll know soon enough without a shadow of a doubt if Wiggins will be available.

For now, it doesn’t seem likely.