The Golden State Warriors are on the market for a wing, especially now that Kristaps Porzingis' time with the team, and potentially the NBA, seems to have drawn to a close.
No matter what might be said about their approach to development and the way they've handled their trade assets in recent years, this is a savvy front office. They're going to explore every single trade option on the market. Although those are, obviously, limited at this early juncture in the regular season, it's not out of the realm of possibility to think that Golden State can land a useful rotation player in exchange for Porzingis' contract—even if that player is flipped in a larger deal closer to the trade deadline.
Right now, the New Orleans Pelicans remain the obvious team to monitor. Although they're still asking a sky-high price for their prime trade candidates, another underwhelming season from them, under a new head coach, may open the door for the Warriors to swoop in and acquire someone like Yves Missi or Trey Murphy III.
On a league-wide scale, the Miami Heat are also becoming one of those teams. The expectations after their trade for Giannis Antetokounpo are still sky-high, and Miami frankly hasn't lived up to them so far—they're 20th in offensive rating and 26th in defensive rating to this point this season. While their matchup against the Warriors, on the second night of a back-to-back, isn't necessarily a good indicator of where this team is at currently, it's still a concerning place to be for a team that just made a move for a superstar.
In that light, we can expect a trade to come for them at some point this season—and Andrew Wiggins looks to be the primary candidate right now.
Andrew Wiggins may be on the trade market again as Heat flounder through the first portion of the regular season
Of all the Heat's struggles this season, Wiggins' inability to consistently get downhill and provide an offensive impact in the starting five may not be the biggest—but it's certainly one of the most noticeable.
After he got blocked on his second drive of the game against Golden State, he was essentially passive the rest of the way, posting just two points, six rebounds, and four assists while making one of his six shots in the matchup. He's scored in single digits in each of Miami's last three games, and he's shooting just 40.8% from the field on the season.
The Heat need consistent 3-point shooting and wing play, and moving off of Wiggins' two-year, $33 million deal (with a player option) may be their best path to accomplishing that on the trade market. This isn't to say that Wiggins can't find a way to perform in the current structure of the Heat's offense, but if we're looking at trade candidates on that roster right now, he feels like the most obvious one.
Theoretically, the Warriors and Heat could put something together that ships off Porzingis' contract in exchange for Wiggins and another player—perhaps even Klay Thompson. But Miami has no reason to take on a dead contract in Porzingis, and that means that a third team would need to be involved in order to make the financial aspects of such a deal work, requiring the Warriors to send out more draft capital than they might be immediately comfortable with in order to entice both parties into negotiations in the first place.
Instead, it feels more likely that Heat would want to package Wiggins' salary in a trade for a consistent offensive contributor. Potential packages for pieces like Kyrie Irving and Zach Lavine have been floated, both of which make more sense for Miami than anything involving Porzingis does. Needless to say, Golden State doesn't have any of those to spare.
For the Warriors, a Porzingis trade would likely have to be funneled toward a team with enough space under the first apron to accommodate Porzingis' contract in exchange for some second-round draft capital. That's about their only option right now, which likely takes a Wiggins trade off the table.
No matter what, though, Wiggins' potential availability will be something worth monitoring—at the very least because Warriors fans know he can be much more productive than he's been in Miami to this point in the season.
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