After five memorable years with the Golden State Warriors, Andrew Wiggins officially made his debut with the Miami Heat on Monday following last week's blockbuster Jimmy Butler trade.
It wasn't necessarily a notable debut performance from Wiggins though, nor for fellow former Warrior Kyle Anderson who was also involved in the huge multi-team trade on Wednesday.
Former Warriors Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Anderson struggled in their Heat debut
Wiggins started in positive fashion, finding himself fouled by Derrick White on a 3-point attempt in the very first possession of the game. The 2022 All-Star would make all three free-throws, before knocking down his first field-goal with a wing three just minutes later.
Wiggins finished his first stint as a Miami player with six points to help the hosts to a 18-10 lead, but it was all downhill from there as the reigning champions took control and pulled away for a comfortable 103-85 victory.
An absolute DIME from Davion to Wiggs for 3 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/KbMDg1yNBJ
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) February 11, 2025
The Canadian had just five points from that moment on, with Wiggins finishing his Heat debut with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists on 3-of-12 shooting from the floor and 2-of-8 from 3-point range.
Wiggins was a -22 in just over 30 minutes, and after a strong start defensively, struggled to contain Jayson Tatum who he famously guarded so well in the 2022 NBA Finals. The Celtics superstar finished with a game-high 33 points on 13-of-26 shooting in his team's 18-point win.
Anderson also struggled in his first game in a Miami uniform, going scoreless and missing all five shots (0-of-1 from three) in less than 10 minutes. The veteran forward was a -14 in the game, and it will now be interesting to see how Anderson's minutes play out after he received a slew of DNP's late in his brief tenure with Golden State.
Playing without All-Star guard Tyler Herro, the Heat were anemic offensively in shooting just 33.7% from the floor and 24.4% from beyond the arc. Asking Wiggins to be a primary scorer/shot creator in the absence of Herro isn't really ideal, particularly when Bam Adebayo also goes 6-of-17 from the floor in 34 minutes.
That's arguably the biggest reason the Warriors made the Butler-Wiggins trade, clearly feeling they need that secondary go-to scorer to provide more reliable support for Stephen Curry. The trade has paid immediate dividends for Golden State, with Butler playing a huge role in back-to-back victories over the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks.