While there was a belief that the end of the Jimmy Butler circus would be a good thing for the Miami Heat, the results have been anything but since their trade with the Golden State Warriors last month.
While the Warriors have stormed to a 14-2 record with Butler in the lineup, the Heat are a woeful 4-15 since the trade including just 2-9 in 11 games with Andrew Wiggins available and playing.
The Heat have failed to realize Andrew Wiggins' best role
Wiggins has been dealing with an ankle injury that saw him miss five games recently, along with the Heat's last outing against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Monday. The 2022 All-Star has been okay individually in the games he has played, but the Heat haven't really afforded Wiggins to play in the role he was previously accustomed to.
The Canadian is averaging 18.3 points and 2.9 assists in 11 games with the Heat -- both numbers that are up on anything he did over the previous three full years with the Warriors. So what's the issue?
Wiggins' usage rate is up at a level not previously seen since his days with the Minnesota Timberwolves. While he put up reasonable numbers in those first few years, it was never overly efficient nor conducive to winning.
Since arriving in Miami, Wiggins' points and assists have gone up, but his efficiency has fallen quite noticeably. After shooting 44.4% from the floor and 37.9% from deep in his 43 games with the Warriors this season, those numbers have slipped to 42.2% and 30.9% in his short tenure with the Heat to date.
Perhaps more concerning is the fact Wiggins' turnovers per game have doubled from 1.3 to 2.6, again indicative of the higher usage rate. It's not to say that Wiggins has been terrible for Miami, but the fact they're a -150 in his minutes does paint a picture.
With Golden State, Wiggins was able to settle into a comfortable 3-and-D role with some supplementary scoring -- a role he excelled in as the second-best player on a championship team in 2022.
Much of the issue now is to do with the Miami roster. Sure Tyler Herro has developed into an All-Star guard this season, but he's never going to bend a defense in the way Stephen Curry does. This will leave Wiggins to create much more of his own shots, rather than necessarily getting the wide open threes or easy lanes to the rim he was getting with the Warriors.
The sooner the Heat realize Wiggins is best utilized as a highly valuable tertiary option, the more effective he'll be and the better they will be as a team. Whether they can build a roster to make that happen though is an altogether different discussion entirely.