Andrew Wiggins has spent the first 52 games of his NBA career turning heads.
While he’s excited the local fan base with his consistent play, Wiggins has maybe made an even bigger impression on the rest of the league. He’s garnered praise from coaches and players across the NBA this season — and for good reason as he’s averaging 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game.
That didn't change Wednesday afternoon.
A couple days after coach Mike Budenholzer — the leader of Eastern Conference leading Atlanta Hawks — called Wiggins a force on the floor, coach Steve Kerr — the bench boss of the Western Conference leading Golden State Warriors — had even bigger praise for Wiggins.
“I don’t even know who else would be in the conversation [for Rookie of the Year],” Kerr said of Wiggins. “He’s going to be an All Star. He’s a terrific player, a good talent, and it looks like he’s figuring out the NBA game. … He’s really going to be a good player.”
Wiggins has proved that throughout this season, and will look to continue that trend against an elite squad on Wednesday night.
A TOTALLY DIFFERENT TEAM
Minnesota has played Golden State twice this season, and while it lost both of those games, it wasn't close to full strength with guys like Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, and Kevin Martin, among others, missing the matchups with various injuries.
Kerr knows Minnesota is a different team this time around.
“It’s a totally different team,” he said. “It’s their real team and they’re a lot better obviously. We’ve got a much tougher task on our hands than we did the first couple of times.”
Warriors star Stephen Curry said his team wants to head into the All Star Break on a high note and that he knows he and his teammates can’t overlook this Wolves squad.
“They’ve been playing well with their guys back from injury,” Curry said. “So we’re going to have to play a pretty complete 48 minutes to get a win. We know that. We want to go on into the break on a high note and we have a chance to do that tonight.”
ENERGY OFF THE BENCH
Shabazz Muhammad looked good in his first action in than a month a couple days ago against the Atlanta Hawks. He scored 18 points in 24 minutes off the bench while bringing his unparalleled energy to the floor.
Muhammad knows his role on this team consists of him coming of the bench and giving the team a jolt — and he’s more than OK with that.
“I come in and bring a lot of energy,” he said. “It’s good for me because I’m going up against other teams second-string guys and I have a good opportunity to score. It all starts with energy for me.”