After spending parts of six different NBA seasons with the Golden State Warriors, you'd think Andrew Wiggins may have mastered all the ins and outs of pace-and-space offense. Yet, something just isn't computing in terms of activating him within the Miami Heat's new up-tempo scheme.
The veteran swingman, who's been both an All-Star and a champion, just can't seem to find his fit with his third NBA franchise. His on/off splits have been alarmingly atrocious; Miami has so far fared a whopping 31.7 points worse per 100 possessions with him than without, per NBA.com.
That number should regress to the mean at some point—it was a still bad, but not brutal, minus-7.2 in his 17 games with the team last season—but it speaks to a potentially flawed fit that the Heat may have to address sooner than later.
For multiple reasons, Miami needs Wiggins to figure things out.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra clearly trusts Wiggins. The forward is one of only three players to start every game for them this season, and his 221 minutes are second-highest on the team.
Still, at some point Spo will have to see proof of concept that the trust is warranted. Because with Wiggins stuck in a rut and Jaime Jaquez Jr. bouncing back in a big way, it won't be much longer before fans start calling for a change with the club's opening group.
In a perfect world, that'd be a move Spo never has to make. Wiggins is best utilized when he can pick his spots alongside star-level players, and his starting role affords him that opportunity. Jaquez, meanwhile, has obviously (and enormously) thrived as the focal point of the second unit, as evidenced most clearly by his team-leading plus-45-point net differential.
In this reality, though, Wiggins must do more to justify his position in the pecking order. He's been fine as a support scorer (16.3 points on 51.1 percent shooting), but he's underwhelming as a perimeter shooter (34.4 percent) and a playmaker (1.9 assists against 2.3 turnovers). And his typically stingy defense has been more generous than normal; his matchups are actually shooting 1.3 percentage points better against him than they are overall, per NBA.com.
The Heat have to get this figured out. Because even if he's not a part of the long-term plans—he holds a $30.2 million player option for next season, per Spotrac—his $28.2 million salary could be needed to make the math work on a big trade. That's obviously only true, though, if he's still desirable at his pay rate.
He can be (and has been) better than this, but that doesn't guarantee he'll suddenly find his way within this offensive system. And if he doesn't, the Heat could have to deal with a headache they never anticipated.