When Andrew Wiggins makes his return to the Warriors, the stakes will be high.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr joined 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” Wednesday for his weekly appearance and gave the latest update on his wing, who returned to the team Tuesday after tending to a family matter for nearly two months.
Kerr said Wiggins won’t be able to return for either of the final regular season contests, on Friday at Sacramento or Sunday at Portland. The Warriors still have to see if they’ll be in the playoffs or play-in tournament as they go for the No. 5 or No. 6 seed, but the turnaround is too quick for Wiggins, who hasn’t played in a game since Feb. 13.
“He’s not gonna play in these last two games of the regular season,” Kerr told hosts Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “He’ll continue to work and he’ll ramp it up pretty quickly.”
Kerr said Wiggins scrimmaged with young players and staffers during a session on Wednesday, but that he still needs more time to build up his conditioning.
“Full court, 5-on-5. He looked good,” Kerr said. “One thing with Andrew is that he’s got that god-given athleticism. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t seem to get too tired easily. A lot like Andre Iguodala. He hasn’t played in two months and he’s out there running around and looking pretty good.
“He still has to stack a number of days like this before he’s ready to go out and play in an NBA game. We can’t put him in a bad spot, health-wise. We gotta make sure we build him him up, get his strength and conditioning in a good place before we put him out there."
Wiggins has missed the past 23 games but looked to be in good spirits while cheering on his teammates during Tuesday’s game. He also got a big round of applause from the crowd when he was put on the big screen at Chase Center.
“Great to have Wiggs back in the building,” Kerr said. “If we’re gonna make some hay in the playoffs, we gotta have him. Because of what we were just talking about – the two-way ability. Wiggs is in that group. You think about all our playoff series a year ago, he was taking the best guy – whether it was Luka (Doncic) or Jayson Tatum or whoever – and then he’s giving up 18-20 points per night, four or five offensive rebounds. He was brilliant. … We’re thrilled to have Wiggs and hopefully we can get him back up and running before too long.”
