Andrew Wiggins Trade One of Best Deals Warriors Have Ever Done, Joe Lacob Says

Golden State Warriors governor Joe Lacob is a big fan of the 2020 trade that brought Andrew Wiggins to the organization. 

Appearing on the TK Show with Tim Kawakami on Thursday (h/t Alex Shultz of SFGate.com), Lacob proclaimed it "one of the greatest deals, certainly maybe the greatest deal we’ve ever done."

There are certainly other options for the best trade in Warriors history. For example, the 2011 deal that sent Dan Gadzuric and Brandan Wright to the then-New Jersey Nets for Troy Murphy and a 2012 second-round draft pick turned out to be pivotal in the franchise's rise. 

That selection turned out to be the No. 35 overall pick that was used to select Draymond Green. 

The Warriors got Andre Iguodala in a three-team sign-and-trade with the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz in July 2013. Iguodala was named MVP of the 2015 NBA Finals when Golden State defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games. 

Golden State acquired Wiggins, as well as 2021 first- and second-round draft picks, from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans and Omari Spellman. 

The first-round pick turned out to be valuable for the Warriors, which may also explain Lacob's enthusiasm. They used it to select Jonathan Kuminga at No. 7 overall.

The 19-year-old only appeared in five games before being assigned to the Santa Cruz Warriors of the G League, along with fellow first-round rookie Moses Moody, last week.

Golden State has been high on Kuminga's potential, with Anthony Slater of The Athletic saying on a Nov. 3 episode of the HoopsHype podcast that Lacob "values Kuminga and [James] Wiseman and their futures more than other teams do right now."

Slater was making a point about how the Warriors wouldn't include either Kuminga or Wiseman in a potential trade to acquire Ben Simmons. 

The Wiggins trade came just seven months after the Warriors acquired Russell as part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets for Kevin Durant. 

Russell, who was coming off an All-Star appearance in 2018-19, was originally signed to help offset the loss of Durant and provide an additional scorer with Klay Thompson out for the year while rehabbing his torn ACL. 

The marriage between Russell and Golden State deteriorated quickly, due in part to other injuries on the roster. Stephen Curry was limited to five games with a broken bone in his left hand. 

Wiggins was a wild card in the trade. The No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA draft failed to live up to that potential with the Timberwolves. His biggest deficiency was on the defensive end of the court, where he allowed opponents to shoot at least 45 percent from the field in each of his first six seasons, per NBA Advanced Stats (h/t Marcus White of NBC Sports Bay Area). 

During the 2020-21 campaign, his first full year with Golden State, Wiggins had more defensive win shares (2.7) in 71 games played than he did in the previous two years combined (2.4), per Basketball Reference. 

Wiggins has also been a more efficient scorer with the Warriors. The 26-year-old is averaging 18.6 points per game and shooting 32.7 percent from three-point range in 94 games with the team. He had a higher scoring average (19.7) in Minnesota but only made 33.2 percent of his attempts behind the arc.