“YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT: Lakers Suddenly QUIT Chase for $109M Star – Insider REVEALS All!”
Wiggins was a key piece to the Warriors’ championship run in 2021-22, providing key rebounding and perimeter defense down the stretch of the playoffs, particularly against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
The issues, however, are two-fold. The first, and less important of the two, is that Wiggins has two years remaining on his contract.
That technically means that beyond costing the Lakers $28.2 million this season, which wouldn’t be the issue, Wiggins would also be under contract for nearly $30.2 million in 2026-27 if he decided to exercise the player option on the final year of his $109 million contract.
Even if he chose to do that, the Lakers would have a $30 million trade chip in the form of Wiggins, so the their team-building endeavors around Doncic wouldn’t necessarily be hampered. In fact, having Wiggins’ contract to trade might actually provide the team with more options, as free agency isn’t the medium of elite player movement in the NBA that it used to be — with trades becoming the more frequent avenue in that regard over recent years.
Heat Asking too Much for Andrew Wiggins for Lakers to Make Trade
GettyAndrew Wiggins of the Miami Heat.
The bigger issue for Los Angeles in terms of a Wiggins deal is what the Heat want back in return.
“I didn’t understand … those rumors,” Lowe continued of the Lakers’ reported interest in Wiggins. “Like, they were suddenly giving up a lot of [expletive] for Andrew Wiggins. It’s like, [isn’t] Rui Hachimura just as good as Andrew Wiggins? Why am I adding a lot more to that?”
Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald reported on July 12 that the Heat remain high on Wiggins and aren’t likely willing to part with him in the first place.
“During an interview at summer league practice in Vegas, [Miami head coach] Erik Spoelstra says Andrew Wiggins is already back in South Florida and views him as an important piece of the Heat’s rotation next season,” Chiang wrote reported via X. “The expectation is the Heat will move forward with Andrew Wiggins on its roster for the start of next season. The Heat wants to see what this mix will look like.”
Whether that was a negotiation tactic, true position or simply hedging on the part of Spoelstra isn’t clear. But according to Woike, it doesn’t really matter now — at least not with regard to the Lakers, who have moved on to other pursuits.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible