Warriors insider clarifies report on Andrew Wiggins' conditioning

When Wiggins collided with LeBron James, he broke a rib, which Slater called a “significant injury.”

“The medical team categorized the injury as a two-month absence in the regular season,” Slater reported. “Part of the reason he didn’t work much in the off-season was because he couldn’t really. Broken rib.”

While some football players will put on a flak jacket to protect sore ribs, the nature of the NBA’s start-and-stop motion makes rib injuries difficult to play through. Shooting in particular becomes extremely painful. That could be a factor in why Wiggins shot so woefully over the first 13 games of the 2023-24 season, when he went 5-for-37 from three-point range.

Perhaps his conditioning has improved since then, as Wiggins has made 11 of his 23 three-point attempts across the last five games, notching games of 31 and 29 points. He also had a late rebound and putback Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings that should have sealed the game for the Warriors.

Still, until Wiggins can start delivering consistently and get his three-point percentage over 30 percent, he’ll receive criticism from fans. Not to mention a lot of ribbing.