There were many nights where calls for the Golden State Warriors to put pressure on the rim and attack the paint were commonplace. For a team that doesn’t rely on traditional or conventional sources of rim pressure – the unconventional method being the outside-in approach enabled by the likes of Steph Curry and Buddy Hield (and Klay Thompson in previous years) – finding creative ways to do it Solving a deficit problem (e.g. creating rim pressure) while staying true to their overarching offensive principles has always been their approach.

This creativity on offense can take many forms: a certain formation, certain movements, certain personnel, certain types of screens, etc. Traditionally, the Warriors have preferred to stretch and “flip” the floor with their movement offense. Big-up top that handles the ball rather than parking himself in the low post and/or the paint. This requires that their big players are able to make decisions with the ball, how to pass the ball correctly and what to do when they give up the ball.

It equally requires certain demands on the four other players on the field: knowing what to do when the ball comes their way, understanding the defense and making decisions based on what the defenders are doing, and – perhaps most important – the ability to put pressure on the rim and make split-second decisions while defenders are crashing in their direction. For obvious reasons, Curry is the poster child of all of this, especially when coming off one or more screens. But while he can touch the paint and lure defenders on his runs, he is somewhat limited by his lack of height and micro-lapse in speed and offense.

If not Curry, it was primarily other motion shooters like Buddy Hield, De’Anthony Melton (before he was ruled out for the season due to ACL surgery), Lindy Waters III, Moses Moody, and to a lesser extent Brandin Podziemski who were off-ball in reverse floor lineups. received screens. But oddly enough, Andrew Wiggins – while not to the same extent and extent as the players mentioned above – has also received some of those reps.

Across all of these iterations, a common theme has emerged, perhaps borne out of a need to simplify mid-turn decision making for a player not particularly known for making advanced reads and high-difficulty deliveries. Consider this possession during the first regular season game of the season against the Portland Trail Blazers, when the Warriors were unable to utilize their “delay” play (a 5-out inverted floor setup with the play call “Open”). Curry drifts toward the corner to set up an away screen for Wiggins, whereupon Wiggins receives the ball on a handoff and drives downhill (called the “Chicago” or “Zoom” action):

The most advanced and best of the best in the pick-and-roll passing game, on the other hand, expect the help that comes from their “blind” side (or the side of the court they are dribbling away from), as exemplified by this pass from Luka Dončić Klay Thompson in the weak corner after Moses Moody (the losing man) decided to clamp down early:

Wiggins made the pass in the first clip where he could immediately see where the help was coming from:

This pattern — along with another similarity — continues on several of Wiggins’ other possessions in pick-and-roll and pick-and-roll approach actions in which he comes off a screen with the ball in hand and a defender In his immediate vicinity, field of vision aid looks and passes it on to the open man:

The open man in all of the above instances happened to be Draymond Green, a frequent sack target in opposing scouting reports. There won’t be any changes to the way Green is protected on the perimeter in the foreseeable future, although he had a 43% hit rate on 3.5 attempts from beyond the arc. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Green is the target of most of Wiggins’ assists; Since Green’s defenders are expected to leave him alone to help on drives, the Warriors intentionally made sure Wiggins finds Green on most of his drives to make his on-the-run processing easier.

In turn, because Wiggins gets his fair share of touches and decision-making responsibility, he can perform better on offense and equally contribute as a defender – which was certainly the case with the Atlanta Hawks. Moves like the following were commonplace for him, a throwback to his form when he won the championship in 2022…

… and partly due to an increased confidence in the offensive role after a season of instability, even if Wiggins doesn’t have a stunning scoring average (16.2). However, he has good shooting percentages (52.2% on twos, 39.3% on threes, 72.3% on free throws, 58.2% on true shooting), which was reinforced by his 27-point performance against the Hawks becomes. Steve Kerr finds ways for Wiggins to get involved and engaged, and Wiggins rewards him with dynamic two-way play.

These reverse floor setups from the “delay” action give Wiggins the opportunity to pressure the rim with another handoff action for him – this time working with an empty corner. He receives the dribble handoff from Trayce Jackson-Davis and waits for Clint Capela to get ready to leave before giving Jackson-Davis the shot:

These “Zoom” moves are a creative solution to a simple problem (e.g. Wiggins’ shaky handle, which prevents him from being a reliable straight-line isolation attacker). It circumvents for him the need to hit the ball, slow possession to a crawl at half court, and face a solid defense that doesn’t need to move or argue:

Wiggins’ ability to consistently score in the manner described above gives him more attention on defense, particularly as a pick-and-roll ballhandler. While it’s usually Curry who takes the most reps on “angle” pick-and-roll possessions (simply because they’re placed at an angle in the slot or wing area), more of them are called for Wiggins. With Kyle Anderson in the corner and Lindy Waters III on the wing with the ball down, Wiggins dances to the beat of Jackson-Davis’ constant screening and rescreening. Anderson clears to the other side of the floor to allow Waters to sink toward the corner. The next defender to be drawn into Wiggins’ attack is Bogdan Bogdanović, a move that is well within Wiggins’ immediate line of sight. Therefore, reading it is simple and straightforward:

Having a big partner to act as a screener, re-screener and handoff center circumvents Wiggins’ deficiencies and molds him into a round peg for the round hole that is the Warriors’ offense, revealing parts of his game that would otherwise remain hidden , brought to a higher level and latent:

“Latent” is an apt term for Wiggins’ final seasons, which was undoubtedly due in large part to family issues off the field, something that was completely underestimated as a reason for his problems on the field. But he has started this season with seemingly renewed determination and drive, full of commitment and dedication to the mission at hand. The last time that happened, the Warriors won a championship, with Wiggins making a good case for being the second-best player in their playoff run. While his start to this season isn’t an ironclad guarantee that history will repeat itself, it certainly doesn’t diminish the likelihood that it’s actually déjà vu.