The honeymoon is over for Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins.
While the Heat returning from Cleveland down 2-0 in their Eastern Conference first-round series with the top-seeded Cavaliers was expected, the play of the biggest name acquired by Miami in return for Jimmy Butler has been disappointing.
As the action shifts to South Florida for Saturday’s Game 3, Wiggins will need a venue change to help get him going after he finished a team-worst minus-31 through the first two contests in this series.
Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra was counting on Wiggins to be a difference-maker on both sides of the ball to help his team thrive against the favored Cavs, but he’s gotten back-to-back pedestrian performances from the 2014 No.1 overall pick.
Spoelstra lauded Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo's "competitive spirit." He barely mentioned the wing who is expected to round out the Heat's new "Big Three."
Spoelstra didn’t play Wiggins a single second in the entire fourth quarter despite the game being up for grabs as the Heat pulled within 105-103 with 3:11 left. Wiggins finished with 10 points, sixth-highest on the team, and grabbed a single rebound in 28:27 in Wednesday’s 121-112 Game 2 loss.
Reserves Haywood Highsmith and Nikola Jokic, seeing his first extensive action since breaking his hand on Feb. 23, were more effective and ended up on the floor ahead of Wiggins. No one who watched Game 2 can call that a mistake, even though Spoelstra nearly reinserted him.
"I thought about it. I actually put him at the scorer's table with six to go," Spoelstra said in his post-game press conference. "Everybody in the group wanted to keep on pushing through. We stayed with it. Obviously, he'll be very important to us this series."
Although Tyler Herro’s defensive struggles and Kel’el Ware’s worst game in months were called out as reasons the Miami Heat were thoroughly dominated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in their 121-100 Game 1 loss, Wiggins finishing minus-23 in Game 1 was overshadowed. He wasn’t terrible, scoring 14 points and looking more active than he would a few nights later, but he also didn’t rise to meet the moment.
Unless there’s another monumental transaction coming, Wiggins is going to be a large part of the equation for Miami next season. He’s signed through next season and has a player option for over $30 million he can utilize to return for ‘26-’27. Ideally, he’ll be able to tap into a skill set that allowed him to average 36.0 points over a two-game stretch where he shot over 76 percent less than a month ago.
Wiggins averaged 21.3 points this past March. He won an NBA championship in 2022 with the Golden State Warriors and was so good in that Finals win over the Boston Celtics that some observers felt he should’ve been the series MVP over Stephen Curry. He grabbed 16 rebounds in Game 4 and led the team in scoring the next time out to help snap a 2-2 tie.
Wiggins has got magic in him, but the times he’s actually put it on display have been fleeting. It remains to be seen if Spoelstra can coax consistent greatness out of him when no one else he’s been coached by has managed to. If this first playoff series with Miami is any indication, there’s a lot of work to be done.
Few players in the NBA are on Wiggins’ level from a physical standpoint. He’s only rarely tapped into those gifts to reach his full potential. Wiggins should share the go-to role with Herro on the offensive end while serving as a standout defender on the other since he’s built like he was put on this planet to do just that.
Fan bases in Minnesota and the Bay Area grew frustrated with his inconsistency. Wiggins hasn’t been a member of the Heat long enough to have Miami ripping its hair out just yet, but between already missing time with injuries and failing to show up as a difference-maker early in his first series with the team, he’s getting off to a rough start.
Tony Mejia is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at tnyce1414@gmail.com
