29-year-old Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins is taking an indefinite leave from the team after missing 25 games last season.
On Wednesday, February 28, Warriors coach Steve Kerr revealed that Wiggins is taking a break from the team this season for undisclosed reasons. "We do expect him to be back but we just don't exactly know when," said Kerr, per CBS Sports. "We're in a position where Wiggs is a private person and he's asked to keep it private and we're gonna honor that. So it doesn't help for me to sit here and try to explain any of that. The bottom line is we respect Wiggs, we need him and we fully expect him back, but we just don't know when that will be."
During the 2022-23 season, Wiggins missed a total of 25 Warriors games due to a private "family matter." He didn't explain what happened and neither did his team. In April 2023, NBA insider Shams Charania reported that his father, Mitchell Wiggins, was dealing with "a serious medical situation." It's unclear if his absence this season has anything to do with that.
Wiggins was traded to the Warriors from the Minnesota Timberwolves in February 2020. He signed a four-year contract extension estimated at $109 million in October 2022. Despite his absence during the 2022-23 season, he managed to return just in time for the Warriors' playoff run and appeared in all 13 postseason games. He's averaged a career-low 12.7 points this season, however, but picked things up recently with double-digit points across each of the last nine games he played in.
