3 Warriors who won’t be on the roster by season’s end

3. Andrew Wiggins, SF

First and foremost, Wiggins’ contract will affect the team’s salary cap for the next two years. After signing a five-year, $148 million max contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2019, the Warriors will owe him $31.5 million this season and $33.6 million in the 2022-23 season.

If Golden State is looking to free up a lot of cap space, that could be done by trading Andrew. The Warriors already have three other players on their lineup who are on max contracts (Curry, Thompson and Green). Wiggins brought value to the team last season, but his contract is framed as if he’s one of the top talents in the league when he’s not quite there yet.

In his first full season with Golden State, Wiggins averaged 18.6 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game and shot 38 percent from the 3-point line. As the Warriors are making a push to return to what they once were, it doesn’t make sense to keep him in the lineup. That is, unless with Thompson’s return Golden State realizes that it’s starting five isn’t something that should be drastically altered.

Maybe Wiggins hasn’t been given a fair shot, but it never has seemed as if the plan was for him to be with the Warriors for the long haul. A trade involving Andrew will be difficult to execute, but it will give Golden State the key piece that it’s been missing.