GATHERED ON At the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, the Golden State Warriors held one of their first offseason practices during summer league. The training sessions were often quiet and usually consisted of individual exercises.

But in mid-July the training was different. It was loud with live action.

All Warriors coaches except Steve Kerr were in attendance, and several players, including Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins, attended.

During part of the training session, the coaches guarded the players, and with no one acting as referees and calling fouls, the game became hectic and stressful. As Wiggins sized up one of the coaches defending him, he charged down the baseline, spun around the nearest defender and rose for a dunk.

Then he did it twice more.

“It was like, 'Oh, shit,'” Warriors assistant coach Jacob Rubin told ESPN. “That was the moment this summer where a lot of other people could see that he was on a different level. … It was like, 'Yeah, I'm here, I'm here.' You could feel it in the building.”

Wiggins had been waiting to make this statement for a while. He missed 56 games over the last two seasons while caring for his ailing father, Mitchell, who died in July. And when he was able to play, he struggled through two of the worst seasons of his career.

So Wiggins spent the summer traveling between Houston and San Francisco, working with a personal trainer and Warriors assistant coach Jacob Rubin. He practiced ball handling, shooting, closeout shots, and driving and finishing at the rim. Wiggins and Rubin trained for about two hours each, seven days a week. Some days there were training sessions with four or five other trainers involved. Other days focused on developing technique and skills.

“It was really just a matter of brushing up on everything I already know how to do,” Wiggins told ESPN.

After what he considers to be a subpar two years, Wiggins knew he had to be prepared even before training camp began.

“We needed to be able to see where he was at,” Rubin said. “There was a time in the summer when he still had his dad, but that didn't mean every day was good. It meant some days were more difficult. It was about unwinding and having fun and saying something.” You know what, what we had planned today could be it. Let's change it.

All of their offseason work resulted in Wiggins coming into camp in great shape, but he ended up missing the Warriors' entire time in Hawaii and their first three preseason games due to illness. Still, the Warriors remain confident that Wiggins can return to the form that helped them win the title in 2022.

“It looks like he’s ready to have a heck of a season,” Kerr said.

With Klay Thompson heading to the Dallas Mavericks, the Warriors desperately need Wiggins to regain his All-Star form as they struggle to find a new identity with their revamped roster.

Wiggins wants to prove that he is still an elite player.

“I want to please them,” Wiggins said. “It feels so good when they have so much trust in you, when they get such high praise. You want to show up for them.”

IT WAS THAT In mid-February 2023, when Wiggins was first listed as inactive for personal reasons. What was initially considered a routine absence resulted in Wiggins missing the final 25 games of the regular season.

The Warriors gave Wiggins permission to stay away from the team and put no pressure on him to return until he felt he was ready, even though they were in a tight battle for a top-six playoff spot and that Had to avoid play-in tournament. As questions grew louder about Wiggins' extended absence, the Warriors kept the public message concise: His personal matter remained private.

“Every man is different and Wiggs is a very private person,” Kerr said. “I think it's important to let him know we care about him and then give him his space. He’s a guy who needs his space.”

Wiggins returned for the 2023 playoffs, coming off the bench in Golden State's postseason opener and then starting the remaining 12 games. He played 71 games in the 2023/24 season and missed a week at the end of February 2024 for personal reasons. But even during the time Wiggins was with the team, he didn't seem like himself.

“It's been a tough two years,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. “He got off to a great start in 2022, the year before he was an All-Star, a champion, and then when his dad got sick, that really threw him for a loop.”

During the 2021-22 season, Wiggins averaged 17.2 points and made 157 three-pointers – the most in his career. But in the two years following his All-Star campaign, Wiggins averaged 14.6 points on 46% shooting, including a career-low 13.2 points in the 2023-24 season.

On defense, he maintained a career-best 40% shooting percentage as the best defender en route to the championship in 2022. However, in 2022–23 and 2023–24, that rate increased to 45% as the Warriors' defense slipped from the league's best in the 2021–22 season and to mid-table in the following two seasons.

“Life doesn’t stop just because the game is on,” Green told ESPN. “For most of us, basketball is a safe place. So when something is going on, you try to immerse yourself in the game. But sometimes it doesn't work and it just feels worse. You have to find that.” For him, it helps to have children, to have his partner. Sometimes it can be a lonely job, no matter how much you are around people.

Since the death of Wiggins' father, Kerr believes there is a sense of peace for Wiggins as he enters the new season.

“I think he's at a point where he knows the last few years have been tough for a lot of reasons,” Kerr said, “and I think he's ready to get back to where he was a few years ago. “

“He's at the age where he's in his prime physically and we've seen him do it. He helped us win a championship. I expect a big year from Wiggs.”

Wiggins is playing in honor of his father, who played six seasons in the NBA before becoming a three-time All-Star in Greece. The former No. 1 overall pick has a wealth of memories on and off the field that are near and dear to his heart.

“Oh man, there are so many moments,” Wiggins told ESPN, a grin spreading across his face as he looked around the empty T-Mobile Arena before a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers. “But I’m a pretty reserved guy. That’s why I’m going to keep it for myself.”

STEPHEN CURRY DIRECTED the ball over his shoulder without looking at the start of the third quarter of the Warriors' home opener against the LA Clippers. It found Wiggins waiting just outside the 3-point arc.

Wiggins faked a pump as James Harden approached him, then brought the ball to the ground and pushed it into the paint. He split three defenders and then dove for the dunk.

This positioning, decision making and aggressiveness is something Wiggins has been working on all summer.

“I feel really good,” Wiggins said. “I feel like I've had a really good summer of work… every day I've been grinning, trying to improve my game, get stronger and just get back to my old self.”

Wiggins opened the season as Kerr's starting shooting guard, with Curry taking Thompson's place in the backcourt. A lower back strain forced him to miss two games against the New Orleans Pelicans, but he returned to the lineup on Saturday – albeit with a different group of players, as Kerr has already played four different games this season due to injuries starting lineups was forced. Still, he hopes Wiggins will be a mainstay, especially as the team tries to make up for the nine 3-pointers per game that Thompson attempted last season.

“We want him to shoot a lot of threes – he has worked hard on his shooting. It's about free throws, we want him to get to the line. We have to put him in a position to do all of that,” Kerr said. “But he’s done this before. He’s scored 20 points before.”

In four games, Wiggins averaged 18.5 points on 51% shooting, including 56.5% from 3, and 5.8 rebounds in 26.8 minutes. His 5.8 3-point attempts per game would be the third-highest mark of his career.

Wiggins is often asked to take over the defensive duties of the opposition's top scorer and winger. Wiggins is no stranger to this role, having filled in for Thompson as he recovered from an injury and helped lead the Warriors to the 2022 title as a secondary scorer and lockdown defender.

This year, Green and former assistant coach Mike Brown, now head coach of the Sacramento Kings, told Wiggins that he would defend the top player every night. That kind of responsibility helped propel his game forward.

“It was encouraging to me that they gave me that kind of responsibility,” Wiggins said. “I wanted to be successful. I wanted to do good for my team and give them every chance to win that I could. I feel like that’s what really got me going.”

Wiggins came to Golden State in 2020 to reward the Warriors for their belief in him. He opens this season hoping to reward her faith with a second ring.

“Every time you get traded, you want to prove them wrong,” Wiggins said. “You now want to prove that you are an asset to this team and you want to change the narrative that people think about you. You put your head down and just get to work.”