How former Terps standout Aaron Wiggins climbed to the NBA Finals
Sitting for dinner with his high school coach on the Las Vegas Strip in 2021, Aaron Wiggins sought guidance.
After three seasons at Maryland, the Oklahoma City Thunder, then knee-deep in a rebuild, drafted Wiggins with the 55th overall pick. He signed a two-way deal right there in Nevada.
History said he’d be a long shot to stick around the league. After one of his first Summer League games, breaking bread that August evening, he asked Keith Gatlin, who coached Wiggins at Wesleyan Christian School in High Point, North Carolina, “Coach, what you think?”
Gatlin deflected back, “What do you think?”
Wiggins felt a bit pigeon-holed. He explained how his new coaches were telling him to just get to the corner and be ready to shoot if the ball found his hands. That’s an uncomfortable backseat for a dynamic two-way player. Gatlin asked, “Are the checks coming on time?” Wiggins nodded. “Well, then run to the corner,” the coach laughed.
What Gatlin was trying to say in 2021, and what has proven to be the thesis of Wiggins’ NBA career thus far, was that enough patience would lead him here: His best statistical season as a legitimate contributor to one of the most dominant teams in NBA history, now set to tip off against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night for Game 1 of the NBA Finals — a chance at immortality.
“The conversation I had with [Gatlin] put a lot of things into perspective,” said Wiggins, who’s averaging a career-high 12.0 points and 3.9 rebounds for OKC, which went a league-best 68-14 in the regular season and is 12-4 this postseason. “Just perspectively understanding that everything wasn’t going to fall into my lap on Day 1.”
Coming out of Maryland, draftniks saw a smooth, athletic wing. He had an innate feel for the game. Wiggins’ 172 3-pointers (14th most in school history) spelled out a more-than-capable shooter. He pulled off perhaps one of the best in-game dunks ever when he put back his own missed 3-pointer against Notre Dame. But some inconsistency in college made teams a bit wary of how his game might translate to the pros.
Most mocks left him off the board. With a deep stash of picks, the Thunder had the flexibility to take a shot on a potential Day 2 steal.
“I don’t think he could have been in a more perfect situation than OKC,” Gatlin said.
Wiggins arrived at ground zero of a lofty four-year timeline, sights set on contending for a championship. He signed a two-way deal but never once played for Oklahoma City’s G-League affiliate. Wiggins can see clearly now, he “fell into a great organization that trusted the individual work but also had a plan for the team timeline.”
Let’s review: Wiggins was drafted in 2021, heading into a season most pundits predicted the rebuilding Thunder to bottom out. They won 24 games, second fewest in the Western Conference. That meant playing time for the rookie. He started 35 games, averaging 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds in 24.2 minutes per night.
Two years later, the Thunder won 57 games and finished atop the conference. The core started to take shape. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke out as an All-NBA first-teamer and 30-plus-points-per-game scorer, Chet Holmgren was NBA Rookie of the Year runner-up, Lu Dort emerged as a defensive showstopper, and two guys with the same name (Jaylin Williams and Jalen Williams) evolved into quality contributors.
Where did Wiggins fit in? How did he go from siloed in the corner to an active influencer on a team that won more games (68) than anyone this century not named the 2016 Golden State Warriors?
“I think when their defense started becoming really good,” Gatlin said. “Aaron is such a versatile defender, he can guard multiple positions. I think once they saw, ‘Wow, he can defend at a high level,’ then once he got on the court, just in the flow of the game, his offense took off.”
Wiggins started to notice himself turning a corner by the end of his second season, and particularly the beginning of last year. He played in 78 of 82 games before signing a five-year, $57 million extension. The ball was in his hands more. Wiggins steered transition offense. “I wasn’t afraid of those moments,” he said. He could be finally be a playmaker — even if he isn’t the playmaker.
Those duties fall to 2025 league Most Valuable Player Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Dort. To quote the last star to bring Oklahoma City to the Finals, “It’s a wings league.” And this Thunder team has plenty of them.
That means Wiggins’ playing time can be matchup dependent. Or within the flow of a rotating bench cast that includes situational difference makers such as Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace. The minutes column of his game log fluctuates frantically. What makes Wiggins so valuable, in Gatlin’s eyes, is his ability to clean the plate no matter how much food he gets.
“Man, it’s probably one of the toughest jobs in the NBA — outside of being a primary guy who’s supposed to score 30 and 40 a night,” Wiggins said. “It’s a tough job. … By all means, it’s a lot. Emotionally and mentally. You got to be able to withstand the ups and downs of the season.”
Some nights it’s 15 minutes on the floor. Others, it’s 29 off the bench. Maybe 18 as a starter. Thirty without starting. Five minutes two games later. Then 33 as a starter a couple nights after that.
Embracing that role is the reason Wiggins stuck around. The Thunder drafted four players in 2021. Wiggins was last. He’s the only one still in Oklahoma City, living out the fruits of a laborious rebuild.
In February, he scored a career-high 41 points on six 3-pointers. He was a crucial shot creator in Games 2 and 4 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets, embracing a lesser role at other points of the playoff run. Gatlin knew those moments would come if he stayed patient.
“If you get drafted 55, the percentages say you not gon’ be there,” Gatlin said. “The percentages say he might get a cup of coffee and he might be gone.”
Rather, his 274 games of service time entering the Finals are the most by a player picked No. 55 overall since 2011. Only one other player came close from the same pick, the four-year career of 2013 draftee Joffrey Lauvergne who then pivoted overseas.
When Wiggins was drafted, the Thunder fan base wrapped their arms around the sixth-to-last pick. It would have been easy to miss for anyone not privy to the niche corner of Oklahoma City sports X and Reddit circles. But a silly meme gripped those rooting through the team’s rebuild.
It reads, “Aaron Wiggins saved basketball” overlaying a picture from his Terps days.
An investigative piece in The Oklahoman tracked down the high schooler who, half asleep at his home in West Virginia, created the meme on his phone shortly after the 2021 draft then posted it to his fan account. No one is quite sure what it means. Not even the kid whose brain it came from. But any chronically online Thunder fan will deadpan — or wax poetically — that the sport was on the brink of extinction (it wasn’t) before Wiggins arrived.
“I’m literally just Aaron Wiggins,” he told reporters.
To solidify a career at the highest level, that’s all he ever had to be.
Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.
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