Minnesota Timberwolves: Should we worry about Andrew Wiggins?

The Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Andrew Wiggins to be their next superstar. Now in his fourth NBA season, though, he’s been anything but that.

In 2014, Andrew Wiggins was the clear cut No. 1 overall pick and the prize of a highly touted 2014 NBA Draft class. Looking back, little to no of those highly ranked players (Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon, Dante Exum and Julius Randle, to name a few) have lived up to their potential. Despite being a 20-point per game scorer, the case can be made that neither has Andrew Wiggins.

Andrew Wiggins’ career numbers are as follows: 20 points, four rebounds and two assists per game. Pretty solid for what is still seen as a young and supposedly growing player. His efficiency leaves a lot to be desired however; he shoots 45 percent from the floor and 32 percent from 3.

Despite being a guard too, he isn’t a great free throw shooter. He only shoots 75 percent from the charity stripe, which would bring his true shooting percentage to 53 percent (this year shooting his career worst in true shooting, a measly 51%).

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However, even though Wiggins’ numbers have jumped every year, except this year in which they have declined for obvious reasons, he hasn’t actually gotten better. The two years in which he wasn’t playing with another quality guard, he wasn’t scoring more points than his rookie year because he was better, he just was taking more shots. And the numbers prove that.

Now in his fourth NBA season, Wiggins has struggled to improve in any aspect of basketball at all. He’s still a decently effective scorer who has questionable 3-point shot. And that’s all really he is. He doesn’t run offenses well or facilitate at all, which is why despite having Karl Anthony-Towns and Jimmy Butler on his team, he only averages two assists per game. As a guard.

Additionally, despite being 6-foot-7 and a freak athlete, he only grabs four rebounds a game. Which both latter margins have not even moved since he stepped in the league.

Andrew Wiggins is also a horrid – scratch that, an abysmal – defender. He has a career 114 Defensive Rating, which is 10 points higher than his offensive rating. That’s not good, like at all. Also despite playing basically every game in his NBA career so far, he has yet to record three total win shares.

While another player who is seen as a “pathetic defender”, in Steph Curry, has had almost double the amount win shares last year alone, than Wiggins has had his whole career.

This, by no means, is to bash Andrew Wiggins. Many believed he was going to be a generational superstar when he entered the NBA. Unfortunately, like many others is his class, he just hasn’t worked to his full potential.

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His numbers are glaring at first glance because of how bad his teams were and his usage rate, but when you take a look at how he’s been just an average player on a good team this year, it is really telling. He just hasn’t taken the next step to even improve as a player, let alone the superstar we thought he was going to be.

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