khans2k5 wrote:Buddy for Wiggins is just a bad panic trade to try to give us one skill we lack in 3pt shooting. Wiggins is better Jimmy insurance and he was starting to put it together defensively last year so I would expect him to make a jump on that end. Then you bring up his shooting percentages a little bit after a really down year and you have someone significantly better than Hield. Hield getting ousted in the starting lineup by Temple is all you need to know about him. He couldn't start for the 7th worst team in the league. Just more stat guys on bad teams. Yet for some reason Wiggins stats only matter when he's the 3rd or 4th option and people forget what he was putting up as a top 2 option which he would be again if Jimmy left.
I wouldn't call it a panic trade, rather I'd say it's getting good value for a poor asset, but alas we are on the opposite side of the fence when it comes to Wiggins so this take does not surprise me.
Wiggins did improve defensively -- both statistically and based on the eye test -- as he went from posting a -2.9 DBPM in 2016-17 to a -1.4 DBPM last year.
The issue is that:
A. That's still not a good mark for someone set to make $25M.
B. He doesn't make up for it on the offensive end, nor is he required to be a top-two option.
C. How much of that improvement is Wiggins and how much of it is Jimmy Butler taking the more difficult defensive assignment?
D. Someone with Wiggins' physical tools/ability should be making their presence felt defensively a lot more than he does.
Hield getting assigned to being the sixth man has less to do with his ability and more to do with his individual progression and coach's prerogative. It's similar to how Victor Oladipo came off the bench in Orlando in his rookie season and even during the 2015-16 season.
You use the "stat guy on a bad team" phrase to knock players, but isn't it more telling that Wiggins was an OK stats guy on bad teams, and now he's a poor stats guy on a good team? Not to mention he's regressed in just about every facet of the game. It's a weak debate tool in this case is what I'm getting at.
Lastly, Wiggins averaged 18.9 PPG (44.5 / 37.9 / 68.2), 4.6 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.2 SPG in the 17 games after Butler was injured in late February. Small sample aside, those aren't bad numbers. The Wolves went 8-9 over that stretch so they weren't necessarily empty numbers either. But it always comes back to the question of where is THAT player over an 82-game season. It shouldn't take an All-NBA player being injured for Wiggins to wake up and play better basketball.
I also don't think you're accounting for team fit/need and styles of play, but it's not going to change your mind.
