LEAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves

[bleedspeed]

Thibodeau is reunited with defensive stopper Jimmy Butler, and not a moment too soon. Butler will be joining forces with the single most catastrophic defender in the league: Andrew Wiggins.

Using the NBA's player-tracking data to look at shots defended and how those shots turned out,1 we can see who's making a positive impact, who's making a negative impact, and who's making the most impact.

Possession by possession, there are a few defenders who are as bad as Wiggins. When Wiggins contests a shot, opponents have a 56.1 effective field goal percentage; when they are unguarded, they have a 56.4 eFG percentage. Fundamentally, getting a shot up against Andrew Wiggins is the same as getting an open shot.

Wiggins's deficiencies are too many to list quickly, but at root the issue seems to be basic effort. He barely jumps to contest shots, doesn't run hard to close out, and gets lost watching the ball.

But the truly destructive part of Wiggins's defense is how much of it there was. In the way that defenders like Draymond Green or an in-his-prime Tony Allen seem to be in all places at all times, challenging seemingly every shot on the floor, Wiggins is omnipresent in his awfulness. He defended the 10th most shots in the league, by far the most by a below-average defender. Most teams do their best to hide their weak defenders, but opponents seek Wiggins out like no other defender in the league.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nba-haters-ball/?addata=espn:nba:indexhttps://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nba-haters-ball/?addata=espn:nba:index

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

What a depressing article...thanks for posting, bleed?

Well, the positive spin would be this makes the Butler trade look even better. Wig obviously struggled guarding the opponents' best wing every night, and now he will not have to. Let's hope that change plus some natural maturation and coaching turns him into at least an average defender this season...there's no excuse for him not to be.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

And I'm curious their suggestion of how to hide him. Let Zach guard the opposing teams best player? How about Bazz? That fact is both would be right here in this article if they were taking Andrew's place. It's laughable to suggest teams are seeking him out like they are throwing him in PnR's to get switched on to him like he's Curry. He's guarding the best guy on the other team aka he's involved in most of the plays just because of who he's guarding. And he's doing that for 37 minutes a night which is a huge amount of time on the court. He's not a good defender, but his role plays a significant part in why his numbers are so bad. He didn't seem to be a major anchor on the defense when he played next to the likes of Prince and KG. Those units were elite defensively. Hard to have an elite defensive unit with a complete and total sieve on defense.

[Monster]

This is a good opportunity to talk about some thoughts I had on individual defense. One reason Dunn was good last year was not only did he have the multiple effort youbare talking about and Thibs mentions about Butler but he also seemed to understand what he wanted to take away. I think Lavine Wiggins and Towns try and do what they are supposed to do keeping the guy in front of them and contesting but often they don't really take anything away.

To do that you have to know the team you are playing and understand what they are trying to do on offense. You also need to know your opponent and his tendencies his moves and his hot spots etc. you have to try and beat a guy to his spot and deny what he wants to do. To do that you have to be mentally prepared and also give that effort to get up on a guy sometimes to take something away. There is obviously technique as well. I would imagine it takes some time to figure some of this out espcially when a couple of your teammates suck at it also and every coach probably tells you something a little different.

So I think this year it will be worth watching to see if Wiggins and Towns do a better job of effort and taking something away from guys they are guarding. When the Wolves were defending well they were simply contesting everything a hand was right in the face of anyone taking a shot. It's based on the principle that the closer you are to a player the lower the percentages are that they make the shot. During that time Wiggins was all up in guys on contests and with his length that's plenty against a lot of guys to make things tough. It also seemed like as a team they were dictating where a team was going to not the other way around. So let's see if adding at least one top level defender and some more time gets Towns and Wiggins more on the right track. As bad as Towns was at least he was only a 2nd year player and the way the game is played right now may be as tough on a big as it ever has. Wiggins has less of an excuse imo.

[Coolbreeze44]

You guys get carried away with this stuff. This is complete bullshit. Wig is a decent man defender, and like most on the team struggled with team defensive concepts. I'd suggest he had much less to do with our defensive woes than KAT did.

[thedoper]

538 did a great job predicting the election. Nerds have a place in basketball analysis too. But sometimes it gets carried away.

[Duke13]

Death, taxes, me trying to trade Rubio and Cool coming to Wig's defense.

[Crazysauce]

There is one big flag with wiggins defense and that is his effort. Damn guy is the most athletic guy on the floor and its a shame cause wiggins aint busting his ass at all on defense. These guys want to take the next stop then both towns and wiggins need to step it up on defense. I feel butler has an edge to him amd is probably our best chance to get these guys to play the way your suppose to on that end of the floor. Jimmy is an alpha and he will say what needs to be said and get into them. Hopefully these kids figure it out.

[bleedspeed]

There is one big flag with wiggins defense and that is his effort. Damn guy is the most athletic guy on the floor and its a shame cause wiggins aint busting his ass at all on defense. These guys want to take the next stop then both towns and wiggins need to step it up on defense. I feel butler has an edge to him amd is probably our best chance to get these guys to play the way your suppose to on that end of the floor. Jimmy is an alpha and he will say what needs to be said and get into them. Hopefully these kids figure it out.

I am hoping the same thing.

[TheFuture]

Death, taxes, me trying to trade Rubio and Cool coming to Wig's defense.

Lol, thank you for this post.