Should Wiggins focus on becoming a 3 and D player?

[Wolvesfan21]

I know it sucks that Wiggins is a max player. But it's clear his handle is still garbage and he sucks donkey balls around the rim finishing. Bad handles, below avg passing, and a crappy finisher at the rim.

This is his probably best role to become a solid NBA starter in the league. He can shoot the open 3 fairly well. He can defend I think if he tries. Play to his strengths and limit his weaknesses.

So what do you think? Should WIggins focus on improving Defensively and offensively forget (for the most part) his crappy part of his game?

Plus we have KAT who is a beast everywhere on offense. He should be averaging 28 points a game.

[Monster]

No. Wiggins should still be attacking the rim. He is struggling and still hitting 60% there. Last season he shot almost 70% at the rim. Dane moore has been making a case for him to play more 2 man game with Towns.

[Duke13]

The organization should be very focused on trading Wiggy, there's been a large enough sample size to indicate he's not a very good basketball player. Charlotte, Orlando, and SacTown should be the targets.

[Wolvesfan21]

No. Wiggins should still be attacking the rim. He is struggling and still hitting 60% there. Last season he shot almost 70% at the rim. Dane moore has been making a case for him to play more 2 man game with Towns.

But the problem is he can't get to the rim with his weak handle. He gets stripped or settles for the contested midrange which is crap. I just don't see any way his game gets better. He's been shooting like 5-16 like last night. That's garbage. We should focus on Towns. Wiggins should focus on defense.

[Monster]

No. Wiggins should still be attacking the rim. He is struggling and still hitting 60% there. Last season he shot almost 70% at the rim. Dane moore has been making a case for him to play more 2 man game with Towns.

But the problem is he can't get to the rim with his weak handle. He gets stripped or settles for the contested midrange which is crap. I just don't see any way his game gets better. He's been shooting like 5-16 like last night. That's garbage. We should focus on Towns. Wiggins should focus on defense.

He can get to the rim enough with his week hands and handle he shouldn't be just camped out being a 3 and D guy. He got to the rim last night just didn't finish. I'm not suggesting he needs to be a guy we throw him the ball and let him iso a bunch but we should be having the guy attack not just stand around more.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

No. Wiggins should still be attacking the rim. He is struggling and still hitting 60% there. Last season he shot almost 70% at the rim. Dane moore has been making a case for him to play more 2 man game with Towns.

I agree with this take. Wig came out of college as a freakishly athletic guy with an abiility to score over people, but also had the reputation as a below average 3-point shooter, so I don't see him as fitting a 3&D profile. He needs to find a way to use his athleticism to score more inside. Three things I think could help him become a more prolific inside scorer:

1) Thibs deciding to start Tyus Jones and play him 32+ minutes. I think the reason Wig doesn't cut to the basket often is because Teague and Rose don't reward him...why work hard when you are not rewarded? Tyus could change Wig's attitude.

2) Coaches need to help him improve his handle. Our assistant coaches need to have Wig watch how KAT drives to the basket, and work on it with him over and over. KAT has learned how to hide the ball on his hip on his drives to prevent turnovers, while Wig leaves the ball very vulnerable on his drives...it's no wonder he turns it over so often. This is a skill that isn't necessarily instinctive, and can be learned through repetition.

3)Coaching. Thibs needs to be intolerant of the long turnaround jumper, and tell Wig he will be yanked out of the game if he tries one.

Wig still needs to let the 3 fly if he is wide open, but he will never get close to maximizing his potential until he improves his inside game.

[Monster]

Here is some more numbers that should be interesting. Per Basketball reference Wiggins is taking exactly 45% of his shots on 2'a that are not within 3 feet of the rim. That would easily be a career low. He is shooting a higher percentage of his shots within 3 feet of the rim than last season and obviously taking more 3's. A few weeks ago other than taking more 3's the other categories were worse than last year which was obviously disappointing. Id guess the last few weeks Wiggins has been attacking more. It was a pleasant surprise to see those numbers. He still needs to cut out some of the non-paint 2's but we may have a trend in a positive direction. Not all those shots are mind bogglingly bad ones either. That one last night where he basically had Wade backed down and he jacked up a wild faaaaaaaaaaaaade away jumper was a terrible shot. That's the stuff that pisses everyone off.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

He just makes too much money to do this. You might as well just throw in the towel for the next 4 years if your plan is to relegate a max player to a role player game plan. He needs to get to the rim and get to the line and handle the ball. We can't have just 1 guy on the court who can create off the dribble. So we have to try to have Wiggins be that guy otherwise just throw in the towel.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't know if this makes him a 3+D guy... but just eliminating the long two pointers, including 16 foot turnaround jumpers... would make him imminently more efficient.

It's clearly not happening with Saunders, Mitchell and Thibodeau. Maybe a new coach can come in and get Wiggins to be at least an average NBA player.

[Coolbreeze44]

No. Wiggins should still be attacking the rim. He is struggling and still hitting 60% there. Last season he shot almost 70% at the rim. Dane moore has been making a case for him to play more 2 man game with Towns.

I agree with this take. Wig came out of college as a freakishly athletic guy with an abiility to score over people, but also had the reputation as a below average 3-point shooter, so I don't see him as fitting a 3&D profile. He needs to find a way to use his athleticism to score more inside. Three things I think could help him become a more prolific inside scorer:

1) Thibs deciding to start Tyus Jones and play him 32+ minutes. I think the reason Wig doesn't cut to the basket often is because Teague and Rose don't reward him...why work hard when you are not rewarded? Tyus could change Wig's attitude.

2) Coaches need to help him improve his handle. Our assistant coaches need to have Wig watch how KAT drives to the basket, and work on it with him over and over. KAT has learned how to hide the ball on his hip on his drives to prevent turnovers, while Wig leaves the ball very vulnerable on his drives...it's no wonder he turns it over so often. This is a skill that isn't necessarily instinctive, and can be learned through repetition.

3)Coaching. Thibs needs to be intolerant of the long turnaround jumper, and tell Wig he will be yanked out of the game if he tries one.

Wig still needs to let the 3 fly if he is wide open, but he will never get close to maximizing his potential until he improves his inside game.

Good take LST. I'm in line with pretty much all of it.