#1 Offense, #30 Defense in the month of February

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

WIGGINS IS NOT A BELOW AVERAGE DEFENDER

That one might be deserving of its own thread. I think everybody here believes he has the skills to be a very good defender. And he's shown that ability at times. He's also been beaten at times and some metrics indicate he has a lot of work to do to improve. He's young and the team relies on him quite a bit offensively, so those lapses are to be expected at this point, I guess.

It depends how someone defines "defender". If the question is can he check a guy one on one and generally do an average job (sometimes he's downright great, other times he isn't locked in), then the answer is yes - he's at least average.

If the question does he do other things to help the overall team defense (help on the D-boards, get deflections, pursue loose balls, take charges), the answer is he's below average.

Put the two together and he's OK-ish. Hopefully he continues to get better.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

WIGGINS IS NOT A BELOW AVERAGE DEFENDER

I'd say he's about an average overall defender. In isolation, he's pretty decent. In pretty much every other way defensively (help defense or rotations, transition defense, forcing turnovers, defensive rebounding, etc.), I'd say he absolutely is below average.

And for some reason, when the matchup actually favors him, he sometimes plays down to his competition on that end. On that same note, we've seen him play up to his competition. That's not a good thing, in my opinion. If you're a truly above average defender, you bring the same caliber of play each and every night no matter who you're going against.

I do not think he's the defender that some on this board and in other fan discussions think he is. I think he might become a very good defender based on his physical traits, but in no way has he put it together yet to the tune of being an above average player in that facet of the game.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

WIGGINS IS NOT A BELOW AVERAGE DEFENDER

Well, if you look at his DRPM this year its -3.61 (86th of 92 SGs) and last year it was -2.13 (62nd of 76 SGs). His Defensive Rating is 114 this year and 113 last year. Those aren't good numbers. When Andrew is amped and focused on playing D, he plays one-on-one D very well, but most of the time he's not. What I'm saying is Andrew may well become a very good defender but he's not even close on a consistent basis yet.

[Monster]

We have to have the worst defending wings in the NBA by a big margin. Bazz, LaVine and KMart are atrocious defenders. Wiggins, while not atrocious is still a below average defender. Wiggins and probably LaVine have the athleticism and lateral quickness to be plus defenders. Now we just need Thibs or someone who can actually teach and motivate them to defend to their abilities.

I think the point here was not to point out Wiggins Lacking as a defender just pointing out that it's overall a general area of liability for this team. Lavine has shown more flashes this year of being engaged and making an impact on that end. Wiggins has ability to guard a number of positions and not be embarrassed so that's good compared to the other guys. So I would say Wiggins isn't a liability but I wouldn't call him much of an asset on that end either. The point of the above post was this team needs to improve its defense on the wings and the solution put forth was one of the best defensive minds in the league. Prince was and is easily the best defending wing on the team. I have faith in Wiggins as a defensive player but it gets worse fast after him even though I am very encouraged but what I have seen from Lavine.

[Lipoli390]

When Flip told me he was going to draft LaVine, his main reason was Zach's defensive potential. Flip based his assessment on Zach's off the charts lateral quickness, but also on Zach's defensive stats in college. Recently, Kevin Lynch referred to Zach's high defensive ceiling as well as the fact that Zach has improved a lot defensively and has been playing well defensively lately. And I think it's obvious from what we've seen and heard that Zach plays and practices consistently hard. So I have a high degree of confidence that Zach will be the very good defender Flip expected him to be.

Wiggns clearly has the potential to be a terrific on-ball defender. He has the physical attributes to be really good, even great, defensively and we've seen him actually perform at that level on some occasions. Unfortunately, he has also shown motor problems and a lot of inconsistency game to game and minute to minute defensively. Moreover, unlike Zach, Wiggins hasn't shown an upward trend in his defense. But by all accounts he's a good guy who wants to do well and takes coaching. And he's still only 20 or 21 years old. So I'm far from giving up hope on Wiggns as a defender.