Minnesota Sports Forum

"This season, 94 different players have finished at least one possession per game with a shot, turnover, or drawn foul on an isolation play. Among that group, Wiggins ranks 94th in points per possession with just 0.56... Wiggins is shooting an unfathomably poor 22.2 percent on isolation possessions..."

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/1/19/16909004/five-saddest-nba-play-types-russell-westbrook-andrew-wiggins-atlanta-hawks

- Is this a new trend?
- Mirage... due to small sample size + new role on the team?
- Something that's been a problem for awhile now?

Personally, I didn't know it was that bad. I know he settles for contested long two pointers too often and his shaky handle causes issues (see last night multiple times)... but last? Worst?

Your thoughts? How concerned are you?

Interesting numbers worth considering.

In the end I was thinking about this while watching the last couple games...I'm not concerned about Wiggins offense. Plenty of other people are and because of this season they have reason to. Wiggins can score one way or another. If Wiggins does other stuff like he has been more of this season that's what I am interested in and concerned about and I have seen some good there. That's all.

If Wiggins can keep improving on defense like he has this year and increase his efficiency he can be a solid NBA starter. Yet that's nowhere near being worth what we're paying him for, which is why I and others were saying we should have traded him last year or at least not signed that insane extension. Horrible deal. I'm pretty sure that contract will be the reason we never actually become a contender despite having Butler and Towns--two guys who actually deserve the max--we'll never have the cap space to build around those two because it'll all be tied up in a guy who isn't worth half his contract. I'm reserved to it at this point. I only hope he can keep improving on defense and mitigate how bad a deal that is. My fingers are definitely crossed, because honestly, who would trade for Wiggins right now? Who would pick up that contract? If there's anybody, I'd be on the phone for sure.

SameOldDrew wrote:If Wiggins can keep improving on defense like he has this year and increase his efficiency he can be a solid NBA starter. Yet that's nowhere near being worth what we're paying him for, which is why I and others were saying we should have traded him last year or at least not signed that insane extension. Horrible deal. I'm pretty sure that contract will be the reason we never actually become a contender despite having Butler and Towns--two guys who actually deserve the max--we'll never have the cap space to build around those two because it'll all be tied up in a guy who isn't worth half his contract. I'm reserved to it at this point. I only hope he can keep improving on defense and mitigate how bad a deal that is. My fingers are definitely crossed, because honestly, who would trade for Wiggins right now? Who would pick up that contract? If there's anybody, I'd be on the phone for sure.

I got a feeling people will pick up the phone in Wiggins when there were rumors saying wiggins could have gotten butler or kyrie

kekgeek1 wrote:

SameOldDrew wrote:If Wiggins can keep improving on defense like he has this year and increase his efficiency he can be a solid NBA starter. Yet that's nowhere near being worth what we're paying him for, which is why I and others were saying we should have traded him last year or at least not signed that insane extension. Horrible deal. I'm pretty sure that contract will be the reason we never actually become a contender despite having Butler and Towns--two guys who actually deserve the max--we'll never have the cap space to build around those two because it'll all be tied up in a guy who isn't worth half his contract. I'm reserved to it at this point. I only hope he can keep improving on defense and mitigate how bad a deal that is. My fingers are definitely crossed, because honestly, who would trade for Wiggins right now? Who would pick up that contract? If there's anybody, I'd be on the phone for sure.

I got a feeling people will pick up the phone in Wiggins when there were rumors saying wiggins could have gotten butler or kyrie

We are still paying Wiggins 7.5 million this season which is a pretty good deal. IF he plays defense most nights and he is a 2-way wing player that's worth quite a bit of money. People are saying his deal is bad because they have no confidence he is gonna be a better player a year or 2 from now. We will see.

Back to the iso of this thread I'd be curious what Wiggins numbers are on iso's Within like 10-12 feet from the basket. He has seemed pretty good there this year and better than before.

Absolutely not surprising at all. I cringe every time he gets the ball in isolation or up top with ball screen action. It usually means a missed shot or bobbled handle.....His greatest strength (the ability to get shots off) is also his greatest weakness because he misses so much. But I think Thibs has to give him some touches in order to keep him minimally engaged otherwise.

monsterpile wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

SameOldDrew wrote:If Wiggins can keep improving on defense like he has this year and increase his efficiency he can be a solid NBA starter. Yet that's nowhere near being worth what we're paying him for, which is why I and others were saying we should have traded him last year or at least not signed that insane extension. Horrible deal. I'm pretty sure that contract will be the reason we never actually become a contender despite having Butler and Towns--two guys who actually deserve the max--we'll never have the cap space to build around those two because it'll all be tied up in a guy who isn't worth half his contract. I'm reserved to it at this point. I only hope he can keep improving on defense and mitigate how bad a deal that is. My fingers are definitely crossed, because honestly, who would trade for Wiggins right now? Who would pick up that contract? If there's anybody, I'd be on the phone for sure.

I got a feeling people will pick up the phone in Wiggins when there were rumors saying wiggins could have gotten butler or kyrie

We are still paying Wiggins 7.5 million this season which is a pretty good deal. IF he plays defense most nights and he is a 2-way wing player that's worth quite a bit of money. People are saying his deal is bad because they have no confidence he is gonna be a better player a year or 2 from now. We will see.

This statistic gives credence to the idea that he's regressing offensively.

Personally, I think he's improving on defense. And I think there's a lot of potential there... hopefully.

So looking on NBA.com here are a couple interesting things for a guy that has been disappointing on the offensive end as a whole this year.

1. ISO's as a percentage for Wiggins is down a couple percentage points from last year. That's not particularly surprising.

2. Wiggins effectiveness on post ups is better than the previous year. 2016-2017 his FG% was 41.5% in post ups with .87 points per possession for 47.4 percentile. Not good. This year so far it's 1.02 points per possession 58.1 Fg% and 85.1 percentile. They only had data for 3 years and I didn't see anything on Wiggins post ups fron the 2015-2016 which seems weird.

I've always thought there were three keys to Wiggins becoming a key positive force:

1. Dramatically improving his defense and bringing his defense every game;
2. Becoming a better and more consistent 3-point shooter; and
3. Getting the vast majority of his offense from fast-breaks, spot-up threes and post-ups while avoiding half-Court iso plays.

Wiggins has bad hands, and a terrible handle. He also lacks intensity or anything approaching a killer instinct. Those things won't change. I'm growing less confident in his three-point shooting prospects. But I'm encouraged by his defensive improvement and his post-up game. I don't see him ever becoming a player worthy of a max deal and I wish we had dealt him for Kyrie Irving or traded him instead of Dunn and LaVine. But that's in the past. Maybe some front office is still drooling over Andrew's physical gifts to the point where they'd give us a good return in a deal. But I wouldn't count on that. Instead, we have to hope Wiggins develops substantially in the three areas I mentioned.