How Andrew Wiggins Evolved Into A Competent Finisher

He’s passive. Lacks focus. Shies away from contact.

Andrew Wiggins’ heart — particularly, his passion for the game — has been questioned incessantly ever since his days as a high school phenom at Huntington Prep.

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In many ways, his lone freshman season at Kansas reaffirmed such assertions regarding his lack of aggressiveness as, despite his world-class athleticism, Wiggins struggled mightily to fully exploit his God-given gifts.

More specifically, the eventual No. 1 overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft labored finishing through contact and converting around the rim.

As noted by Mike Schmitz of DraftExpress, “He has somewhat of a laid-back demeanor on the floor, which can be seen in the way he finishes around the basket at times, his tendency for shying away from contact, and his propensity for settling for long jumpers. He looks reluctant at times to just explode down the lane and dunk on people, which his physical tools suggest he should be able to much more frequently than he does.”

In fact, Wiggins converted on only 56.0 percent of his shots at the rim as a Kansas Jayhawk. In comparison, his arch nemesis, Jabari Parker, finished 62.7 percent of his attempts from in close during his freshman season at Duke, according to Hoop-Math.

Most notably, the Vaughn, Ontario-native had troubles finishing over opposing bigs in half-court situations.

While Wiggins was, predictably, an unstoppable cyborg when unleashed out in transition, as he produced over 1.3 PPP (points per possession) and scored at an eFG% (effective field goal rate) of 62.7 percent when running out on the break; conversely, however, when forced to play in a controlled half-court environment, Wiggins only converted on an underwhelming 51.8 percent of his shot attempts from in close.

Wiggins was allergic to contact, often taking off from a much further distance than he had to in an effort to avoid interior collisions. To make matter worse, his handle was extremely embryonic, limiting the willowy 6-foot-8 swingman to rudimentary straight-line drives when attacking the basket in half-court sets.

As a testament to his supernatural first-step, Wiggins was still able to invade the paint despite his limitations as a ballhandler. However, his lack of strength, and more importantly, conviction to finish strong when soaring over opposing bigs, caused Wiggins to miss a bunch of inside bunnies.

His unwillingness to mix it up inside, and his depicted passive nature, has suddenly become an ideology of the past.

Since his inception into the NBA as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wiggins has shown a newfound fondness and fervor to seek contact, draw fouls, and finish with authority.

In fact, for the season, the baby-faced 20-year-old is converting on over 65.6 percent of shots from three feet and in, per Basketball-Reference.

More impressively, Wiggins has been creating many of his opportunities from in close through individual ball-in-hand forays, as over half of his field goals made from five feet and in, this year, are unassisted on, per NBA.com.

While his handle still has a long ways to go — specifically, Wiggins still refuses to penetrate going left — he has found his niche attacking the interior with a controlled pace by using the high-post as his primary place of operations.

In doing so, no longer is Wiggins rushing his finishes and/or taking off prematurely; instead, Wiggins is anticipating contact and actively looking to initiate a Vine-embedding, rim-rattling facial.

For such reasons, Wiggins scores over 7.7, of his 16.4 points per game average (or 46.9 percent of his points), exclusively in the paint. Moreover, as a result of his aggressiveness, 24.5 percent of his points derive from free throws.

The Andrew Wiggins we knew at Lawrence, Kansas would have never shown such outward emotions and passion as he’s had during his inaugural season as a Wolf.

Certainly, it took a while for Wiggins to earn the respect of NBA officials, but his vivacious play, particularly since the calendar year turned 2015, has earned young Drew a cavalcade of opportunities to enjoy unimpeded points at the charity stripe.

In fact, during the month of March, Wiggins reaped a free throw rate, or free throw attempts for every field goal attempt, of 0.509 — a significant spike when compared to his season average of 0.392.

Here is the chilling elephant in the room: Wiggins is basically scoring over 16 a game, finishing at the rim at an above average rate, and shouldering an unfathomable amount of responsibilities, on both ends of the floor, without the ability to break defenders down off the bounce or the capability to finish with his left.

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Moreover, even though the 199-pound pogostick houses a Kevin Garnett/Allen Iverson-brand of wiry strength, considering his frame and genes, Wiggins should be able to gracefully fill out and become a much stronger finisher over the upcoming years.

When that happens, expect Wiggins’ interior efficiency to vault to peak LeBron James-levels and make approximately 70-75 percent of his at the rim attempts.

He has already shown glimpses of what a terror in the paint a fully in-tuned and spry Wiggy can potentially become.

During his breakout/banner month of January, not only did Wiggins convert on over 67.6 percent of shots from five feet and in, in which 54.7 percent of said makes were unassisted on, he also scored over 10.1 points per game in the paint over the month.

While the emergence of his post game, and his refined footwork, has gotten the majority of the recognition for his rookie season success, it is his startling improvement as an interior finisher that has spearheaded his Rookie of the Year campaign.

*Stats current going into Apr. 5’s slate of games

Next: 5 Likely First Time NBA All-Stars Next Season

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