Andrew Wiggins: Tracking the Wing's 2nd-Year Progression

To say Andrew Wiggins’ second season has been a disappointment — merely based on his advanced metrics and the occasional mental lapse in effort — would be disingenuous, and disrespectful to the work the 21 year-old has put in.

With great power comes great responsibility.

I guess that would explain the vitriol the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ star swingman, Andrew Wiggins, has received this season for his, in what some would consider, uneven play.

You see, Wiggins has been billed as the golden child of genetic engineering — a flawless athletic specimen; the lionized product of procreation, born in a family with an Olympic medal-winning sprinter as his mother and a former NBA player as his father.

At 6’8″ and long and willowy, his strides are abnormally long and his bounce off of two feet makes you question the lucidity of your vision.

Don’t believe me? Just have a quick gander at his high school mixtape and you too would be convinced of his genetic superiority. He’s built like so many NBA legends that preceded him – most notably akin to the Julius Ervings and Michael Jordans of eras past; Wiggins is long and lean, equipped with a rare concoction of fast-twitch muscle fibers.

But in today’s social media-happy society, prodigies are discovered and hyped at much younger ages and for too prematurely.

For Andrew, he has been anointed “the next one” since the age of 14.

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He was all arms and legs, trotting aimlessly around, wide-eyed, like a baby deer. His shot was terribly inconsistent, and he’d exert so much energy into every drive that he would often over-leap his intended target.

And don’t even get me started on his handle. Wiggins would bounce the rock so upright, you would think he had a permanent stick up his you know what. To make matters worse, he would dribble his waist-high handle right in front of his body — just begging the opponent to outright strip him.

But, lo and behold, his sheer athleticism ameliorated his lack of skills, as he still managed to put up a respectable 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game during his lone collegiate year, and fulfilled his prophecy in becoming the No. 1 overall pick of 2014 NBA Draft.

When his rookie year commenced, not much was expected from Wiggins offensively based on the limited repertoire of skills he showed at Kansas; but in an unexpected turn of events, spearheaded in large part by the Timberwolves’ slew of injuries, Minnesota would give Andrew the proverbial keys to the car.

In said capacity, Wiggins would predictably struggle — but to the surprise of many, he managed to show glimpses of absolute brilliance.

In particular, he became a handful scoring out of the mid-post — utilizing his uncommonly refined footwork for someone his age, in conjunction with his blinding first step, Andrew would make hay by scoring at the rim and getting to the line.

He also further carried over his two trademark skills: his one dribble, step-back J as well as his patented spin move with two feet in the paint.

With his core set of stable skills, Wiggins was able to score — albeit not very efficiently, but he scored nonetheless — en route to capturing the Rookie of the Year award last season.

When the 2015-16 season commenced, however, the hype had once again reached a fever pitch. If you have time, take a look at Andrew’s YouTube videos, and you’d see constant comparisons to Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady in the comments section.

As such, the expectation was that he would become the second coming of the Mamba and T-Mac this year.

To that segment of the basketball watching population, they would come away very disappointed. But, if you actually take a level-headed approach, it’s hard not to recognize how much Wiggins has improved from Year 1 to Year 2.

Although his progression hasn’t been quite as evident as someone like his teammate, Zach LaVine — who went from perhaps the worst rotational player in the league last season to an above average scorer in just two short years — but the steps Andrew has taken this season has been just as impressive given the context (once again).

Explicitly, last year, much of Wiggy’s production derived from an archaic platform — a flashback to early 2000s basketball, when teams would just isolate their star wings on one side, and let him “go to work” on the mid-block.

This year, conversely, the pride of Vaughn, Ontario, is creating in a much more contemporary setting; in particular, showing flashes as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, something no reasonable fan would think he’d be capable of just two years ago.

His handle, while still loose for primary ballhandler standards, is coming along quite nicely. If you have an hour or so to spare, try watching some of his Kansas games on YouTube; you’d be pleasantly surprised at how much lower and compact Wiggins’ dribble is.

Moreover, he is playing at a much steadier pace, effectively using change-of-speeds and hesitation moves when navigating through high and side screen-and-rolls (however, he still favors driving to his right far too often; but given his advantage in quickness and length, he still manages to get to the rim more often than not).

When playing against a coverage in which the opposing big sinks back, he is fully capable of getting all the way to rack and draw falls at a high rate once he gets a full head of steam.

More impressively, he is able to pull-up, or set up his step-back jumper, while going to his right or to his left (although he still settles for way too many long 2s).

To put the cherry on top, he has shown tremendous growth as a passer, especially in a drive-and-kick capacity, where he often utilizes his ability to hang in the air for an eternity, in combination with his gargantuan hands, to buy time, let his passing lanes unfurl, before whipping a pin-point pass out to a weakside spot-up shooter.

While Wiggins will never be the clairvoyant passer that a LeBron James is, it’s conceivable for Andrew to develop into a five-assist per game guy down the line, a la KD.

Perhaps the most notable part of Andrew’s progression in Year 2 (especially prevalent after the All-Star break), on the other hand, is his ability to still drop 20 on nights when his shot isn’t falling.

More explicitly, his propensity and wherewithal to move without the ball keeps him involved throughout the entirety of a contest.

By leveraging his point guard Ricky Rubio‘s brilliant passing and his star center Karl-Anthony Town’s ability to handle and initiate from the pinch-post, Wiggins continuously and tirelessly finds different ways of getting to the front of rim and to the line, with or without the ball.

Everything has come together quite nicely for Andrew Wiggins since the aforementioned All-Star break, as the growing pains he and Timberwolves nation had to suffer through as he was force-fed touches during his first year, year-and-a-half is all starting to pay off.

In fact, over the past month-and-a-half, Wigginsanity is running wild, averaging 20.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.8 steals a contest on an inspiring TS% of 0.576 – in other words, maintaining his productivity while increasing his efficiency as his usage rate appropriately dwindles.

However, while I get Wiggins’ discouraging rebounding rates is a direct result of the team’s philosophical strategy of having their wings leak out — just check out LaVine’s dip in rebounding as he moved from the point to the off guard position as evidence — some of Andrew’s rebounding troubles, alternatively, stems from with his lack of aggressiveness pertaining that specific part of his game.

Unlike someone like Rubio, Wiggins simply does not have a “nose for the ball”.

Likewise, Andrew struggles at times to create fruitful looks in end-of-the-game situations.

This is predominately driven by coach Sam Mitchell‘s vanilla offense in such situations, where he often lets Wiggins operate in a simple high pick-and-roll set with all 5 sets of eyes glued solely onto his young star. With that being said, though, there are far too many instances where the 21 year-old gets stripped outright when the opposing D blitzes the pick-and-roll.

To his credit, Wiggins is getting much better at deciphering such reads, as Wiggy and KAT are gradually honing their pick-and-roll chemistry with Towns slipping the pick when the opposition decides to trap Andrew.

And with the former Kentucky Wildcats’ all-encompassing skill-set, KAT basically morphs into the destroyer of worlds when given the opportunity to play 4-on-3.

In saying all that, does this mean Wiggins has completely grown out of the dreaded “Rudy Gay trajectory”? Well, if his recent play is of any indication, where possessions in which Andrew holds the ball in the mid-post before launching an ill-advised long 2 is appearing fewer and farther in between, then yes.

It wouldn’t even be a stretch to say Wiggins has matched Gay’s ability to negotiate and create out of the pick-and-roll at age 20-21.

Does this mean he’s on track to follow the KD or LeBron trajectory and break-out as a top-10 player as soon as next season?

Well, if I could predict whether a player has both the learning capacity and work ethic to develop at such a strenuous pace without being around the team in an intimate setting, I would immediately quit my day job and apply for a front office or scouting position with an NBA team.

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The truth is, my guess is as good as yours; but to insinuate Andrew Wiggins’ second season has been a disappointment merely based on his advanced stats and the occasional mental lapse in effort would be disingenuous — not to mention, disrespectful to the work Ender has put in.

This may sound foreign to Minnesota Timberwolves fans: but enjoy the process, you finally have something worth cheering for.

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Dissecting Wolves Pt. 2: Tracking The 2nd-Year Progression Of Andrew Wiggins

By Aaron Mah | Apr 12, 2016

To say Andrew Wiggins’ second season has been a disappointment — merely based on his advanced metrics and the occasional mental lapse in effort — would be disingenuous, and disrespectful to the work the 21 year-old has put in.

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