2. Why it will stop: Andrew Wiggins
Andrew Wiggins has been one of the most controversial players over these last five years with the Minnesota Timberwolves. While there are some fans who do still stand up for him, many now see his contract as not being worth the paper that it is printed on.
Despite president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas saying he wants to help Wiggins and not just abandon him and then just a few months later showing more signs of wanting Wiggins to be one of the main contributors to the team, the Timberwolves organization seems to have already lost that faith in Wiggins as a key player to their future.
Through these first six games, Wiggins has played the fewest minutes per game (32.4) in his career. But that neglect seems to have motivated Wiggins at the moment, as he is averaging his second-highest numbers in points per game (21.2), third-highest in 3-point percentage (33.3 percent) and his best Player Impact Estimate (9.5) in his career.
The reason that Wiggins could very easily be the cog that stops the Minnesota machine from moving forward is because history has shown that the more the Timberwolves use him, the less effective he becomes.
https://twitter.com/RealEthanBecker/status/1159509654629695490
While at first the graph above might seem obvious (after all, the more minutes you play, the more shots you miss, right?) this actually doesn’t happen with many other NBA players. Wiggins teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, for instance, doesn’t follow this same trend in his shooting.
But it shouldn’t be a problem, right? After all, Minnesota isn’t relying on him as much, and so we’re good, right?
Andrew Wiggins is currently averaging the third-highest usage rating in his career at 26.3 percent. The Wolves are relying on him on over a quarter of their plays.