Golden State Warriors: Why Otto Porter Jr. should start over Andrew Wiggins

Otto Porter Jr. has found his home for this upcoming season with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors gave Porter a $2.4 million contract for one season. Upon signing with the team, Porter stated that his role isn’t fully fleshed out yet, but the team expects him to space the floor and play defense.

Although Porter’s role hasn’t been fully defined yet, Golden State should strongly consider starting him at small forward next season, as he is better suited to start games than incumbent starter Andrew Wiggins.

Let’s take a look at why Otto Porter Jr. is a better fit for the Golden State Warriors starting lineup than Andrew Wiggins next season.

Wiggins spent a significant portion of his minutes standing behind the arc. For instance, early in the first quarter of the Warriors’ home game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Wiggins stood behind the arc, on the left wing, as Kelly Oubre had the ball in the right corner. Oubre went over a Stephen Curry screen as he tried to separate from his defender, Donte DiVincenzo.

Unfortunately, Oubre didn’t manage to get separation, leading him to pass the ball to Draymond Green, who stood behind the arc on the right-wing. Green would immediately pass the ball to Wiggins, who ended the possession by taking and making a wide-open three.

The Warriors’ usage of Wiggins was the catalyst for him having to spend 22 percent of his possessions as a spot-up shooter last season, averaging 4 per game. However, Wiggins has yet to succeed in the spot-up shooter role throughout his career, converting 37.3 percent of his attempts since 2015 on 2.9 shots per game.

Porter would be much better suited for the role as spot-ups have accounted for 27.5 percent of his possessions, averaging 3.3 per game since 2015. Porter has shot 45.3 percent from the field on spot-ups on 3.1 shots a game.

Inserting Porter in the starting lineup would allow the Warriors to move Wiggins into a role where he could be more consistent. A factor in forecasting Wiggins’ success is how many pick and rolls he averages per game. Wiggins averaged 7.8 pick and rolls per game in 2016-17, shooting 40.2 percent on 6 attempts per game. He scored 6.5 points per game, 27.5 percent of his production.

Wiggins only posted similar statistics when he averaged a career-high 8.5 pick and rolls during his final 42 games in Minnesota. He shot 41.5 percent on 6.6 attempts per game, scoring 7.4 points out of the pick and roll, 33 percent of his points.

Unfortunately, he only averaged four pick and rolls per game, second on the team behind Curry. Therefore, the presence of Porter gives the Warriors an opportunity to move Andrew Wiggins into the 6th man role, where there is a higher likelihood of him running pick and rolls.

Running more pick and picks will allow Wiggins to put up better statistics next season. Consequently, he should increase his value on the trade market. Wiggins increasing his trade value would be a significant benefit to the team.

If the Warriors were interested in acquiring a large salary player in the near future, Wiggins would have to be in the trade. Wiggins is the only large contract the team is willing to move as Golden State gave the other big deals franchise cornerstones.

Therefore the better Wiggins plays, the more other teams will be open to taking his contract in a trade. However, if they choose to keep Wiggins in his current role, they are setting him up to fail as he has never been a good spot-up shooter.