Why Andrew Wiggins deserves to be an NBA All-Star

When the NBA All-Star starters for this year’s game were announced last month, it sure was a surprise to see Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors make the cut. With such ridiculous depth in the league these days, there were many who felt he wouldn’t even make the Western Conference roster, never mind actually start the game.

Regardless of what that says about the system in place (which another former Warrior also almost benefitted from), Wiggins will start in the game, and cap off what has been a pretty remarkable rise to mainstream prominence since being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves before ever bouncing a ball in the league.

With what Andrew Wiggins does for the contending Golden State Warriors, you can clearly make a case for his inclusion in the NBA All-Star Game

Alright, so this won’t be an airtight argument. After all, if the NBA just did the right thing and got rid of the rigid positions in place, Andrew Wiggins wouldn’t have been named a starter.

These are the same constraints that mean DeMar DeRozan had to be included as a backcourt player when voting (which is a grey area), and why Devin Booker and Chris Paul can feel aggrieved.

But if we focus on just Wiggins, then he has been the second-best (hold that thought) player on one of the top two teams in the entire league this season. He is posting averages of 18.1 points and 4.3 rebounds, and has a three-point shooting percentage of a sizzling 41.5 percent. Plus, he is doing all of this, while having the highest field goal percentage (48.4) of his career as well.

The knock on Wiggins when he played for the Timberwolves, and even during his early games with the Warriors, was that he looked like he was floating through games. Disinterested is too harsh a word, but certainly, minutes would go by and you would forget he was even on the court. In defense of Wiggins, during this period however, he was usually solid on the defensive end.

This season, he has turned in the best defensive rating of his career so far (101.9), and although some of that has to do with playing for a Warriors team that currently ranks first in that category (103.4), Wiggins is a large part of the reason why they are top of the league in this area as well. It is a case of both player and team benefitting from the system (Warriors) and individual play (Wiggins).

A switch seemed to go off with Wiggins this year, because the engagement is so clearly there. The points per game are right around the best he’s ever produced, but he is getting them by taking over spots of the game more than we have ever seen. His three-point shooting has been hugely helpful, and Wiggins should be commended for making shots he would have once missed.

To be a more efficient scorer, defend an opponent’s best player (and helping Stephen Curry in the process when he can), and pick his spots while in the flow of the offense more, has been a wonderful development at this stage in the career of Wiggins. There is so much to like, and it is why his selection to the All-Star game isn’t as ridiculous as it initially felt to many.

Back to Wiggins being the second-best player on the Warriors, this is because of the situation he finds himself in with the organization. Draymond Green is a better defensive option for a postseason run and is the very personification of the franchise. Wiggins isn’t more important than that, but during the regular season with Green being injured, he steps up big-time.

This is also the beauty of Wiggins, and why he is so important and deserves to be an All-Star. Is there any former first overall pick, capable of being a second option, who will also slide down the scale to being the fourth option when the time comes? The touches and offensive involvement of Wiggins have decreased since Klay Thompson’s return from injury.

Come the playoffs, assuming the Warriors are fully healthy, he will fit in around these three established stars who have led the franchise to championships. But with Thompson having understandable struggled since coming back after two years out, and the aforementioned health of Green, it is hugely important that plays like a second option now, and a fourth option later.

With the numbers and efficiency to match, why should that not be awarded? There are few players in the league, if any at all, who could cover all of the areas and positions that Andrew Wiggins currently does for the Warriors. To be doing so while playing some of the best and most engaged basketball of his career, perhaps he isn’t that hard to defend anymore after all?