Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins’ surprising player comparison…

The Timberwolves’ young core is tantalizing, and there’s no doubt that the sky truly is the limit.

Of course, it all starts with this year’s eventual Rookie of the Year, Karl-Anthony Towns, but it certainly doesn’t end there.

Andrew Wiggins is the reigning Rookie of the Year and is an ultra-athletic 21 year-old in his own right, and he’s taken heat for a lack of improvement in a number of areas throughout the first 56 games of his sophomore season.

I’ve been one of his biggest critics, and even posited that the Wolves should give serious thought to trading the potential of Wiggins for the certainty of a bona fide superstar in order to maximize what would in turn be at least two, if not three championship windows centered around Towns.

But that does not change the fact that Wiggins has an enormous ceiling; he could very well become a legitimate superstar, and it would be irresponsible to ignore the physical tools and abilities that he already has at the ripe old age of 21.

So let’s take a level-headed approach at what it is that Wiggins is providing at this (very early) stage in his career and what they might tell us about his production in the near future, as the anchor on the wing between Zach LaVine and Towns.

We have to start by acknowledging just how unique of a player Wiggins has been this season. There are very few players of his size that get to the free throw line as often as he does yet fail to rebound the ball.

A Basketball-Reference.com Player Season Finder Search of second-year players 6′-4″ and taller who have a free throw rate of 0.4 or greater (meaning they shoot 0.4 free throws for every field goal they attempt) but a rebounding rate of six percent or lower turns up just seven players in the shot clock era, including Wiggins.

Most are pass-first players and/or point guards (Doc Rivers, Pete Maravich), save for Wiggins and one other intriguing entry: Jerry Stackhouse.

More from Dunking with Wolves

• The dream starting 5 for Minnesota Timberwolves 5 years from now
• Anthony Edwards’ latest accolade is a great sign of things to come
• In an OT thriller, Team Canada snatches Bronze from Team USA
• Timberwolves start, bench, cut: Mike Conley, Shake Milton, Jordan McLaughlin
• Which Timberwolves roster additions have upgraded the bench?

The journeyman retired after the 2012-13 campaign and played for eight different NBA teams. He was a high-usage player throughout his career, but was never a three-point marksman (30.9 percent career from long-range) and got to the free throw line often.

The biggest difference, of course, is age: Wiggins is technically in his age-20 season while Stackhouse was 22 years old for his sophomore year in the league. In that sense it’s certainly not apples-to-apples, but there are a lot of similarities here.

Stackhouse struggled in his first two years but saw a relative breakout when he was shipped to Detroit during the 1997-98 season. He was eventually a two-time All-Star and improved his shooting over the course of his career. Early on, Stack was extremely athletic, a below-average shooter from beyond the arc, and solid but not great from the free throw line despite getting there a lot.

He was listed at 6′-6″ (Wiggins is 6′-8″) and split his minutes between shooting guard and small forward early in his career. Sound like anyone you know, Wolves fans?

Stackhouse had a rebounding rate of just 5.7 percent over his first two seasons. Wiggins’ stands at 6.7. Stackhouse had a free throw rate of .494, Wiggins’ is .428. Stackhouse had a True Shooting Percentage of .524, Wiggins’ is .522. Stackhouse shot more threes (his three-point attempt rate was .264, Wiggins’ is .125), but didn’t shoot them much better: 30.8 percent versus Wiggins’ 28.1 percent.

Ultimately, Stack was a solid NBA player who didn’t really find team success until he was a 30-plus-year-old role player on a series of very good Dallas Mavericks teams from 2004 through 2009, including a Finals appearance in a loss to Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in 2006.

Do I think Wiggins will be better than Jerry Stackhouse? Yep. But it’s also hard to sneeze at an 18-year career with two All-Star appearances.

The point being, Wiggins’ floor probably isn’t as low as some of the more panicky fans might be led to believe. Is it an issue that an ultra-athletic, 21 year-old playing minutes at small forward is 11th on the squad in rebounding rate, behind three players that have played primarily point guard?

Indeed, it is.

Next: Should the Timberwolves Trade Andrew Wiggins?

But it isn’t necessarily an indictment on his ceiling, either. He just turned 21 years old and the sky remains the limit — although Super Jerry Stackhouse wouldn’t be the worst thing either, would it?