Minnesota Timberwolves: Andrew Wiggins is too one dimensional

Andrew Wiggins is a one dimensional player for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and that’s hurting their team.

Andrew Wiggins is one of the most explosive scorers in the NBA. Throughout his first three seasons in the league, he has vastly expanded his game to be able to score from just about anywhere on the court.

When he entered the league he was a more limited scorer, mostly relying on his athleticism to attack the basket.

During his rookie year, he averaged 5.4 field goal attempts from within five feet of the basket.

He also took 88.9 percent of his shots from inside the arc that season, which ranked eighth among guards who played 50 or more games that year.

Wiggins has worked hard to expand his shooting, however, as he is now taking, and making, more shots from the outside.

That percentage decreased significantly despite him taking more shots from within five feet of the basket, 6.5 field goal attempts this past season.

A main reason why Wiggins is taking more shots closer to the basket is because he is taking more shots overall. On average, he took about six more shots per game this year than he did during his Rookie campaign.

Wiggins only took 81.6 percent of his shots from inside the arc this past season, marking a significant change from the previous years.

Wiggins shooting percentage also improved significantly this year. After not shooting above 31 percent from downtown during his first two seasons, Wiggins increased that percentage to 35.6 percent this past year. That brings him extremely close to the league average of 36 percent.

Overall, Wiggins has improved his scoring totals across the board as he averaged a career-high 22.8 points per 36 minutes this past season. That is an exact six point increase from his rookie year.

However, the issues with Andrew Wiggins has never been his scoring. It’s been his areas to contribute in other areas of the game.

Wiggins rebounding averages have actually gone down every single year where he only averaged 3.9 rebounds per 36 minutes this past season, ranking him 147th out of NBA forwards who played at least 50 games last season. I mean, Doug McDermott averaged more rebounds per 36 than Wiggins did.

I’ll let you decide if Wiggins’ passing numbers were better or worse than his rebounding numbers. He averaged 2.2 assists per 36 minutes, which ranked him 64th in the NBA among Forwards who played at least 50 games. He had the exact same amount of assists per 36 as Kevin Love did. Embarrassing.

Let’s take a look at the other end of the floor, where Wiggins has no choice but to bring more than he does in the rebounding and assists categories, right?

Andrew Wiggins Defensive Rating of 110.4 ranked him 285th out of 311 eligible players in the NBA out of all players who played at least 50 games last season.

Maybe we should take a deeper look to see if numbers tell us anything our eyes already weren’t.

Andrew Wiggins recorded 0.020 defensive win shares last season, which ranked 194th in the league of players with 50 or more games last year.

I could stop there, but I won’t.

His steal percentage of 16.3 percent ranked 191st in the NBA, right alongside the Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki.

His block percentage of 10.6 ranked 200th in the NBA, similar to defensive studs such as Jeff Teague and D’Angelo Russell.

The point that I’m trying to make, and I think I did make, is that Andrew Wiggins brings very little to the table outside of scoring.

In a league where the top players are asked to do a little bit of everything, he is falling dangerously short in the other departments.

He doesn’t appear to put a premium or have an interest in competing in the other areas of the game which are so crucial to securing victories for your team.

At this point in his career, Andrew Wiggins might be the second coming of Carmelo Anthony.

While in theory that may sound like a wonderful thing for the Minnesota Timberwolves, in actuality it isn’t as Anthony has only made it out of the first round of the playoffs twice in his career.

Next: Taking A Look At The Oklahoma City Thunder's Free Agents

On a team where the Minnesota Timberwolves hope to win a championship, Wiggins must diversify his game in order to get the Wolves over the top.