Andrew Wiggins is getting better each year. However, there are five things he can do this season to improve to become a better player.
Andrew Wiggins looks as if it takes no energy or skill to score. He’s just so gifted and athletic, that when he’s on offense – no one can stop him (except Kawhi Leonard). We know about his skill-set on the offensive side – but what does he need to fix elsewhere?
Since his high school days, and being pegged as the next LeBron James – Wiggins, has been the center of attention since day one. It’s unfair to receive these kind of comparisons, no matter how good a player is. It puts these players up for disappointment because of the expectations that are handed to them. But, that’s besides the point and it’s time for Wiggins to prove others wrong.
Each year he seems to get even better, and it’s only a matter of time before he fully develops. A future all-star waiting to happen, Wiggins has a few key components missing from his game from becoming the next best thing.
Many people may say he lacks a killer instinct or a drive – but that’s wrong. While it is noticeable that he looks like he takes himself out of the game and lets Karl-Anthony Towns take over. But, if he lacked this instinct, would he be able to hit so many clutch shots at the end of games, or even play at his best against his former team – the Cleveland Cavaliers.
So many times, we were blessed with Wiggins hitting clutch shots at the end of the game. Not many teams have that luxury of having such a clutch shooter at the end of game situation. Here is a great example of some late game heroics.
When LeBron announced his homecoming back to Ohio, Wiggins days in Cleveland were numbered. James simply didn’t want him on the team anymore, creating a trade for Kevin Love. You can clearly see it still bothers Wiggins that James made these comments about him and ultimately didn’t want to play with him. Wiggins has the most success against the Cavaliers (not counting the Lakers) – averaging 32 points a game. Did I mention LeBron mainly guards him?
I’m a huge Andrew Wiggins fan, and I can’t wait to watch him on this team for years to come. But there is five things he can do to improve this season.
5. 3-Point shooting
Since entering the league, Andrew Wiggins hasn’t been the best shooter from deep. His first two seasons, he’s hovered around a 30-31 percent. However, he greatly improved his shot from deep – averaging 35 percent. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the best percentage, but, he did improve it by 4-5 percent.
Each off-season he has worked hard on improving his outside shot, and you can see it’s paid dividends. This past season he averaged 23 points a game, mainly off of free throws, mid-range shots and shots around the rim.
Imagine what his scoring numbers would be if he was hitting three’s on a consistent basis. Teams won’t be able to sag off as much, causing Wiggins to be a threat from anywhere on the floor. Now he can either drive past defenders, or pull a three on them when there is enough space.
Not to mention the Wolves already shoot poorly from beyond the arc. Wiggins was able to put up 23 points a game with the spacing on the floor as tight as a stamp. Again, imagine what this team would be able to do if he was able to shoot around 40 percent from deep. It would be a scary thing.
4. Free-Throw Percentage
Wiggins find himself at the free throw line quite a bit, but he’s only hitting about 76 percent of those.
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Generated 7/14/2017.
For as much as he drives and likes to score off contact, Wiggins doesn’t execute as much as he and many others would like.
If Wiggins could up his free-throw percentage this season to 80 percent this season it would go along way. There is so many times a team could be winning games late in the game, or even throughout the season, if they could just hit a few free-throws.
It’s such an underrated category, that often times get’s overlooked. It shouldn’t be to hard to fix some of his free-throw issues, as it’s basically a free point. If he can practice this a little more over the off-season – it would help a lot down the stretch late in games.
3. Defense
Everyone has seen Wiggins play defense… it’s not the prettiest. While I will admit, he plays solid on-ball defense. But, it’s his off-ball defense that needs help.
He goes on spurts where you see him get a steal or two a game over the stretch of five or ten games. Then out of no where he will disappears.
I think people give Wiggins a bad rap for defensive play. If you watch this video you can clearly see the only part of his defensive fallout’s happen when he’s playing off-ball.
Now if you watch this video, you can clearly see he understands on ball defense. I know this video was two years ago, but each year he is learning more and more how to play each player. Not to mention it’s James Harden is a great offensive player.
I can’t stress this enough, it’s mainly off-ball situations. We know he understands defense is an important aspect. In a lot of interviews after games he would talk mainly about the defensive play and working hard to fix that.
Coach Thibs is really hammering the young guys on how to play defense. Adding Jimmy Butler should light a fire in Wiggins to play harder on defensive side. As he says in this video, it’s starting to become “muscle memory”.
2. Rebounding
To be fair, Wiggins isn’t going to waste all of his energy trying to muscle for rebounds. Yeah yeah yeah.. he’s 6’8″ and super athletic – but he’s only about 200 lb.
Look, both he and the Wolves are taking a step by step process to make sure he doesn’t put to much muscle on at once. They are taking their time to ensure he doesn’t create any injuries or cause any confusion with his body.
This is very important to take this process slowly. With so much potential and a corner stone player for your franchise, you don’t want to ruin your future.
He could get a rebound or two more a game, and that’s not realistic at all. Over the span of his three years he’s averaged around four rebounds a game. This next year if he could up that to five or six rebounds a game, it would add additional help for Karl-Anthony Towns.
1. Play-Making
A player that has the ability to make plays happen for his team is something special to have. We see it in a lot of good wings and forwards. James Harden (point guard/shooting guard), LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, and so many more.
Wiggins only gets about two assists a game. Just bumping that up to four assists this season isn’t that hard to do. Especially with a talented team now assembled in Minnesota. Wiggins should be able to find other players with ease now, seeing as they have so many more weapons. There is a lot of times where he will drive and kick out, but since the Wolves struggled with the long ball – the ball just wouldn’t drop.
If Wiggins wants to un-tap a whole new dimension to his game, then play-making is how it will happen. Passing the ball more will open up more opportunities to score the ball. Wiggins can create shots playing off-ball offense, or even just involving others will keep the other team on their toes knowing anyone can touch the ball and hurt them. Allowing him to get more shots, with teams knowing it won’t just be him or Towns scoring the ball.
We saw a little bit of that in this nail biter against the Toronto Raptors.
Wiggins is such a talented player and the Wolves are lucky to have him. It’s truly a treat to watch this young man grow into a fantastic NBA player. These next few seasons will be fun seeing how he develops into a possible future all-star. He certainly has the ability to be great, and certainly good things are to come.