An examination of Andrew Wiggins’ shooting woes
Around the rim
Wiggins possesses elite athleticism and can yam on just about any big man in the league. However, finishing around the rim is more sophisticated than being able to jump the highest. Players need to have the strength to fight through the contact down low, body control to squeeze through the tightest of spaces and good touch to lay the ball in gently at times.
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Luckily, Wiggins can do a little of everything and is finishing 70.5 percent of his shots when within the restricted area. This is right up there with some of the elite players in the NBA as Kevin Durant (70.6 percent) and Giannis Antetoknoumpo (72.2 percent) are right there with him.
While the 70.6 percent is a huge increase over his previous career high of 64 percent in 2015-16, the bad news is Wiggins is attempting a career-low 4.2 attempts in the paint after taking 6.1 last season.
If we use a bigger scope to gauge his success and look at how he’s shooting within five feet of the basket, it’s still an impressive percentage, as he’s knocking down 67.9 percent of those shots.
One way Wiggins can increase his shot attempts around the hoop is to increase the number of cuts he makes. Given his skill set, he can become an elite cutter in this league. And his numbers show it.
When Wiggins finally decides to slash to the basket, he scores 1.60 points per possessions, which is in the 94th percentile in the league. The issue is he only cuts on 5.2 percent of the time, an extremely low number for a third scoring option.
So now we know Wiggins is a very good finisher around the rim, how does he fare in his mid-range game though?