Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 players in SI’s top 100 payers list
By Ben Beecken
No. 74 – Andrew Wiggins
In a vacuum, Andrew Wiggins is not as effective of a player as Taj Gibson, and it isn’t particularly close.
But we aren’t in a vacuum, and Wiggins still has otherworldly athletic ability and an impressive ceiling — remember, he’s still just 23 years old — as well as incremental improvement on the defensive end of the floor.
Here’s an excerpt from Ben Golliver’s ranking on SI.com:
"The major advanced stats agree that his max rookie extension and his reputation as a high-flying scorer both far exceed his on-court value, as he ranked outside the top 200 in PER and Win Shares, outside the top 300 in Real Plus-Minus, and outside the top 500 in WARP. As each season passes, Wiggins’s lack of follow-through becomes more aggravating. He’s attempting more threes, but he hasn’t yet established himself as a knockdown shooter. He has the body and athletic tools to be a premier defender, but his awareness lags and he’s often passive. He can sky for posters, but he shrinks on the glass."
Indeed, we’ve details many of these frustrations frequently at Dunking With Wolves over the last several years, and Wiggins has made progress in correcting very few of the issues.
In terms of his standing on this ranking, he’s just ahead of productive veteran Trevor Ariza (No. 77) and up-and-coming Laker and former No. 2-overall pick Brandon Ingram (No. 75). Wiggins is behind Nicolas Batum (No. 74), Josh Richardson (No. 71), and Will Barton (No. 70).
It would be difficult to suggest that Wiggins is better than any of the players who were ranked higher. As noted by Golliver, Wiggins fails to crack the top 200 in Win Shares and the top 300 in Real Plus-Minus — fairly damning evidence of his ineffectiveness.
All that said, there’s some hope related to a second year playing between defensive stalwarts Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson, and a third year with Tom Thibodeau at the helm. But who knows … it sure feels like we’ve made similar excuses for Wiggins each of the last few offseasons.