Minnesota Timberwolves: Andrew Wiggins struggled mightily in preseason

The Minnesota Timberwolves were hoping for a bounce back season from Andrew Wiggins, but his performance in the preseason was not encouraging.

The Minnesota Timberwolves made a franchise-altering investment in Andrew Wiggins when they gave him a five-year max contract extension worth $147.7 million in October of 2017.

Wiggins had shown glimpses of the talent that made him a number one overall pick, but he had never been able to put together consistent performances night in and night out during his rookie contract.

Nonetheless, Glen Taylor decided to sign off on the deal after having a one-on-one conversation with Andrew which has locked Wiggins in to Minnesota’s foreseeable future.

With each new coach the Wolves hire, there is at least a bit of hope in the fanbase that Wiggins’ talent will finally be unlocked and unleashed.

Ryan Saunders is the latest coach to get to work with Wiggins, but the early returns from the Wolves’ preseason matchups have not been encouraging.

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In the first preseason game against the Suns, Wiggins went 3-for-8 from the floor scoring six points in 11 minutes. When he’s not scoring, Wiggins is not doing much else to fill out the box score and the Suns game was another example of that as he finished with just one assist and one rebound.

Wiggins optimists, if there are any left, could’ve explained that poor performance away by saying he was rusty in limited minutes, and he did play a bit better against the Warriors a few days later with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting in 17 minutes. Once again though, Andrew didn’t rack up any hustle stats with zero rebounds, steals, or blocks while he committed three turnovers.

Wiggins did fine in an easy matchup against Maccabi Haifa with 9 points on 3-for-5 shooting in 12 minutes, but his final two preseason games against NBA competition are where the real concerns lie.

Wiggins went 4-for-16 from the floor against Indiana this week scoring just 11 points in 27 minutes with three rebounds and one assist. Then he followed that up with a 4-for-18 performance against the Bucks where he managed only 10 points, two rebounds, and one assist with three turnovers.

The Pacers and Bucks are two of the league’s better defenses, but shooting 25% or below is simply unacceptable from a player who’s set to make $27.5 million this year.

It’s been widely reported that the Wolves were shopping Wiggins in the trade market this summer, but they never got close to getting a deal done because they couldn’t find an organization to take on his massive deal for the right price.

Holding out hope for Wiggins to reach his massive upside is probably a fool’s errand, and it may even be a stretch to expect a net-positive from him on the court this season.

Wiggins continues to take contested midrange jumpers after he told the media he’s been working on improving his shot selection this summer, and his defense is still not up to snuff for someone with those physical tools.

There is still a possibility that Wiggins is able to hit his stride after getting into the rhythm of the regular season with this new coaching staff, but this preseason showed that all of Andrew’s bad habits are still there and need to be worked on.