The Great, Good, Bad and Ugly for the Timberwolves (so far)

#DownhillWiggs

Andrew Wiggins‘s start to the season has been something out of a dream.

Wiggs is averaging 25.2 points* on 46.9 percent shooting*, 5.2 rebounds*, 3.4 assists*, 1.1 blocks*, and 0.7 steals per contest this season (*career-highs). In November, Maple Jordan has been nothing short of spectacular in 13 games.

We could go on all day about why Wiggins has found success and how awesome it is, but I want to focus on a few key things here.

First, Wiggins has newfound supreme confidence in his re-tooled offensive arsenal thanks to some big-time clutch performances.

The game that set him on an potentially career-altering terror was a huge win over the now 12-4 Miami Heat. In the fourth quarter, Wiggins put on an insane clutch-time performance that included 16 points and three huge 3s to seal a win in front of an electric home crowd in Downtown Minneapolis.

In years prior, we would see Wiggins take another dribble or two and drift to the corner for a step-back long 2, but this year, Andrew has bought into Saunders’s offensive philosophy of taking analytics-backed shots and taken far less long 2s in favor of 3s.

On Nov. 8, Wiggs brought the Wolves back from the brink in an impressive night, dropping 40 points, seven assists, five rebounds, three blocks, and zero turnovers, while assuming the point guard duties all game long and going back-and-forth with D’Angelo Russell in the fourth quarter.

Second, Wiggins has flashed a much-improved ball-handling ability, that has allowed for him to beat his first defender off the dribble with more regularity, get downhill, and attack with ferocity and touch at the rim.

As a result, Andrew’s isolation numbers are fantastic. He averages 1.08 points per possession on isolations on 48.6 percent shooting. On 55.3 percent of his isos, he either scores or draws a foul, which is good for the 82.4 percentile league-wide. What impresses me most about his isolation numbers is that he has turned it over on just 2.6 percent of his iso possessions, per NBA.com.

Ever since Jeff Teague went down with what must have been a mild case of the plague that kept him out for four games, Ryan Saunders put the ball in Wiggins’s hands more often, allowing him to make reads and plays out of the PnR from the perimeter.

The Point Wiggins experiment is going to continue, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

Last, as a consequence of his improved handle and ability to get down hill, Wiggins is getting more looks at the rim and settling for less mid-range jumpers.

Per Basketball-Reference, Wiggins is taking 10.2 percent of his shots from 10-16 feet and 10.5 percent from 16 feet to the 3-point line, both of which are career-lows. Conversely, Andrew is shooting 27.2 percent of his attempts at the rim, and a career-high 20.1 percent of his looks from 3-10 feet (in the paint). He is shooting 70.0 percent and 49.2 percent from those ranges, respectively, which are also both career-highs.

The most telling sign of all when it comes to Wiggins and his buy-in to this offensive system is his career-best 3-point shot rate: 32.0 percent. Finally getting Wiggs to take less long 2s and more 3s is a huge win for the new coaching staff because it has resulted in the most efficient and most dangerous Andrew Wiggins we have ever seen.