As he enters his sixth season in the league, a plethora of questions remain unanswered concerning Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins, the top overall pick from the 2014 NBA Draft.
While he has shown flashes of potential over the course of his career, Wiggins has yet to develop into the consistent two-way star that many expected him to become after he came out of Kansas following his freshman season. Labeling Wiggins as a “bust” would be too strong, as he holds respectable averages of 19.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a steal per game over 400 career contests; not the five-year output of a player who doesn’t belong in the league. No, Wiggins has game. It’s just that he hasn’t grown into the franchise cornerstone that the Timberwolves need him to be, and quite frankly, are paying him to be.
Last season, Wiggins was the 19th highest-paid player in the NBA, which means that the Wolves were paying him like an All-Star. If they hope to have any chance of contending in the West moving forward, they need him to start playing like one. The good news for the Timberwolves though, is that Wiggins is feeling increased confidence following some recent changes made by the organization, and thus he could be in line for a major bounce-back season.
“I feel like my first three years I was on the rise and was getting better and better and then some changes were made,” Wiggins said, via Sportsnet. “I worked really hard this summer, and I’m as confident as I was when I first came into the league.”
True enough, things did indeed appear to be looking up for Wiggins after his third year in the league when he averaged a career-high 23.6 points per game. However, instead of continuing on an upward trajectory, Wiggins’ play plateaued in his fourth and fifth seasons.
Though Wiggins didn’t name names, it seems [very] clear that the “changes” he was referring to was the organization hiring Tom Thibodeau in 2016, and then Thibodeau subsequently bringing in veteran forward Jimmy Butler in 2017. Butler played a similar role to Wiggins, and there seemed to be some underlying friction between the two players. Now with Thibodeau and Butler both elsewhere, Wiggins feels much more comfortable under the leadership of new Wolves coach Ryan Saunders.
“He’s a players’ coach for sure,” Wiggins said of Saunders. “He has a great energy about him and I feel like a lot of guys can relate because he’s not too much older than us and I feel like he gets us.”
In addition to crediting Saunders for his relatable nature, Wiggins explained that he doesn’t respond well to the brash leadership style synonymous with Thibodeau.
“All the yelling and stuff, I feel, is not going to really change my mood,” Wiggins said. “But when a coach comes at me and is real and tells me the real I feel like I respect that a lot more than anyone just yelling. Because anyone can yell, anyone can raise their voice, but not a lot of people can be real. So that goes a long way for me.”
With Butler not around to eat into his opportunities, and a coach that he likes on the sideline, there are no excuses left for Wiggins. The Wolves need him to play up to his potential – and paycheck – if they want to remain competitive in a deep Western Conference. If not, they will be forced to move on.
