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Was just watching the Wolves preseason game and it got me thinking about Wiggins and how he compares to Hezonja. Both are highly athletic, both good shooters, but in a lot of areas, mainly the mental aspects, i feel Hezonja is better equipped. So i have a question:

If you were to be given an opportunity to directly swap Hezonja for Wiggins right now, would you take it?

This should be interesting...

Yes. Every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I'm excited about Mario, but let's not overblow the level of prospect he is - Wiggins is an A+, blue chip, potential superstar project. Mario is not in that tier in terms of his potential. He could be an outstanding player, maybe even an all-star, but no-one's talking about him being one of, perhaps the best player in the NBA in a few years.

Hindsight will be 20-20, as always, 5 or 10 years from now, but going by what we know now, there should not be a single person who picks Hezonja over Wiggins.

I dont see how Hezonja is better equipped. Wiggins has had more bigtime pressure on him and his performance for a longer period of time.

MitchellUK wrote:Yes. Every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I'm excited about Mario, but let's not overblow the level of prospect he is - Wiggins is an A+, blue chip, potential superstar project. Mario is not in that tier in terms of his potential. He could be an outstanding player, maybe even an all-star, but no-one's talking about him being one of, perhaps the best player in the NBA in a few years.

Hindsight will be 20-20, as always, 5 or 10 years from now, but going by what we know now, there should not be a single person who picks Hezonja over Wiggins.

See that is the difference for me, because i just cannot see this elite potential in Wiggins people keep talking about. Admittedly i do put more emphasis on the mental makeup of a player, and in those aspects of the game, i see Wiggins as being like Dwight and Hezonja being like Kobe.

tiderulz wrote:I dont see how Hezonja is better equipped. Wiggins has had more bigtime pressure on him and his performance for a longer period of time.

Not sure i agree with more bigtime pressure. Hezonja has played in the second best league in the world and played in BIG games. Wiggins played college ball. I dont know, i may be wrong, but Wiggins just presents to me as being really unsure of himself and kind of awkward on the court. Not a chance i would take him over Hezo...

shadrock wrote:

MitchellUK wrote:Yes. Every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I'm excited about Mario, but let's not overblow the level of prospect he is - Wiggins is an A+, blue chip, potential superstar project. Mario is not in that tier in terms of his potential. He could be an outstanding player, maybe even an all-star, but no-one's talking about him being one of, perhaps the best player in the NBA in a few years.

Hindsight will be 20-20, as always, 5 or 10 years from now, but going by what we know now, there should not be a single person who picks Hezonja over Wiggins.

See that is the difference for me, because i just cannot see this elite potential in Wiggins people keep talking about. Admittedly i do put more emphasis on the mental makeup of a player, and in those aspects of the game, i see Wiggins as being like Dwight and Hezonja being like Kobe.

And maybe that ends up being the case, but I personally don't see Wiggins as being like Dwight. I think people see that he is quiet and doesn't come off as a traditional alpha personality and assume that means he's mentally weak, but I don't feel that way. I watched a lot of the Wolves last year (I had Wiggins on my fantasy team) and he just comes across as unflappable.

Look at what the kid did in April (a small sample size, but that's all you get with rookies) - 23.3ppg, 6rpg, 4apg, 1spg, .9bpg. He attempted 10.4 free throws per game in that month. He was on a god awful team, so it's not like defenses weren't focused on him. He was relentless in getting to the hoop and drawing contact. There's no doubt he has the mentality to succeed in the NBA.

shadrock wrote:

tiderulz wrote:I dont see how Hezonja is better equipped. Wiggins has had more bigtime pressure on him and his performance for a longer period of time.

Not sure i agree with more bigtime pressure. Hezonja has played in the second best league in the world and played in BIG games. Wiggins played college ball. I dont know, i may be wrong, but Wiggins just presents to me as being really unsure of himself and kind of awkward on the court. Not a chance i would take him over Hezo...

but he wasnt playing big minutes and i dont think the expectation of big performances were on him like they were on Wiggins coming out of HS, at Kansas and then last year as a rookie.

so right now, absolutely its Wiggins over Hezo. There is a reason Wiggins went #1. Hezo's best case for me right now is Klay Thompson, which is a good player. Wiggins best case is better imo though.

No

Kinda crazy that Wiggins is only 2 days older than Mario. But I do think Hezonja will be good in his own right. A more relevant debate that's already been touched upon a bit that I expect to hear a lot more this season is ... Mario vs Oladipo (or Harris)


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I might sound crazy, but Andrew Wiggins hasn't come off to me as having that top-notch, superstar potential. He's got the pure athleticism, but his ball-handling and shooting have to really, really improve for him to become one imo.

Compare his rookie season to the best swing-men's rookie seasons, over the passed 20 or so seasons, and his is somewhere in the back. And it's not like he didn't get the playing time, either. So he's got some ground to make up to live up to expectations, and not saying he can't do it, but I just don't see it happening.

oh the sweet homerism

SHAQ32 wrote:I might sound crazy, but Andrew Wiggins hasn't come off to me as having that top-notch, superstar potential. He's got the pure athleticism, but his ball-handling and shooting have to really, really improve for him to become one imo.

Compare his rookie season to the best swing-men's rookie seasons, over the passed 20 or so seasons, and his is somewhere in the back. And it's not like he didn't get the playing time, either. So he's got some ground to make up to live up to expectations, and not saying he can't do it, but I just don't see it happening.

lucky for him, he is only 20 and can improve

Yeah I gotta go with Wiggins. Even when you factor in our needs I still go with Wiggins but it gets closer as I think Mario is the better shooting prospect between the two but I still think Wiggins is the better prospect. As far as ceiling the sky is the limit for either. I am not a fan of putting ceilings or basements on players on players and saying at best Mario can be Klay Thompson. He very well could be much better than that. Only time will tell and I think Mario is a better athlete than Klay is. But only time will tell what these guys will be but yeah if I had to put my money on one guy being better than the other I gotta go with Wiggins but we shall see in a few years.

I'm not overly impressed with Wiggins either, and honestly when compared Mario is right there with him from measurements to age to athletic ability. Mario has been playing "professional" basketball since the age of 15 if I'm not mistaking, with grown men.

I would even say if Hezonja went to college in the states that he would be competing for the number one pick easily.

Neither are future superstars but both can be upper tier players. Hezonja is a better shooter and passer, wiggins has a better post game and defender. Overall wiggins is better.

This will be an interesting thread to look back on.

At the moment I'd obviously say Wiggins, and that's only based on the fact we haven't seen Hezonja for a full season, where as we have of Wiggins.

Could Hezonja end up being the better player? Absolutely.

I don't find this question interesting at all.

Wiggins appears to be a perennial all-star talent, while Hezonja is a relatively unknown commodity who probably won't crack the starting rotation anytime soon. It's kind of hard to say no to that swap...

With that said, I certainly hope Hezonja ends up better than Wiggins. That would be pretty freaking awesome for us.

Wiggins Potential = T-Mac with longer Prime
Hezonja Potential = Jason Richardson maybe better 3 point shooting

A better question would be oladipo or wiggins, and i would take dipo.