The Andrew Wiggins Thread

[Swish4]

S-U-P-E-R-S-T-A-R

[Klomp]

Spoiler:

Oh my!

[AttackTheRack]

Said it before, say it again. Guy's gonna' deliver some of the Greatest Facials of All-Time. Just like me, Peter North.

[Saltine]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY8Tvcsr3AA[/youtube]

[Klomp]

He and Towns have a chance to be 2 of the best players in the entire league. Two way players. A wing and a big man. Like KD and Durant. Only better.

Huh?

[Murphs56]

Would be awesome if Wiggins got to be an all-star this year since it's in Canada

[theGreatRC]

Would be awesome if Wiggins got to be an all-star this year since it's in Canada

If we feed the beast, he'll be wearing an all-star jersey in Feb

[Crazy-Canuck]

The Toronto board might make that AS push just like they did with Lowry.

I wouldnt be surprised to see Drake get into this action.

[Flight33]

We will get Andrew into the all star game.

[vagelis]

I say it from the first day I have seen him that Wiggins can be the next MJ.
I know that this sounds crazy for many people but in my opinion Wiggins has better tools than Lebron James has or Kobe Bryant had.
James could never reach Jordan's level because he has not all the tools(his vertical jump by 2 foots is by far lower than Jordan's or Wiggins).
Bryant the same, he had never Michael Jordan's speed.
But Wiggins is very close in all athletic tools.
Furthermore his jump shot is very very good for his age. By far better than Lebron James jump shot in the same age.
I don't say that he is a better player currently but he has better tools.
He needs to develop those tools and be more aggressive in order to become the best player of the league sooner or later and one of the bests of all time.
Ok, nobody can be sure for anything but this is my opinion.
So don't underrate him, Minnesota is very lucky to have this player.
He is maple Jordan and he matures very very quick!

[basketballbeans]

Anyone know whether or whether not he is playing tonight against the Warriors?

[C.lupus]

Anyone know whether or whether not he is playing tonight against the Warriors?

Last I heard both Wiggins and Rubio were listed as "probable" and expected to play. We'll know more after shootaround I guess.

[Crazy-Canuck]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14002784/way-andrew-wiggins

Thorpe made a pretty good observation to know when he was playing hurt. (video) If you watch the other video, 2/4 panelists think the Wolves battle for the 8th spot THIS year.

"We used to make a joke saying, 'Goddang, Andrew, quit being so nice,'" says Bill Self, who coached Wiggins at Kansas. "He said, 'You know, people in Canada are polite. What's wrong with being polite?'"

"If he has a big game, he doesn't talk a lot of mess," says LaVine, one of Wiggins' best friends in the NBA. "But when I was having a pretty good game, I had a dunk, he was talking mess for me and yelling. He gets more pumped up when his teammates do well than when he does."

[mondry]

I say it from the first day I have seen him that Wiggins can be the next MJ.

I agree he has the tools, the one thing that I think could stop him though isn't physical, it's his mentality. Maybe it was the injury in the first 2 games but he was way too passive and rubio seemed to light a fire under him with some of his comments. Obviously that's good that he can turn it on, but if you're going to be a GOAT it should ALWAYS be on.

Hopefully as he gains more experience and develops he'll realize just how dominate he can be and his confidence goes through the roof. The last couple games have been very encouraging.

[Reddy83]

I say it from the first day I have seen him that Wiggins can be the next MJ.

I agree he has the tools, the one thing that I think could stop him though isn't physical, it's his mentality. Maybe it was the injury in the first 2 games but he was way too passive and rubio seemed to light a fire under him with some of his comments. Obviously that's good that he can turn it on, but if you're going to be a GOAT it should ALWAYS be on.

Hopefully as he gains more experience and develops he'll realize just how dominate he can be and his confidence goes through the roof. The last couple games have been very encouraging.

You know how Westbrook literally seems crazy some nights? That's how Jordan played most every night early in his career. He was hyper aggressive, to the point of ball hogging. He had the ball all the time and wanted to be better than everyone else all the time. There will never be another Jordan, and though i love Wiggins, giving anyone a ceiling of MJ without the same maniacal, obsessive play style is overdoing it. Also, LBJ is already top 10 in my book and will go down as top 5.

I'd put Wiggins' ceiling at Kobe, but doubt he gets there due to mentality (hope he does though!) at this point I think most likely scenario is Paul George / TMac like player

[vagelis]

I think that Wiggins is already in the same level with Paul George and he has the potential to improve a lot.
T-Mac was a better player than Paul George and it would be nice if Wiggins would become a player like T-Mac.
But my prediction is that he will be a little better.
He is already improved and more aggresive than the previous year and I think the next year he can be the best scorer of the league.
This year he can average 22-23 pts I think

[Reddy83]

I think that Wiggins is already in the same level with Paul George and he has the potential to improve a lot.
T-Mac was a better player than Paul George and it would be nice if Wiggins would become a player like T-Mac.
But my prediction is that he will be a little better.
He is already improved and more aggresive than the previous year and I think the next year he can be the best scorer of the league.
This year he can average 22-23 pts I think

Just following up on my previous post - Kobe is top 10 all time, so saying his ceiling is Kobe is no joke. Regarding the Tmac/Paul George comps--

Wiggins is NOT at the same level as George right now, though it seems like it due to similarity in numbers. He is pretty close though, which is kind of insane considering he's 10 games into his second season. George played Lebron to a near dead heat in the playoffs a few years back. He can score but is an even better defender. In retrospect I think Wiggins can and likely will be better than George offensively, defensively he is good but not yet great. Other notable discrepancies are his handle and passing, which just aren't as good thus far, however if you compared them at the same age then it might be a different story. I didn't watch George early in his career and can't say one way or the other.

TMac was an offensive marvel and at one point only Kobe was his equal in terms of scoring. Big Sleep didn't have the same mental toughness of Mamba and long term fell off. He had a five year peak where he was unstoppable offensively, but his effort on defense was kind of suspect despite his physical gifts. You could argue that TMac is the opposite of what we want from Wiggins -- a guy that just gets buckets but doesn't lead a defensive squad out of the first round.

Put it all together--you get the incredible offense of a TMac...dribble drives and athleticism to finish, post up game, pull ups off curls and face up isos, three point range and consistency in getting to the line PLUS a defensive intensity and capability of George. That would be a hell of an NBA player. That's what Wiggins should be based on skill set.

IF you add a killer mentality and obsessive nature, then you get Kobe.

[zDank]

T-Mac did not fall off because he didn't have the mentality, he was crippled by injuries to his back

[soxfan2003]

I say it from the first day I have seen him that Wiggins can be the next MJ.
I know that this sounds crazy for many people but in my opinion Wiggins has better tools than Lebron James has or Kobe Bryant had.
James could never reach Jordan's level because he has not all the tools(his vertical jump by 2 foots is by far lower than Jordan's or Wiggins).
Bryant the same, he had never Michael Jordan's speed.
But Wiggins is very close in all athletic tools.
Furthermore his jump shot is very very good for his age. By far better than Lebron James jump shot in the same age.
I don't say that he is a better player currently but he has better tools.
He needs to develop those tools and be more aggressive in order to become the best player of the league sooner or later and one of the bests of all time.
Ok, nobody can be sure for anything but this is my opinion.
So don't underrate him, Minnesota is very lucky to have this player.
He is maple Jordan and he matures very very quick!

Celtics fan here who was an early supporter of Wiggins -- I said the Celtics should trade KG/PP/Rondo/Green and buyout Bass et cetera in the summer of 2013 and tank hard for Wiggins. Even created a thread on the Celtics forum called Wiggins Watch.

(If he avoided major debilitating injury), in the summer of 2013 I gave Wiggins a 45% chance to be a future top 10 player, 45% chance to be a top 25 player and a 10% chance to be a relative bust. For a player with Wiggins talent, anything below top 25 as a player is basically a relative bust. I even said to Celtics fans that Wiggins, before he played for Kansas, would be a relative disappointment in college game because of the poor spacing at that level and the college game really favors the 3 ball even more than the NBA. I had seen how the college game slowed down even Jordan so I expected the same thing with Wiggins even though they are not the same player. Wiggins is pretty unique....almost what you would expect out of a taller but less athletic/skilled MJ.

From what I have seen since, I see no reason to improve or lower those odds. He does not have MJ or Lebron like athletic talent but players like Kevin Durant and Kobe don't either. MJ and Lebron were both even greater athletic freaks and I thought it was about a 99% certainty for MJ to be better than Dr. J when he was entering the NBA. And like a lot of other people I was calling Lebron, a Jordan/Magic hybrid well before he even entered the NBA. IMHO MJ for all of his greatness got a little overrated for his contributions to the Bulls championship teams, especially the last 3 peat but the guy was a scary monster in the 1980's on both ends and deserves to go down as a top 1-2 perimeter player of all-time. Check out his block/steal numbers some years. MJ leaping off of 1 foot and change of directions with the ball in his hands is just noticeably superior to Wiggins and it should be since he is shorter. Wiggins has some athletic advantages over MJ but not enough to be as good and MJ's skills were impressive. Perhaps, Wiggins has the potential to be as good as the last 3 peat Jordan but I do not think he has the potential to be 80's Jordan who was just spectacular.

Lebron had stronger ball handling as a jr in high school than Wiggins has now. Also, the better all around athlete for basketball. That is not a disservice to Wiggins, who is a freak athlete in his own right.

The one very significant potential advantage that Wiggins has over young Jordan and young Lebron is he is not as good as them in terms of overall athleticism/ball handling so it may help incentivize him to learn to hit 3's better early in his career. And that would be fairly huge. But counting on that is not fair to Wiggins. But obviously if Wiggins can shoot from the outside and free throw line like KD, we are talking about the future MVP of the league. I just don't think its fair or reasonable to put that level of expectation on him based upon what he has shown so far.

Lebron could dominate driving to the hoop but in the 2007 playoffs since he couldn't hit the 3 reliably, SA basically put up a stone wall defense against him and really contained him. The hope for Wolves fans and MN is my 2nd favorite team out west behind the Warriors(I have lived in Warrior country for a long time) is Wiggins really maximizes his perimeter shooting ability so a defense like 2007 SA or other strong playoff defenses doesn't contain him.

Lebron was so damn gifted he could get away with pretty mediocre outside shooting at times and that probably didn't incentivize him enough to improve certain aspects of his game.

I see Wiggins as someone with top 5 NBA potential if he does a very good job maximizing his talent but not top 1-2 potential but I have been wrong before. In all honesty my batting record when I make predictions on basketball players is darn good since I only make predictions I am pretty darn confident. Wolves fans are fortunate to have Wiggins and Towns.

I hope when the Warriors run in the WC is done, they pass the torch in that conference to the Wolves. I've been to Minneapolis several times including a few weeks before that bridge collapse. Minneapolis is a great city especially if you can afford a home in the woods near (I believe) the Mississippi river. I suspect those houses have to be expensive since the location is so nice.

[vagelis]

Reddy83 I agree with your last post with the prediction of tmac-s offense in numbers and Paul George's defense.

Soxfan2003 I disagree with you that Wiggins is worse athlete than Lebon James.
I agree that Jordan was a better athlete. But as you have said, Wiggins is taller.
The thing with Wiggins,in my opinion is that he has not athletic disadvantage, he is above average in all athletic aspects.
This a little funny but If I would evaluate their atletic tools in each ones prime(Wiggins is not yet there), I would give

Jordan
2 foot jump 10/10
1-foot jump 10/10
first step 10/10
speed 9.5/10
direction change 9/10
strength 8/10

Wiggins

first step 10/10
2 foot jump 10/10
direction change 9/10
strength 9/10
speed 8.5/10
1-foot jump 8.5/10

Lebron James
speed 10/10
strength 10/10
1-foot jump 9.5/10
first step 8/10
direction change 7.5/10
2 foot jump 7.5/10


I mean that Lebron has parts that made him dominate( extraordinary speed,strength and one foot jump).
But also he has/had parts that he is not above average(first step,direction change,2-foot jump).
This is the athletic part.
As for the handles, Wiggins got better this year and I think he can get even better.
I think he will be like Jordan in handles and dribbiling ability and don't forget his spin move, which is the best/fastest that nba has seen.
I agree that Wiggins needs a lot of improvement to get in Lebron's, Durant's or Bryant's level but I think he can in the next 2-3 years. Jordan was something very special and I also think that it is very difficult to get in this level. I just hope and wait to see his improvement