Booker vs Wiggins

[Colbinii]

Wiggins has all the tools to be a terrific defender (aside from the fact that he is pretty weak physically) but we are going on the end of year 3 and he's still a deplorable defender. Not a bad one, a deplorable one. He's just brutal. Literally one of the worst in the league. I figured Thibs could help in this area, but he has not. This is just one area where he is simply not progressing

I've never seen scouts whiff of anything more in my life than Wiggins supposed "nba ready" defense. He was billed as ready to come into the league and be an impact defender from day 1 if nothing else. Couldnt be further from the truth. He's one of the worst defensive players in the game. He does have the tools to be better. But he's going to have to get waaaaaaaay better and fast before we just come to the conclusion that he's just not going to be that guy

Honestly, he is lazy. I hope he picka it up, because KAT did this season and if Wiggins is going to chuck, not pass, and not play defense KAT is going to want out.

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One of the big red flags about Wiggins from day 1 was all the coaches that have publicly called him out for effort. Coaches tend to not go down that road publicly with their own players if at all possible.... but we saw bill self do it at Kansas. Then we saw flip Saunders do it in Minnesota. He literally came out and said "Andrew needs to learn to play harder". When do you ever hear that?

They don't bite as puppies they probably won't when they grow. Part of Wiggins DNA is to slack. At some point people are just going to have to accept that's what he is. I don't know if we are there yet, but it's close

He reminds me of the very talented, suburb kid who would rather play video games than work on his game.

[Texas Chuck]

He reminds me of the very talented, suburb kid who would rather play video games than work on his game.

As a guy who was once a very-untalented kid from the suburbs who busted his tail just to make/get minutes on his high school team, these guys always drove me crazy. We had one guy in particular with great size, athleticism, and skill who should have been our best player, but frankly the rest of us hated even having him on the team because his lack of effort was so severe that he was a negative on the court despite gobs of ability. Every year he would start the year in the starting lineup and every year he'd be a garbage time only player by about the 3rd week of the season.

Hope Wiggins decides his career matters enough to change his whole approach. Maybe the Wolves can bring in a vet who can get his attention.

[PhillySixers22]

Even though they're both still extremely young, I'm not sure I see either being a future superstar. That said, I'll go with Wiggins based on both potential and what we've seen thus far. One aspect of Wiggins game I haven't seen mentioned yet, that I value highly and believe is one that elevates many stars to superstars, is his ability to get to the line. The vast majority of offensive superstars draw fouls at a high rate and despite his many flaws, Wiggins consistently gets to the line. This season the only player in the top ten in PPG that goes to the line less than 7 times per game is Steph Curry, whose incredible shooting makes him an obvious exception. Granted this alone doesn't make Wiggins better, but imo if I were picking one skill between these two his foul drawing would be tops.

[NTB]

Even though they're both still extremely young, I'm not sure I see either being a future superstar. That said, I'll go with Wiggins based on both potential and what we've seen thus far. One aspect of Wiggins game I haven't seen mentioned yet, that I value highly and believe is one that elevates many stars to superstars, is his ability to get to the line. The vast majority of offensive superstars draw fouls at a high rate and despite his many flaws, Wiggins consistently gets to the line. This season the only player in the top ten in PPG that goes to the line less than 7 times per game is Steph Curry, whose incredible shooting makes him an obvious exception. Granted this alone doesn't make Wiggins better, but imo if I were picking one skill between these two his foul drawing would be tops.

Booker's FTA after January(45 games): 6.75
Wiggins' FTA after January(49 games): 6.69

The reason I brought up this stat is that Booker started bad to the season and he improved himself a lot on drawing fouls.

[homecourtloss]

I want to say Wiggins, but I'm really wary of his three year aggregate VORP of -.8. There are a few players with a negative aggregate VORP after two seasons who went on to have All-Star like careers (Rip Hamilton), but are there any who did so after THREE such seasons?

Booker is at -.8 VORP after two seasons so looking iffy there as well.

[Qwigglez]

I'm taking Booker all day. I don't know what Booker was on in January, but if he can manage to shoot 46% from the field for an entire season, watch out league! I think Booker is also an underrated passer that would benefit from having better players around him. His defense is bad, but the kids mentality is he wants to be great, so I'm sure he'll work on every aspect of his game this summer.

[Illmatic12]

He reminds me of the very talented, suburb kid who would rather play video games than work on his game.

As a guy who was once a very-untalented kid from the suburbs who busted his tail just to make/get minutes on his high school team, these guys always drove me crazy. We had one guy in particular with great size, athleticism, and skill who should have been our best player, but frankly the rest of us hated even having him on the team because his lack of effort was so severe that he was a negative on the court despite gobs of ability. Every year he would start the year in the starting lineup and every year he'd be a garbage time only player by about the 3rd week of the season.

Hope Wiggins decides his career matters enough to change his whole approach. Maybe the Wolves can bring in a vet who can get his attention.

I heard a recent podcast with Jeff Van Gundy and Tom Crean (Woj The Vertical podcast), and they made some points that alluded to this.

Both of those guys, and obviously they've been involved with coaching for a long time, they feel like it's getting harder to coach a lot of young players nowadays because many of them are more interested in being liked or praised than being competitive. And that they'd rather spend 1,000 hours in an empty gym with a trainer working on fancy moves, rather than playing 1v1 and competing against another athlete.

Wiggins strikes me as one of the guys he's talking about - it's the AAU mentality where kids grow up wanting to look good on the court but don't know how to flat out compete. If you're competitive you'll do whatever it takes to win over your opponent. Jordan and Kobe weren't necessarily great all-around players coming into the league, but they forced themselves to become that because they were so damn competitive.

Between these two players, Wiggins has a higher ceiling but I feel that Booker is more likely to reach his ceiling. He has the natural competitive edge that you don't have to teach, everything else can be learned as he gains experience and develops his body + skills.

[BasketballFan7]

Wiggins should be far superior. His shot will only get better, he is a terror driving to the rim, he is taller and more athletic, and he has a natural feel in the post. He is insanely gifted and should be a top-tier defender.

Sadly, I think Booker will be better. I think Booker can become a borderline top-10 player, and I don't see that from Wiggins.

[NTB]

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