It's been 5 yrs. Can we now say Andrew Wiggins is a Bust?

[bondom34]

Oh, and just in case here's him compared to last year's Melo:

http://bkref.com/tiny/H6UtL

Even on a minimum salary he's not really valuable right now.

[2LeTTeRS]

I think so. 5 years in he still looks like he's fresh out of college and walks more than any other elite talent that I've ever watched.

I mean just look at his body. He's obviously cut as hell; but 5 years in he's still skinny as a rail. If he added 15-20 pounds he might look a little worse but he'd be much better as a player; but he seems to have no interest in doing what happens to literally 95% of all NBAers just by nature.

That might could be excused if he actually hustled on the court, but 9 times out of 10 he seems like he only cares when he has the ball. Watching him play is literally a frustrating experience. Maybe that's because I was an all-effort guy who never had a fraction of his athleticism but watching him is the equivalent to listening to someone scratching an old chalk board -- and I just don't get it.

I used to have faith that a light would turn on in his head and this would fade away but now I've lost it all. Wiggins is what he is and at this point it seems appropriate to call him a bust.

[SactoKingsFan]

This is undoubtedly Wiggins' worst year of his career. His advanced stats are a horror show: 48.1 TS%, .5 WS (he will finish this season with less than 1 total WS ), .014 WS/48, -2 OBPM, -.5 VORP, -1.18 DRPM.

I understand it's difficult to say someone averaging 18 ppg is a bust, but at some point the advanced stats have to take precedence right?

(Also, Cleveland must be thanking their lucky stars that LeBron forced Gilbert to trade Wiggins for Love.)

Well if Wiggins has been underwhelming or a bust what has Love been on the Cavs? At least Wiggins plays

Love had some issues on the Cavs but he did have a couple all-star caliber seasons and contributed to winning. The best we can say about Wiggins is he's durable and athletic. There's no way he would have been more valuable to the Cavs even if Love only played 50 games each season.

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[BR0D1E86]

This is a bad take.

Why? Oden was really good when he was actually playing. He may not have spent a bunch of time on the court, but when he was out there he was having a clear positive impact on both ends. If Wiggins never played a game for the Wolves, would they have won even one game less? They might have done better.

He wasn't that good in those 105 games (over like 4 years). At best, he had a solid 2 week run his one and only semi-healthy season.

It's dumb to say you'd want a player who's body literally couldn't handle the NBA over a functional (if flawed) player. You may as well just say you'd rather have nothing than Wiggins because that's essentially what you're saying here.

I would literally rather have nothing than Wiggins. Your team would literally (yes, literally) be better off piling up his salary and burning it while he sits at home.

[JDR720]

He really irritates me to the point that i dislike him personally.

He clearly has (had?) all the talent in the world and is a great athlete, but he cares about basketball as much as I care about what my neighbors eat for supper.

IMO, there a a few different types of bust.

- Injury busts. Players who were good when they were healthy, but "busted" due to injury. Think Greg Oden.
- Raw players that just didn't develop. These are mostly bigs, they might be good at one or two things but just didn't put it together. Bismack Biyombo
- Mental busts. Players who are talented and care about the game, but they just couldn't handle the spotlight and pressure. Bennett
- Bad athlete bust. Players who could be pretty good, but they just couldn't keep up athletically and their skill level couldn't make the difference up. Jimmer Fredette
- The i dont care busts. The worst group. They have the talent, the athletic ability and mentality when they want it but they just dont care 90% of the time. Wiggins is in this group.


Now, i would also add what pick the player was drafted impacts if they are a bust or just over drafted and more importantly who was picked shortly after them (maybe 3-4 picks past them). For example, I dont consider Cody Zeller a bust even though he is just a backup center and was picked 4th. You have to go all the way to 10th (McCollum) to find a player definitely better than him.

[iggymcfrack]

My question is would Wiggins actually be any better in a more limited role? What is he actually good at? If he were to be recast as a role player he'd need some kind of role right?

Emergency bench scorer. When your bench scorer’s injured, he can take over the scoring load. When the bench scorer has to start because of injuries to a starter he gets some minutes too. When everyone’s healthy, he gets a DNP-CD. I think that’s the best role for him to actually be effective.

[SF_Warriors]

This is undoubtedly Wiggins' worst year of his career. His advanced stats are a horror show: 48.1 TS%, .5 WS (he will finish this season with less than 1 total WS ), .014 WS/48, -2 OBPM, -.5 VORP, -1.18 DRPM.

I understand it's difficult to say someone averaging 18 ppg is a bust, but at some point the advanced stats have to take precedence right?

(Also, Cleveland must be thanking their lucky stars that LeBron forced Gilbert to trade Wiggins for Love.)

Well if Wiggins has been underwhelming or a bust what has Love been on the Cavs? At least Wiggins plays

Love made all star games in cleveland and won a chip.. What has wiggins accomplished?

[teke184]

This is undoubtedly Wiggins' worst year of his career. His advanced stats are a horror show: 48.1 TS%, .5 WS (he will finish this season with less than 1 total WS ), .014 WS/48, -2 OBPM, -.5 VORP, -1.18 DRPM.

I understand it's difficult to say someone averaging 18 ppg is a bust, but at some point the advanced stats have to take precedence right?

(Also, Cleveland must be thanking their lucky stars that LeBron forced Gilbert to trade Wiggins for Love.)

Well if Wiggins has been underwhelming or a bust what has Love been on the Cavs? At least Wiggins plays

Love made all star games in cleveland and won a chip.. What has wiggins accomplished?

Getting Jimmy Butler to “nope” his way out of Minny.

Butler’s got issues but you can’t knock the drive and effort of him as a former late pick who transformed into a big star. And his criticism of Wiggins and KAT was spot on.

[PlatinumState]

Not a bust at all because he can score 15 in his sleep. Overpaid sure.

[CycklopsGT]

This is the most entertaining video on Youtube that Andrew Wiggins is in...which should tell you something.

(3:13)

Watch on YouTube

[life_saver]

He is not only a bust and a bad player but also he(& Wolves FO) have **** up Wolves future for next 3-4 years with this stupid contract.

[RoyceDa59]

Wiggins has a terrible attitude and no passion for the game. I’m so disappointed that he’s Canadian because he had so much potential to be an impact player, but he actually just doesn’t care.


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[BR0D1E86]

Not a bust at all because he can score 15 in his sleep. Overpaid sure.

Give most NBA players 14 shots per game and they could score 15 “in their sleep.”

I think it’s a simple fact that if he wasn’t the 1st pick he’d have been basically out of the rotation except for an emergency microwave scorer role years ago.

He’s never scored at anything close to a league average efficiency.

Even though he’s statistically one of the worst scoring options on the floor, he still shoots a ton.

He is a poor rebounder.

He is a very poor assist generator.

For his career he averages one turnover per assist. Luckily he doesn’t get that many assists, but still not great.

He’s a pretty horrific defender.

He has no skills that make his team better. That’s not an exaggeration. Even if he was terrible at everything else but he scored somewhat efficiently he might have a role. Then he’d be Zach Lavine. But he’s terrible at everything, including scoring, yet he continues to take up an inordinate number of shots.

Every minute he’s on the floor kills his team’s chance of being successful.

[mplsfonz23]

Go ahead and talk about Parker, no one is stopping you. He is also a bust at this point.

On June 26 2014, probably 70-80% of GMs would've taken Wiggins #1. That's a consensus #1 pick. Even if Embiid was healthy and Wiggins was taken #2, there's still no comparison in expectations for him vs. players like Vesley, Bender, and even Bennett who only a fraction would've taken at #1 or #2.

Of course Wiggins could still improve but the chances of that happening are getting smaller with each passing year. After this season it'll be 5 years in the league at 24 years old. Right now he's a borderline top 100 player.

Well we can disagree then.
Embiid was the number 1 at Kansas ahead of Wiggins. Even back then Wiggins had a questionable motor, but most thought he may overcome that. He still hasn't. Again, Big men were still more valuable than wings back then, and Embiid had a great skill set. Still does. Just think, you took a broken player at #3 and Cavs didn't really any big men. With LBJ coming back, they needed someone right then and Wiggins was the best available. They suck at pick first. See Bennett.

What are you disagreeing on? That on June 26 2014 most GMs would've taken Wiggins with the #1 pick? That's not an opinion, that's the truth.

I disagree that if Embiid was healthy it would have been a clear choice. Look at the mock draft before JE got hurt, he was the clear #1. After that it was a tossup with parker and Wiggins considering Wiggins performance in the tourney. But whatever. He went #1 and now can't live up to it.

[mplsfonz23]

Well if Wiggins has been underwhelming or a bust what has Love been on the Cavs? At least Wiggins plays

Love made all star games in cleveland and won a chip.. What has wiggins accomplished?

Getting Jimmy Butler to “nope” his way out of Minny.

Butler’s got issues but you can’t knock the drive and effort of him as a former late pick who transformed into a big star. And his criticism of Wiggins and KAT was spot on.

Nope. KAT isn't soft. Thibs was kind of in the way. Look at KAT now. He fouls a lot, but soft he's not. Butler works hard but not smart. He can't make it thru a full season, and his required max contract may look worse than Wiggins in a year.

[sixerswillrule]

Well we can disagree then.
Embiid was the number 1 at Kansas ahead of Wiggins. Even back then Wiggins had a questionable motor, but most thought he may overcome that. He still hasn't. Again, Big men were still more valuable than wings back then, and Embiid had a great skill set. Still does. Just think, you took a broken player at #3 and Cavs didn't really any big men. With LBJ coming back, they needed someone right then and Wiggins was the best available. They suck at pick first. See Bennett.

What are you disagreeing on? That on June 26 2014 most GMs would've taken Wiggins with the #1 pick? That's not an opinion, that's the truth.

I disagree that if Embiid was healthy it would have been a clear choice. Look at the mock draft before JE got hurt, he was the clear #1. After that it was a tossup with parker and Wiggins considering Wiggins performance in the tourney. But whatever. He went #1 and now can't live up to it.

I never said that if Embiid was healthy Wiggins would have been the clear choice.

I said that on the day of the draft, Wiggins was the clear choice. And he was. It wasn't a tossup with Parker. Almost everyone had Parker behind Wiggins.

[mudsak]

I think he's more lazy than anything. He has superstar ability... but lacks the drive to apply it. I think Melo suffered from a bit of the same thing tbh. That's why his career has been garbage for years now.

Watch... Gordon Hayward will come back next year and outperform Wiggins. Hayward never had any business being a better player than Wiggins. But that's what grit, drive, hard work, and motivation can do for a player. Talent alone isn't enough.

Carmelo lost a lot of his motivation once he was traded to the Knicks, but he was a legitimate all-star level player for many years. Carmelo is on a different level from Wiggins, it's not a good comparison.

Haha... he forced that trade to the Knicks. The Knicks was where he wanted to go. Of course Melo is on another level in terms of what he accomplished as a player. My point is... they both suffer from the same "lazy-gene". Melo could have had a MUCH better career than he did if he had worked harder... had the drive and passion. He coasted until one day he woke up only to realize he had been completely irrelevant in the NBA for years. Wiggins is lazy enough from the get-go that he wasn't ever even relevant to begin with. Not sure if Carmelo was that much more talented than Wiggins to begin with, or if he was just more motivated earlier in his career.

[Quentin]

Could somebody please explain why you would sign your rookie to a max extension after his 3rd year? He will be an RFA. What do you have to lose in waiting and matching the best offer he gets? It is not going to be more than the max extension you already signed.
Not specific to Wiggins or Minny. Just looking for the logic behind it.

Glen Taylor is the owner. He wanted a promise from Wiggins that he would improve before he offered the contract. I think it took Wiggins a month before he ended up signing the contract that was sitting in front of him. What was he doing for that month? Having it converted to audio so he could kinda understand it? Was he in the middle of a Fortnite tournament and couldn't be bothered with it? Maybe he was hibernating?

Regardless, GT is a big dumb dope of an owner and that's all you need to know about why? We Wolves fans ask that all the time.

[Mogspan]

If you're the first overall pick, nicknamed after MJ, and don't do anything at an above-average level, you're objectively a bust. Give me a break. This was pretty obvious by the end of his third season, let alone now.

[williamsonfox]

Overpaid and wasn't worthy of the #1 pick when Embiid was there. He isn't a bust. Anthony Bennett was a bust. Fultz is a bust if he doesn't play well for the Magic.