The Story Of Andrew Wiggins

Ben Bosscher
Ben’s Big Barn
Published in
6 min readJun 20, 2022

The Oddest Career Storyline in NBA History

Andrew Wiggins is now an NBA Champion after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. On a team with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Jordan Poole, Wiggins managed to finish the series as the second-best player for Dub Nation, averaging 18.3 points (Second), 8.8 Rebounds (First), and 1.5 Blocks (First). Wiggins did all this while playing the most minutes and simultaneously holding Jayson Tatum to just 21 Points Per Game.

The question arises; should we be surprised?

At first thought, yes. This seems almost shocking if you follow the NBA closely. However, Andrew Wiggins was once the number one overall pick, and whether you agreed with it or not, he started in an All-Star game earlier this season.

In high school and coming out of Kansas University, Wiggins was labeled ‘Air Canada,’ the Canadian version of Michael Jordan. Obviously, he was never going to accomplish what Michael Jordan did in this league, but after disappointing NBA fans for a few years, has Wiggins proved he was the right number 1 pick? Or was Andrew Wiggins a bust?

Quick Timeline

  • Unanimously Number 1 Ranked High School Player (Averaged 24 as a JR)
  • Averaged 17 PPG at Kansas University
  • Drafted Number 1 Overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014
  • One Month After Being Drafted, Lebron Comes back to Cleveland, and Wiggins is Traded to Minnesota for Kevin Love
  • Averaging 17 PPG wins Rookie of the Year
  • He remains stagnant over the next four seasons; as criticism rises that he will never live up to his potential
  • 2020 gets traded to Golden State in the middle of their injury riddles stretch
  • Hang’s up the potential superstar label and buys in as a great role player for the Warriors
  • 2022 All-Star Starter, very much discredited by public and media
  • 2022 wins a ring as the second-best player in the series

Exactly the career we expected from the number one overall pick, right?

Was He a Bust?

Regarding pre-draft hype, Wiggins was near the top of prospects since 2000. The athletic 6'7" wing was thought of as having unlimited potential. It was certainly true at the time too. There weren’t many people in the league with his size and athleticism. However, many media members and people within the Timberwolves organization questioned his work ethic.

Maybe the league wasn’t exactly what Wiggins thought it would be. Maybe he got drafted to a franchise that is historically unable to develop players and has a bad culture. Maybe the trade from Cleveland threw off his whole career. Or maybe playing with Steph and Klay in open space makes his life easier than it has been in the NBA. Regardless, Andrew Wiggins finally became a winning player in 2022. And being a swing player in a closely contested Finals, it’s hard to be labeled a bust. It certainly wasn’t the path anyone thought it would be, nor could anyone have possibly even come up with a story half as weird as this one for Wiggins’ career, but he’s certainly earned his stripes.

What’s His Value Now?

Will Wiggins ever be an All-Star starter again? Probably not. But will he be viewed as a key piece and a valuable player to teams moving forward? Absolutely.

Defense

Defensively, before holding Jayson Tatum to 21 PPG in the finals, Wiggins’ 6'7" frame made life difficult for Luka Dončić. Luka still got his fair share of points in the series, but looking back, it was some of the best defense we’ve ever seen played on Luka. Wiggins is athletic enough to hang with the best of them and big and physical enough not to get bullied.

We saw Wiggins play incredible defense against Lebron James in the Play-In-Game tournament last year. He’s got it in him, despite no one talking about it. Mikal Bridges just got some defensive player of the year looks for being a great wing defender, but Wiggins can do everything Bridges can and has a little more size to back it up. Plus, Wiggins was huge for the Warriors, grabbing 8.8 boards per game in the Finals, where the team was undersized. When the Warriors were down 2–1 in the series, rebounding was the biggest issue.

Wiggins was asked to fix that problem and rose to the occasion, grabbing some clutch situation rebounds to swing the series completely. They arguably never would have won the series or even got to the finals without him on the roster.

Offense

Offensively, Wiggins is one of the best cutters in the league. Of course, Kerr and the Warriors’ system of always cutting and never standing still helped him out on this. But if you go back and watch the finals, look how often Steph or Draymond get into the paint off of each other and find Wiggins using secondary cuts to get to the rim and stuff it.

Not everyone on the team can be a star, but players like this can greatly impact a team’s ability to win championships, regardless of what city you are playing for. Maybe cutting is the only thing Wiggins is elite at, but he still has a complete offensive game. He can catch and shoot the open three, put the ball on the ground and attack, and occasionally get his shot off the dribble.

All-Star Role-Player

He may not ever be the star of a team, but with what Wiggins brings to the table on both sides of the ball, he could certainly average 17 points per game, guard the other team’s best player, and be an awesome player for stars to play with.

Better than most role-players, not good enough to be a star, welcome Andrew Wiggins to the Role Star club, joining Jrue Holiday and Draymond Green, to name a few.

Career Projections

Andrew Wiggins didn’t burst onto the scene and become an instant star in this league. Over time, slowly and surely, he adapted to his environment and found how he could be effective in winning in this league (I blame the Timberwolves organization for the majority of all of this).

Just like the rest of his career, Wiggins has quietly racked up over 11,500 career points, averaging 19.3 on his eight-year career. To put that into perspective, Wiggins has about 400 more career points than two-time finals MVP Kawhi Lenard. To put it even more into perspective, if Wiggins repeats what he did in his first eight years in the league, he will finish with more career points than David Robinson, Gary Payton, George Gervin, and Larry Bird.

It wasn’t the reason we thought it would be, but for some reason or another, maybe Wiggins rightfully went number 1 overall.

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