Introduction to The Rise and Fall of Andrew Wiggins

How could Andrew Wiggins be the number one pick in the 2014 NBA draft but then suddenly fall off the plane of existence? How did Wiggins get drafted before Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, and Aaron Gordon? All these questions and more will be answered.

Andrew Wiggins was in a very good NBA Draft Class back in 2014, that includes Joel Embiid, Aaron Gordon, Jabari Parker, Marcus Smart, Zach LaVine, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Jusuf Nurkic, and Julius Randle.

Let me asked the question: how does Wiggins pass up all these players, that soon become great NBA players, to be the first overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft?

The Rise Of Andrew Wiggins

The rise of Andrew Wiggins was something special, how? First of all, let’s take it back to his high school years when he was averaging 24 points a night and passing the ball so smoothly. During his high school years, he was named the Naismith Prep Player of the Year and the Gatorade National Player of the Year.

He also earned his way into the Jordan Brand Classic All-American game back in 2013. Wiggins, at the time, was only 18 years old! He then worked his way into having a scholarship with Kansas to go play ball with them. In the one year he was with the team he was scoring 17 points, 5 rebounds, and having 1 assist per game.

What makes it more fascinating for me is the fact that he was the start of all 35 games he participated in. That includes shooting a percentage of 44, 34 percent from the 3-point line and then producing 77 percent from the free-throw line. That’s pretty impressive.

Into the other top 4 prospects who were drafted after Andrew Wiggins

Furthermore, let’s add the draft class into his college year. He had been first in the NBA Draft but we got to remember who went 2-4th after him. Joel “The Process” Embiid, Jabari Parker, and Aaron Gordon came after him.

Let’s transition to Jabari Parker’s stats. In 35 games Parker was averaging 19 points, 8 rebounds, and only 1 assist per game. He Kept his shooting percent at 47 percent shooting from the field, 37 percent shooting from the 3-point line, and shooting 74 percent from the free-throw line.

If we take a look at Aaron Gordon’s stats we can see that in 38 games he produced around 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists a game. Keeping his shooting percent at a 49 percent, his three-point shooting at 35 percent, but hurting the most would be the free throw percentage at 42 percent.

Lastly, we have Joel Embiid. Embiid got 11 points per game, 8 rebounds per game, and 1 assist per game in 28 games. He kept a good job at his shooting percent at 62 percent, his free-throw percent being at 68 percent, but sadly his three-point shot looking at 20 percent.

Out of all the men listed here which one would you choose to be on your team? Let it be known it could be either college or pro. Do you want to know an interesting fact? Both Embiid and Wiggins played on the same team: Kansas. They were both teammates, so they had a feel of each other before entering the 2014 NBA Draft.

The moment when Andrew Wiggins was drafted

If we skip around and head to the NBA draft we find out that Wiggins (Cavs) was first to be selected, Parker (Bucks) selected with the second, then Embiid (76ers) with the third pick, and lastly with the fourth pick Aaron Gordon was taken (Magic).

Andrew Wiggins arrives in Cleveland

Here comes the big moment for Andrew Wiggins. He had the chance to play with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. That sounds like a dream come true, right? You get to play with the top stars of the NBA, you got to have mentorship from James and got to learn some insane handles from Kyrie.

Sadly, when he entered the NBA things didn’t go as expected for him. Before the regular season even started he was shipped in a three-way-trade to the Wolves for Kevin Love. Love finally got out of Minnesota and was on a winning, playoff-contending team.

The moment LeBron influenced the Wiggins-Love trade

Two years later after that trade was made LeBron opened up about the trade between Love and Wiggins and said that there were a lot of factors, or things, that go into a trade and one of them would obviously be injuries. He also said that so many things were happening to influence that trade in exchanging Wiggins for Love, the last thing he said was that both sides seemed to be happy about this trade.

Now here comes the question: did LeBron have any effect in this trade? Did he find something out about this rookie and decide that it would be better to trade him for another good player?

We have seen LeBron James put his input in trades, signing, what teams are doing, ETC. He has affected things before and I believe since he returned to them that same year, plus having so much experience, I think they put their faith and confidence in him. They basically said, “if you don’t think he is going to work out then let’s go find another player that can fit into this team and fit into the scheme.”

Finally arrives in Minnesota, the rise or the fall of Andrew Wiggins?

Once Wiggins got settled into his new team, the Timberwolves, he played the whole season and came away with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists per game. Not a bad start for his rookie season, between him and Embiid they had the best rookie seasons out of the four players listed.

https://youtu.be/czJ1MXfCivw

Now as a side-note if you go look at Embiid’s stats and you see 2016 but he was drafted in 2014, unfortunately, he had a broken bone in his foot that cost him two seasons of his prime.

Gordon had a lackluster start as he was only averaging five points a game while Parker was averaging 12 points a game. Now let me be clear that Gordon after that season started to get used to the league and started getting double-figure seasons. Note he only did play 47 games, which was the lowest amount of games he played in his career.

How ironic that both guys who performed well in their rookie season played on the same team back in college, pretty incredible to say the least.

Why is Wiggins struggling? Does he know how to play the game?

College, high school, and his first season went well. What happened? How did a top prospect, might I add the number one prospect in the NBA Draft, so what made him fall off the edge of this world?

Throughout his career, his shot looked to be broken after his 2016 season. That isn’t good since he scored 23 points that season. Everything was looking well in his shooting, but sadly something happened where he can not recover.

The only thing that works is his shooting, kinda, him passing the ball hasn’t gone too far. How? I don’t think he knows he how to or he just wants to have the ball all the time because he is only averaging 2 assists per season. If we talked about his career assists then it would be TWO.

The guy just doesn’t pass nor rebound the ball, surprisingly, people called him “Maple Jordan!” Didn’t Jordan pass the ball too? His NBA career was starting to click but after that 2017 season, something in his mind and the shot went downhill.

Did Jimmy Butler cause the fall or the rise of Andrew Wiggins?

Back in 2017, Jimmy Butler arrived in Minnesota. He played two years for them. Ironically when Butler arrived to play for the Timberwolves Wiggin’s stats dipped down and he was just a 17 point shooter throughout those two seasons. His shooting decreased dramatically to 43 percent for both seasons.

Now if we dive a little bit deeper you’ll see that Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins had some beef; even though Wiggins claimed everything was fine but truth be told everything wasn’t fine.

Butler called out Wiggins by criticizing his work ethic and his defensive game. Then Bulter called Wiggins “soft.” Yep, he called him soft, turns out to be true. Right?

Did people blame Bulter for the fall of Andrew Wiggins?

People blamed Jimmy Butler for impacting Wiggin’s career with those two seasons of playing with them. Now what’s so funny is that the following season he had 22 points for this season. Therefore why does he need 30+ minutes to get 22 points a game? His rebounding and passing still stayed at 4 rebounds a game and 2-3 assists per game. That’s all in 30+ minutes a game! With this NBA Era not playing heavy defense, he should be able to command the ball and show who’s boss, but instead, he chooses not to.

Throughout his entire career he has been shooting around 44 percent from the field, 33 percent from the arc, and then dropping off 2 assists and 4 rebounds. Do you want to know a cool statistic?

His stats and mindset caused the fall (not the rise) of Andrew Wiggins

I’m going to go to the 2019 season to show how bad things have gotten shooting wise. Currently over the season he has taken 165 attempts but only converting 36% percent of his shots from mid-range, most to all his shots come from mid-range or from the paint. That is just 165 attempts that season, in his whole career he mainly does mid-jumpers.

I don’t think he drives that much. For instance: being so athletic he keeps putting up mid-rangers, three-pointers, and not driving. If he would use his strength and his force in the paint he wouldn’t be failing to convert only 44 percent of his shots.

Since the 2017 season, he hasn’t been the same player we once knew in high school. I believe that once he signed the max contract he decided to take it easier, hoping to earn all that money he signed for. His mindset is probably, “don’t get injured and you’ll get paid.”

The only thing that is kinda working for him would be shooting the ball. He is a true gunner because all he does is shoot mid-rangers, never drives, never likes to be physical with the ball. It seems like he is adapted to a certain playing style and only does that certain thing, because when was the last time we seen him ball-out in the paint or at least do a variety move?

Will the Warriors help or hurt Wiggins?

Now since Wiggin’s is now apart of the Warriors he is going to have a problem fitting in, why? Because you have Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson returning plus, Draymond Green. He is not going to fit in well if he can’t pass the ball correctly. He is only going to get 15-20 shots in but they are going to rely on him to pass and rebound, he is 6 foot 8 and should be able to get those boards easily. Also, Steve Kerr will be having high expectations for Wiggins as he will be playing the remainder of the season with the Warriors.

This is a 6 foot 8 player who should be able to command the paint, take jumpers, hit free throws, and make three-pointers. Certainly, his fall and death from the league were happening after he was making some headlines during his first three years. It appeared something wasn’t clicking anymore.

Concluding the rise and fall of Andrew Wiggins

He wasn’t an underdog coming in the league, trust me when you have a nickname called “Maple Jordan” that is all the hype you need. I believe his true talents and skills are being relieved as someone who is a one-trick-pony.

He can only shoot, even though he hasn’t fully proven it, and rebounding should be there for his taking but it is not. He never rebounds unless it falls right into his hands. My biggest concern would be the fact that he has all the talents in the world but not using a single one, which is not something you want to see from a former top prospect.

The rise and fall of Andrew Wiggins have certainly been interesting because you had a guy called “Junior Jordan” to be a downgrading nobody. Back in 2017, when he signed that max contract deal worth five years 146 million dollars it felt like he quit trying after that signing.

That enraged Butler because he thought he was better than Wiggins, through time passing he finally requested a trade out of Minnesota. Did the max contract to Wiggins corrupt the Wolves from having a team built around Wiggins and Towns?

Questions to consider about Wiggins

To take in everything that has happened during his high school years, college year, and then playing in the NBA things have certainly been a roller coaster for sure. Since he’s only 25 years old and hasn’t made any significant improvements, will things get to the point where he has to retire unwillingly?

These are all questions to ask as his journey continues throughout his career. He has such force and gifted-abilities that he is not using, which is a shame. What would have been if he used those abilities during his max contract signing and beyond?

Can Wiggins become better?

This really makes you think about how a number one draft pick, the number one player in the nation. Someone who was poised to be an NBA superstar during high school failed to make a big impact as everyone expected him to the NBA. Some people that are college stars are just college stars. Therefore, he could be the person who can’t translate that into the NBA’s style of playing. The only thing left for him is now to fix his shot, play defense, and rebound and pass more. What do you think will happen to him in the next few months?