Timberwolves Take Giant Step Forward, Time To Settle Down
Rumors don't make fans.. or wait, is it friends? Either way, as the third biggest Wolves fan behind JT and Jerry P, I pray that Minnesota doesn't get too gun happy and trade Wiggins for Irving.
This has been my biggest complaint towards Wolves fans the last three season, the team has been extremely young but held to out of reach expectations. At their core, (before their trade) the average age of the top seven players was somewhere around 25 and now fans are actually in favor of trading their youngest and brightest future.
In five years, it's very possible that Wiggins could be the best wing player in the entire league and he would only be 27. Everyone who's down on Wiggins needs to stop being so cynical and realize that he's only 22-years-old.
Last season, Wiggins averaged 23.6 ppg, 4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 45% from the field and 36% from three point range. All at the age of a college graduate. He's done this and helped lead a Minnesota team that has played against some of the best competition the NBA has ever seen.
Despite Wiggins lack of defensive contributions, he's got the size, length and quickness to be a great defensive player. Irving just has a complete lack of effort on the defensive side of the ball.
Yeah he's probably the best finisher in the game and arguable the second best all around scorer but his defense is horrific. It's not that he can't play defense, it's that he doesn't care to. We saw in the 2016 playoffs what he can do when he tries but it's a rarity now.
As a 22-year-old, Wiggins has been going up against LeBron, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Steph Curry's Warriors, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard's Spurs the last three years. That's not a bad list of names when you compare the history of talent throughout the NBA.
My advice to the Wolves and to Minnesota fans, is relax, be grateful and let the the moves the organization has made playout. Dumping Rubio, LaVine and Dunn for Bulter, Teague and Crawford is a trade that every smart GM would take. It's time to let them go out and show what they can do.