Andrew Wiggins Is On The Verge Of Being The First From His Draft Class To Sign An Early Extension For $148 Million

I don’t think anyone would argue the 2014 Draft class was loaded with talent. Well several teams are now responsible for making some tough decisions on their young promising players as restricted free agency quickly approaches. Starting with the Lottery from that year, it’s no surprise the biggest decisions are coming from the top 7 picks

1. Andrew Wiggins

2. Jabari Parker

3. Joel Embiid

4. Aaron Gordon

5. Dante Exum

6. Marcus Smart

7. Julius Randle

As a reminder, the teams have until October 16th to reach an extension, which is just a quick 25 days away. I would say the only player who absolutely doesn’t get that extension is Julius Randle, no way the Lakers are messing with their cap space leading into next summer, and each of the remaining six players all have pros and cons as to why their team should reach agreement before the deadline. We heard yesterday that the Sixers are hopeful to reach an extension with Embiid

despite his injury concerns, and the Bucks have to be in a similar spot with Parker and Exum with the Jazz. If these guys were 100% healthy it would be an absolute no brainer decision, but these teams are left to decide whether or not they should risk this player hitting the open market, where they could potentially have to overpay to keep that talent.

For Gordon, I mean it’s not like the Magic are going to get anyone in free agency, so it wouldn’t shock me if we see him reach an agreement, and Marcus, well at this point I don’t think any of us can predict what Ainge will do (I prefer to extend him early). Teams are slowly becoming less stupid (at least some), and one look at the RFA market this year and then the projected cap space of teams next summer kind of hurts the players in my opinion. Most likely, we aren’t going to see those max offer sheets in RFA like we did with Otto Porter Jr this year, and it’s no surprise guys like Noel, Len, and probably JaMychel Green end up taking their qualifying offer. The market just isn’t there.

Which brings us to Andrew Wiggins. The first of this class to basically come to an agreement on an early extension, which comes out to a 5/$148M deal. Holy shit. That’s basically Hayward/Griffin money, more than guys like Westbrook, Harden, Lowry, Dame, etc etc. Obviously you can’t treat all player salaries the same, and for MIN this is sort of a no brainer. Yes, at 22 year old Wiggins has never made an All Star team, but that’s because he plays in the impossible West. There’s no doubt in my mind that if he played in the East, he would have at least one appearance by now. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the TWolves want to build their future around Wiggins/Towns/Butler, and this is the first step.

When evaluating Wiggins as a player, and coming to a conclusion if he’s even worth this money, there are certainly cases for both. From an offensive perspective, he absolutely is. His scoring has gone up every year he’s been in the league, finishing at 23.6 last year, a season in which he had 45/35% splits. He’s a career 45% shooter, and has even begun to expand his range to become a somewhat consistent three point shooter. Interestinly enough, Wiggins has missed just 1 game in his entire career, so he doesn’t have those same injury concerns the other guys from his class have. You can rely on him to show up every night and be a force offensively.

Advertisement

What you can’t rely on is he will ever give a shit about playing defense.

This is probably the biggest knock on Wiggins’ game, and through three seasons we can say with certainty that his defense and defensive effort is #actuallybad. The hope is Jimmy Butler can save him, mentor him to become at least an average defender because he has all the physical tools, but man is it ugly. Wiggins has never had a Drtg under 113, and is coming off his highest rating of his career last year (115). Because his defense has been so horrific, he’s actually had a negative net rating each year of his career. Basically his offense is good, but not good enough to cover how pathetic his defense is. Remember the season preview? Defense is going to be the story of the TWolves season, and a lot of that relies on Wiggins turning a corner. Again, he’s just 22, so while I don’t think he’ll suddenly become Kawhi Leonard, I do think it’s very possible he could become an average defender, which when you pair with his already legit offensive game, you can see why this extension makes sense.

Let’s also not ignore the fact that he is one half of one of the best young duo’s in the entire league, which absolutely plays a role in this extension. If the Timberwolves have to maybe pay a little too much, or extend a little to far with someone like Wiggins in order to increase their chances of keeping Towns for the foreseeable future, you do this move 11 times out of 10. By himself, I don’t see Wiggins as the type of player who can get a team over the hump, or even build a title team around, but as part of this team and this duo? He’s a perfect fit.

P.S

Yowza