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Andrew Wiggins played at an All-Star level throughout the first half of the season, but since then it's been a much harder grind for the Golden State Warriors swingman.
One particular area that's been plaguing him has been the free-throw line. Wiggins is shooting a career-worst 63% from the charity stripe this season, but it's been so much worse as of late. In his last 14 games, which is the entire stretch of games since Wiggins' last 20-point game dating back to January, he has gone a combined 9-for-26 on free throws, which comes out to a brutal 34.6% clip.
Entering tonight's game, Andrew Wiggins was shooting just 34.6 percent from the free-throw line since January, a level of failure so frustrating it could undermine his value as a Warriors regularhttps://t.co/P6x6bNS7Fh pic.twitter.com/mgnBPLu0xI
— C.J. Holmes (@CjHolmes22) March 13, 2022
The Warriors star was asked about that area after the game, but knows he's a much better foul shooter than he's shown.
Via Anthony Slater:
“It's been tough. I'm not used to missing that many, but gotta keep working. I'm a good shooter so I know it'll come back. I know it's going to get right. I feel comfortable right now. I went perfect today, so that's a step in the right direction.”
Wiggins broke his 20-point drought against the Bucks, tallying 21 points on the evening, which also appropriately came with perfect free throw shooting, though in a small sample size of 2-of-2.
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Andrew Wiggins is a career 72.4% free throw shooter throughout the first seven years of his career, so it's hard to believe he”ll stay ice cold for far too long. At the very least, he won't be shooting anywhere close to 34.6% from the line going forward. That's a figure that not even the worst free throw shooters of all time, from Shaquille O'Neal and DeAndre Jordan to Andre Drummond and Dwight Howard have ever dipped lower than for an entire season.
The Warriors swingman remained hopeful that their last game could be the “turning point” both for his free throw shooting and play as a whole.
“I'm just like, I can't play any worse than I'm playing. So it's only going up from here. I'm putting in the work, practicing hard, getting extra shots up. So I know it's going to come. I try to stay patient and hopefully this is the turning point for me.”
Beyond just the free throw shooting, Wiggins' scoring average has largely dipped, falling to just 13.4 points per game in his last 14 games prior to this one. That has pulled down his average significantly from when he was a near nightly 20-point scorer before his recent cold spell. Despite a drop off in production, the Canadian has still maintained sterling shooting splits with a 47% field goal rate and 40.1% from beyond the arc. It could very well just be a bad month or random anomaly before Andrew Wiggins gets back to becoming the steady contributor that he was early on in the year.
The Golden State Warriors need Andrew Wiggins back to All-Star form as they try to make another deep playoff run. Getting the bad juju out of the way in the final stretch of the regular season is a must.
