Through his three seasons in the league, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins has emerged as one of the top young players in the league.
During a recent Q&A session with ESPN, head coach Tom Thibodeau laid out how Wiggins next the step in his development.
It's to continue to take and make steps moving forward. When you look at what he's done for a guy who's 22 years old, he went from 16 points a game to 20 points a game to 24 points a game. … The challenge is to be a complete player. And I think sometimes we tend to measure somebody against someone who is already established and we all overlook the steps that other person has taken along the way.
And I'll use Jimmy as an example — Jimmy came into the league and [he averaged] two points a game, and then it was seven, then 15, 20, now 24. But it's also all the other things that he does. It's his rebounding. It's his passing. It's his defense. It's the way he can close a game out; [he's] one of the great finishers, closers in our league. But he didn't get there overnight. There were a lot steps that were taken along the way.
The same could be said of a guy like Paul George and a guy like Kawhi Leonard. So the important thing for Andrew is to continue to develop, put everything he has into each and every day and keep making progress and improve.
Wiggins has proven himself to be more than a capable scorer in his first three seasons, but it's his play on the other end of the floor that has drawn some concern. In many ways, he has become a liability defensively.
Article Continues BelowAccording to FiveThirtyEight, he was ranked the worst defensive player in the league last year as he allowed opponents to hold a 56.1 effective field goal percentage on shots that he contests and a 56.4 effective field goal percentage on shots that are unguarded.
If he hopes to become a star player in the league, it will require him becoming more of a two-way player like his new teammate Jimmy Butler. In fact, the addition of Butler could help mentor Wiggins in that regard into shaping him into a reliable asset on that end of the floor.
The 22-year-old also must become a more willing passer as he's averaged no more than 2.3 assists per game in a single season. This is something that Butler has added to his game as he seen that total continue to rise in each season to now a career-high 5.5 assists last year.
There is obviously much work to be done to Wiggins' individual game, but the potential is there to reach these aspirations.