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For all his athleticism, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins has struggled to score in one-on-one situations. Wiggins’ trouble in breaking down his defenders on isolation plays has been a subject of Bryan Kalbrosky in a recent piece on HoopsHype.
Wiggins is one of the cornerstones of the Timberwolves offense that ranks sixth in the league with 108.7 points per game. The former No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers is the third-leading scorer for Minnesota this season in which he is putting up 17.7 points per game on 43.1 field goal shooting percentage.
When Wiggins’ numbers, however, are interpreted to reflect how he is doing on isolation setups, he just fails to impress.
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Minnesota, however, calls an isolation play with 8.7 percent frequency, which ranks Top 5 in the NBA so far this season. It’s a big jump from last season (6.6 percent) for the Timberwolves. Some wonder whether the play calling is all wrong for Wiggins given the players who surround him on the court.
Wiggins is shooting 11-for-50 (22.0 percent) on this play type, which is the worst among those who have taken at least 30 field goal attempts when running isolation plays. His points per possession (0.56) is also the lowest in this group.
Notwithstanding Wiggins’ ugly isolation numbers, Minnesota continues to hum. The Timberwolves have won seven of their last eight games perhaps because the team is not as dependent on Wiggins as in recent seasons or prior to the arrival of the likes of Jeff Teague and Jimmy Butler in Twin City.
Minnesota manages to compensate for Wiggins’ shortcomings thanks to the surplus of talent on its roster, but it sure would help them beat the top dogs in the Western Conference come playoff time if the former Kansas Jayhawk improves on this area of weakness. Also, the Timberwolves might also need to tone down on designing isolation plays, particularly for Wiggins.
