With all of this year’s top free agents off the board, the focus of the NBA rumor mill has shifted to trade candidates and extension candidates. Former No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins certainly falls under the latter category, and it’s not unreasonable to include him in the former category as well.
As a former first-round pick entering the final season of his four-year rookie contract, Wiggins is eligible to sign a contract extension, and the Timberwolves have reportedly been discussing the prospect of a five-year, maximum salary deal. At the same time, the new-look Wolves have been linked to Kyrie Irving, who has asked the Cavaliers to trade him, and Wiggins appears to be the most logical trade chip Minnesota could include in an offer for Irving. However, the Wolves have thus far been unwilling to make Wiggins available in any Irving proposal.
As I discussed at length when I profiled Wiggins as an extension candidate last month, the 22-year-old can score at an elite level, but has yet to round out his game in other areas — he was a below-average defender, rebounder, and distributor last season. He’s young enough and talented enough on offense that it’s easy to make a case for a maximum-salary investment, but it’d still be a bit of a gamble.
In an in-depth piece of his own, Tom Ziller of SBNation.com makes the case today that the Wolves should be in no rush to lock up Wiggins to a max extension. In Ziller’s view, it makes sense for the club to be patient, giving Wiggins another year to develop and perhaps even allowing for more potential trade opportunities to arise. If the young forward takes another step forward, the Wolves could still sign him to a max deal next summer as a restricted free agent.
That argument is a fair one, though waiting on a new deal for Wiggins isn’t without potential downside either. This year’s top free agent, Gordon Hayward, is case study in the risks of letting a potential star reach restricted free agency after his rookie contract. The Jazz could have locked up Hayward with a five-year extension entering the final year of his rookie deal, but the club instead let him reach restricted free agency, where the Hornets signed him to a four-year offer sheet that included an opt-out after year three.
The Jazz matched that offer sheet and retained Hayward, but instead of having him locked up for five years, the team only had him for three, plus an option year. That allowed Hayward to opt out after three seasons and reach the open market this summer, at which point he signed with a new team. If the Jazz had signed him to a five-year extension when they had a chance, he’d still be under contract with Utah for two more years. The Wolves will have to consider that scenario if they decide to let Wiggins reach free agency.
What do you think? Should Wiggins and the Timberwolves get an extension done as soon as possible? Is he worth a maximum-salary investment? Should Minnesota wait until he becomes a restricted free agent to act? Or is trading him in a deal for Irving the most logical move for the Wolves?
Jump into the comments section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
trade him for Kyrie he is a better scorer and Jimmy Butler would help him get better on defence
Wiggins and Irving can both be inconsistent.
Minnesota should wait until he becomes a restricted free agent. A trade with Kyrie won’t be done without including Teague, who can’t be traded until December, and I think the Cavs will trade Kyrie before the season starts.
Kyrie is gone dude deal with it, he’s not Anthony Davis and not a great 2 way player. Kyrie is rivaled by none talent wise but his defense and playmaking is suspect and he can be inconsistent also.
I’m guessing you didn’t read the part where Philly fan says “I think the Cavs will trade Kyrie before the season starts.”
Wiggins is a budding star, the Wolves should keep him.
Notice how Towns and Butler are recruiting Kyrie and not Wiggins.
Wiggins is not the type to do that anyway, he is glad to let the others do it for him.
Why would they recruit someone on their own team?
I meant Wiggins wasn’t mentioned in the recruiting of Kyrie. Why’s he taking so long to sign the extension also?
Because his agent hasn’t even been in town. He’s not taking unusually long. Most Rookie extensions don’t happen until the day/week of the deadline. The Wolves are actually being proactive. It’s just now we live in an ” around the clock, have to report on every little rumor/conversation” media era. So things that we used to not even hear about become stories and us, the fans, feel like things are dragging out when they are really not.
If he’s smart, he doesn’t sign until he gets assurances from management he won’t get shipped off to Cleveland the next day.
I thought he was praised for his ability to play defense right away coming out of school, and the offense would be a work in progress. Is it a lack of effort, or is he truly not as good as predicted? Not like it matters, he will get offered a max deal in free agency. I just find it hard to believe that someone as athletically gifted and touted for on the ball defense as he is, to come up short in the pros under a guy like thibs
Dude it was his first year and he’s still very young.
Enough with the defense stuff already. Other than a handful of guys, NOBODY plays much defense anymore. The rules of this era of the NBA place more emphasis on team defense anyway. Not much anybody can do to stop a star player from scoring, so just accept it.
The combo between Kyrie and Butler would be absolutely insane. I like Wiggins better with Lebron, he could be the franchise player and patchup his weaknesses under Lebron which are playmaking and defense, Lebron could mentor him in both.
And Butler can’t?
Are you seriously going to put Butler in the same stratosphere as Lebron James?
Not at all… But your comment suggested mentorship in playmaking and defense. Not, who’s better. I don’t think that leBron would serve any differently than Butler in terms of mentorship, especially considering Butler has played for and has a good understanding of Wiggins current head coach.
Uh, LeBron if LeBron is gonna “mentor” somebody on how to play defense, he should start with his own teammates. None of PGs LeBron has played with were particularly good defensive players. It’s a byproduct of rules changes in the NBA the last 15 years, not ignorance or lack of effort. Answer this question for me: how many of the top PGs in the league play lockdown defense? Here’s a hint: none of them.
He doesn’t do well anymore because of age but Chris Paul is one, Mike Connelly, drew Holiday (pels), Rubio and some more.
The idea of trading Wiggins for Kyrie is ridiculous to me. The idea the Wiggins is an underachiever as a defender is also ridiculous to me. As someone who has actually played basketball, things to consider are: Age, teammates, defensive assignment, offensive responsibility, coaching/management stability, physical development (related to age). Kyrie is a bad defender because he is physically limited. Kyrie is a household name because we’ve seen him do it on the biggest stage. Kyrie has had the benefit of playing alongside LeBron. How did it work out for him before LeBron when he had no veterans around him? We have to stop evaluating players strictly by stats at age 22. To say Wig is a bad defender is silly. He’s been over matched physically and/or experience wise with the task of guarding the other team’s best player with NO veteran help and no coaching consistency all the while being asked to be one of the highest usage offensive players in the league from day 1. So, clearly, you max him, give him veteran scoring and defending help, and let him out these first three years of experience to good use. Then you evaluate his big game (play-off) performance when he gets there. Until then, you don’t know if he can put up 40 in an elimination game like Kyrie. What you do know is he is bigger, stronger, faster, longer, jumps higher, and physical can guard 3-4 positions. Mic drop!
**typo** “Let him PUT”…
I fully agree with your analysis. Not many kids are good defenders in the NBA by age 22, the scouts said wiggins would be an NBA ready defender from day one but the lack of experience and manly build have hurt him. Like most things…they get better with age
Sentwali, I mostly agree with all you’ve said here. Wiggins has had 3 different coaches in his 3 years in the league. The difficulty from Flip Saunders’ death, right at the beginning of training camp in 2015, was more disruptive than most people acknowledge. I agree with all that you’ve said, but…
…I have watched 90% of the Wolves’ games for the past three years. Wiggins is young, he’s inexperienced, and yet his defensive effort has been less than stellar. His rebounding effort has been less than stellar. He may progress nicely under Thibs as they grow together, having Butler take the best wing player on defense may help, it all may come together for him. But his effort remains a question mark. On balance, I suppose I’d sign him to a max extension but I would wish there was more evidence that he will play up to that. Effort is not coaching; effort is temperment, desire, and he hasn’t shown that fully yet. (By the way, his comments on expecting a max extension was posturing on his part; he knows, or his agent knows, that it’s an open question whether he deserves it. He’s trying to force the Wolves’ hand with that negotiating position. If all were fair, I’d like to see him get something north of what Giannis got (who was a more complete player and surer bet at the start of last year than Wiggins is now), and south of the max. Giannis got 4 yrs, $100M; I’d say what was fair to all would be, say, 5 years at $130M.
Dude, have you seen the money guys are getting with these new contracts? Wiggins absolutely is worth a max contract. Nobody gives a crap about your defense when you’re putting up 30-40pts, especially at his age.
I absolutely agree that it appears he could play with more effort. And we will see if that doesn’t become the case now that he has more veteran help and guidance. It’s hard to be 1/1A on the offensive end on a team with not a lot of other scoring aside from the starters, play the second/third most minutes in the league. AND be a high energy rebounded and off ball defender. That’s asking ALOT from a young man from an energy standpoint. If his rebounds and assists and off ball effort doesn’t go up next two years, then we can definitely say we have a motor issue.
True. But all isn’t fair and this market probably needs Wig more than Wig needs it. Yannis could have held out for more. Instead he took the contract and focused on getting better. If Wig can average 20+/6/4 for the next 5 years in today’s NBA market, he’s a max guy. Players don’t peak until 27. Wig is on the fast track. We want him here when he’s 26 BELIEVE THAT! By then hopefully we are knocking on the door or have kicked it in and Towns will still be here and he will want to sign for big money again. The last thing this team can afford to do is keep hitting the reset button or oanick the market with the thought of Wig going Hayward to Toronto.