The Minnesota Timberwolves are off to a nice start to their 2015-16 season and a lot of that can be attributed to the great play of Ricky Rubio and Karl-Anthony Towns. Coming into the season you would have thought that those two would need to be very good along with Andrew Wiggins in order for the team to be successful but so far Wiggins hasn't joined the party. Wiggins has started slow this season but he reportedly doesn't think it's due to changing positions, according to Marcus R. Fuller of the Pioneer Press.
Last season Wiggins mostly played small forward and he was great as he won Rookie of the Year and looked to be headed for superstardom. He still might be, but so far this season he has struggled in transitioning to being a full-time shooting guard. Wiggins said that he's still learning the position but he's just not making shots right now.
"It's a little different, but it's not too different not to learn, it's very similar in a lot of ways. I like the shots, I'm just not making them right now. I know they'll fall eventually," said Wiggins.
Wiggins is likely right that the transition isn't the cause for his slump as the two wing positions are extremely similar. As a matter of fact interim head coach Sam Mitchell moved Wiggins to shooting guard to make him more comfortable and increase his offensive production. At 6 foot-8 Wiggins is a bigger shooting guard and is a matchup problem for most other shooting guards so he will be able to get the shots he wants. Also, having Tayshaun Prince start alongside Wiggins has made it so that Wiggins doesn't have to guard the opponents best player all the time so he can focus more on scoring.
It's only been three games so the sample size is small but the numbers are somewhat alarming. Wiggins is shooting just 30 percent from the field after shooting 44 percent last season and he has missed all six of his three point attempts so far this season. The 20 year old guard has made 83 percent of his free throws so far though which seems to suggest there is nothing wrong with his shooting form at the moment. Wiggins is a great talent and coming off a great rookie season so while the numbers may be a little concerning, it is only a very small sample size and he will likely breakout of his slump very soon.
