He came into the league with more hype than any rookie since LeBron James, but so far, Andrew Wiggins' numbers suggest that he may become a bust. Wiggins was expected to be able to contribute to an NBA team right away because of his freakish athleticism and promising offensive game, but that just has not been the case so far.
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Nobody thought that Wiggins would enter the league as a finished product, and every rookie, no matter how talented they are, faces struggles when adapting to the NBA. However, Wiggins' numbers are pointing toward something far worse, and people are already starting to wonder if he will become the latest first overall pick to fail to make it in the NBA.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Wiggins numbers indicate that he is nowhere near the caliber of player as a rookie that King James was when he came into the league. Many statistics rate Wiggins as among the worst players in the entire league that are logging a comparable number of minutes. His plus/minus rating and his win shares are quite low, and his player efficiency rating (PER) ranks only above Channing Frye's.
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A league-average NBA player will register a PER of 15.00. So far this season, Wiggins is sporting a PER of 9.76. For comparison, LeBron had a PER of 18.3 during his rookie season.
Although Wiggins' numbers have been poor, his advantage is that he is a mere teenager, making him much younger than the average rookies throughout the history of the league. Therefore, he will have some extra time to develop before his improvement should start to taper off.
That said, one of the closer player profiles that Wiggins matches so far is that of James Posey. Now, Posey was an above-average wing defender and an important contributor on several playoff teams. However, when you draft a guy hoping that he is the next LeBron, that still represents a pretty steep drop-off.
Obviously Wiggins is not a lock to develop into a mediocre player. But the fact remains that his numbers need to improve drastically this season in order for it to seem likely that he will turn into the superstar that everyone expected because players like LeBron and Kobe Bryant simply were much better early in their careers than Wiggins has been to this point.
Below you can see highlights of Wiggins' game against Cleveland, which was his best of the season.
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