Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffRas22
Wiggins efficiency #s are fine. 54% TS and 35% from 3 look avg but when you consider context and realize he's a guy who takes 3.5 3's a game and not a lot of shots at the rim, while creating most of his own shots, it looks better. He's objectively a good scorer, I don't see how that's arguable. What is arguable is how valuable the type of scorer he is in today's league, along with his current value in other areas of the game along with his potential.
I can buy this take when you keep it at calling him a scorer. I don't believe that makes him a good offensive player when you take into account his assist numbers, though, and especially assist quality. And yeah I'd argue that he's not valuable in his current iteration, at all. I know we like to lol at advanced stats in a vacuum, but he's well below average in all of them except PER, where he's been slightly above. I could understand it if we were talking about a first or second year player, but to be well below average in BPM/RPM/WS48 points to a below average overall player imo. And these numbers have not really improved in three years despite some prodigious scoring games. We seem to go through this about three times a year with him, people will declare him awesome and then a few weeks later he sucks, and it usually coincides with how well he's shooting from midrange.
I will say that a lot of this is on Thibs though. Their offense is a complete abortion consisting of Towns or Wiggins going 1on1 with Ricky trying to hide as far as he can while everyone stands around. I would think they could come up with some pretty killer action to at least give Wiggins more shots at the basket, but they rarely do.
Remember when you and others laughed at me for saying they should trade for Otto Porter before the season started? I don't think there is a GM or even Minnesotafan in the world that wouldn't trade for him now. There is something to be said for players who are just smart over guys with amazing physical gifts imo. And I'd still take someone like Harris who despite pedrigree and size deficiencies for his position has actually improved in pretty much everything all 3 years to the point where above average all four categories and at least has a clue on defense.
I guess it's the same old "flawed #1/2 man" vs "very good #3/#4" man argument again. I'm typically the guy who roots for the latter because theoretically you can win a title with him while it's very hard with the former.
So in this example Wiggins scores 22pp36 on 54TS with 2.4ast/2.3tov vs 17pp36 on 58TS for Harris, which is the better scorer? Would a player like the latter score 22 points on a similar TS if they just took more shots? What happens when you add that one assists at a higher rate and turns it over less despite touching the ball nearly half as often?
I honestly don't know the answer to these questions, but I have a real belief that guys who score a ton without assisting aren't nearly as good for the offense as their numbers dictate, and the advanced metrics back that up to a degree.