Wiggins' expectations were sky-high -- and he's soared over them
MINNEAPOLIS -- Not the action, but the reaction. Not the pinnacle, but the climb.
Before pointing to Andrew Wiggins' apocalyptic, Internet-consuming dunk over Rudy Gobert on March 30 as a perfect microcosm of the Timberwolves forward's rookie season, retreat.
Go back four seconds. Watching from his spot on the right wing as the Jazz defense collapses, Minnesota's star of the future anticipates Lorenzo Brown's pass before he ever moves toward the lane to collect it. So explosive is the ensuing jump stop, Utah defender Trevor Booker is swiping at Target Center air by the time he realizes Wiggins has blown past him.
From the moment Wiggins figured out he belongs in this league, it's been this way. The tired "blink, and he's gone" adage doesn't even apply, because he doesn't even give the Bookers -- and Jameses, and Hardens -- of the world time to.
"It feels like he's not even loading, and he's jumping at the top of the backboard," Atlanta Hawks wing Kyle Korver said. "Like, I don't even know if he's like using all of his muscles. You know what I mean? He's like a pogo stick."
Go back years, to the days Wiggins spent at Glen Shields Park in Vaughan, Ontario, getting kicked around by older brothers Mitch and Nick and, occasionally, their father Mitch Sr. The pedigree â his dad played in the NBA and married an Olympian runner named Marita Payne -- was always there. So were the freakish athleticism, and the competitive fire, and with them the expectations. They only expanded when he reached high school, and reached a tipping point during his one season at Kansas.
In many ways, this stellar rookie NBA season was foretold.
"Some people's expectations are crazy. Some are more the reality," Andrew Wiggins said. "You've just got to live with your own expectations, really. Set your own goals and try to accomplish them."
Go back to Dec. 23 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena. All the exterior forces that decided Wiggins' professional hoops future came to a head when the Cavaliers -- the team that sent him to Minneapolis in the Kevin Love trade -- hosted the Wolves. At some point that night, a Minnesota assistant told Wiggins it's one thing to have big games, but superstardom requires them every time out.
Wiggins had one. Then another. Then another. And another.
They haven't ceased since.
He's scored in double digits 53 of the past 55 contests, averaging 19.1 points per game on 45.5 percent shooting during that stretch. He's one of just two first-year players to rank in the top eight among rookies in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
And the passivity that plagued his pre-draft scouting report has been all but eradicated. The Gobert dunk provided a snapshot, but Wiggins' aggression would've steadily increased to its current crescendo whether the Canadian posterized the French Rejection or not.
The Wiggins that did that and the one that meandered through the first month of the season settling for jump shots look like two different young men.
"Before, he'd try to have layups at the rim. Now, he's trying to dunk over people," Wolves head coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders said. "There's no question that he's Rookie of the Year. Anyone that throws anything else out, they're dreaming."
Since shortly before Christmas, Wiggins certainly has registered as the favorite. Jordan Clarkson, Elfrid Payton and Nerlens Noel have made recent surges, but none of them have exerted their will for the better part of the season the way Wiggins has. Nor have they done it while hanging with opposing teams' top scorers at the defensive end. Or assuming a Wiggins-like workload.
Wiggins, the NBA's highest-scoring rookie, is also its minutes leader since Dec. 1 and the focal point of every opponent scouting report on a team ravaged by injuries.
"I don't even know who else would be in the (Rookie of the Year) conversation," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said in February. "He's going to be an All-Star. He's a terrific player, a good talent, and it looks like he's figuring out the NBA game."
Wiggins calls becoming Minnesota's first-ever Rookie of the Year "the ultimate goal." Another: play in all 82 games.
Heading into Wednesday night's game against Oklahoma City, he's only one appearance away from accomplishing that goal.
"At first, I didn't really think about it till the season starts closing down and it's a possibility," Wiggins said. But then he saw starters Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic and a drove of other players miss significant time. Lately, it's been common for Minnesota to dress 10 or fewer players.
Relatively speaking, that magic number Kyle Rudolph wears for the Vikings looks like quite an accomplishment. Especially when it comes with averaging 36.2 minutes per game.
"I feel like my body might be a little tired, but I feel like my mind is stronger than my body," Wiggins said. "If I think I'm not tired, I won't be tired."
Furthermore, playing for such a depleted team, in theory, has accelerated Wiggins' development. He said when the Cavs traded him in August he relished the opportunity to be "the" guy, and he's been forced to for the better part of his rookie go-round.
"Just to maximize his potential, he needed that trade back in August," Martin said. "He was going to play with a couple guys where he would never see the ball, but for him to come here, especially with our injuries, he had to take on a lot of responsibilities."
But there are more prizes to seize than recognition as basketball's top up-and-comer. Wiggins will likely be joined by a top-three lottery pick next season. A playoff appearance sometime in the next few years would put him on an achievement level only teammate and mentor Kevin Garnett can currently claim.
Potential international glory awaits, too, though Wiggins says he won't decide till after the season whether to play for Canada during Olympic qualifying or not.
What is already won, though, is the respect of a league where it must be earned every night, primarily on an individual-to-individual level.
"He's a great talent, great talent," James said after Cleveland's Jan. 31 win in Minnesota (Wiggins had a season-high 33 points that night). "He has a very, very good feel for the game. That's good to see. He was calm, played the game the right way tonight. He made some mental mistakes, but as a rookie you expect that. I think he's grown each month this season."
Said Rockets guard James Harden: "He's so athletic, so skilled and so long that offensively, he's getting a lot better, a lot more comfortable. And I think as a rookie, the more comfortable, the better off you'll be."
Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler: "I think he's going to be a really special player in this league. He's tough. He's learning. It's a learning curve for the kid, but he's going to make his mark. He's going to have a great career."
Heat guard Dwyane Wade: "Like I told him when we played him in Miami, 'The sky's the limit for you if you want it, if you put the work in.' He has that talent, and he's young. He's a raw talent right now, but the kid can be good."
And Kobe Bryant, after facing the Wolves in December: "Playing against him, seeing the baby face and the little footwork, little technique things he's going to be much sharper at as time goes on, it was like looking at a reflection of myself 19 years ago."
Now look ahead.
Wiggins' assertive, resounding howl after throwing down against Gobert on March 30 came with more emotion than Wiggins had shown in a basketball game, locker room or post-practice media scrum all season. This was a 20-year-old man exacting his will replacing the 19-year-old kid still figuring things out.
"Earlier in the year, he might've dunked and ran down the court, but after that dunk, he had a little something to him," Martin said. "The more he does that, the more we're going to trust him."
Said Wolves forward Chase Budinger: "The best part, though, was before the game, I was telling him to be aggressive towards (Gobert). 'Don't back off. Try to dunk on him every time you get in the lane.' He definitely did that."
The local media's seen another side of Wiggins, too -- one who now offers a little more than the one- or two-word quips he'd dole out during training camp and early on this season.
After the April 1 game against Toronto, he even offered a few reporters cookies from his locker. Never mind that he probably snatched them from the Target Center media room, a pregame custom in which he and fellow rookie Zach LaVine like to engage.
"He's opened up," Saunders said during a recent media scrum. "You guys thought you were going to get three words at the beginning of the year. He's at least up now to five. . . . And it's everybody -- other players, he's opened up to the staff, he initiates conversation. You know that he's matured."
One dunk can't change the truth. But it can illustrate it.
And the truth is that after Year 1, Andrew Wiggins is on pace to eclipse the impossibly high standards attached to his name.
"When you're thought of as the face of a franchise, regardless of your age, it's a huge responsibility," Minnesota assistant Sam Mitchell said. "It's not just for the team, the organization, but your teammates. These guys look at you a certain way. They expect certain things. They expect a certain amount of effort night in and night out, and it's tough. It's hard when you have that on you, especially when you're 19.
"Andrew's handled it well. He goes at his pace, doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low. It's amazing how he takes it. I can't tell you what he feels inside, but from what I've seen, my reaction is that how he plays, it just doesn't faze him. He gets it. He understands it. He knows who he is. He understands all the people around him.
"He puts it in a box and sets it to the side at 7 o'clock every night."
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