The Wolves picked up a massive win on Thursday night in Los Angeles, thanks in large part to the resurgent play of Andrew Wiggins.
It wasn’t Wiggins’ line that was the most impressive (though it was certainly solid) but the way he got there. Thursday’s was, with the possible exception of his 40-point game in OKC earlier in the month, the most legitimately-exciting performance we’ve seen from Wiggins in the long time.
Wiggins finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, doing most of his scoring damage around the rim. He was simply everywhere—crashing the boards, keeping his eyes up and finding teammates, playing solid defense and using his athleticism to run all over the Lakers. Even though he didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, Wiggins followed his misses and didn’t let his shooting become the central part of his game.
What we saw on Thursday was that Wiggins is more than capable of shedding the label of being just a scorer, and that is extremely, extremely exciting. During one stretch, Wiggins was the de-facto point guard for the Wolves’ bench unit—that represents a fundamental shift in how the Wolves see Wiggins and what he can do. If Minnesota and Wiggins are on the same page in using him as more of a swiss army knife player and less of a pure scorer, that could have huge ramifications for the future of the franchise.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, it was only one game, but this Wiggins, who not only played more aggressively (as has frequently been discussed) but was used in more facets of the Wolves’ game plan, is one that will help this team win games. Wiggins at the point guard is an exciting development as well and one that will almost certainly be put in play tonight against the Jazz. This could really turn into something, stay tuned.