NBA Rumors: Should the Los Angeles Lakers Consider a Trade for the Minnesota Timberwolves If They Whiff on Their Other Targets?
Expectations were sky-high for Andrew Wiggins when he first entered the NBA back in 2014.
In college, Wiggins oozed this kind of potential that could make even veteran scouts swoon. As a super-athletic wing player with great size and a developing skill set, it seemed safe to assume that Wiggins would be a star in the league, and it would only be a matter of time before he eventually became one.
Fast forward a few years later and Wiggins now has four full NBA seasons under his belt.
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Through four seasons, Wiggins is averaging just a shade under 20 points per game, according to Basketball Reference, a number that would suggest that he's one of the better offensive players in the league.
In reality, though, Wiggins is far from being an elite or even just an efficient offensive player.
To go along with that scoring average, Wiggins has career shooting percentages of just a few ticks under 45 percent from the field, 33 percent from three-point land and 74 percent from the free throw line. Those are inefficient shooting percentages.
In short, though Wiggins may be putting up points in the NBA, he's doing so through inefficient volume shooting.
And it's not like Wiggins has his playmaking to fall back on too as he hasn't shown that he has the ability to consistently make the right passes.
Defensively, Wiggins has been fine, but far from the lockdown guy some scouts projected him to be.
Wiggins certainly belongs in the NBA, but to say that he's on track to become a superstar may be a stretch at this point.
That could explain why he does not have a ton of value on the trade market currently, according to a recent report from The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially for a team looking to add talent, like say, the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are widely expected to go after the likes of LeBron James and Paul George in free agency this summer, and they may also attempt to swing a trade for the San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard.
There is no guarantee that the Lakers will land even one of those players, however.
If the Lakers somehow fail to acquire those players, they will need to find someone else to add to their young core, and Wiggins may not be such a bad buy-low candidate.
Sure, Wiggins has not done a great job of showing that he can be a superstar in this league thus far, but he's young enough that he can still grow significantly as a player.
The Lakers have the cap room needed to take on Wiggins' contract, and because of that, they may not need to send truly valuable assets back to the Timberwolves in exchange for him.
As for the Timberwolves, they may take that deal to make sure that they have enough money to re-sign Jimmy Butler and to offer Karl-Anthony Towns his inevitable extension.
The Lakers must still try to sign James, George and possibly trade for Leonard if they can, but acquiring Wiggins is not such a bad fallback plan for them.
Who knows, maybe Wiggins will even fare better if he becomes the leader of a young team.
Moving forward, a core of Wiggins, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball looks promising and it definitely beats the alternative of possibly not bringing in anyone new.
