An idea I've thought for a while was worth exploring — and in fact wrote about back in July — is the Wolves moving Andrew Wiggins out of the starting lineup and into a sixth-man role.
Seeing the Wolves pile up 130 points in a victory over the Clippers on Monday while Wiggins was out sick shouldn't serve as some sort of SMOKING GUN Exhibit A, but it does provide the occasion to think again about the relative strengths and weaknesses of Wiggins and the Wolves' roster as a whole.
I like Wiggins in a role off the bench for both addition and addition-by-subtraction reasons. Advanced stats suggest Wiggins has been a below-average player throughout his career, and bringing him off the bench would lessen his overall negative impact. The one thing he's consistently proved to be adept at is volume scoring, and as part of an attack-minded second unit (playing against other second units), that could be a true asset.
Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.
