The Canadian Complication By Delon Terelle of the Popular Demand Podcast ​

12/2/19

A Promising Start

The Maple Leaf Mistake. The Canuck Conundrum. The Canadian Complication. In October 2017, former no. 1 overall pick signed a 5-year, $148 million contract extension with the . Going into the summer of 2017, Andrew was a 22 year-old starter who was showing incremental improvement in 3PT%, APG, and PPG. With and battling significant injuries and Nikolai Jokic slowly coming into his own as the obvious of the draft, Wiggins’s flashy, high-flying play was doing enough to justify his position at the top of his draft class. Furthermore, the 2015 Rookie of the Year was joined the following season by Karl-Anthony Towns, who would go on to become the 2016 Rookie of the Year and future All-Star. Locking down Wiggins seemed like a no-brainer for Minnesota, who finally had a dynamic duo talented enough to lead them to their first playoff berth since 2004.

From left to right: GM Milt Newton, Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach Lavine (Hoops Habit) ​ ​

1

Yes, 2004.

The Timberwolves had not seen a better opportunity at a playoff run since the days of MVP , , , and… Fred Hoiberg. Going into the 2017 offseason with cap flexibility and a young core consisting of Wiggins, KAT, and Lavine it was Minnesota’s summer to lose. But as we found out during that 13 year playoff drought, the Timberwolves are good losers.

Rising Expectations

We’re going to make a long story short here. During the draft, the Wolves brought in in a trade with the that sent away Lavine, guard , and the no. 7 pick that became… . The other major move was the Timberwolves front office deciding to bring in Jeff Teague in free agency. On paper, this was a team ready to compete for a 6th - 8th seed in the West.

And compete they did. The Timberwolves managed to attain the 8th seed in the playoffs after a 47-35 record. Interestingly enough, this record was only 2 games back from being the 3rd seed (Portland Trailblazers: 49-33). Overall, it seemed as though the team was trending upward under the veteran presence of Butler and Teague. Wiggins, however, regressed in the following categories: PPG, FG%, FT% (career worst), AST (career worst), 3PT%, and USG%, according to NBA.com. Media started picking up leads on locker room tension between Butler and the rest ​ ​ of the team. The initial problem was said to be the max contract the Timberwolves gave to the unproven Wiggins. There were rumblings that Wiggins began complaining about his usage rate, apparently being unhappy with his new role as the team’s third option. Finally, with Joel Embiid and Nikolai Jokic beginning to garner conversations as the best big men in the game, Andrew Wiggins began to look like he might fall into the categories of decent role player, wasted potential, missed opportunity.'

The next season might’ve been worse for Andy. Butler demanded a trade before the season and told the Timberwolves he had no intentions to resign with the team. He would later publicly allude to KAT and Wiggins’ poor work ethic as one of the catalysts for his desire to leave the

2 team. Then there was the scrimmage. THE scrimmage. We know the scrimmage. Afterwards, ​