USA TODAY Sports – Chris Humphreys
The NBA has been slowly trickling out the award winners from this past season as the first round of the playoffs have progressed. On Wednesday afternoon, word leaked that Minnesota Timberwolves small forward Andrew Wiggins will be announced as the Rookie of the Year on Thursday.
As expected, Timberwolves swingman Andrew Wiggins will be named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year tomorrow, a source said.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) April 29, 2015
Of all the awards announced thus far, this is by far the biggest no brainer yet. Playing most of the season at just 19 years of age, Wiggins looked every bit like the No. 1 pick that he was in last year’s NBA Draft. He got better as the season progressed and is certainly on the path to NBA stardom.
Wiggins started all 82 games for the Timberwolves and played just over 36 minutes per contest. He still hasn’t developed a reliable outside jumpshot and is mostly just a scorer at this point, but he was simply brilliant in the second half of the season and has plenty of time to develop the rest of his game. Wiggins averaged 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game.
The Cleveland Cavaliers made Wiggins the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft before quickly including him as part of a package deal to Minnesota for Kevin Love. Love didn’t play up to expectations with the Cavaliers this past season and is likely to miss the remainder of the playoffs after suffering a dislocated shoulder in Game 4 against the Boston Celtics. It’s looking more and more like the Cavaliers will regret trading Wiggins for Love.
