How would you rank these three wing players based on this season’s scoring stats?
Player A: 15 GP, 32.7 MPG, 21.1 PPG, 46% FG%, 38% 3P%, .543 eFG, 75% FT%
Player B: 29 GP, 36.5 MPG, 26.2 PPG, 42% FG%, 33% 3P%, .490 eFG, 82% FT%
Player C: 29 GP, 31.1 MPG, 18.7 PPG, 49% FG%, 42% 3P%, .571 eFG, 75% FT%
The big reveal is that’s (in order) Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Andrew Wiggins. Those three were on the floor last night in the Golden State Warriors’ 111-107 victory over the Boston Celtics. Some are saying Wiggins shined the brightest in that contest.
Wiggins finished the game with 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting (a scorching 5-of-7 from beyond the arc), stepping up offensively on a night the Warriors had neither Klay Thompson or third leading scorer Jordan Poole.
What I found interesting was how much of his dominance came from the left side of the floor.
Here Andre Iguodala calmly feeds Wiggins on the left wing, where he bullies a smaller defender for an easy bucket:
And here goes Iguodala handing off Maple Jordan on the left wing for a quick snipe from deep.
And then Draymond Green finds Wiggins off the annoying off-ball screen Wiggins’ defender. BANG!
LEFT, LEFT, LEFT. Here’s his shot chart from last night:
This season Wiggins is shooting a career best from downtown, knocking down 65 of his 144 attempts. Per Synergy, Wiggins is in the 88th percentile for his position in 3PT shooting. 55 of those deep bombs have been corner threes, the second most efficient shot in the game.
He’s shooting 45% on those, superior to the likes of sharpshooters such as Duncan Robinson, Danny Green, and Patty Mills. That’s ELITE. But if we dig a little deeper, we see an interesting pattern.
44 of those 55 corner three attempts have been from the left side of the floor, tied for most in the league. Wiggins is shooting 55% on that shot, which is easily the best efficiency in the NBA for the volume of shots he’s put up from over there. Here’s a chart showing the location, frequency, and efficiency of all of his shot attempts this season. HE LIKES THAT LEFT SIDE:
Moving On
Warriors move on to play the Toronto Raptors today without Wiggins and seven other players.
4:30 PT tipoff on NBC Sports Bay Area. Let the Jonathan Kuminga era begin.
Regarding Moody, while the shot is obviously the main thing to focus on as he hasn't yet proven he can actually shoot in the NBA, I do think he's shown some nice flashes of "other stuff".
Here's an example near the end of the game of Moody contesting a drive in the paint and showing great verticality, how many SGs can do this and actually affect the shot?
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?GameEventID=643&GameID=0022100443&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=MISS%20Watanabe%207%27%20Driving%20Bank%20Hook%20Shot&sct=plot
We'll see how he boxes out as he gets stronger but just in terms of reflexes and hands this rebound was pretty impressive
https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?GameEventID=600&GameID=0022100443&Season=2021-22&flag=1&title=MISS%20Achiuwa%20Free%20Throw%201%20of%201&sct=plot
Having the early stellar record looking more and more important. Looks like the next while at the least will be a battle of attrition among teams of "who do we have to suit up tonight."
It's also interesting the warriors have barely been touched thus far. Hopefully this current outbreak just makes everyone more cautious and keeps our guys healthy!