Explain One Play: Andrew Wiggins Tries Out The Harrison Barnes Playbook

Video analysis from my heart to yours.

A list of all Explain One Play articles and videos is at The new Explain One Play index.

When the Warriors acquired Andrew Wiggins, it was natural to compare him to Harrison Barnes as a complement to the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.  

My first thought in the shocking early moments of the trade news:

Eric Apricot @EricApricot

This is the bright side. In related news, I bet I can dig up some of my old writing about Harrison Barnes and sub in Wiggins’s name. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! https://t.co/RxrVLdFUrf

They are approximately the same size, though Harrison Barnes is stronger and sturdier.

Eric Apricot @EricApricot

Current listings at BBRef are Wigg 6-7 194 lb Barnes 6-8 225 lb KD 6-10 240 lb So yes, as measured by weight, Wigg is less capable of guarding bigs, ignoring issues of body build

Make Andrew Great Again 🇨🇦 @urkle9

@Aftermath8 @fnf2017 @EricApricot What kd did weigh when he was there.

Eric Apricot @EricApricot

Watching H Barnes video for reasons you can probably guess... 1. “wow, this guy is actually really fun to watch, I forgot that” 2. “this is a lot of fadeaways from the right block” 3. “Yeah, tiring of these iso drives into tough fadeaways” all 2013-2016 emotions in 30 min

We can see in Wiggins's first four games that the Warriors have been trying him out in Harrison Barnes's old role in the weakside corner. This is a quick video study of how Wiggins has run actions from Barnes's old playbook with some early promise. Though it's very early, he seems comfortable serving as a weakside spot-up shooter, attacking close-outs, running off pindowns and countering top-locking with baseline backdoor cuts. 

Here is a key slide of stats from the video:

Stats from the wonderful Basketball Reference.

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