Jimmy Butler basically set fire to the Timberwolves organization on his way out of Minnesota, and Andrew Wiggins, alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, was seemingly among the most burned.
During his infamous 2018 practice tirade in which he led a group of third-stringers to a scrimmage beatdown of Minnesota's starters, Butler hurled "They ain't [expletive]!" and "They soft!" insults in the direction of Wiggins and Towns, per Yahoo's Chris Haynes.
In what essentially amounted to a Timberwolves exit interview with then ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols, Butler called Wiggins the "most God-gifted" player on (then) Minnesota's roster before adding that he (Butler) played the hardest, with the implication being that Wiggins didn't do enough of the latter.
ESPN's Bobby Marks suggested that the $147.7 million max contract extension the Wolves handed to Wiggins was another source of contention for Butler, with, again, the implication being that Butler didn't feel Wiggins' actual play hadn't lived up to the potential upon which that payday was based.
There was, in the end, a lot of speculation about Butler's time in Minnesota and the theatrical manner in which it ended, and not much of it, if any at all, seemed very flattering for Wiggins.
But it goes to show that, perhaps, things aren't always what they might seem, or even as they are reported. A little over a week ago, Andre Iguodala, Wiggins' current teammate with the Warriors who spent the last season and a half playing with Butler in Miami, said that Butler "had nothing but amazing things to say about [Wiggins], and that he really liked playing with [Wiggins].
"That was all I needed to hear to be honest, because Jimmy doesn't like anybody," Iguodala continued. "So when Jimmy said he liked Wiggs, I kind of started looking at it different."
This doesn't mean Butler wasn't frustrated with Wiggins in Minnesota. Butler was obviously running on hot emotions at the end of his Wolves' run, and with the benefit of time and space between that situation and his relocation to a Heat organization more collectively in line with his own intensity, it's certainly feasible that he's come to see things differently.
Or maybe he really did like playing with Wiggins all along and the reporting was inaccurate.
Either way, it doesn't really matter. This is all in the past. Butler is in a different and clearly better place, as if Wiggins, who has taken his opportunity with Golden State to completely flip the script on his still-young career narrative.
It's not the 18.7 points per game Wiggins is scoring this season, or the 18.7 he scored last season, or the 19.4 he scored in his post-trade time with the Warriors in 2020 (Wiggins, give or take, has always been a 20-point-per-game scorer), it's the manner in which he is getting those points, which is to say within the system rather than hunting low-efficiency mid-range jumpers.
In each of Wiggins' five full seasons with the Wolves, at least 40 percent of his shot attempts came from the midrange, and in four of the five seasons that number was at least 47 percent, per Cleaning the Glass. Particularly maddening were the long-midrange shots (between 14 feet and the 3-point line), which accounted for at least 22 percent of Wiggins' shot profile in each of his five seasons in Minnesota.
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This season, only 13 percent of Wiggins' shots are coming from the long midrange. Free of the burden that comes with being an ill-equipped primary scoring option, Wiggins hardly ever forces shots these days. He's a luxury end-of-clock option off the dribble, but for the most part, he's a star in his role, a 42-percent 3-point shooter on career-high frequency, an offensively content cog in a wheel of Stephen Curry movement.
And his defense? Night and day from his time in Minnesota, where he was known for infrequent focus and effort. With the Warriors, Wiggins has consistently been one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and that's not an exaggeration.
The main reason the Warriors traded D'Angelo Russell was because they already had enough offense. What they didn't have, in the absence of Klay Thompson, after the departure of Kevin Durant and before the return of Iguodala, was a top-shelf wing defender not named Draymond Green, who spends most of his time battling bigs. Wiggins, with his length and athleticism, looked like a candidate to fill that hole, but he had to prove himself committed night in and night out.
He's done that for 100-plus games now. Wiggins is no longer a portrait of inconsistency and inefficiency. He's the exact opposite as it pertains to both. He's an indispensable two-way contributor on a championship-contending team. Neither Butler nor anyone else would've ever said such things about Wiggins in Minnesota.
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December 28, 2021 at 11:48AM
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Jimmy Butler had 'nothing but amazing things to say' about Andrew Wiggins, according to Andre Iguodala - CBS Sports
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