Wiggins proving why he’s deserving of hype

The Raptors held the prodigy Andrew Wiggins to 15 points in the win over the Timberwolves, but lose Kyle Lowry to a back injury.

It felt like more than a basketball game even if — realistically — Andrew Wiggins’ first official visit to his hometown as an NBA player meant not all that much.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are a young, scrambled team, losers of 10 of their last 11 after falling 105-100 to the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night. They only had eight healthy players available. Even their head coach Flip Saunders couldn’t make it as he tended to his elderly father, handing the reigns – fortuitously for the local media – to assistant coach and former Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell.

For the Raptors the T-Wolves represented low-hanging fruit: A team playing out the string, waiting for the draft — a perfect chance for the fragile home team to bolster its shaky self-esteem. Mission accomplished, even if the win was dampened by Kyle Lowry leaving the game after 25 minutes with a bruised back.

But for Wiggins and Canada and basketball if felt like a celebration, a homecoming, something. It felt like an occasion.

“This feels like the Olympics right now,” said Wiggins’ mother, Marita Payne, who would know given her status as a two-time Olympic medallist for Canada. She and her husband Mitch were front row, courtside, with 55 friends and family scattered throughout the building. “To be back here and compete in front of all of Canada it’s exciting. It’s where he’s born and it’s the country that he loves.”

It was big enough that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the trip from Ottawa with his kids to take in the game – no Prime Minister ever made the effort to watch Steve Nash play.

On nights like Wednesday it feels like basketball has arrived. But then you see Harper’s official Twitter account where he misidentified Wiggins’ T-Wolves teammate — and fellow Toronto-area product — Anthony Bennett as the Raptors’ Lowry in his photo-op and you figure it’s not quite there yet.

Still, the Canadian basketball story has been moving along verse by verse and chapter by chapter for the past few years, the intensity building, the pace quickening. Wiggins will likely be the man to push it towards the kind of climax everyone would love to see: Canada playing the U.S. for Olympic gold some time in the near future.

Wiggins has signalled that he’s going to make his senior national team debut this summer at the Pan Am Games in Toronto and more importantly at the Olympic qualifying event in Mexico beginning in late August.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It should be fun with all the guys, I played with a lot of them before.”

It’s all happened so fast. Wiggins was winning a provincial high school championship with Vaughan Secondary just four years ago last month, back when he was in 10th grade. Not too long ago he sent his coach, Gus Gymnopoulos, an autographed T-Wolves jersey as a gesture of thanks.

Even 67 games into what has been on the whole an outstanding rookie season for Wiggins, he can’t quite get used to the speed of change, which in many ways mirrors the speed with which the perception of basketball has changed here, too.

“It’s mind-blowing,” Wiggins said of his chance to play against the team he grew up watching. “It’s a great opportunity to play in the NBA, to play back home where I grew up.”

A year ago he was getting ready to play in March Madness for Kansas; this time around he’s a spectator, wishing the best for the 24 Canadians – many personal friends – who will tip off the tournament beginning Thursday.

“It goes by quick, it definitely does,” said Wiggins, who finished with 15 points and three rebounds in his first professional trip home. “You have to cherish the moments whether in college of the NBA, you only go through them once.”

Wiggins has been a quick learner, and not just on the court. He deftly handled the inevitable question about when he’s going to return to Toronto – “I love Minnesota. They treat me nice up there. I plan to be there a very, very, very long time.”

Which is the right answer. Presuming he signs a five-year maximum extension after his third season he wouldn’t be a free agent until the summer of 2023.

On the court he’s gained his footing as he established himself as a worthy first-overall pick. For the months of January and February he averaged 18 points on 44.7 percent shooting. He rebounded well and showed some chops as a defender.

While Wiggins was in foul trouble for most of the game Wednesday, DeMar DeRozan shot just 4-of-14 with Wiggins tracking his every move when he was on the floor, though DeRozan helped ice the game with a fadeaway over his outstretched fingers with less than two minutes left and the Raptors nursing a two-point lead.

“He’s a helluva player,” said Wiggins. “It was a great shot. I thought I defended pretty well, it was just better offence at that point.”

Offensively there is promise. He goes to the offensive glass well – “he’s relentless,” said the Raptors’ Amir Johnson — he flashed his mature-for-his years post game when he passed out of a double team, reposted and hit an easy baseline fadeaway in the second half. A moment later he glided to the basket, his seeming half-speed too much for everyone else at full speed. He’s not perfect. He fumbled the ball on the dribble at times and there were those five fouls that limited him to 31 minutes.

But most important in the eyes of Mitchell is that he’s shouldered a heavy load – he averages 35 minutes a night and hasn’t missed a game – without buckling, even though he’s clearly tiring.

“I mean, he’s still got a lot to learn. He’s not a finished player yet,” said Mitchell. “But sometimes you just measure [growth] in the mental part of the game. It’s a grind. Andrew played, what, 30-plus games [in college]? We did that in two months. And so this is three seasons all rolled into one for him and for him to have not missed a game tells you a lot about his makeup because … he hasn’t needed a game off. It’s a huge thing if he can play 82 games this year.”

Wiggins has been showing some signs of wear. He’s shooting just 40.7 percent from the floor in March and just 11 percent from the three-point line, a sure sign that his spring-loaded legs have reached their limit.

“This is the time of year you feel it, after all the games we’ve played, especially with all the injuries we’ve had, playing big minutes,” he said before the game. “ I’ve been taking care of my body, eating right to stay in the position I’m in … [but] it’s really hard, it’s really hard, you know? If it was easy, everyone would do it.”

There’s no better cautionary tale than Bennett, who had a dismal rookie season a year ago in Cleveland and has fared only slightly better this year in Minnesota. When the Timberwolves moved Thad Young at the trade deadline it was in part to clear the deck for Bennett, so he could start and finally gain some momentum. He sprained his ankle the next game and has been out of action since. Two years into his career, he’s still looking for traction.

Wiggins can be proud that he’s dug in and kept pushing. For all his athletic gifts his willingness to fight through adversity will be what allows him to achieve his potential. For his part that’s exactly what Wiggins has done so far.

Canada’s original basketball prodigy might be plying his trade far from home and may not be back any time soon. But he’s in good hands, getting the right advice and listening. We can welcome him home confident about where he’s going.

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