Surprise Performer: Thunder Rookie Aaron Wiggins Could Be Latest Draft Steal
The Oklahoma City Thunder are great at extracting talent outside of the lottery during drafts. Over the past decade, they’ve developed quite a few good NBA players who were taken in the late first round, the second round or even undrafted.
The next player who has real potential to fall in that same category is Aaron Wiggins, who they selected No. 55 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft.
An experienced player despite being a rookie, Wiggins played three college seasons at Maryland, notching 96 career games.
Wiggins was primarily a bench player in his first two college seasons, but that was by design. He actually began his college career as a starter, but asked to be moved to the bench to benefit the team as a spark plug.
Standing at 6-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, Wiggins has an NBA-ready frame and has gradually improved as an overall player over the past few years.
As a freshman in college, he played quite a bit but wasn’t near as productive as he would ultimately become. By his junior season, prior to entering the NBA Draft, Wiggins was one of the team’s best players and once again a starter.
In that final college season he would go on to post career-best numbers from the field while producing 14.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
At 22 years old, Wiggins was a key piece on the Thunder’s NBA Summer League team. He played the third-most minutes of anyone on the roster and looked solid overall. He would ultimately average 11.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
Throughout summer league, he showed flashes of how productive he could be as a role player. While Wiggins will never be a star in the NBA, every championship team needs guys who do everything right and make plays when they’re called upon.
This could be Wiggins in three to five years.
The career trajectory of Wiggins will likely come down to 3-point shooting. With his height and length, he’s got the ability to be a solid defender and scorer off the bench. If he’s able to develop a quality jumper from deep, he could become the perfect 3-and-D player in Oklahoma City.
To this point in his career, he hasn’t shot the three consistently. In each of his three seasons at Maryland, Wiggins saw drastic swings in his 3-point shooting splits, whether that was in the positive or negative direction.
This continued into summer league, where he shot just 20 percent from deep through five games.
Either way, Wiggins will have plenty of time to develop as one of the Thunder’s two-way players this season. Spending time in the G League with the Oklahoma City Blue will be beneficial to build confidence and adjust to the speed of the game. From there, he should also have plenty of opportunity throughout the season to get reps playing up with the Thunder in the NBA.
As a late second-round pick, Wiggins could end up being a solid contributor down the road when OKC is once again a playoff team.
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