Andrew Wiggins Not Happy With Role In Minnesota?

Stories have been circulating this week that Andrew Wiggins, forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves, is unhappy with his role on the team.

We of course know that with the signing of Jimmy Butler from the Chicago Bulls in the off-season would lead to some re-configuring of the game plan for the Wolves - Jimmy averaged 16.5 shots per game as the team leader for the 2016-17 season.  Additionally, his 3x All-star status (now 4x) merits his position in the locker room as that of a leader.  Situation's like this always make it difficult for teams to mesh and overall chemistry comes into question.

Currently, this is where the shots are coming from for the Timberwolves:

Player                       Field Goals Attempted Per Game             Points Per Game

Andrew Wiggins                            15.9                                                     17.9

Jimmy Butler                                 15.8                                                     22.2

Karl-Anthony Towns                      13.8                                                     20.7

As you can see, Andrew Wiggins is the least efficient of the big 3 in Minnesota.  Wiggins averages essentially the same amount of shots per game as Butler, and scores 4 less points per game. 

The problem may be that Wiggins averaged 19.1 shots per game last year, and averaged about 5.5 more points per game.  Being that there is a clearly more efficient guard/forward player on the roster in Jimmy Butler, Wiggins is getting less touches.  Additionally, Karl-Anthony Towns is getting nearly 4 shots less per game this year (from 18.0 to 13.8).  His points per game average also dropped 4 points (from 25.1 to 20.7).  If Wiggins is unhappy, Towns would reserve the right to the same argument.  Have we heard anything from him regarding his role on the team?

No. 

The NBA in the 2018 continues to focus on pace of play and efficiency via analytics.  Clearly, Wiggins is the third option on this team as he is the most inefficient of the three (.442%).  If Wiggins is unhappy, perhaps performing better would lead to more touches?  You would certainly hope that a player earning $146 million dollars over 5 years would have all of the motivation he needs.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are 40-29, good for 5th in the Western Conference (3/16/18).  At this time last year, they were 28-38 (3/15/17).