NBA players rising to stardom as 21 year olds in their third year is pretty rare, even rarer when you’re talking about wing players. Some of the names that qualify: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and now, quite possibly, Andrew Wiggins.
Wiggins is averaging 26 points per game and scoring from all over the floor. And although the season is only 11 percent old, Wiggins is putting up numbers similar to what LeBron, Carmelo and Durant posted as 21 year olds.
His averages are actually really close to what Carmelo finished with in 2005-06, including nearly identical slash lines of 26/4/2 (points/rebounds/assists). But Wiggins is clearly superior in 3-point percentage, although his league-leading rate of 54.8 percent will undoubtedly come down quite a bit.
First 9 games of year 3:
Andrew Wiggins
26.3 PPG, .585 TS%.Carmelo Anthony
20.1 PPG, .511 TS%Kevin Durant
26.8 PPG, .536 TS%.— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) November 14, 2016
LeBron and Durant posted more impressive scoring and rebounding numbers, but both took more shots and played more minutes than Wiggins is. And neither played for a team that boasted two other scoring threats like the Wolves have in Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine.
LeBron was sharing shots with Larry Hughes and Zydrunas Ilgauskas while Durant was still watching Russell Westbrook come of age.
Here’s the blow-by-blow offensive breakdown of all four at 21 years old.
Points per game
- LeBron James – 31.4
- Kevin Durant – 30.1
- Carmelo Anthony – 26.5
- Andrew Wiggins – 26.3
Rebounds per game
- Kevin Durant – 7.6
- LeBron James – 7.0
- Carmelo Anthony – 4.9
- Andrew Wiggins – 4.0
Assists per game
- LeBron James – 6.6
- Kevin Durant – 2.8
- Carmelo Anthony – 2.7
- Andrew Wiggins – 2.2
Free-throw attempts per game
- LeBron James – 10.3
- Kevin Durant – 10.2
- Andrew Wiggins – 9.0
- Carmelo Anthony – 8.9
Effective field-goal percentage
- Andrew Wiggins – 53.0 %
- LeBron James – 51.5 %
- Kevin Durant – 51.4 %
- Carmelo Anthony – 49.3 %
Note: Effective field goal percentage factors in the fact that 3-point shots are more valuable than 2-point attempts, according to NBA.com.
3-point percentage
- Andrew Wiggins – 54.8 %
- Kevin Durant – 36.5 %
- LeBron James – 33.5 %
- Carmelo Anthony – 24.3 %
Perhaps the biggest thing separating Wiggins from the others is that none of the others threw up a 7-point dud like Wiggins did earlier this season against the Thunder. Carmelo’s lowest-scoring game in his third year was 11 points while LeBron’s was 14 and Durant’s was 12.
More importantly, LeBron, Carmelo and Durant took their teams to the playoffs in year three.
