Is Andrew Wiggins better off with the Minnesota Timberwolves?

The handshakes have taken place on the biggest trade of the NBA summer.

Andrew Wiggins can’t be traded for Kevin Love until August 23. But the deal is done in principle. All we are waiting for is the inevitable signatures.

Here is the situation as explained by Taiwanese animators.

Brilliant.

So now we are up to speed, what does this mean for Wiggins?

The Canadian teen is leaving a Cleveland Cavaliers team featuring a card-carrying all-time great at his peak in LeBron James and current All-Star MVP Kyrie Irving.

He will arrive on a Minnesota Timberwolves squad featuring Spanish former wunderkind Ricky Rubio and, well, not a whole lot else.

Silver lining time: Wiggins’ coach at Kansas, Bill Self, said his former charge wants to be traded to Minneapolis.

"When all this trade stuff started, I talked to Andrew and Andrew told me, ‘I hope I get traded,” Self said. "And I'm like, 'No you don't.' And he said, ‘Coach, I do. It's better for me, knowing my personality and what I need to do, to go somewhere where I'm forced to be something as opposed to going in there where they're going to be patient with me and I'm going to be a piece’.”

If Wiggins is being honest, it means he prefers to begin his NBA career as the best player on a poor squad, rather than the third or fourth wheel on a potential juggernaut.

He wants to be Kevin Durant, not Kawhi Leonard.

Durant, the current NBA MVP, spent his rookie season in his 2007-08 on the (final) Seattle Supersonics team that toiled its way to just 20 wins. Durant averaged 20.3 point per game.

Leonard, the current NBA Finals MVP, was drafted onto a team with the league’s best-ever big three, allowing Leonard to focus his energy on the defensive end of the court, chipping in with 7.9 points.

Leonard has a title, while Durant has lost in an NBA Finals that saw him come within a missed call of a possible 2-0 lead. Both could add to their ring collections in the future.

Of course, it’s a flawed comparison (though a fun one).

Of the two ultra-athletic wing players, Wiggins will probably never be a multi-dimensional scorer like Durant. At this stage, he projects as something closer to Leonard, a defensive ace with the ability to take over fourth quarters when need arises.

But this comparison isn’t about style of play. It’s about how an NBA career can be affected by the surroundings in which it begins.

Below is a comparison of two players from each of the past 10 NBA Drafts. On the left is the player picked highest who didn’t make the playoffs in his first NBA season. On the right, the highest-picked player who did. Their draft positions are in brackets.

*Missed rookie season with injury

Of the 10 high draft picks who made the playoffs in their first season, just Rose and Harden have since played in an All-Star Game (it’s early days for Porter and Barnes, but both struggled last season). Of the 10 who spent their rookie seasons on non-playoff teams, six are All-Stars – Williams, Oden, Mayo and Bennett are not.

Of Wiggins’ fellow number one draft picks, just three made the playoffs in their first season – Bogut with the Milwaukee Bucks, Bargnani with the Toronto Raptors and Rose with the Chicago Bulls. Just Rose has made an All-Star team since (in fact, he is the only one still with the team that drafted him). Of the seven who landed on non-playoff teams, five are All-Stars. Those missing out are Oden, whose career has been decimated by injury, and last year’s top pick Bennett, who had a poor rookie season but could bounce back. (He could!)

High picks on bad teams were more likely to become All-Stars than those who won early. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but it shows that Wiggins may have a point.

This assumes the Cavs make the playoffs next year and the T-Wolves don’t. I’d bet every left shoe in my wardrobe that this proves to be the case.

Good news for Wiggins – and he needs some. His new team hasn’t been in the playoffs since the Seattle Supersonics last made it. Their last post-season appearance was in 2004. Wiggins might remember it, if any of the games were not on school nights. He was nine.

The 6ft 7in teenager will have to grow up fast in Minnesota. Rather than starting life as a small fish in LeBron’s big pond, Wiggins will have to be a man-eating shark in the muddy puddle that is the Timberwolves franchise.

Sink or swim? We’ll soon see.

Three pointers

1. Paul George will change his jersey number from 24 to 13 when he makes his NBA return in a year. It makes him PG-13 (like the US movie film classification ... get it?). Fun fact: a player who changes jersey numbers on the same team must buy up all of the old jerseys on the market. George isn’t required to as he applied for the switch before the March deadline, but he did anyway. Another example of the many reason he’ll be missed by NBA fans next season.

2. Carmelo Anthony is apparently very skinny now. It follows in the footsteps of LeBron, who has apparently slimmed down by cutting carbs out of his diet. It seems not even NBA superstars are immune to body confidence issues. Guys, you gotta love the skin you’re in.

3. After signing for a team in China, Metta World Peace has reportedly changed his name to The Panda’s Friend. Is the Artest formerly known as Ron a few shoots short of a bamboo field or what?

Jamie Goodwin is Web News Editor on gulfnews.com and has been an avid follower of the NBA for more than 20 years.