未來有太多可能 所以更加需要努力

Andrew Wiggins has proven he can score, but he's going to have to shore up the rest of his game now that Jimmy Butler is in town.

安德魯-威金斯已經證明了他可以得分，但吉米-巴特勒來後他需要爲比賽做的更多。

Around this time last year, the Minnesota Timberwolves started to generate some early playoff buzz. It made some degree of sense. The Wolves featured an intriguing young nucleus led by one of the game's brightest future stars (Karl-Anthony Towns) and they had recently hired defensive mastermind Tom Thibodeau as their coach.

大概是在去年的這個時候，明尼蘇達森林狼產生了一些對季後賽的幻想。從牌面上來看並非不可能，森林狼以年輕的未來之星爲核心（卡爾-安東尼-唐斯），聘用了防守大師級教練湯姆-錫伯杜爲主教練。

And presto—you've got yourself a postseason dark horse.

看起來他們即將成爲一匹出現在季後賽的黑馬。

Alas, things did not work out that way. Instead of pushing for the playoffs, the Wolves lurched their way to just 31 wins—a mere two-win improvement over the prior season.

但是啊，事情並不常常發展的如人們想象的那樣。森林狼並沒有打進季後賽，僅僅取得了31場常規賽勝利——相比於之前一個賽季僅僅有2場的進步。

There should be no worries about the team succumbing to such pitfalls next season. Now armed with a top-10-to-15 player in Jimmy Butler, the question for the Wolves is no longer whether they will make the playoffs, but exactly how good they can be—both next year and in the years beyond.

在下個賽季，應該不會有人擔心球隊掉入同樣的陷阱了。隨着吉米-巴特勒——這位聯盟能排進前15的球星加盟，森林狼的問題不應該再是能否打進季後賽，而是他們的上限在哪裏——包括明年和之後的若干年。

It seems fair to say that Wiggins's reputation outstrips his production to this point in his career. There are still people that try to make a controversy out of the Cavaliers dealing him to the Wolves for Kevin Love, even though that trade contributed to the Cavs making three straight trips to the Finals and winning the city of Cleveland's first championship in 52 years.

對現在的威金斯來講，圍繞在他身邊的爭論大於他本身的價值。在克里夫蘭，始終有人對用他換來凱文-樂福的交易提出質疑，儘管這筆交易促成了騎士連續3年闖進總決賽，並歷史性的在2016年拿到隊史52年來的首個總冠軍。

He has been a high-volume scorer during his first three years in the league, but has yet to register a true shooting percentage at or above the league average in his career. He's done precious little creating for others and has considerably below-average rebounding numbers for a player his size.

在聯盟前三年，威金斯已經證明了自己是一名高產的得分手，但三個賽季的真實命中率都沒有達到或高於聯盟平均水平。他爲隊友創造投籃機會的能力不足，而且以他的體格，籃板數要低於平均水平。

None of this is to say that Wiggins is just bad, nor that he cannot become the kind of impact player a segment of the NBA-watching population seems to think he already is. The ability to score with near-average efficiency on incredibly high volume is a useful skill, and Wiggins does have both the tools to be an elite defender and Thibodeau barking in his ear to make sure he becomes one eventually.

上述這些並不是說威金斯多麼不好，或是讓NBA的觀衆認爲他不會成爲有影響力的球員之一。他能以略低於聯盟平均投射效率得到大量分數這就是很有用的技能，而且威金斯有成爲精英防守者的潛質，同時錫伯杜教練的鞭策能使他最終做到這一點。

But Wiggins cannot just continue along the same path his career has started on, because from now on he'll be playing next Butler.

但是威金斯不能走他之前職業生涯的老路了，因爲從現在起他要和巴特勒搭檔。

Given that Butler's the better, More established player, it seems likely that Wiggins will be the one who is forced into adapting his game. What might that mean? More spot-up shooting, for sure, and more cutting action as well.

既然巴特勒能做的更好、更成熟，那麼威金斯可能被迫要改變他的風格來適應新隊友。這意味着什麼？很明顯：更多的定點投籃，以及更多的切入。

The one silver lining of his being less of an offensive focal point is that it should free Wiggins to devote more energy—physically and mentally—to defense. He now has Butler next to him as a role model for what a true wing stopper should look like, and all of Thibodeau's yelling and screaming can have an extra "look at him" edge to it as well.

對威金斯來講，不再作爲球隊進攻焦點並不完全是壞事，好處是他可以將更多的精力——身體和精神上——投入防守端。現在，他身邊有巴特勒這樣一個側翼防守者作爲榜樣，錫伯杜在防守訓練時可以喊“看看巴特勒是怎麼做的”了。

Butler's already a star and Towns is well on his way. The Wolves need Wiggins to fulfill his potential as the third amigo if they want to get where they want to go.

巴特勒已經是明星球員，唐斯也正向着這個目標穩步前進，那麼森林狼就需要威金斯兌現他的潛力以實現他們希望實現的目標。

更多精彩內容請關注微信公衆號、新浪微博：籃球英文堂