Luol Deng had better be mentoring the HECK out of Andrew Wiggins right now. Not only is this this old dude (only 33, but the mileage of a 50-year-old) the exact kind of knowledgeable veteran to bestow wisdom upon the young and struggling Wiggins, but he actually has the upper hand in basketball skill as well, which means that Wiggins has no choice but to listen to him.
Case in point: Deng had 18 points on ten shots in this game. Wiggins had 12 points on 18 shots, which is such bad efficiency that you could flip the numbers and it still wouldn’t be all that great. Right now I’m guessing that Deng’s mentoring strategy is to make fun of Wiggins for allowing himself to get outplayed by a man who’s a decade his senior and who lost his ability to jump about four years ago. If that doesn’t light a fire under Wigg’s ass and get him to start performing up to his contract, nothing will.
And now, with Deng actually receiving minutes and being able to back up his words with actions on the court, there’s no reason for Anthony Tolliver to continue trying to mentor Wiggins, if he was even attempting such a thing in the first place. Nobody’s gonna listen to Tolliver’s advice except for maybe Gorgui Dieng.