The excellent author Nassim Nicholas Taleb has a resonant expression in which he warns against crossing a river that is, on average, 4 feet deep.
I’ll probably bungle the deepest logic behind the phrase, but the takeaway is that we shouldn’t mistake averages for consistent results. Try to walk across a river that’s, on average, 4 feet deep and it might be up to your ankles in some spots. In others, it might be over your head – and you’ll drown.
As a devout reader of Taleb’s books and a longtime watcher of Timberwolves basketball, I’d like to try out this metaphor: Andrew Wiggins a river that is, on average, 4 feet deep.