Wade Baldwin may not get a ton of attention playing for a team on the outside of the playoffs looking in, but his stellar showing in Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz's 85-68 victory over ALBA Berlin reiterated just how outstanding he is playing of late.
Baskonia's secret was Baldwin, the facilitator
Baldwin flirted with a triple-double as he collected 16 points, a career-best 7 rebounds and 10 assists for a performance index rating of 29. That came after he picked up 20 points, 4 rebounds and a career high 11 assists for a PIR of 31 in a victory over Anadolu Efes Istanbul in a Round 20 makeup game and tallied 14 points and 5 rebounds against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
Baldwin is playing his third season in the EuroLeague after helping FC Bayern Munich nearly reach the Final Four in 2020-21 following a subpar rookie campaign the previous season with Olympiacos Piraeus.
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While Baldwin's numbers were already strong last season with the German team – 15.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 13.4 PIR – he has seen an improvement almost across the board this season. He is averaging 14.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists for 15.4 index rating. Baldwin's two-point shooting meanwhile has jumped from 48.8% to 52.0% and his three-point accuracy rose from 28.5% to 32.6%.
Baldwin has shown this season that he can still score – including 30 points in his return to FC Bayern Munich and 27 points against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. But he clearly has changed his mentality in the last seven games since early February, becoming more of a facilitator on offense, averaging 6.9 assists per game over that stretch.