Michigan basketball’s Franz Wagner enters the NBA draft
Franz Wagner’s university profession seems to be over.
The Michigan basketball star declared for the NBA draft Tuesday following two productive decades in Ann Arbor.
The selection does not arrive as a surprise: Wagner is typically projected as a first-round draft pick, deemed moving into the draft very last offseason and has normally been deemed a foreseeable future NBA player courting back again to his youth profession in Germany.
The six-foot-nine, 220-pound wing was one of the finest all-about players in the Significant 10 this period as a sophomore. Wagner started all 28 game titles, averaging twelve.five details, six.five rebounds, 3. helps, one.3 steals and one. blocks. He was a second-crew All-Significant 10 selection by the coaches and Associated Push.
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Wagner improved in just about each component between his freshman and sophomore seasons. On offense, he developed into a playmaker, tripling his helps for each video game, and also upped his 3-place capturing percentage. Wagner flirted with forty% on the period just before a late drought dropped it to 34.3%.
But it is Wagner’s defense that will make him an specially coveted prospect. With his measurement, duration and lateral capacity, Wagner was an excellent on- and off-ball defender who compelled two.3 turnovers for each video game in 2020-21. He assignments as a switchable defender at the up coming degree who can guard many positions.
Wagner was the first recruit to formally commit to mentor Juwan Howard following a recruitment that highlighted an unusual twist. In May perhaps of 2019, Wagner was scheduled to formally visit Michigan, the school that his older brother, Moritz, performed for. As he and his household waited in an airport, they received a phone from former mentor John Beilein saying his departure for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Even with the coaching turmoil, Wagner went by with his visit. And Howard and the rest of the staff eventually confident him to pick the Wolverines— a selection that paid out off for the two sides.
Now, Wagner has a chance to be drafted greater than his brother, who was the No. 25 total selection in the 2018 draft.
In ESPN’s most recent mock draft from Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz, Wagner was projected as the No. nine total pick (he was No. 20 in the past edition). Meanwhile, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ranked Wagner No. 18 on the most up-to-date edition of his NBA draft board.
If Wagner had been drafted in the first round, he would be Michigan’s first first-round pick since Jordan Poole was taken No. 28 total in 2019 — and he would also be Howard’s first player to be drafted.
Wagner’s departure, coupled with the addition of Coastal Carolina transfer DeVante’ Jones, places Michigan at the scholarship limit for the 2021-22 period.
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