I don’t think the issue is us lacking a “put the team on your back guy” we just don’t have an elite shot creator. It’s always a luxury to have someone that can create for themselves and hit tough shots. We’ve seen that with Washington, and tonight we saw it with Juzang as he single handedly beat us. We also struggle to defend the bigger guards that can create their own shot. Eli is a great defender he’s just undersized and Mike really impressed me at points this year but he’s also undersized.
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He’s 20 years old with tons of development ahead of him. He’ll be fine.
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Kobe Bufkin is going to be the #1 candidate for shot creator. He’s very, very good at it in HS and AAU level. I’m excited to see how he’ll do next season.
I have to wonder if that’s why Juwan went after Josh Christopher for that reason. It’s to be that guy who can win iso ball when everything bogged down offensively.
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I would agree there is a lot of development moving forward. I just question whether he can thrive as a top level guy. As a Pistons fan (tough year) how would Franz do against a Jerami Grant? Grant is 26 years old but his first 4 years he didn’t do much. Both of those guys really have similar styles in terms of size, length, Grant probaby has better shot mechanics and lift but I could never see Wagner being able to match up with a guy like Grant.
Yeah, I don’t know. I’m terrible at projecting guys into the NBA because I don’t regularly watch the NBA. I just feel like there’s a lot to work with there and he should be able to carve out a good role. I mean, if his shot never improves, then there’s a real problem. But I have to think that a year or two of sole focus can make that shot playable at the next level. It seems to me that so many really good college players can’t crack the NBA because they just can’t guard anybody. Franz already has that hurdle cleared.
We lost tonight because every guy (save for maybe guys like Chaundee and BJJ) picked tonight to have an off night all at the same time. We didn’t need one guy, we just needed any other guy to have it in the tank tonight. Isaiah would have given us one more bullet in the chamber that hopefully wasn’t a blank tonight.
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I just get concerned when we look at past Michigan players leaving early. Levert has had injuries but has found a spot, Stauskas made money in europe but didn’t have a good NBA career, DJ Wilson is still trying to find a spot but might be running out of time, Iggy??? Poole seems to be perking up but you wonder what happens to his role when Klay returns. As we know it’s the best basketball league around and at this point with so much scoring, shot making and athleticism I am not sure if defense necessarily carries at this stage.
Defense does matter especially if you have wings who can play and are switchable. NBA values that kind of wing. If Franz can be a secondary creator and be a shooting threat while playing defense, he’ll have a role as a NBA player. He won’t be a star but he’ll be an excellent role player
I’ll be shocked if franz is able to create in the nba, his role will be as a catch and shoot guy and a good defender( similar to Robert Covington). It’s why evaluating his shot is so important in how you view him as a prospect.
One thing’s for sure. You just named 4 guys who definitely made the right deci$ion to leave college when they did.
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Yep the whole “that guy wasn’t actually good but was a lottery pick” thing is a funny one. If a company offered me a 7-figure salary to be a CEO straight out of college, I wouldn’t say “I need to go back to school first and train” I would take the money for as long as humanly possible until they figured out I was woefully unprepared to do the job.
I think there’s some extracurricular things with Franz that it actually wouldn’t shock me if he returned. But by all reasonable accounts, he should go now. He’s a pro and the $ is waiting.
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Franz showed flashes as a secondary creator in PnR. He can pass and drive to the hoop, but he’s not really a strong ball handler in terms of creativity and doesn’t really shoot well off the bounce. That’s part of the reason why I projected him as secondary creator who can catch and shoot with good defense.
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He’s so gone. I’m sad to see him go out like this. Such a vital building block in Juwan’s new program.
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It sure seemed like any individual who had a bad game last night (it was all of them) did it within the context of UCLA completely jinking our offense from the opening tip - at no point did the ball move well, there were hands on tons of passes, lots of strips, lots of rushed shots.
In terms of Franz, he is absolutely a pro. I see lots of Nic Batum in him. You can be a good player and not be “the man”.
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Despite the tough game last night, I assume Franz is gone and he will be a top 20 pick because the NBA will love his measurables.
That being said, he has never become the shooter I expected he would be. His release looks slow and he often seems hesitant to shoot. He definitely does not have that outside shooters mentality that he will probably need to survive long term in the NBA.
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I felt the same way watching live. No way I’m re-watching to know for certain. A UCLA buddy of mine told me last night that he doesn’t even recognize this team right now. They’re at the absolute top of their game, and they’ve still needed a fair bit of luck to win at least 3 of their tourney games.
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Yeah - we just ran into a team drowning in horseshoes. we couldnt make a single layup. Can’t make those free throws? It would have been nice to have livers, or it would have been nice if Wagner was the fully weaponized version of himself that he’ll be in the nba or even just able to can a shot he knows he can make. or it would have been nice if Brooke was on from three, or Smith. But every single one of those things had to not happen in order for UCLA to win. So to me it isn’t that we lacked a player to put the team on his back. That sure would have been nice,but in truth this was just a real outlier of a game and how many things went wrong for us.
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The part that stinks is we had just seen Franz hit that ball screen 3 and that driving layup at clutch points within the last two weeks.
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Yeah. Stuff happens. Painful, but is what it is.
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That man was Livers.
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