I only downplay their achievements when they are deciding whether to enter the draft or not
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Yeah, there was a surprising amount of Franz slander on here a while back. Like questioning whether he was a core piece for the Magic kind of slander.
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I feel like I speak more in this thread than anyone, so if this is not directed at me, and Iâm seeing myself as a main character here for no good reason I apologize
I have literally never ever suggested he was ânot a core player for the Magicâ and my constant âquestionâ has been whether he can evolve into the second best player on a top team - and I think I have generally said âyesâ. He has had fits and starts along the way, if anyone here cares to argue he was awesome last year, I am sorry, but they are wrong. He was pretty good! Was he close to an All Star? No. And thatâs not just âyay pointsâ or however you want to make fun of me or anyone.
He is doing awesome this year. That doesnât make things said about him prior to doing awesome wrong, given that I donât think literally anyone ever said he canât be an all star.
And for the record, Iâve probably seen him play 50+ games over the past three years and I will hazard I saw literally every minute he played at Michigan, a number I imagine dwarfs anyone here who doesnât live in Florida, so I have absolutely âwatched him playâ.
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This is all Iâm talking about.
We were all watching the FIBA/Olympic games and Franz was playing incredible and I posted this and it got some blow back if you read down from that thread.
I just donât think it is surprising that heâs playing well when Banchero is out. Weâve talked a ton about how usage is a role stat, his usage didnât go up because he got better, it went up because his role changed w/o PB.
And then usage/ORtg or usage/TS% or BPM or darko or whatnot is just the stock price for what heâs done.
The watch thing is just that weâve all had the chance to watch a huge part of his growth.
He impacts the game in more quiet ways â I think I heard May use the term âinvisible statsâ recently â than any other player of the Beilein/Juwan era that I can remember writing about during their time at Michigan. And Iâve watched a lot of them. Just an incredibly fun player who does so many things well.
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I think it is surprising he has increased true shooting while dramatically increasing usage, yes. I am also surprised that he took his assist rate from âthird creatorâ territory (17-18%) to primary creator territory (30%+) AND decreased his turnovers.
Thatâs not a Franz thing, itâs a âdoesnât often happenâ thing.
My recollection is that the thrust of that conversation was âwhy is he the driving force behind one of the best teams in international competition while being the 2nd best player on an NBA 5 seed?â
Nailed it 
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What alternate reality? Those things are true? Nobody was like âwow yeah Franz has been mediocre in the Olympicsâ.
Yeah I donât see how this is âyawn I totally expected this from Franzâ when his game has changed a ton and very suddenly. And none of these things are invisible stats. Really obvious when guys are passing and shooting more.
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Time to respect age curves folks
Letâs hope that Franz doesnât refuse to go in for the final play of a playoff game if the last shot isnât called for himâŚ
(Sorry, Justin!)
I no longer have any idea which side you and mgl are arguing 
Franz is just a usage merchant. Aaron Henry would be putting up much better numbers
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In an obvious sign that Iâm not the poster I once was Iâm NOT going to take the bait and recap the entire thing in a 5 paragraph essay
I LOVE that Franz is tearing it up all of a sudden. Heâs always been good, this is all-league level. It is pretty surprising to see all of his stats seemingly improve when Banchero went out since that seemed to mess him up in the past.
Iâm never a fan of an iso step-back three as your hopeful chance to win a gameâŚbut love it when Franz does it on Lebron!
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Franz was good before they drafted Banchero. Orlando has to figure out how to maximize both players when theyâre on the court together.
Franz has always been goodâŚthis recent streak is all NBA
There is a difference between 57% true shooting in 25 usage and 57% true shooting on 32% usage (his last twelve games
A difference between 18% assist rate to 10% to rate and 31% assist rate to 8% assist rate
His last twelve games are way way way better than he has been to this point
He has not always been this
Itâs awesome heâs doing it
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