Some here called him league average, I countered and said he was a hall-of-famer… he’s probably somewhere in the middle?
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We’ll only know once the computers finish computing
Franz is clearly the best German basketball player since Dirk, and has more than 50% chance to reach the same level as Dirk.
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hmm. that doesn’t feel right. I don’t think Franz has a 50% chance of winning an MVP and being a first ballot HOFer
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All I know is that Franz has never been a league average player at any point in his career
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Evergreen post
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Franz —> 30 points, 9 boards, 8 assists
Mo —-> 18 points, 7 boards, 5 assists
I don’t care what all you haters say I think they are good players
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Jett had 10
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University of Michigan is absolutely carrying an NBA team now, who woulda thought
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The Mo/Isaac tandem is just monstrous
Teams can’t handle it
Tonight Mo was 18/7/5, Isaac had 12 boards and five stocks
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Moussa with another offensive rebounding clinic tonight. 7 of his 11 rebounds were off his glass.
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I think that Moussa find his role in the league, Dennis 2.0.
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Franz > Paolo
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What if I told you that not every single one of those is Franz 
(I believe 1 is Mo)
I noted two weeks ago Franz was killing it, I haven’t calculated anything yet but will likely do it again tomorrow
But also Mo is having the best stretch of his career at the same time!
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Hard not to laugh today when Brooklyn, with Juwan on staff, was ruthlessly targeting Jett defensively in late 3rd/early 4th when Mosely tried to play him
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Two week update time!
My “maybe soon?” guess on Kobe Bufkin proved to be more accurate than I thought, as he suited up that very night, and played all seven of the Hawks’ games in the past two weeks. If Kobe plays in their game against the Pelicans tonight, he’ll tie his career high in consecutive games played and will need only 9 more to match last year’s total, his play in the past two weeks is 2/3 of his career total, to say how much of a bumpy start he’s gotten off to here in terms of availability. The play wasn’t great, but at this point, I’m going to call that a secondary concern (though will obviously matter). Kobe scored 5 points and picked up 2 rebounds and 2 assists in about 13.5 minutes per game over the past two weeks, shooting 22% from three and 41% from two, for 31.4% overall. In his brief career, shooting has been an issue (37% last year, 22% from three), but the numbers are so small (and the rust so great) at this point it can just be sample size stuff. The positive: he’s gotten 2 free throw attemps a game thus far in that low minutes total, and the 2 assists is pretty good in the minute load, especially against 0.7 turnovers.
Last time I commented that Jett Howard had kept playing in most games, but the Magic games hadn’t been terribly competitive and he was getting some garbage time minutes (true at the time) - well the Magic keep winning (obviousy lots more there later) but his minutes have krept up, and the average margin of victory has been dropping - he’s playing some actual minutes now. This is largely due to Gary Harris picking up a hamstring injury, but injury and Harris are well acquainted, so there’s some opportunity here. Jett has gotten 13 mpg, playing 7 of the Magic’s past 8 games. He’s scored 3.5 points in this span, shooting 38% from the floor and 22% from three. After grabbing 1 rebound and 2 assists in the prior 7 games, he did nab 13 rebounds (this is a day of work for our next guy) and hand out 5 assists. Jett is now at 35% from three for the year on 54% TS - both sort of mediocre but not bad numbers. That said - this is supposed to be his skill, so bears some watching.
Four weeks ago, I expressed some surprise that Moussa Diabate was on a roster, much less playing. Two weeks ago, we saw that the Hornets, still not starting a center, had moth-balled Taj Gibson and given those minutes to Moussa, where he played about 20 minutes a game. Well, six days later, Grant Williams their “Starting center” sustained a season-ending knee injury and Mark Williams is still nowhere to be seen. What this means is that yes, Moussa has gotten four starts, but his minutes have ballooned to 29 a game in the past two weeks - 31 since Grant’s injury. I won’t lie to you and say I’ve watched much Hornets’ hoops (I did watch him block a few shots in a Magic game), but statistically, he’s still doing what he’s been doing - 10.3 rebounds a game (almost 5.5 offensive), a bit over a block per game (swatting 4 against the Magic carrying lots of that work) and picking up 1.5 steals. In all those minutes, and with all those offensive boards, he’s only attempting 2.5 shots a game, and only scoring 1.7 points a game in the past two weeks, which seems almost impossible for a guy on the floor this much. He’s a super weird player (normally I’d expect all those offensive boards to equate to a few more points), but seems to have carved out a niche here. The offensive rebounding still pops - he is first in the league at offensive rebounding rate (19.5%), with the next closest player at 16% (Clint Capela).
Caleb Houstan is playing mop-up time. He missed all five shots he took across 4 games for the Magic, cashing in a pair of free throws. He registered no other stat in his time these past two weeks.
Franz Wagner time. For reference: in the prior 2 weeks, he scored 27.4 points, grabed 6 boards, and handed out 5.5 assists on 46% shooting and 37% three point shooting. Since then - 25.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 7.8 assists on 45.9% shooting and 32.7% three point shooting. So basically - the same thing, a bit fewer makes from three, some more assists. Since his hot streak started (really two games before they started winning), the Magic are 13-3. There’s not really much else to say here - he’s doing awesome, and even though his three point shooting dipped a little, he was largely just as good. Thankfully Dylan doesn’t read these so I can cite on/off - it’s not perfect but the Magic are 4 points/100 better defensively when Franz is on the floor than when he’s off - the only teammate better is the formidable Jonathan Isaac. To contextualize this - the Magic are the third best defense in the NBA, so the baseline here is largely high as it is, and he’s a difference maker within that already high standard. As good as Franz has been offensively, the Magic are still only 23rd in offense - I think it’s pretty exciting to think of where this team can go with Paolo and this Franz.
The Wizards just completed a winless November (their second winless month this calendar year!), but it’s not really Jordan Poole’s problem. He missed 2 of their 6 games, had two games in which he scored 54 points total and two in which he scored 14 total. He had an ugly 1/7 game with 6 turnovers, but his season stats are still strong - 44% from the floor, 42% from three, 21 points, 5 assists. I’m not really sure where he goes from here…he’s a pro, but these sorts of seasons (we’ll call it “the Kelly Oubre” who famously signed a league minimum after putting up 20+ a game for a 27 win Hornets team) rarely impress other GMs. Again - not his fault here, rough situation, etc.
Franz is not the only Wagner playing well! Mo Wagner keeps scoring really well - 12.8 ppg in 19 minutes, over 5.5 boards and even adding over 2 assist per game in this span! He shot 56% from the floor and carried a true-shooting mark again over 65%. There’s not much else to say here that I haven’t said a million times, so I’ll drop my favorite stat - the Wagner tandem is +12 points/100 when sharing the floor this year.
Caris Levert missed 4 of the Cavs’ 6 games in the past 2 weeks, but scored 21 points across the two he played, including a 13/6 in a victory over the Celtics last night.
Tim Hardaway Jr. had a rough two weeks, scoring 5.3 ppg, and shooting 19% from three. That’s always going to be his primary skill, so a little concerning given how he finished last season. For the season he’s a hair under 40% from the floor, 35.6% from three, and 56% (league average) true shooting.
Duncan Robinson started all six of the Heat’s games the past two weeks, with Terry Rozier going to the bench. He played 25 mpg, shot 41.3% from the floor, and 36.4% from three. His play-making role on this team continues to exist to a degree - again handing out over two assists a game and running a few ball screens per NBA’s stats. Not the best week by any means, but if he can keep shooting close to 38% from 3 at his volume and flash some passing, he’s definitely a solid player.
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I do wonder whether TIMMAY came back too soon from that head injury. He certainly hasn’t been the same player that he was this season, prior to that play.
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Moritz being Moritz
KAT being cat
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Will also only put this here bc Dylan won’t read it bc he hates the NBA but the on/off numbers for Franz/Paolo with and without each other when they’ve both been on the roster is interesting. Was suggestive prior to this season iirc.