Michigan Players in the NBA

Caris had a very nice game off the bench for the Cavs. 22 points (8-11, 3-4 3-pt.), 6 boards, 4 assists, and a steal.

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Those four fouls are (hopefully) eight points that the opponent did not obtain. For a wizened journeyman like Moritz Wagner, fouls are there to be used, judiciously. Nice stat line.

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When it comes to fouls, Mo is a judicial activist.

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Three years now of writing that silly update post on our guys has led me to this conclusion:

There absolutely nothing predictable about any Moritz Wagner stat line other than fouls

The man is a random number generator

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Touche. I’ll be the first to concede.

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Franz and Mo both had good games

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Mo also fouled out in 31 minutes! He’s started the last three games and has 14 fouls in 86 mintes

Moe lives by the following mission statement when it comes to fouls: You can’t take ‘em with you, so might as well use ‘em.

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Franz scored 34 tonight on only 15 shots.

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Work travel got in the way of the bi-weekly update, but here we are. Last week, if you recall, nobody could make a shot. Has it changed?

Moussa Diabate has spent the majority of the past 2+ weeks in the G League, but the Clippers absolutely comical revolving carusel of player availability meant, for a three game period, they needed to bring him up to the big club. In that time, Moussa really did two things: first, he REALLY hit the offensive glass, collecting 10 ORB in 46 total minutes (he popped up again earlier his week and grabbed 1 in 3 minutes). Second, for one game, he scored well, putting up 11 points in 18 minutes on 8 shots. Now - I found some clips of this, and there was definitely some volleyball off the backboard here (he had 6 ORB this game) - I believe 3 of his ORB (and 2 shot attempts) came on 1 possession, and basically all his points came off the glass. Still - a positive showing.

Caleb Houstan continue on the periphery of the Magic’s rotation. If you recall, his primary deployment this year has been as a shooting guard, due to their complete lack of guards on the roster. With Markelle Fultz back, Cole Anthony healthy, and the ever present Terrence Ross, his role has gotten minimized (they’re still missing Hampton and Suggs), and even Kevon Harris has gotten tick over him. He did play 5 games before his 3 game DNP-CD streak however. He shot 34.7% from the floor, and 35.7% from 3. As has been the case, his three point shooting has been definitionally league average, but his inability to make baskets inside the arc (he’s shooting better from mid-range than at the rim (where he’s 33%), or really do anything other than shoot ok from 3 continues to be an issue. I know many here had questions about his his athleticism would translante…that rim # is definitely a concern.

Isaiah Livers hurt his shoulder and has only played in two games since our last update, where he went 4/7 from 3 - his only shot attempts from the floor.

I continue to maintain that the primary thing preventing Franz Wagner from being in All-Star consideration is playing for a god-awful team. Franz has a near ideal shot distro - 32% of shot shots at the rim (where he shoots over 70%, still!), 28% from floater (pretty good), and 29% from 3 (this is my next point). Since the last update, Franz has scored 22 a game (his season mark is a tick below 20), shot 47.5% from the floor and shot 40% from 3 (he’s also averaged over 5 FT’s a game where he’s a high-80’s shooter. Earlier this year, the three point shooting was his achilles heel, but his season mark is now over 34% - getting to 35% gets him to league average, and combined with the ultra-efficiency everywhere else, would be the profile of a pretty lethal scorer. True shooting here is up to 59.6% with a league average currently around 57%. Also, Orlando has won 4 straight?

Jordan Poole is continuing to struggle (as everyone who isn’t Steph Curry and Draymond Green on the Warriors seems to be). His season numbers are down to 42% from the floor and under 32% from three with growing turnover rates. Int he last two weeks, he’s mostly started in the absence of Andrew Wiggins, and his counting stats have definitely climbed. He is at 43.6% form the floor - a bit better than we’ve seen overall, and 33.8% from three - again, better than his season mark, but still not up his standard last year, or what we’d call “good”. Also somewhat alarming is the slow flattening of his assist rate to his turnover rate. We’ve seen he can do it, he’s still young - I think in the long run he’ll be fine, but this year has to date been a bit of a disappointment.

Mo Wagner is starting right now in place of the injured Wendell Carter. He’s scoring 12.9 ppg in about 30 minutes per game. As usual, these game logs are nuts, and Mo’s successes and failures are pretty distinct. We’ll start with the bad - the “stretch” part of his “stretch big” rep has mostly been theoretical in the NBA, and he’s shooting 26% from beyond the arc so far this season. He obviously fouls a ton - about 5.5 per 36, and has gotten into “foul trouble” (4+ fouls) in over half his games (fouling out in 1). Positively - he’s been very good on the offensive glass (and thus rebounding at a better rate than he ever has), grabbing over 2 offensive rebounds per game. He has occassionally passed the ball very well - getting over 4 assists 4 times in the past two weeks (sometimes 0!). Like his brother, he’s over 70% at the rim (less impressive for a center, but still, pretty good). About 2 years ago, I thought Mo’s career was mostly done when he was minimized and then cut by the Wizards. He’s done a good job re-establishing some value.

Caris Levert’s role and minutes ping pong around based largely on the availability of other players. It appears he’s been moved to a 6th man role with Dean Wade (the preffered option) or Lamar Stevens starting at small forward in Cleveland. I haven’t seen much Cavs basketball, but the NBA people I do follow are largely posititve on Levert’s defense this year, something he had never been particularly strong at. His shooting has also cleaned up a bit - 46% from the floor and 32% from 3 (recall earlier in the year he was shooting oddly well from from 3 and horribly from 2). He’s also chipping in about 4 assits per game. The main issue is that he’s extremely boom or bust - his past 8 games include 4 20 point games, 3 games in single digits, and 1 game at 11. He often shoots either in the 30%s or 60%s on any given night. He’s a valuable piece of a good team, however.

Now, on to the part of our recap that revolves nearly entirely around three point percentage!

Tim Hardaway had a very strong 2 weeks! Immediately after our last update, he was re-inserted into the starting lineup for the Mavericks, and rewarded them with 5 20-point games out of 9. He’s averaging 18 points in this span, shooting 45% from the floor. 41 of his 54 baskets have come from 3, where he’s shot 45.6% from the arc - bringing his season mark up to 35% - or nearly what you’d expect from him after a disappointing start. As always with him, there’s not much going on outside the scoring, but he seems to have supplanted Reggie Bullock in the starting lineup.

Duncan Robinson has collected DNP-CD’s in 4 of the Heat’s last 8 games. He did make 6 of his 14 threes in this span, but he’s on the periphery of the rotation at best, and that likely won’t change until the Heat find a place to dump his contract.

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Seeing where Tyler Herro got 9 3s in two consecutive games for the Heat; that’s kinda tough to compete against. Looking forward to Duncan getting a fresh chance with a new club next year.

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Yeah, the Heat still harbor aspirations despite their rocky start, and Herro I think was always ahead of him, and Strus passed him last year. He played 20+ last night, but Bam and Lowry being out scrambled their rotation (he’s 6/15 from 3 now thst the rotation is scrambled), but he’s mostly lost time to Haywood Highsmith, a rookie from Wheeling Jesuit College (!!).

Long story short in order to be a long term rotation piece anywhere he needs to shoot close to 40% from 3, which he hasn’t done since the end of the 20/21 season.

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Haywood Highsmith! Wasn’t he the starting 3 in Hoosiers?

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Granny shot guy right

In all seriousness, the Heat’s kink for assembling a rotation of the most unlikely players is pretty fun.

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Wagners go for 44 (25 for Mo, 19 for Franz) in the Magic’s SIXTH straight win!

Over the CELTICS!

In Time Lord’s RETURN!!

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Thought you were going all holy roller on us, but I’m guessing Time Lord is a guy.

P.S. Elated for the Wagner bros! Real proof that making it in the NBA, for guys of a certain level of attainment, can often be about fit and luck.

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Lol

Robert Williams in his first two years spent more time suspended than active because he was late to everytbing - games, flights, practices, team bus

So his nickname became “The Time Lord”

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Moussa recently named G league player of the week!

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A career-high 43 for Poole tonight.

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