Bleacher Report recently ranked the Top-5 rookie centers. Where did Moritz Wagner of the Los Angeles Lakers place?
In recent years, the Los Angeles Lakers have been drafting extremely well, especially late in the first round. In all four major sports, most of the top teams are generally the ones that draft well, and the Lakers are certainly getting the reputation for being able to find talent.
During the 2017 NBA Draft, the Lakers were able to strike gold late in the first round when they selected Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart. Finding two players that have the talent to be starters in the NBA for years to come is huge for the franchise.
This past draft, the Lakers selected Michigan center, Moritz Wagner. At Michigan, Wagner was a very good player and helped lead the Wolverines to a Big 10 Championship and the NCAA Finals last season. In his junior season, Wagner averaged 14.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Recently, Bleacher Report ranked the Top-5 centers in the rookie class. For Wagner, he came in ranked fifth behind Mitchell Robinson, Mohamad Bamba, Wendell Carter Jr., and DeAndre Ayton.
On the list, seeing Wagner ranked behind the top three wasn’t too surprising. However, he was ranked behind Robinson of the Knicks as well, who was selected in the second round. Robinson is a player that has a lot of talent, but as a player who skipped college, there was also a lot of unknowns.
With the Lakers, Wagner should have a good opportunity to play a decent amount as a rookie. As a stretch big man, Wagner will likely be filling in part of the role that Brook Lopez played on the team last season.
In college, Wagner was able to shoot three-pointers at a 39 percent clip in his junior year, and that is very appealing in the NBA with his size. With a lot of talented centers in this year’s class, it will be interesting to see how Wagner compares with them all at the end of the season.