Michigan Basketball: 3 ways Franz Wagner helps Wolverines right away

Michigan suddenly has some depth

To show the level of play in Wagner’s professional league in Germany, former Michigan basketball standout Derrick Walton Jr. was a teammate and came off the bench as did Wagner, averaging around 19 minutes per game.

Walton Jr. once led Michigan on a late-season run at the Sweet 16 and basically was the best player on the 2017 team that won the Big Ten tournament championship. One of the best players at least that during that postseason run which featured a win over second-seeded Louisville.

At any rate, that was a few years ago and in a league where Walton can’t crack the starting lineup, Wagner came off the bench as a 17-year old and in the championship series scored 14 points off the bench.

That is more than enough to call him a proven talent. Either way, the Wolverines only had 10 scholarship players before him and now they add someone who can play both the two and the three. In a pinch, like Duncan Robinson used too, he could play at four at 6-foot-9.

If Wagner is starting, it will also leave someone like Nunez, Johns, DeJulius or Castleton to come off the bench and when conference play rolls around and injuries hit, that will be valuable. It will also be valuable when it comes to matching up throughout the season and in the postseason.