Michigan Basketball: 3 ways Franz Wagner helps Wolverines right away
Michigan needed scoring and Wagner can fill that need
Michigan basketball lost three double-digit scorers from last year’s team in Jordan Poole, Ignas Brazdeikis and Charles Matthews, with each averaging more than 12 points per game.
The Wolverines also lost two of their best 3-point shooters in Poole and Iggy. Certainly, some growth from Livers, as well as increased scoring from Teske and Simpson will help fill that void, but so will Wagner who can easily be expected to score in double figures.
The bottom line is that someone was going to get those shots in this offense and the idea of them being split between Wagner and Livers is much better than Livers and anyone else on the roster. If Nunez or even Cole Bajema is ready to contribute next season, along with Johns and Castleton, that could effectively fill the void left by the trio of departures.
That is still counting on a lot of what-ifs. Some people might even think Franz is a what-if. However, his tape tells us otherwise. It says that at the very least, he should be able to score in double figures. That is the floor. His ceiling could be somewhere around the 15 PPG Iggy scored that earned him Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Next. 3 reasons getting Franz Wagner is HUGE. dark
It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Wagner wins that award or makes a very strong run at it. His talents are a perfect fit for what this Michigan team needed and for that reason, it’s easy to see him being an impactful player early on for coach Howard in the 2019-20 season.