ORLANDO - Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer, after his team played the Orlando Magic two straight times at Amway Center, called Franz Wagner’s career-best 38-point performance one of the best games he’s seen from an NBA rookie, particularly over the last several years.
That’s a heck of a compliment considering Budenholzer, who guided the Bucks to the NBA championship last season, has witnessed his fair share of breakout rookie performances as a coach in this league.
All who have been asked about Wagner these last several weeks have raved about the 20-year-old’s all-around skillset and long-term potential.
“I think he’s really good,” two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “We played him at home twice (in November). He was okay. He was good. But he came out the previous game we played (Dec. 28), played really well, got to his spots, knocked down threes, got to the free throw line. He came out today, he played great. Got his teammates involved. Got his shots. I think sky’s the limit for him. For real. I wish him nothing but the best.”
“He’s a great player, has a chance to be Rookie of the Year,” Bucks center Bobby Portis Jr. added. “He goes out there and plays with confidence…He’s a swaggy player out there. He plays hard, shoots all types of shots and he lets the game come to him. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”
Wagner has been the best player on the court in many of Orlando’s games of late. In December, he averaged an NBA rookie-best 19.5 points on 47.6 percent overall shooting, 40.4 percent 3-point shooting and 88.9 percent free throw shooting. His active streak of 18 consecutive double-digit scoring games is the longest by any rookie this season and is the second longest streak ever by a Magic rookie.
He has scored 20-plus points in seven of his last 10 games, including that 38-point explosion against the defending champs, which is tied for the third most all time by an Orlando rookie.
“Trying to get to the rim. Trying to figure out what they were doing on ball screens,” Wagner said afterwards. “They were kind of doubling, not doubling. I hadn’t seen that before. So, I made sure I made the right reads there. It always helps when you hit a couple threes early on. A couple things open up. But I think I did a good job of not forcing it. In a couple other games, where three, four plays in a row I think I have to make the homerun play myself instead of just making the easy play. I think I did a better job of that today.”
Before the Magic selected him eighth overall in the draft this past summer, some questioned what his role and overall impact would be in the early stages of his career. Now 36 games in, it’s apparent he’s far more advanced than many may have initially thought.
Helping expedite his growth are his demeanor and drive. Little interferes with him making progress because of the tenacity and determination he plays with every time he steps on the court.
“The one thing that sticks out so strongly other than his basketball IQ is his competitive edge,” Magic Head Coach Jamahl Mosley said recently. “He has just the competitive spirit, competitive nature. He wants to do things right at all times. He’s hard on himself because he wants to do things so well all the time. It’s his IQ and competitive edge that he carries.”
Nearly halfway through the 2021-22 season, Wagner has emerged as a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. Among first-year players, he has scored the most points, grabbed the fifth most rebounds and dished out the fourth most assists. Three of the league’s five best scoring performances by a rookie have come from the German forward.
How he meshes with the rest of the Magic’s core of young talent will be key going forward. With his high basketball IQ and versatility, there’s confidence that he will thrive in any role.
Wendell Carter Jr. is one who isn’t at all surprised he’s flourishing this early in his career. He also firmly believes this is just his introduction to what will be a long and outstanding NBA career.
“It was just a matter of time. Franz is a phenomenal player,” he said. “He knows how to get to his spots. At the beginning of the year, one thing I feel like he was struggling with was confidence. I told him they drafted you for a reason. Go out there and play your game, and we all kind of huddled around him. We all kind of pushed him. We understand what he can do. We saw it in practice every day, training camp he was killing, killing. I just knew it was going to happen, just how fundamentally sound he is. He has a really high IQ for the game, and this is just the beginning for him. He has a really high ceiling.”