Many were surprised when the Los Angeles Lakers selected Michigan’s Moritz Wagner with the 25th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. After all, Wagner was projected by most to fall into the second round and rumored target Mitchell Robinson was still on the board.
However, Wagner quieted those rumblings with his strong play during the Las Vegas Summer League. While he didn’t shoot the ball as well as he would have liked, Wagner still showed flashes of the range that makes him an ideal big in the modern NBA.
Before the draft, most of the concerns about Wagner’s transition to the NBA centered around his ability to defend at a high level, and he did what he could to address the issue in Las Vegas.