nate33 wrote:payitforward wrote:If he jumps from year 2 to 3 at the same rate of his jump from year 1 to 2... he'll be knocking on the door of Giannis territory!
So... I guess that's not happening!
As to "budding star," I don't think there was a 3-game stretch this year where Moe produced the kind of per-40-minute numbers Thomas Bryant produced in 2018-19. I haven't checked, but even without taking a look I'd put $$ on it.
Still, the best predictor of improvement tomorrow is improvement today, so for sure there's reason to hope he'll become a pretty good player.
Wagner's early season defensive metrics were way better than anything Bryant has ever posted.
Oh, and Wagner had a 3-game stretch from 11/15 to 11/20 when he averaged 30 points, 13.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.5 blocks, 3.3 turnovers per 40 minutes on a TS% of .863, with a 3P% of .750. Let's see Bryant beat that!
Most important -- I just wrote an extremely positive post about Moe Wagner. I'd rather it not be turned into a criticism of him, which it was not.
As to the 3 game stretch, Moe had an unbelievable game on 11/15, grabbing 15 boards & scoring 30 points on 13 of 15 shooting. On top of which, he did all that damage in just over 25 minutes. Wow!
In our next 2 games, on 11/17 & 11/20, he scored 26 points in 45 minutes -- @3 more points per 40 minutes than his season average. He grabbed 9 boards (in this case a lot fewer than his season average).
Still, in the 2d & 3d of the stretch he shot the ball great! He got the combined 26 points on only 16 shots & 1 FTA.
In fact, it didn't stop there! in the next game -- the 4th of this run -- though he only scored 7 points, he did it on just 5 shots.
That's some amazing shooting over those 4 games! 26-38 -- & 10 of them were 3-point makes, so it was 62 points on 38 shots.
On top of which he proceeded to go 17-24 in the next 3 games for a total of 36 points (.750 TS% for those 3 games) before finally cooling off vs. the Lakers.
In all, that was an incredible run of shooting -- 98 points on 62 shots & 3 FTAs over 7 games for an astronomical .774 TS%. It does seem unlikely that Thomas Bryant ever did that (he did go 14-14 in one game last season, if I remember right). Bryant, otoh, did post a .674 TS% on that entire season -- over 1500 minutes.
The comparison is pointless of course. If I initiated it, then it's my fault. These guys are both Washington Wizards -- the better either of them plays the happier everyone is. The main story on Moritz Wagner is that he got a lot better this year! May it continue.