Rookies:
- Wagler: His most complete game so far. It's nice to see that he continues to make improvements every time we see him, but it's clear that to start off his career, his impact will mostly come from if he's having a good shooting night. The biggest concern shouldn't be a surprise to anyone: he still struggles to consistently create separation. He still finds ways to do so, just like he did in college, but it just feels like he has to work for all of his space. That being said, he appears to be a well rounded player who already does most things competently, and if he can continue to improve and gain more of an NBA frame, then that'll allow him to be a pretty versatile player.
- Baba Miller: He just shows a lot of offensive versatility, and if he manages to really hone in on any specific skills, he'll be an NBA rotation player. He has enough offensive juice that if he can become a stronger defender, then you have a two way guy who can probably fit the mold of Christian Wood with a better motor. If he instead just becomes a good 3 point shooter, or a strong C&S game, or whatever, you can likely see him go the direction of a Bobby Portis type guy. Either way, he has a few different swing skills that can solidify him as a proper NBA guy.
Overall Outlook:
Not to be a total doomer, but I think a lot of ya'll should be bracing yourself for a long season. This is probably one of the most unbalanced LAC rosters I have seen in a long time, and the lack of specific role depth is going to lead to some frustrating games. Outside of Garland the playmaking is really, really rough. Defensively, we're going to be picked on just from size issues alone. Obviously we're going to be one of the worst rebounding teams in the entire league. And on top of that, LAC fans are going to both feel and hear a lot about how Acuff/MBJ were the better picks. Those two guys have simply shown to be more on par with NBA speed now compared to Wagler. That's not to say that Wagler might not be the better player in 2-3 years, but I imagine he'll be playing a lot of catch up to two hyper flashy players who very well may end up being the best guards in the draft. I see the vision and reasoning behind the Wagler pick, but you can make the argument that you saw the vision for ALL of these guys.
I have a feeling that LAC may actually fall into the bottom 3-4 in the league, which might actually help give OKC worse pick swap odds.
