Pro Blue: Franz should get voted to the All-Star Game

Jordan Poole and Franz Wagner continued to flourish this week in the NBA while the rest of the Michigan alumni struggled a bit. Let’s see how each of the nine former Wolverines on NBA rosters did this week.

Note: All stats are as of Jan. 24.

Jordan Poole, Golden State Warriors

Poole continues to amaze. On Thursday in Boston, he stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. The very next night in Cleveland, he dropped 32 points again. Then on Sunday he came back down to Earth a bit by only scoring 17 points, but he did have four rebounds, four steals and three assists to boot. And then late last night, he did this:

Franz Wagner, Orlando Magic

Sadly, Wagner’s streak of scoring 15 or more points stopped after 15 games when he only scored 13 against the Pacers on Wednesday. However, don’t let that dampen your sprits on him as he has still scored 12 or more points in 23 consecutive games. He also had yet another 30-point performance on Friday against New Orleans. He shot an astounding 10-for-16 from the field, 5-for-7 from three and a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.

Franz should absolutely be in consideration for All-Star Weekend, though he likely won’t be involved because his style of play isn’t flashy enough.

Tim Hardaway Jr., Dallas Mavericks

On the good side for Hardaway Jr., he avoided a serious ankle injury and was able to only miss one game. He also had a solid showing Sunday night against the Clippers to the tune of 22 points and eight rebounds.

On the bad side, THJ put up two of his worst shooting performances of the season, sandwiching the aforementioned good game against the Los Angeles. On Friday night versus Miami, Hardaway shot 1-for-10 from the floor and 1-for-5 from three. On Tuesday against the Wizards, he was slightly better at 2-for-9 from the floor and 1-for-7 from deep. Those games clearly aren’t up to his standard so I would expect a nice bounce-back this week.

Caris LeVert, Cleveland Cavaliers

With Donovan Mitchell temporarily sidelined, LeVert did slide into the starting lineup as anticipated. Cleveland was rewarded for its faith in him. He scored 23 points with six assists, and four rebounds in Memphis on Wednesday and followed that up with 22 points against Golden State Friday night. While he did cool off over the weekend, LeVert has found his shooting touch of late. Over his last four games, he is 14-for-25 from three.

Isaiah Livers, Detroit Pistons

As expected, Livers’ minutes dropped back down a normal range for him (18-22 minutes per game) this week. The Pistons had the opportunity to play the Bulls in Paris last Thursday and Livers knocked down two three-balls. On Monday against the Bucks, Detroit played no defense whatsoever but Livers was able to can two more three-pointers.

Overall, Livers is back to his normal production following his shoulder injury, but will need to step it up in order to see the leap that many Pistons fans were hoping for. However, an ankle sprain may limit him this upcoming week.

Moritz Wagner, Orlando Magic

Surprisingly, Wagner struggled to get minutes this week for the Magic. Following a handful of good performances, I expected him to return to his starting role but that has not happened yet. In Orlando’s four games this week, Moe averaged 4.3 points per game in just 11.8 minutes per game.

Moussa Diabate, Los Angeles Clippers

Diabate was called back up to the Clippers this week and appeared in all three of their matchups. In his first game back, he played 22 minutes in a blowout loss to Utah. In that contest he scored just three points, but contributed in other ways as he had six rebounds, three blocks and a steal. Both his other two appearances this week were in mop-up time. He didn’t record a stat in either.

Diabate was then sent back down to Ontario on Wednesday but did not play.

Caleb Houstan, Orlando Magic

In a curious move, Orlando recalled Houstan from the G-League yesterday morning prior to their matchup with the Indiana Pacers. They then didn’t play him at all due to a coach’s decision. We’ll continue to monitor whether or not he stays up with the NBA club.

Duncan Robinson, Miami Heat

Robinson remained out this week due to finger surgery.