Long story short, Keaton Wagler’s summer league debut went atrociously. He didn’t impress anywhere outside of defense and presented a handful of concerns about his pace of play at the NBA level.
But during Wagler’s second game, versus Darryn Peterson and the Utah Jazz, he had all of the haters quiet. The fifth overall pick logged 23 points, four assists, and a steal, shooting 6-16 from the field and 4-7 from beyond the arc, demonstrating an ability not many young players have: to not get in his head after a poor performance. This is as good of a response as one could possibly imagine.
In all honesty, Wagler doing so is a very strong, promising green flag. He was tested, and essentially passed with flying colors.
Moving forward, the hope is that the 19-year-old can maintain the confidence and excellent play into game three of the Clippers’ summer league against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Keaton Wagler looked like a completely different player vs. Utah
Although the numbers don’t say it, the start of Keaton Wagler’s second summer league game started out the same way his debut ended: rough. Granted, Wagler was more aggressive in taking shots on all three levels, but they weren’t falling, and he just looked uncomfortable on the court in a head-to-head matchup against arguably the best rookie thus far in Darryn Peterson.
Then, the third came around, and the switch flipped for Wagler. He was getting to his spots and making the right reads, which allowed him to rack up 18 of the LA Clippers’ 42 points in the quarter, on 5-8 shooting.
There is no doubt he could’ve been one of the few rookies to reach 30 points in the summer league had the coaching staff let him stay in the game to kick off the fourth.
All of a sudden, the player that was once criticized so heavily earlier in the week turned into the confident, offensive machine the Clippers drafted.
And, as everyone can collectively agree, Wagler ended the night looking like the polar opposite of the way he did after his first run in an LA uniform. That speaks volumes, and it’ll certainly mean so much more if he manages to end the summer league as one of the top standouts.
For now, though, Wagler should cherish the momentum and praise he receives. He had a phenomenal showing and outplayed Peterson on both sides of the ball in a 22-point blowout victory.
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