Cavs’ Evan Mobley slips to #3, newcomer emerges to top of Rookie Ladder

The New Iron Man of the NBA

For Wagner and the Magic, showing up really is half of the battle. The rookie from Michigan didn’t miss any time over the past week, and even had a career-high 38 points against the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks last week. However, the most impressive thing about Wagner thus far has really just been his ability to stay on the floor.

As I mentioned above, many rookies missed time over the past week, including our own Evan Mobley. In that time, Wagner scored 58 total points last week. That’s better than Barnes, Mobley, and Cunningham combined. He also almost had more minutes that the three players combined.

Overall Wagner was the first rookie to log 1,000 minutes this season. Well, last week he was the first rookie to top 1,100 minutes, while no other rookie has logged over 1,000. On top of all of that, he plays a crucial role for the Magic. On the offensive end, he’s still polishing his shooting, but he can pretty much score in any way. He’s also an underrated playmaker at the wing position. On defense he can guard 1-4 at a high level, and has one of the highest motors in the NBA already.

Like I said, I don’t think anyone out there predicted that Wagner would be having this great of a season. While Mobley took home Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for October and November combined, I’m putting my money on Wagner to win it this time around.