NBA Draft 2021: Top-10 Sleeper Confident Warriors 'Need' One Aspect Of His Game

A recently talked-about potential Top-10 pick made a bold claim about how the Golden State Warriors could benefit from him inside the court.

Ahead of the draft day, Michigan Wolverines’ Franz Wagner is already brimming with confidence that he ticks a lot of boxes in the current Warriors squad.

According to Wagner, the best thing he could bring to the table for the Dubs is his “versatility.”

“I would fit in really well [with the Warriors], obviously they have two great shooters next year again and probably the best point guard in the game,” Wagner told reporters, including NBC Sports Monday. “I think what they need, I think my versatility can help that team a lot. I think being able to defend multiple positions and also shoot the three well, I think is what’s going to help me stay on the floor or get on the court.”

Wagner further added that aside from his physical abilities, he also has the basketball “IQ” that suits the type of game the Warriors have been playing thus far.

“I think I can read the game well and can play a free game, that’s what I would call it, and I think Golden State plays that very much,” he assessed. “They just kind of move a lot off the ball and pass the ball and move the ball a lot and move their bodies. I think that requires high IQ players and players that play the game with each other and I think I can do that really well.”

While there’s a possibility that the Warriors might consider Wagner at No. 7, it has been said that the 19-year-old has been “long rumored as a favorite” of the Memphis Grizzlies front office, ESPN reported.

Listed at 6-foot-9 and 220 pounds, Wagner has evidently made a living inside the arc, having averaged an efficient 46.5 % shooting from the said area in his two seasons at Michigan.

Despite his impressive resume, Wagner wasn’t really an instant projected Top-10 pick in mock drafts.

However, according to college basketball expert and ESPN’s Jay Bilas, Wagner could be a sleeper in this class as he has now catapulted to the Top 10 and “a lot of people” are buzzing about it.

“Wagner is interesting,” Bilas told the media Tuesday. “He’s been rising up sort of in the minds of some as a prospect because he’s got positional size and he’s a long-armed, athletic wing that can guard a lot of different people and guard them successfully.”

“A lot of people are talking about him as a top-10 pick, and I didn’t see that earlier in the year with him. I saw him as a first-round pick, but I didn’t see him as sort of that high, but a really good prospect. I think he’s going to be taken--sounds like he’s going to be taken in the lottery.”