Franz Wagner won’t be crowned this season’s Rookie of the Year.
This is something that shouldn’t come as a huge shock, even for the most pinstriped of basketball fans in Central Florida. Franz has been truly terrific in his freshman campaign, but this is a bumper rookie class with a number of high-profile, worthy candidates.
In addition, Wagner has been forced to make his case while playing for one of the worst teams in the league. The results of Orlando games ceased to matter basically as soon as they opened the season with back to back shellackings, meaning that the Magic’s impressive first-year forward has toiled in relative obscurity when it comes to the broader vote-casting field.