I don't think it was all because of Kawhi. This was the archetype for the high upside high lotto pick for years before Kawhi was in the league.
Squirreling_Archer
joined 1 year ago
We don't even need to go into "what went wrong with Bamba", they were from different universes as far as the level of prospect they both were coming into the league.
Either Jahlil Okafor or Mario Hezonja
He's definitely shown the ability to be the guy in clutch moments and has asserted himself on big stages. He might not have "taken over" many games, but it's not like he's incapable. For the most part all we've seen from Franz is consistency. He's an ironman who doesn't go on streaks, he just reliably scores. Maybe that's the next step, but I'd like to just see a steady increase on current trajectory. He's really only like a whistle a game away from a 20 pt scorer, and I think there's room for more than that.
Where I can see a possibility of Franz semi-fitting this thread is that we now have effectively our 3 main guards all playing for contracts and for roles, so I could see there not being an increase in usage for Franz that would have to come with some of the "maybe all-star leap??" hype we're seeing in places.
Either way though, I don't think there's any glaring shortcomings with Franz that says "eh, he's not gonna reach the potential we think". Guy was thought of as a whiff when Orlando picked him and he's one of the best players of the last several drafts. I think Franz is now finally starting to get any kind of hype around him, and it's a bummer that people are ready to shoot it down. It's for that reason I don't think Franz fits this thread. He hasn't been a guy people have been high on or have been waiting to see something out of. He's largely been overlooked and disregarded.