What the Clippers Are Getting in Keaton Wagler

THE FAMILY BACKGROUND & RECRUITMENT STORY

Keaton Wagler grew up in the gym, and not by accident. His dad ran Parks and Rec, which meant access to a facility whenever he wanted it. During high school games, rebounds got rewarded. Not points, rebounds. Get ten in a game and he earned a new pair of basketball socks. It’s a small detail, but it tells you everything about how he was taught to play.

Wagler was ranked 261st in the 247Sports composite for the 2025 class, with 247 itself ranking him 150th. Loyalty may be part of why he ranked so low, yet loyalty is also one of the reasons he was drafted with the 5th pick. Wagler played on a local AAU team that didn't have shoe money or play on a big-time circuit. He had the opportunity to leave and join larger programs loaded with D1 players, but he stayed loyal to his AAU coach Victor Williams. Williams knew what Wagler was capable of. He knew he was a power conference player and a future pro. Williams reached out to many programs, and Tyler Underwood, an assistant coach at Illinois, liked the tape. That's partly how Wagler ended up with the Fighting Illini.

WHAT ILLINOIS SAW

Tyler Underwood saw a 6'6" player who could dribble, pass, and shoot. The problem was Wagler was 160 lbs., which drove most teams away. Illinois strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher is considered one of the best in the business and is a primary reason the program isn't afraid to take undersized players. Coach Fletcher put 20 lbs. on Wagler to get him ready for Big Ten basketball. So while Wagler was talented, the lack of weight may have been one of the main factors that led to him being under-recruited.

THE MOMENT EVERYONE KNEW

Illinois knew early on Keaton Wagler was going to be a star. Coming in, many thought he would redshirt, but in his second week on campus Tyler Underwood called Wagler’s parents to tell them they needed to hire an agent. We began hearing whispers out of the Ubben practice facility that this random guy from Kansas was as good as recent first-round picks Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley, and former Illini Ayo Dosunmu.

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood had this to say about Wagler:

"Everything was easy. Most of the time in the summer, freshmen don't make a shot. When we play pickup, we play 5-on-5 every single day in our workouts. They don't make a ball. It's a little short. It's a little sped up. The layups get blocked. There's very little success from actually being productive and scoring. Their minds are going so fast. That never happened with him and he's doing it against Kylan [Boswell]. And all of a sudden he's getting to his spots. He's making the right decisions. His decision making was incredible. His teams weren't losing. The consummate winning player... His emotional maturity was beyond anything I've seen from someone that young and you couldn't rattle him. He never got frustrated."

Illinois brought in a highly thought of European point guard to be the starter alongside Kylan Boswell, but in the summer we heard Wagler would start instead. Again, most who follow Illinois were in disbelief. How could this Wagler kid be this good?

ILLINOIS CAREER

When the season arrived, Wagler did indeed start, but Kylan Boswell was the point guard for the first eight games of the season. During that time, as an off-guard, he scored in double digits in five of his first eight games and had at least six rebounds in five of them. A big misconception I hear in draft coverage of Wagler is that he became the point guard because Kylan Boswell got hurt. That is false. Wagler became the starting point guard, with the offense running through him, after the eighth game of the season, a loss to UConn..

"You know, early we played Kylan on the ball a lot," coach Underwood said. "It was not bad, but it wasn't putting Keaton in his best positions and I wanted to make sure he got off to a good start. And after the first UConn game it was time to make that choice and make that decision, and we made that, and both guys had a great year."

Illinois didn’t want to immediately put the keys in a freshman’s hands, but after eight games it was evident that Wagler was ready for the opportunity, and he became the main on-ball player. Kylan Boswell wouldn’t get injured until ten games later. I bring this up because this was not a case of a senior getting hurt being the only reason Wagler became the point guard. He became the point well before Boswell’s injury because it was evident he was that damn good, and he led Illinois to its first Final Four since the 2005 Deron Williams team. Wagler was pivotal to Illinois’ success, rarely coming off the floor, and when he did the offense would take a noticeable dip. That highly regarded European point guard Illinois brought in to start never played. Wagler was just too good, and the rest is history.

HOW HE SCORES

Keaton Wagler is a lethal shooter with range. Defenders have to guard him well past the three-point line, as he will take and make long-range pull-up shots. He also can create space to get his shot off with a crossover step-back three. The threat of the shot is going to be his calling card in the NBA in terms of scoring. In college he shot 80% on free throws and 40% on six threes per game. The release may be low, but he finds space to get it off. The worry would be his three pointers getting blocked more in the NBA.

Keaton Wagler does not have elite burst, but he still finds ways to get a step on defenders. He’s not a quick-twitch athlete, but there are other forms of athleticism. Luka Doncic isn’t considered athletic, but he is one of the best decelerators in the game with the elite ability to start and stop. The Clippers did biomechanical testing on Wagler and he was the best decelerator in this draft.

Wagler doesn’t get sped up. He takes what the defense gives him. When he is working his way to the basket, he is going to drive, stop, pump fake, and get the defender in the air. It’s about craft. He’s not the player who was always the best athlete in the gym, putting his head down and attacking the rim on straight-line drives. He methodically works to get to his spot. He didn’t have much of a mid-range game, as Illinois is a heavy rim-and-three team that discourages long twos, but I think it’s something Wagler can develop, as he has the shiftiness, skill, and shooting. The scoring at the rim is going to be the hardest for him against NBA athleticism. Don’t expect a lot of rim pressure, but I think he will be able to functionally score inside the arc. It’s going to be more plinko than freight train with Wagler.

THE IQ & FEEL

The Clippers gave Keaton Wagler a processing exam and he had a top-3 score of anyone who has ever taken the test. He has a lot of poise on the basketball court, and his decision making may be his best attribute. It goes back to how he was raised to make the right play. Wagler scored 46 points in an Illinois win at Purdue, where the Boilermakers were switching ball screens and he torched their bigs over and over. He had 40 points, the most any visiting player has ever had in that arena, with over nine minutes left in the game. It was still close, with Purdue taking a lead with under three minutes to play and beginning to overload more toward Wagler. Any player might have tried to force up shots in that scenario. Wagler was 9/11 from beyond the arc, so keep shooting, right? No. Because Purdue was starting to put two on the ball, Wagler set up his teammates repeatedly for open three pointers in crunch time that helped Illinois win the game. He wasn’t selfish. He made the right decisions. There was even a play where Wagler had the ball with three seconds on the shot clock at the end of the game and found the shooter in the far corner instead of forcing a shot himself. Takes what the defense gives him.

It was something that took some getting used to, because he always made the right play. He played at his own speed and was never sped up. And sure, sometimes he made electrifying plays, like the step-back three in the NCAA tournament where his defender ended up under the rim. But so often he’s not making an electrifying play, he’s making the right play. It’s something I don’t think we appreciate enough out of basketball players.

In baseball think of the shortstop that would make many diving plays. That can stick out to the eye. That player is great! But then we started to learn about range. How some shortstops have to make a diving play where others may have better reaction speed to make that exact same play without diving. The same hit being a diving player for one center fielder, but a can of corn for another. Making plays look routine doesn’t pop to the eye, but it can also show how much talent a player has.

Wagler uses his skill and IQ, an elite connector who can get teammates involved. He can read the defense and know where he’s supposed to be and where the ball is supposed to be. He sets himself and his teammates up to succeed. Where it gets complicated is on the defensive end.

DEFENSE

An aspect of his game that was flagged by many draft analysts was how few turnovers Keaton Wagler generated. Steals have long been a strong indicator of future NBA potential, either via athleticism or the feel and IQ to read the offense. There may be a team effect here, as the Illinois defensive scheme is ultra-conservative in terms of turnover creation. The team ranked 365th in turnover% and steal% this season, dead last in D1. The season before they ranked 360th, and the season before that they were 352nd in steal% and 360th in turnover%. Keaton Wagler was the offensive engine, and Illinois wanted him on the court as much as possible rather than gambling on steals and being called for fouls. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Now, I will say that around the midpoint of the season Illinois defensive coordinator Camryn Crocker was working with Wagler on jumping the passing lane to create steals, and I noticed an uptick in those plays after the coaching staff made it a focus. Defensively, Wagler will likely never be a plus, but I think he can eventually not be a minus. He has to get stronger, as offensive players in the NBA can lower their shoulder, plow through defenders, and shove off. He will give effort, and he’ll be able to execute a team defense, but there will be certain matchups early on he will need to be hidden from.

THE ATHLETICISM QUESTION

Zero dunks on one attempt. Limited burst. Below-average traditional athleticism. The lack of dunks was a big storyline, on which he had the following to say:

“I didn’t really have that many opportunities to [dunk]. But I think for me, two points is two points. I’d rather get the easy layup than try to go for a dunk and maybe miss it. I definitely can dunk, just ‘cause I didn’t dunk this year doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Of course, Illinois played a five-out offense, so if Wagler was a freak athlete he would have had all the dunk opportunities in the world. While he was able to get a step on defenders, he doesn’t leave them in the dust. As we discussed in the how-he-scores section, it’s about being crafty. Instead of blow-by dunks, it’s a lot of fakes, deception, and creating enough space for a shot in that manner. Besides deceleration, Wagler also has great balance. There are plenty of guys that get drafted because they can run and jump like a deer, but don’t make it as they lack everything else. Wagler does everything else.

The Clippers training staff believe they can unlock more athleticism out of Wagler. He will never be a plus, but with all his other attributes, he just needs to not be a huge negative.

Wagler made the jump from playing against high schoolers to playing power conference teams and wasn’t fazed. I keep coming back to this: almost every team in the country doubted whether he could play at this level, and he instantly dominated at it. The baby-faced assassin.

FIT WITH THE CLIPPERS ROSTER

Keaton Wagler will start off-ball, just like when he came to Illinois. Eventually, a couple years down the road, it will be evident that the Clippers need to put the ball in his hands and move on from Garland. In the meantime he is only 19 years old, so I would be patient with him. Then again, we also thought he would redshirt his freshman year, and look how wrong we all were about that. As a rookie he will lean on his shooting, offensive rebounding, and learning how to defend at an NBA level if playing with the starters. Then I would expect the Clippers to try to give him some on-ball reps with the bench unit so he can learn to read NBA defenses against non-starters.

The Clippers roster is a fluid situation, as they are in the process of moving off the Kawhi timeline and starting to put together the next iteration of a team that can compete. I think Wagler is a great building block for the next timeline.

FLOOR & CEILING

Wagler is going to see the floor because of how good a shooter and connector he is. If it doesn’t work out with him, the reason will be that he never got to the point defensively where he could close games, and that inside the arc he was never able to get enough space on defenders. His attempts at the rim get blocked too much, and he isn’t a strong enough scorer inside the arc to put the ball in his hands. I do think this is a low-probability outcome, and even then he’s still a useful player that can play lots of productive minutes in the NBA.

The ceiling. I’m not going to put a ceiling on Wagler. Not in today’s NBA. I used to say you can’t win with Nikola Jokic as your center because of his defense. I was wrong. I said you can’t play players like TJ McConnell and Obi Toppin in the playoffs, and the Pacers proved me wrong. Jalen Brunson as the best player on a championship team? No chance. The great thing about today’s NBA is there is no one set way winning has to be done; it can come in all shapes, styles, and schemes. I watched how unbelievably consistent Wagler was as a freshman, how unflappable he was, how nothing stressed him. He made the right play and impressed me over and over again. I’m not trying to say he is going to be the best player in this draft, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

WHAT I SEE

With Wagler, the highest probable outcome I see is 2nd or 3rd best player on a championship team. Not the superstar, but more along the lines of a Jamal Murray to a Nikola Jokic. It’s going to be quite entertaining watching his development, and I will be there for every dribble along the way.

FURTHER CONTENT TO CONSUME

Illinois’ Keaton Wagler was No. 261 in his class. Now he could be an NBA lottery pick

CJ Moore, writer for The Athletic went to the same high school as Wagler and has a son in the same class. Moore writes a must read article here that gives great background on Wagler

Front Office Discusses NBA Draft Process | LA Clippers

Lawrence Frank does a great job providing details of Keaton Wagler’s game in this draft press conference

Mike LaTulip's Film Room: Dissecting Keaton Wagler's historic 46-point performance at Purdue

Watch a film breakdown of Wagler’s best collegiate game.

STATISTICAL PROFILE

Via CBB Analytics