Section 215
Fansided

Philadelphia 76ers: Mo Wagner may be worth a look on a 10-day contract

By Matty Breisch

(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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After literally days of waiting, fans of the Philadelphia 76ers finally got an opportunity to see Anthony Tolliver take the court, and the results were… hard to quantify. Not because Tolliver played badly or anything, he actually did a solid enough job in his debut minutes of action, but because it was just so… nonchalant.

Playing the role typically heald by Mike Scott, who was bumped into the starting five in place of an injured Tobias Harris, Tolliver turned in 14 minutes, missed both of his shots from the field, and finished out the contest with two rebounds, one assist, one block, one personal foul, and one turnover.

If you weren’t particularly eagle-eyed on Tolliver during the Sixers’ win over the Los Angeles Clippers, you might not have even noticed that he’d made his debut for the red, white, and blue, especially if you watched the game without sound in, say, the back of a car on your phone.

Did Tolliver do enough to earn a second 10-day contract with the team when his current contract expires on April 22nd? Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean the Philadelphia 76ers should get too committed without playing the field a little bit before settling down. If that ultimately proves to be the case for Daryl Morey and company, there’s a recently released former member of the Boston Celtics that might just be worth a spot on the team’s radar.

The Philadelphia 76ers could audition Mo Wagner for Year 2 of the Rivers-era.

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Mo Wagner has been an objectively underwhelming professional basketball player.

Since being selected 25th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft by the pre-LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers – quite possibly the final first-round pick to ever be made by general manager Magic Johnson – Wagner has appeared in 122 games with 24 starts, scored in double-digits 34 times, and largely been relegated to a mid-bench reserve role, as evidenced by his 14.1 average minutes per game.

After making 43 appearances for the Lakers during his rookie season, Wagner was shipped out alongside a half dozen of his teammates in a three-team deal that ultimately netted LA Anthony Davis and, eventually, a championship.

Fun fact: Trading a bunch of non-stars and draft picks for a certified superstar can help a team win a championship? Who knew?

From there, Wagner played a largely unremarkable season and a half in Washington alongside fellow former Lakers Isaac Bonga, before being traded yet again to the Boston Celtics alongside Luke Kornet in a three-team deal centered around Daniel Theis: a trade that already looks like a massive L for Danny Ainge and company.

With a dire need for interior support in the post-Gordon Hayward-era, many humble Bostonians – if there is such a thing – hoped that Wagner would be able to provide some pop from beyond the arc in addition to sold rim protection, but instead, they were met with a walking turnstile who looked downright foolish posting up against Joel Embiid.

Wagner ultimately lasted nine games with the little green men before being waived outright to free up a roster spot for Jabari Parker, who, funny enough, is another former first-round pick who hasn’t exactly reached his pre-draft pedigree.

So, you may ask, why on earth would the Philadelphia 76ers have any interest in a player who has never averaged more than 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, all the while being a pretty inefficient defender? One hyphenate: Stretch-five.

Though he isn’t going to make anyone forget about Steph or even Seth Curry with his efficiency, Wagner is a center who can shoot the 3 ball fairly well and provide a team with, say, a non-shooting point guard some additional floor spacing.

Do you know anyone with that specific set of skills? Maybe someone who also endorses Four’n Twenty beef travelers, now available at your local Rutter’s?

As crazy as it may be to comprehend, the Sixers haven’t had a true stretch five on their roster since Super Mario Bros. 3-enthusiasts Mike Muscala called South Philly home for the better part of a season in 2018-19. While that may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, as literal children playing 2K know that deploying Simmons alongside non-shooting big men is a recipe for disaster, if you comb through the names of centers the Sixers have employed since sending Muscala packing, you’ll find a sever lack of outside shooting.

Greg Monroe? No. Boban Marjanovic? No. Norvel Pelle, Kyle O’Quin, Dwight Howard, Vincent Poirier, Tony Bradley? No, no, no, no, and no. Honestly, the only two centers the team has actively procured since that fateful day in February with even a decent outside shot are Al Horford and Paul Reed, the former of whom will surely go down as one of the worst signings in franchise history, and the latter was selected 58th in the 2020 NBA Draft and has been mostly played at the four spot.

Is Wagner the sort of do-it-all firebrand who can right this multi-season plothole in the Sixers’ roster composition and finally get this team to its championship potential? No. Considering Wagner wouldn’t even be eligible for the playoffs, that would be a pretty tough nut to crack, but having a 3 point shooting big coming off the bench, even for just a handful of games, could finally provide some empirical evidence to the fine folks in the Philly front office that maybe, just maybe, investing in a real stretch-five heading into the 2021-22 season would be a wise use of a mid-level exception, first-round pick, or the Al Horford trade exception.

I mean, why not, right? Anthony Tolliver’s 10-day contract officially expires on April 22nd, and unless he starts turning in Corey Brewer-esque performances over the next two contests, there isn’t a whole lot of upside in bringing him back for another bite at the apple. Pivoting to a 23-year-old who wasn’t technically available when Tolliver initially signed his deal – should he still be available – would at least fit better into the Sixers’ timeline and guarantee that what few minutes are given to the team’s 15th man will at least be going to a player at a position of need who won’t be headed off to retirement next fall.

If it works out and Wagner somehow has a Kelly Olynyk-esque glow-up (more on that here) in a new role paired up with the best ball distributor of his career, then great, the Sixers can happily sign him to a new, long-term contract a la Alize Johnson in Brooklyn and roll into 2021-22 with optionality. But realistically, signing a player like Wagner would have more to do with evaluating Simmons both now and moving forward, which is part of the reason why players like Tyrese Maxey are still on the team and Kyle Lowry isn’t.

dark. Next. Are we taking Joel Embiid’s dominance for granted?

If the Philadelphia 76ers’ start the 2021-22 season with some stretch-five on their roster, it’ll be a massive W. If that’s Mo Wagner, great. If that’s someone else, maybe someone like Gonzaga’s Drew Timme (more on him here), that’s cool too. Either way, getting a few minutes with the new and improved Ben Simmons alongside a group of four shooters sans Joel Embiid is surely worth a look, even if it doesn’t impact the playoff picture too much.