I haven’t watched them extensively enough to say for sure. Eye test, Barnes definitely looks like the much better man defender, with better aggression and lateral quickness. But that SBN piece has this to say about Wagner’s D:This is pretty much directly from my recollection of Kevin O’ Connor’s evaluation on a podcast but isn’t Wagner a mediocre athlete at best?
I also thought that his defensive scouting report was a bit different. For some reason I remember it being that he was an excellent team defender but not very good man to man (because of his athletic limitations)
“Wagner has a case as one of the better defensive prospects in this class. He’s able to stick with smaller ball handlers on the perimeter by showing impressive agility getting over screens and disrupting drivers and pull-up shooters with his length. He’s also big enough to defend a post-up or provide supplemental rim protection in the paint. He shows good awareness on when to rotate as a team defender.”
Barnes’ meh shot blocking and rebounding gives me a tiny bit of pause about considering him a lights-out elite defender, though some of that could be FSU’s defensive schemes. The guy who seems to be the true can’t-miss defensive stud of the draft according to scouts is Usman Garuba, but his lack of O seems to land him mostly in the mid to late first round.
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