Keaton Wagler could give Illinois basketball rare achievement in the NBA

It is hard to make the NBA, but the Illinois basketball program has numerous players at the highest level.

Will Riley is with the Washington Wizards. Kasparas Jakucionis was a rising star with the Miami Heat before becoming the linchpin in a mega trade with the Milwaukee Bucks. You look up north in Minnesota, where both Terrence Shannon Jr. and Ayo Dosunmu are on a Timberwolves team with title hopes.

All of those stories are cool. There are more Illini trying to make the league, too. The ceiling for all of these players is relatively well known. What isn’t known is how high someone like Keaton Wagler can climb in the NBA ranks.

Bleacher Report thinks Wagler could be the top dog in the future. They released an interesting article that names the best player on each team three years from now.

It is tough to determine who will be on each team, but most of the teams are easy. Luka Doncic for the Los Angeles Lakers, Nikola Jokic for the Denver Nuggets, and Jalen Brunson for the New York Knicks.

They go on to name the Los Angeles Clippers best player in three years. It is indeed Wagler.

The write-up on the Wagler section says they were essentially choosing between two-time All-Star Darius Garland and Wagler. The article does say that this could be based on financial ties, but it also thinks that Wagler could be the more efficient player for the Clippers.

This got me thinking, has the Illinois basketball program ever had a best player on an NBA team?

Illinois basketball has some good options for the best player for an NBA franchise

Let’s start by going backwards. Jakucionis’ current situation in Milwaukee could put him in a good position to be the best player on that team. They aren’t very good, and he has potential. He isn’t that yet, though.

Riley, Shannon, and Dosunmu are not and won’t likely ever be the best players on any team they play on in their careers.

Meyers Leonard was never the best player on the Miami Heat or the Portland Trail Blazers. James Augustine, Dee Brown, and Luther Head were never the best players on their teams.

The first Illinois player you get to who was the best player on an NBA team is Deron Williams. Carlos Boozer was the best player in his first year in Utah. You could make an argument that Williams was the best player in year two. By year three, Williams was the Jazz. He was the best player with Utah for at least three seasons. He was then the best player for the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets for over four seasons.

You could probably make a case that Nick Anderson was the best player on the Orlando Magic the year before Shaquille O’Neal got there. Kendall Gill had some big years and was the star of a few teams as well.

Historically, Illinois has had the best player leading an NBA team, but it has been a very long time. The trend is starting to come back around. Wagler is going to be the one to help change it all.

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