Danny Wolf, Bobby Bacala or Vlade Divac?

Danny Wolf has always been a skilled big man, but he's taken steps in the right direction to become more versatile this season. Wolf's skillset could make him an enticing 2025 NBA Draft prospect.

Back when I was in college many moons ago, I remember every damn professor felt the need to tell us that college was a time where we’d find ourselves. I had a political science professor tell our class that who we were in high school was dead and that we were on our way to finding our true selves. I always wondered if my professors were trying to compensate for the shitty education we were receiving by selling some veiled hope that we’d end up better on the other side of four miserable years. I don’t think I ever found the best version of myself in college, but it sure as hell looks like Danny Wolf is figuring some stuff out since making the move to Ann Arbor.

Dany Wolf is a 7’ big man for the Michigan Wolverines, in his first season since transferring over from Yale this past summer. Wolf put himself on some radars last season with his stellar play for the Yale Bulldogs. Early in his junior season, it looks like he’s found a completely different version of himself as a basketball player. Some of it has been wonderful to watch, and some of it has not been so beautiful. The important thing is he’s trying new things, and he’s learning more about who he wants to be as a basketball player. He’s already gained more than I did during my four years of school; good for you, bud.

Something that needs to be established before we get into his game: Danny Wolf was a good player for Yale last season. It’s great that Wolf is getting a ton of attention for what he’s doing this season, but it’s also important to give him credit for his play last season. Wolf averaged 14.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and shot just under 35% from three last season. His shooting splits were 47/34/71 as one of the offensive focal points for Yale. Last season for the Bulldogs, Wolf was mostly finding his offense on post-ups, spot-up opportunities, and as a roll man off ball screens. According to Synergy, he took spot-up jumpers 22.3% of the time, post-ups 18.8%, and was the roll man on 11.9% of his possessions. Heading into this season, now with Michigan, many wondered what his role would look like and what he’d be asked and allowed to do.

So far, there have been two major developments that have completely changed what his offensive game looks like. First off, it looks like he’s in great shape. It’s not a dramatic change like Vito Spatafore’s in the premiere of Season 6 of The Sopranos, but it’s been significant enough that he looks like a different mover on the court. Wolf flashed fluidity and flexibility as a big for Yale, but the way he moves with and without the ball looks better and lighter. It’s also important to note that he looks lighter on his feet on the defensive end of the floor as well.

The improvement in fitness has been great for him, but the second big change we’ve seen is the offensive role and freedom he’s been given since moving to Ann Arbor. Last season, Wolf was the ball-handler in only 3.7% of his possessions. This season, that number has jumped to 16.9%. Wolf now has the freedom and confidence from his coach to handle the ball and make decisions in ball screen situations. For a 7’ big man, Wolf is an exceptional ball-handler, is extremely fluid as an athlete, and is very coordinated.

The interesting thing to note is that although there’s been a big change in how Wolf is used offensively, his usage is actually down from 26.4% last year to 24% this year. With the change in ball-handling duties, there has been a huge uptick in both assist percentage and turnover percentage. Seeing an uptick in the assist percentage is great to see, and we’ll get into his passing chops; the uptick in turnover percentage is not so good, but to be expected considering the new role. Wolf had an assist percentage of 15.2% for each of his first two seasons at Yale; this season, he’s at 22.5%. On the other side of the coin, he had a turnover percentage last season of 15% last season but is up to 27.5% this season. Once again, you don’t love the big jump in turnover percentage, but considering how different his role is this season compared to last, you have to live with it early on and monitor how it goes for the rest of the season. I put together a compilation of some of his ball-handling possessions, and it’s a glorious mixed bag of wonderful and rawness.

I can already hear what some of you guys are thinking. Why does any of this matter? He’ll never be allowed to handle the ball on the next level. NBA-level defenders will feast and pick his pocket every single time. For all of the pessimists, I’m hoping this compilation will open your eyes to the potential. I didn’t put together a bunch of clips of him just being excellent. There are a ton of possessions where you can see holes and head-scratching mistakes. The ultimate point I want to make and the reason why I want to highlight this aspect of his game is that I think he’s going to be able to do some of this on the next level. Just the threat of it with the weird wrinkle it presents defenses makes it valuable, even if he doesn’t do it as much as he has this season.

When it’s good, it looks really different and effective. As I mentioned earlier, Wolf is a really good ball-handler for his size He’s got some unexpected bend and flexibility to him. The in-and-out move with his off-hand against Xavier, which gave him an open lane to finish with the same hand, was scintillating. That’s the kind of move you wouldn’t expect from a 7’ center. The flexibility, coordination, and fluidity it takes to attempt a move like that, let alone finish it, is no joke. Wolf can’t get all the credit, though; Head Coach Dusty May has done a good job of giving Wolf the freedom and getting creative with how he gets Wolf into these sets. In some possessions, Michigan will throw the ball up to Wolf in transition to get things going. For some possessions, they’ll have Wolf on the weak side to run empty side pick and rolls with Vladislav Goldin as his partner. They’ll even run Wolf off pin-downs and stagger screens to get him into DHO situations where he can get the ball with a head of steam to help compensate for his lack of burst. The fact that Coach May isn’t just throwing him out there on an island and asking him to create for the team has been nice to watch. Getting Wolf in motion and coming off of different actions to attack ball screens has been crucial.

Wolf has been great with his handle and fluidity, but the threat of the pass has been a huge catalyst to all of this as well. Wolf flashed tons of passing ability for Yale the past two seasons, but it’s even more dangerous now with the reps he’s getting as a ball-handler. The point that needs to be emphasized here is that it’s dangerous for both teams. As fun as the ball-handling growth has been for Wolf, it hasn’t been perfect. As I mentioned earlier, we’ve seen some big changes in his advanced numbers in terms of assists and turnovers. The increase in the assist percentage has been great, but Wolf has been a good passer for some time, and he’s been able to showcase it even more this season in his new role. In the compilation below, you can see the savvy and creativity Wolf brings as a passer.

Wolf is deadly in the two-man game, running 4/5 pick and rolls. He can attack ball screens, get downhill, and attack the basket for himself or dump off the ball to Golodin for an easy bucket. He’s also an extremely interesting short-roll creator because of his on-ball prowess. Wolf’s ability to make live dribble passes is really awesome to watch and once again adds to the offensive versatility of the Wolverines. He may not be Draymond Green or Josh Hart, but he’s pretty damn good; the more he cultivates this skill set, the more valuable he’ll be in a league where teams love to spam high ball screens. As great as his on-ball ability has been, it hasn’t been perfect.

Against tough perimeter defenders, he has shown a lack of complete confidence in his ball security, which has opened him up to being a little loose with the ball. Against Arkansas recently, he was guarded by Adou Thiero for a couple of possessions, and you could see what the threat of a tough defender like Thiero could do to a guy like Wolf. Thiero is a big-bodied wing with strong hands and plays with a lot of speed and aggression, Wof had two possessions against Thiero that really showed some of the holes in his ball security. On one of the possessions, he caught the ball at the top of the key, and as soon as he faced up to the rim, Thiero blitzed the ball and was able to force a turnover. Later, in a similar spot, he caught the ball above the break on the right side, and as soon as Thiero was engaged with him, he immediately turned his body to put himself between Thiero and the ball. As he looked to Sam Wlaters lifting from the strongside corner, it looked like they were going to run a DHO, but there was a little hesitation; Wolf picked up the ball too early and made an errant pass out of bounds.

To Wolf’s credit, later in the game, he faced up against Thiero again at the top of the key and did this:

Not bad.

As sloppy as those possessions were, it’s important for us to get to the heart of the conversation. The reason for highlighting this skill isn’t to push some narrative that Wolf is going to be the next Nikola Jokic or Chris Webber. Although he will struggle to showcase this type of ability against bigger wings that are tough perimeter defenders, it’s important that he can do it at all, and he has shown real flashes of this ability in real games and not on some Instagram Reals. When Mitchell Robinson posted videos of him handling the ball and hitting off the-dribble threes in some random gym a couple of off-seasons ago, there wasn’t a soul on the planet that thought it was real. What Wolf has shown to this point of the season looks to be a real wrinkle to his game that may change his outlook as a future NBA prospect.

The other layer to all of this that makes him even more dangerous as an offensive player is his outside shooting ability. So far in the young season, he’s sitting just under 30% from outside. Sub-30% isn’t pretty, but as always, context is important. As we discussed earlier, Michigan has been really creative with how they’ve used Wolf this season, and if you watch the handful of clips below, you can see that some of these misses from Wolf aren’t from standard standstill catch-and-shoot attempts. You see Wolf coming off DHOs, running off pin-downs, popping outside as the screener, and even some off the dribble as the pick-and-roll ball-handler. These are highly difficult shots. You have to wonder, what NBA coach will allow him to do any of that?

Early on, I think the coaching staff is allowing and encouraging these types of shots because they believe he can hit them. From what they’re seeing in practice and in games, there is a belief from Wolf and the coaching staff that is obviously fueling these types of shots. At this point, I don’t know if this is going to be what he looks like as a pro, but I’m happy he has the freedom to try this stuff. Danny Wolf was a good shooter for Yale last season, and most of his attempts were of the catch-and-shoot variety. He shot just under 35% on 2.6 attempts per game. That’s not Klay Thompson, but it’s mediocre—which is all you really need from a seven-footer. If Wolf continues sitting under 30% for the rest of the season on these types of shots, obviously, there will be a need for an adjustment. I don’t mind the low percentage as much this early in the season and am more enticed by the attempts. To this point, he’s been getting clean looks, and he really just needs to start hitting more of them.

Wolf clearly has good touch around the rim. According to Synergy, he’s in the 89th percentile as a finisher at the rim. He’s in the 92nth percentile when it comes to layups. He’s a good guy who can finish through contact and over either shoulder with either hand. With how much he’s on the perimeter, it does effect the amount of free throws he takes. He’s currently only taking 2.6 attempts per game. Ideally, you’d expect more from a big man with a 24% usage rate, but that’s what happens when you’re on the perimeter a lot. It’s also important to note that even on low volume from the charity stripe he’s currently only shooting 65.4% from there.

Between Wolf and Golodin, Michigan doesn’t have the most agile pair of defensive bigs, but Wolf has looked lighter on his feet defensively than he did last season. I don’t think Wolf will ever be an elite rim-protector, but he does have good size and length, and with better agility, he could become a solid defender who won’t kill you on that end. Due to his flexibility and fluidity, he does look pretty good sliding his feet, but there is a baseline agility that’s missing with him that makes it really tough for him to stay in front of smaller ball-handlers. From an NBA perspective, you’re not drafting Danny Wolf to anchor your defense. Wolf may not be a rockstar on this end of the floor, but he is a solid rebounder and has been for years now. He averaged 9.7 rebounds per game last season and is right around the same number at 9.9 per game for the Wolverines. His work on the boards is important because of his grab-and-go ability to get his team into early offense.

With that in mind, I thought a ton about what his NBA comp would be. I tried thinking of current guys, but I know what I am. I’m old now, I live in the past, and I found the perfect guy.

I think Danny Wolf could be a modern-day Vlade Divac.

I’m not old enough to remember Vlade on the Lakers, but I remember clearly as day when he was on the Hornets and the Kings. I want to start this off by saying I’m fully aware that Wolf isn’t the defender that Vlade was. Vlade had multiple seasons where he averaged more than two blocks per game. I just want you to imagine what Vlade would look like in the modern NBA. He’d probably push back all of his 18 and 20-foot jumpers out to the three-point line. You know he’d be awesome as a creator in the short rolls with his handle and passing abilities. You could throw the ball to him in the low or high post and let him create something for himself or his teammates. Vlade was a master at finding cutters; guys like Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson, and Peja Stojakovic got free and easy buckets all the time off of Vlade’s passes. You know Vlade would easily average over ten boards per game, and he’d be looking to push the ball up the court to get his team into early offense all the time. Vlade was awesome at the high-low stuff, whether he was playing off of Chris Webber or Brad Miller.

This is what I see for Danny Wolf. I don’t think Wolf will ever be as slender or mobile as Vlade was in his early years with the Lakers, but the skill set and ability for a guy his size are eerily similar.

Till this point in the season, some may have been concerned about the dramatic change in his offensive profile, but I think Wolf is taking steps in the right direction. Big changes can be scary, and sometimes could be the wrong choice. When Bobby Bacala, in the later seasons of The Sopranos, decided to get into model trains and wore cute train conductor outfits in his garage: that’s the type of change you don’t want to see. Looking back at it now, it’s crazy that while the family was at war with New York, Bobby decided to go out and buy an $8,000 toy train model and then got gunned down in the store.

Danny Wolf is not Bobby Bacala, but he is a college kid who seems to be finding the best version of himself.