{"id":769128,"date":"2026-06-24T07:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/769128\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:12:15","slug":"nba-draft-los-angeles-clippers-take-illinois-guard-keaton-wagler-with-the-no-5-pick-chicago-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/769128\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA draft: Los Angeles Clippers take Illinois guard Keaton Wagler with the No.\u00a05 pick \u2013 Chicago Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Clippers selected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/05\/24\/keaton-wagler-nba-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keaton Wagler, a 6-foot-5 guard from Illinois<\/a>, with the No. 5 pick in Tuesday\u2019s NBA draft, adding a versatile ball handler to their backcourt.<\/p>\n<p>Wagler was a less-heralded recruit coming out of high school, but evolved into a second-team AP All-American, emerging as one of the nation\u2019s best shooters while averaging 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists last season while leading the Illini to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years.<\/p>\n<p>He shot 39.7% from 3-point range, including making nine 3s in a 46-point outburst against Purdue last season. He said during ESPN\u2019s draft broadcast that the fact the was overshadowed in high school motivated him to reach this level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all the hard work and not worry about what anyone else said,\u201d Wagler said, adding that he will continue to play with a \u201cchip on his shoulder\u201d in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to continue to prove myself,\u201d Wagler said.<\/p>\n<p>Wagler, who can score from all three levels, is a talented pick-and-roll ball handler who should complement Clippers starting point guard Darius Garland.<\/p>\n<p>As expected, the Washington Wizards used their No. 1 pick on BYU forward AJ Dybansta, who led the nation in scoring (25.5 ppg) as a freshman.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas guard Darryn Petersen went to the Utah Jazz at No. 2, and the Memphis Grizzlies took Duke big man Cameron Boozer with the No. 3 pick. North Carolina forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/06\/23\/nba-draft-chicago-bulls-pick-caleb-wilson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caleb Wilson was selected fourth by the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Clippers selected Keaton Wagler, a 6-foot-5 guard from Illinois, with the No. 5 pick in Tuesday\u2019s NBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,16526,42824,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,12],"class_list":["post-769128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-illinois-basketball","tag-keaton-wagler","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116803845747743649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}