Its still way to early to determine the potential of Brandan Wright, but it is just that...potential. He doesn't bring to the league a polished offensive game, a solid defensive shot blocking presence, or a monster rebounding stat. I hear people call him a great rebounder but he averaged 6 rebounds a game with 1.7 blocks. That doesn't put him in the top 50 in either one of those stats. To put things in perspective, Lasme (2nd round pick), averaged 5 blocks a game while giving 13 points and 9.5 boards. Wright, at 14 points a game and a free throw percentage at 58%, I don't see what all the hype was about him. What Wright does bring to the table is athleticism and mobility, but its not like he's a 7 footer. The guy is 6'9 where mobile, athletic players are nearly a dime a dozen. His biggest and most obvious weakness is his lack of strength. At 210lbs while a guy like Boozer is 265lbs, he's going to get pushed around by most power forwards in the league.
I like the moving of Jason Richardson as the Warriors gain much needed cap space and money to spend, but I'm not sold on Wright. I'd much rather have had the Bobcats draft Joakim Noah, Al Thornton, or even Julian Wright.
You're forgetting the key reason he was drafted, and then traded with someone with the reputation of Jason Richardson. Richardson in his own right is one of the better players in the NBA. So why trade a player as great as he for a kid who's unproven and who hasn't got any reason to even be considered in the likes of Richardson?
Potential. He has out of this world potential. He's easily one of the most athletic forwards in the game, even coming out of college. Has amazing speed for a guy of his height, has good footwork, and is a high flyer, and fits in perfectly with the Golden State system of little defense, and all offense. He's only 19 years old, and has shown glimpses of being a great player, possibly even an All-Star in a few years. His defense could stand to improve, but the numbers are misleading. He's a good man-to-man defender, and never got enough minutes in a stacked North Carolina team. Hell, he was playing behind arguably the best NCAA forward in the league (Hansborough), but to re-iterate what I've said, he's just got too much potential to pass up.
Brandan Wright may fit into this up and down system, but he doesn't fill a need. The Warriors most obvious weakness is their lack of rebounding which was very evident during the Utah series, but just as evident throughout the regular season. Here are some numbers to put that in perspective. During the regular season, the Warriors were out-rebounded by double digits 18 times. Out of those 18 times, 10 games were decided by less than 10 points. From those 10, 4 games were lossed by less than 5 points. We're talking about, potentially, 20 more points (10 or more possessions) for the opposing team. If they can fix that, then that could mean 10-12 more wins and would make this a 50+ win team. Will Brandan Wright be a 9 boards a game guy? I'm not too sure of that.
Its still way to early to determine the potential of Brandan Wright, but it is just that...potential. He doesn't bring to the league a polished offensive game, a solid defensive shot blocking presence, or a monster rebounding stat. I hear people call him a great rebounder but he averaged 6 rebounds a game with 1.7 blocks. That doesn't put him in the top 50 in either one of those stats. To put things in perspective, Lasme (2nd round pick), averaged 5 blocks a game while giving 13 points and 9.5 boards. Wright, at 14 points a game and a free throw percentage at 58%, I don't see what all the hype was about him. What Wright does bring to the table is athleticism and mobility, but its not like he's a 7 footer. The guy is 6'9 where mobile, athletic players are nearly a dime a dozen. His biggest and most obvious weakness is his lack of strength. At 210lbs while a guy like Boozer is 265lbs, he's going to get pushed around by most power forwards in the league.
I like the moving of Jason Richardson as the Warriors gain much needed cap space and money to spend, but I'm not sold on Wright. I'd much rather have had the Bobcats draft Joakim Noah, Al Thornton, or even Julian Wright.
Your answer is in the first sentence...
I do have one question though. You are not sold on B. Wright, what sold you on Noah, Thornton, and J. Wright?
I do have one question though. You are not sold on B. Wright, what sold you on Noah, Thornton, and J. Wright?
I feel Joakim Noah is a better rebounder and shot blocker than Brandan. He averaged 8.4 a game on a team that is a very good rebounding team. Al Thornton would of been a nice fit on this team as well, but probably not as good as a rebounder as Noah but better than Wright. There aren't a lot of players in the NBA that were average rebounders in college that turned into great rebounders in the NBA.
Julian Wright actually averaged more boards than B. Wright in college. What I like about Julian is his versatility which would of worked great in Nellie's game. This team doesn't have alot of front court people that can rebound and start the break themselves. With the uncertainty of Pietrus, Barnes, and Azubuike during draft time, Wright would of been a nice pick.
Saying Noah is better than Wright is kind of silly. What would you have thought of Noah 2 years ago? Nothing. I saw a lot of Wright last year (I got to Carolina) and he is a lot better than scouts give him credit for. Yes, he is small, but he is so long that he has no trouble rebounding. If he had been on a team where he was the stud under the basket, he would have been shined more. But it's hard to stand out next to a guy like Hansborough who is the hardest working rebounder in the NCAA. And notice, when Hansborough was struggling with a broken nose in the ACC tourney, Wright stepped up and won tournament MVP.
His offensive game is also not as "un-polished" (whatever that means) as people say. He is smooth, very smooth. His little jump hook variation is really fun to watch. He doesnt have much of a shot but have you ever seen Noah shoot? And Wright still has time to develop and be molded into whatever the organization wants him to be b/c he is only 19.
Plus, I think I am right when I say that the Warriors top choice at #8 would have been Yi, were he still available. Yi is not much of a rebounder and doesnt have an incredible under the basket game, at least not much better (if at all) than Wrights. And Yi never had to play next to a guy the Hansborough so he looks bigger and better on tape. Truth be told, the only teams that got true NBA starters were Portland and Seattle, the rest of the guys drafted will have to be real rookies and develop their games some before they become quality NBA players.
why not just label greg oden a bust based on college numbers?
at UNC Wright was maybe the 4th offensive option... and he still put up 14 ppg and it was in pretty limited minutes because Roy Williams loves to make subs a lot. if he played 33-35 mins per game he would have averaged roughly 20 ppg 9 rpg 2.5 bpg and still had that great FG%... you can't label someone until you have seen them... If Brandan Wright starts for GSW which i think he should (being a GSW fan), lets be honest Andres Biedrins is a piece of ****. I anticipate Brandan Wright being top 3 in the rookie of the year voting.
No one right now can tell what he'll be like. I really hate the fact that we had to trade a proven scorer and the face of the franchise, but if Brandan Wright turns out to be awesome obviously no one is gonna regret that trade. But it's not fair to expect anything great from him in his first year.
I know we needed some cap room n cash but we coulda done better than wright for J-rich, like sum1 said b4 he was the face of the franchise. I reckon we're gonna miss the playoffs once again with or without Nelson this year unless we get a proven bigman, or atleast one other atleast semi star player. We just put ourselves back a year. We should be tryin to compete in the playoffs not compete just for 8ths seed (unless Dallas is first again, lol).
Brandan Wright - Bust or Not?
