<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Andris Biedrins was out, Chris Webber was hurt, and Patrick O'Bryant and Kosta Perovic were wearing their usual dress suits. If there was an upside to carrying 28 feet of inactive centers Sunday, it's how well the rest of the Warriors' roster continues to measure up.</div> Source
I like the play as of late. We're getting more from the bench and we're trying to develop Brandan Wright. If we don't have a power forward, the smartest thing to do is give Wright 15-20 minutes a game to get confidence and develop him to be Chris Bosh (Warriors version) for 2009. It looks like the Biedrins surgery was a blessing in disguise. Imagine Wright and Biedrins playing together. It looks like a good rebounding and shotblocking duo, only Wright definitely has more upside. Like Biedrins he leaps very high for big man standards (35-36 inch standing vertical), has great lateral quickness, great overall foot speed, and isn't afraid of contact. The upside for Wright is that he's got a 7'5" wingspan for a 6'10 guy. Contrast that with Biedrins who has a 7'1" wingspan at 7 feet tall. This means that Wright can get to blocking shots and snagging rebounds at places Biedrins could never get to. Also, Wright has a lot more natural skill to his game as a post player. I'm really excited. I love Biedrins, but Wright is the first, best sign at getting a true 20/10 player who can protect the weakside and pass out of the low post. Biedrins plays within himself, making an efficient big player, and that's his best attribute, but Wright has the potential to do more things that no warrior big has done in years, which is work the post, pass out of the outlet, and draw fouls. The big question mark is how hungry, how consistent, how strong, and how mentally tough is this guy? Free throw %'s aside, his shot touch looks pretty good now where he could be an excellent finesse player. Hopefully, he can be effective even though he's giving up a lot of weight on defense. That's a big issue right there. Can he hold a man in the paint? All in all, I like his moves and his little half hook shot on the spin move. Big men that can spin are cool in my book. See Ike Diogu.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Custodianrules2 @ Mar 5 2008, 01:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I like the play as of late. We're getting more from the bench and we're trying to develop Brandan Wright. If we don't have a power forward, the smartest thing to do is give Wright 15-20 minutes a game to get confidence and develop him to be Chris Bosh (Warriors version) for 2009. It looks like the Biedrins surgery was a blessing in disguise. Imagine Wright and Biedrins playing together. It looks like a good rebounding and shotblocking duo, only Wright definitely has more upside. Like Biedrins he leaps very high for big man standards (35-36 inch standing vertical), has great lateral quickness, great overall foot speed, and isn't afraid of contact. The upside for Wright is that he's got a 7'5" wingspan for a 6'10 guy. Contrast that with Biedrins who has a 7'1" wingspan at 7 feet tall. This means that Wright can get to blocking shots and snagging rebounds at places Biedrins could never get to. Also, Wright has a lot more natural skill to his game as a post player. I'm really excited. I love Biedrins, but Wright is the first, best sign at getting a true 20/10 player who can protect the weakside and pass out of the low post. Biedrins plays within himself, making an efficient big player, and that's his best attribute, but Wright has the potential to do more things that no warrior big has done in years, which is work the post, pass out of the outlet, and draw fouls. The big question mark is how hungry, how consistent, how strong, and how mentally tough is this guy? Free throw %'s aside, his shot touch looks pretty good now where he could be an excellent finesse player. Hopefully, he can be effective even though he's giving up a lot of weight on defense. That's a big issue right there. Can he hold a man in the paint? All in all, I like his moves and his little half hook shot on the spin move. Big men that can spin are cool in my book. See Ike Diogu.</div> I like big men who can spin, too. They just irritate the heck out of you when they get past you that way when they were right in front of you a second ago. The paint's about power and moves, so if a guy can get separation like Wright seems to be able to do, then that's the type of quality you are looking for inside. Somehow though, I don't think Nellie's going to trust Wright because he'll be inconsistent. You can't help being that the first year in the NBA for someone as young as Wright. Overall, you can have the talent and potential, but it's tough when you're learning something that takes physical ability. One night you are on top of the world and think you are unbeatable because you scored 20/10, but the next night you can put up Adonal Foyle numbers because someone else plays you different and things have changed. It's not easy mentally with the ups and downs you experience because you're still learning how to do things for yourself to be successful.
I agree with you CR2, Wright is probably a better prospect than Beans at this point. I love Andris but his upside is a Tyson Chandler type of player whereas Wright is a legit 20/10 prospect. I read an interesting comparison of Jamison on offense, Kirilenko on defense which I thought was pretty good. Wright seems to have a lot of baby hook/flip shots around the basket, hes shown a decent 14 foot jumper (though he releases it on the way up which is awkward). Defensively he gets up in the air as quick as anyone and as high as anyone his size, if you don't believe it see the block on Durant, dunk over Josh Smith. Hes finally showing that patented baby hook that was his go-to move at UNC. Hes got great fundamentals and foot work in the post. I wouldn't say hes on the level of Ike Diogu though, Ike had post moves, counter moves, footwork, etc. as good as Tim Duncan from day one. He just flat out can't do anything else at the NBA level. Hes terrible at passing out of double teams, average athlete at best, extremely slow on defensive rotations, poor defensive rebounder, Nellie said he had a low bball IQ and blamed others for his mistakes (remember him getting into it with Baron a few times?). Wright can't score quite as well as Diogu but hes an all around player, great athlete, he hustles and plays a team game. I think hes got plenty of drive and toughness, he just doesn't have the bulk right now. If you ever watched him at UNC you know he lives in the paint by nature. He dominated in the paint at UNC, now in the NBA hes a lot lighter and Nellie wants him to play a little further our on the pick and roll and whatnot and take advantage of his quickness. Hes a quiet, reserved kind of guy but I don't think he lacks passion or work ethic. Check out some of these moves by Wright: <div><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CKrST2MAMH0&"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CKrST2MAMH0&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350" /></embed></object></div>
Run BJM made a good point about Wright being a quiet guy but not lacking passion. Compare that to POB who also appears to be a quiet guy, but lacks the passion. Their demeanor says it all. I'm not saying I don't want POB to play. I'd like to see what he can do, but he definitely lacks passion. With Wright, you can tell he has passion in small things like how he always wants to dunk it and in spectacular fashion if possible, even if that's not always the smartest thing to do.
