Lakers creamed 'em. But anyway, what is up with Dorell Wright? This guy is looking like the softest guy in the league. He reminds me of Harrington, big midsection, skinny limbs, tiny hands. Slow and plodding. No lift. No athleticism. No explosiveness. 6'9 " and can barely dunk. I heard he used to be in dunk contests. I this a joke? Or did he have like major knee surgery? Ok, just googled it. Yes, he underwent season-ending knee surgery in 2008. The surgery repaired a meniscal tear of the lateral joint of his left knee. I think he also had a second follow up surgery. This must explain it. He looks like damaged goods out there. He gets wide open passes under the hoop and it takes him like 12 seconds to gather and go up. He gets wide open alley oop passes, right at the rim, and he can barely catch them, let alone finish them. He takes these weak sauce layups -- prayers -- when he should be going up and f**king dunking it like Adrien did tonight. Reminds me of Al Harrington. Oh well. At least Wright is a better ball handler and passer. And apparently he's supposed to be an excellent perimeter defender, but I must be missing something here because I'm not impressed so far. Maybe his defense went downhill, along with his hops, after the surgery. Even when he lands, after jumping, he looks all wobbly. Hopefully he can get his legs back.
I think hes not as explosive an athlete as advertised but hes also better than he shows. Sometimes he goes up strong and shows some athleticism- not necessary explosiveness but a smooth athleticism. He does go up weak a lot though. He pulls up or kicks it out sometimes when hes got an opening to get to the rim. Kinda reminds me of Dunleavy out-thinking himself and under utilizing what most consider basic NBA instinct (i.e. attack the fuggin rim and get contact). Dunny used to pull up on fast breaks and kick the ball out a lot when he had a head of steam toward the rim. And yeah I haven't been impressed by his defense. Its not bad but I don't see him making a huge difference either. Hes made some heady plays though (like stealing the ball from Ben Gordon at the end of the Pistons game because he knew he wasn't going to pass it). That being said I like him in general. Shoots the 3 ball, plays under control, doesn't make mistakes on defense, rebounds decently, can pass a little bit. Hes a fairly well rounded role player. All we need is a role player who can hit open 3's and he is just that. Hes got warts but I'd rather have a guy who is unaggressive than another chucker, no defense, low efficiency, etc. guy like Al, Jack, Crawford.
I like him coming off the bench. I'm going to start the "Sign Battier" movement this offseason. He's the perfect fit.
I'm salivating at the idea of signing some of those centers available in FA. Unrestricted C's include Perkins, Chandler, Nene (ETO), Yao, Przybilla, Dalembert. Resctricted guys include Marc Gasol, Greg Oden. There are a lot of other interesting FAs too; Carl Landry, Caron Butler, AK47, Big Baby, Boris Diaw, JR Smith, Tayshaun Prince, Battier, Chuck Hayes, David West (ETO), Turiaf, J-Rich, Barbosa, Josh Howard just to name some of the ones we could have interest in. I'd love to get a big name guy it'd be pretty nice to land two of these types of players. If we move the expirings for a high salary core player at the deadline we'd still have our MLE to compete for some of these players in the offseason (we won't have an MLE if we're under the cap though). Lots of those C's have issues with injuries or consistency that could make them available on a cheap deal. Perkins was perhaps the best defensive big man in the league prior to his injury. Yao has major questions with injuries. Same for Oden. Przybilla is coming off a big injury. Chandler, Nene, and Dalembert all have consistency and smaller injury concerns. IMO at some point we need to upgrade from Beans with a guy who is a better defender and has better size to compete down low. There are a lot of options and most are somewhat high risk/high reward but that could also drive the price down. Remember that Lacob came from Boston and it wouldn't surprise me if he pushes for Perkins whom the Celtics seem to be casting off. Pryzbilla would be a nice pickup too though IMO.
