Brandan Wright: 2014-15 Phoenix Suns Player Grades

Lowlights:

In his time in Phoenix, Wright did a good job (for the most part) filling his role, but he did have a couple of rough stretches that saw his impact diminished. For example, from Jan. 19-25, Wright scored a total of six points over the Suns’ four games, playing a total of 58 minutes.

Over that stretch, Wright shot just 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from the field, although he did manage to stay turnover free. After the stretch, Wright was eight games into his career as a Sun, and it wasn’t really clear what his role on the team would be, but that would of course change.

In fact, outside of those games, Wright did not have a four game stretch where he shot worse than 40 percent from the field more than twice. Even when he only scored four or six points in a game, Wright was able to do it on very limited shots, and it’s probably safe to say there were only 2-or-3 games where his play actually had a negative impact on the result.

Take the Suns game against the Sacramento Kings from Mar. 25:

Wright scored five points in 28 minutes, on six shooting possessions. Wright made just 1-of-3 free throws, and he had three turnovers, posting the third worst plus/minus on the team (-8). In that game, Wright really didn’t do anything all that well, and the Suns lost by nine, falling to 38-34 on the year, but even that wasn’t really his fault. After all, in that game P.J. Tucker and Eric Bledsoe combined to shoot 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) from the floor, and as a team the Suns shot worse than 25.0 percent from three.

Then, going back a month-and-a-half earlier, Wright had a similar impact as the Suns lost to the Kings (again). Wright had five points on 2-of-3 shooting, but his plus/minus of -7 was the second worst mark on the team, in a game the Suns lost by two. However, Markieff Morris did shoot 3-of-20 (15.0 percent) from the field in that game, and the team shot worse than 18.0 percent from three, so I think Wright gets a pass.

Overall, the only real difference in those games was his plus/minus.

Usually when Wright has a bad game, his plus/minus still manages to be high, which is a testament to his low-volume, low-risk style of play. He doesn’t necessarily need to be the driving force, or even an especially involved player, in order to help the team, which is why he is so valuable as a player off the bench.

As far as single-play lowlights, there weren’t to many with the Suns, but he did get dunked on pretty bad earlier in the year when he was with the Dallas Mavericks, and it’s worth checking out…

While Wright would end up on the losing side of the game, he finished 2-of-2 from the field, posting four rebounds and two blocks to zero turnovers. Not that anyone cared, but still…

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