Delon Wright: Phoenix Suns 2015 Draft Profile
By Gavin Schall
Strengths
Let’s just say this slide is going to be longer than the next, because Wright does just about everything well on the basketball court.
After two seasons at junior college, Wright transferred to Utah and casually became the only player in the country to average at least 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block per game. While those benchmarks are admittedly somewhat arbitrary, they do a good job of showing just how pervasive Wright’s dominance is.
He maintained his statistical dominance his senior season despite playing on a more well balanced Utah squad. From SI.com’s Luke Winn:
"Assists, rebounds and blocks per 40 minutes are some of the college stats with the strongest correlations to the NBA, and college steals per 40 are viewed as a success indicator. This past season, Wright averaged 6.2 assists, 6.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 2.6 steals per 40 minutes, pace-adjusted. In the past 15 seasons of college hoops, there were only five other players—overall, not just among draft prospects—who averaged at least 5.0 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and 2.5 steals:"
That’s some pretty lofty company and Wright actually compares relatively well to Wade and Evans.
While he doesn’t have quite the mind-bending athleticism of Dwyane Wade or the strength of Tyreke Evans, he has the rare ability to dictate the pace of the game every time he’s on the court.
As a scorer, Wright can do nearly everything. Possessing that same deceivingly sleepy disposition that Tracy McGrady made so famous, Wright lulls defenders into a false sense of security and then blows right by them.
At the rim he’s a versatile finisher, just as capable of hanging in the air for a beat longer than a defender or using pure exsplosion to beat them to the rim.
He has a variety of ball fakes in his toolbox, and his ability to change speeds in an instant usually means his defender is lucky to get away with just a foul.
The real gem of Wright’s game is his passing. At 6’5″, Wright has the luxury of being able to see over just about any opposing point guard and toss lasers all over the court, passes that smaller guards simply can’t make.
The entire Utah team takes their lead from his unselfishness and he excels at looking off defenders, often leading to layups for whichever Ute is fourtunate enough to be under the basket.
Defensively, Wright projects just a notch below elite at the NBA level. He has the size, length (6’8″ wingspan) and foot speed to comfortably match up with most NBA guards, not to mention strong enough hands to earn him the nickname “Sticky” from his old AAU coach. He’s equally adept at picking pockets and jumping passing lanes.
Wright will take risks on that end, but they usually pay off. Back in a December game against Wichita State, he gave Ron Baker (an NBA prospect himself) plenty of air space to get off a seemingly open jumper only to explode at the last second and send the ball to the rafters.
Next: Weaknesses