Sleeper: Julian Wright
For those of you who think Emeka Okafor will be the only new significant contributor for the New Orleans Hornets this season, think again! Joining the big man in the middle in the starting lineup will be Julian Wright. With the team in desperate need of some youthful athleticism, he is poised to have a nice breakout in 2009-10.
Julian’s first two years in the NBA were pretty uneventful as he mainly participated in garbage time. However, some of you may remember towards the end of his rookie year, he showed some glimpses of his potential. In particular, during the 4th game of the playoffs against Dallas, Julian came into the game and helped deflate the Mavericks momentum with his energy and hustle. The Hornets went on to finish off Dallas and then almost knocked off the Spurs.
Subsequently, last year, many Hornets fans expected to see Wright emerge as a major cog in the rotation. Sadly, it didn’t happen as the wrath of young player hater Byron Scott buried him on the bench. Many fans expressed their concern over the course of the 2008-09 campaign and pointed to losing young promising talent like J.R. Smith and Brandon Bass. Then, somewhat surprisingly, rumors started circulating that Wright was going to become a starter this upcoming season, and at the start of training camp, it became official:
“Right now Julian is the starting three, ” Scott said. “It’s his position to lose. He’s comfortable and he has a lot of confidence in himself. I think he knows we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Source: Nola.com
So why the sudden turn around Byron? Have a change of heart?
I seriously doubt it as I think the issue was two-fold. First, a lot of it boiled down to hard economics. The Hornets were stuck between a rock and hard place this offseason as they needed to get better but were well over the salary cap. Why else would they deal Tyson Chandler (a CP3 favorite), Rasual Butler (for a 2nd round pick) and Antonio Daniels (decent veteran backup PG)?
Second, they had just gone through a season in which the immovable Peja Stojakovic wasn’t physically 100% for the majority of the season. Consequently, the only obvious solution was to play him less minutes in order to help maintain his effectiveness.
So now the Hornets have to fill both the starting SG and SF positions. One look at the remaining roster and you’ll see why the Hornets appear to have the “wright change of heart.” Besides our sleeper candidate, they could have gone with Devin Brown (do you really need an explanation), James Posey (easily his best role is off the bench) and Morris Peterson (someone not a rookie needs to play SG). It’s no surprise why the Hornets have a ton of confidence in the youngster.
Good thing for fantasy owners is this kid has some game. Despite not having solid support his first two seasons, his career per-36 minute averages are 11.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.0 turnovers, 1.6 steals and .8 blocks. His field goal percentage is a hefty 49.4%. His FT shooting and 3 point contributions are dismal but let’s not completely write them off considering he still is young enough to improve upon them.
The biggest question will be whether the aforementioned line serves either as a baseline or a ceiling. In the past, the Hornets have made a mistake of treating Wright like a number of their other wings – a shooter with an experienced IQ. Guess what – he’s NOT that type of player.
Instead, think Gerald Wallace – a high-riser with amazing all around athleticism and excellent length (6′8”) and wingspan (7′1”). I believe that the Hornets will finally realize his strengths as they can’t bury their heads in the sand anymore. They’ll have to rely on his above the rim game with Tyson in Charlotte, his excellent rebounding numbers for a wingman and very good vision to hit a number of excellent Hornet spot up shooters. When you couple this opportunity with what many scouts consider a good work ethic, you can see why Wright has all the makings of a special sleeper.
