Draft profile: Ute Delon Wright

Draft profile: Ute Delon Wright

(Tom Smart/Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time since Andrew Bogut stormed his way to the top overall pick a decade ago, the Utah Utes will see a player selected in the NBA draft in All-American Delon Wright.

Wright is the most-decorated Ute since Bogut’s sophomore season before his selection. He was named to the All-Pac-12 team for both 2014 and 2015, as well as the Pac-12 All-Defensive team in both seasons. His senior year in 2015 also saw him collect the Bob Cousy Award, given yearly to the nation’s best point guard, as well as a consensus second-team All-American nod.

Wright never quite reached Bogut’s peak as far as national recognition; the Aussie took home consensus National Player of the Year awards in his final season at Utah. Likewise, Wright isn’t on the same level as a can’t-miss prospect, projected anywhere from the mid to late first round by most mock drafts.

But Wright has an NBA pedigree. His brother Dorrell just completed his 11th season with his fourth team, and there’s certainly potential for the younger sibling to match or even exceed big brother’s level of production.

Delon may lack a single elite-level NBA skill at this point, but his all-around versatility is likely his strongest overall attribute. There are very few areas where he’s weak on either side of the ball, and the Utes used him in different capacities. He’s a crisp and intuitive passer aided greatly by good size for the point guard position (6-foot-5), allowing him to see over most defenders and pick out passing lanes.

This sort of intuition and feel for the game is even more apparent on the opposite end where Wright is both a smart and tenacious defender. He’s big enough to check both guard positions at the NBA level, an increasingly desirable trait. He collected steals at an impressive rate for the Utes, especially given his relatively short wingspan for his size, and as one of the most fundamentally sound defenders in the country was almost never caught out of position. Defensive scheme is often a complexity younger prospects take time to grasp in the NBA, but Wright will have no issues there.

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There are concerns, most notably his jump shot. Wright’s form isn’t great, and he was inconsistent from deeper ranges at Utah. With such an emphasis on shooting in the modern league, this is his key area of focus. Plenty of guys have developed their jump shots over a few NBA seasons and become acceptable shooters, and Wright may need to be one of them to raise his ceiling beyond an NBA backup like his brother.

Another reason he’s only on the fringes of the first round for many is his age. Wright is 23 already after two years in junior college and two at Utah, one of the oldest players in the class. An NBA team will theoretically get less total NBA production over the life of his career, though this concern is often overstated for non-superstar prospects like Wright.

Some appear to be higher on him than much of the draft consensus, including whispers from team circles that Wright may be among the few yearly players who leap up into the late teens or early 20s after catching the eye of a prescient GM. The Bulls, selecting 22nd, could use a more competent backup for oft-injured Derrick Rose. The Spurs sit at No. 26 with a long history of drafting high-IQ players and molding their skills. Even the Milwaukee Bucks or Washington Wizards, both in the late teens, could use a versatile guard.

Many advanced numerical models love him, including one run by Layne Vashro that uses decades of historical data to project a player’s future NBA success. Vashro’s “Expected Wins Peak” regression model places Wright eighth overall in the 2015 class; Vashro has gone so far as to say that to his eye, if Wright is drafted in the right place and given solid playing time, he’ll be the most productive rookie in the NBA next season. His college production is eerily similar to former Ute Andre Miller, who went on to a long and successful NBA career. These models aren’t perfect, but by certain overall metrics have outperformed actual NBA general managers historically. They suggest Wright could be a steal.

He’s unlikely to be at the top of the Jazz’s board at the 12th selection, but could be a target if they trade down, something the front office is open to. The team likes high-intelligence guys and values versatility, perhaps Wright’s two strongest traits. He’d have local support from the jump, and could likely contribute on the NBA floor right away.

Whether it’s with the Jazz or elsewhere, Wright will end Utah’s decade-long drought of drafted players, and may be the first of several over the next few seasons with names like Jakob Poeltl and Brekkott Chapman in the pipeline. With the right development, he could be a notch on the belt of some smart GM in a few years time.

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