You're not the first person to express doubts about Brandon Wright, but basing your opinion on such vague similarities on a pick from a decade ago doesn't seem convincing.

Perhaps you could bring up some basketball reasons instead of superstition?

We've talked about Wright alot:

• He will already be able to block shots on length and leaping ability alone.
• He's got a ridiculously good touch around the basket, ambidextrious around the rim.
• Rebounding will get better once conditioning and body development get better, but he can help on the offensive glass already
• He's quick and mobile enough to be a finisher
• Besides conditioning, foul trouble will probably limit his minutes early on
• what else you got?

Questions? Complaints?

(AIM: JetForze; email: Jon.d.ma@gmail.com)

If the plan is to get Wright to "bulk up" it's a bad plan.  I cannot think of a player who became successful as a result of "bulking up" who wasn't a pretty reasonable player before "bulking up".  I suspect there may be one or two, but it's a pretty lousy plan if that's the plan. Certainly guys fill out as they get older, but overall, big guys start out as pretty big, lean guys stay pretty lean.

Wright will increase his strength as he ages, but his forte is speed and coordination.  If the plan is to have him try to muscle people in the paint, the plan isn't going to work now, probably not ever.  If the plan is for him to get shots off close in before defenses can react, to get rebounds by being quicker to the ball, then the plan has a chance to succeed.  

For what it's worth, it wasn't a lack of bulk that hurt Smith.  It was that he decided he was a jump shooting perimeter player.  His rookie season was his best.  He could rebound and score better than the average PF.  He was strong enough to be effective.  But he not only never got better by 'bulking up', he regressed, largely because he drifted to the wing and thought that scoring on jumpers would make him a better player.  It didn't. He just missed more shots and grabbed fewer rebounds.    

Smith showed the 3 point shot in college.  Wright has no perimeter game at all.  In this context, this is a good sign as there's less of a chance that Wright will decide that he's gonna live with the long range shot.

Wright's success is by no means certain, but the comparison to Smith misses target.

Wright'll be a Chris Gatling or Tyrone Hill at worst or maybe the next low-hyped Duncan-ish impact player that other teams envy and say we were so "lucky to land" years and years from now - who knows?

At this point there is not too much FACT about Wright.  All we've seen is him play against ACC competition.  Now hes going to have to go against men.

I did not watch too much ACC basketball last year.  I usually stick to the Pac-10.  So from what I saw last year from Wright is this ugly word that is so loosely thrown around, Potential.  I think Wright has Potential.  Also seeing a picture on NBA.com (sorry I couldnt get a specific picture link) just gave me a flash back to Joe Smith and now I can't shake it. Now Smith was a much more polished player coming out of college (I think he left after his junior year) but to me, judging from their physical attributes the players seem EXTREMELY similar.  Both long and lanky.  Now Bulking up is not Barry Bonds of '96 to '01.  But if you compare KG of now, to KG entering the NBA, he definitely BULKED UP.  I just remember when SMith entered the league everyone said the one thing this guy needs to do is bulk up.  Everything I read about Wright is that he needs to bulk up as well.  I know a lot of college players do need to bulk up, but these coincidences have proven too much for me to see if anyone else feels the same.

I feel that the #1 reason NBA players fail is being unable to grasp the mental game.  Joe smith was not able to mentally want to be physical and play inside.  IMO thats why he failed.  Brandon Wright (fromw hat I saw) did not have any game inside, it seemed to be mostly finishing dunks.  So i think there is a lot for him to improve on.  

So if you guys dont think Joe Smith.  Who do you compare him to?  I dont think KG is a good one.  NBAdraft.net compared him to Bosh which I think could be pretty close, altho i feel that Bosh was a better athlete coming out of Ga Tech.

So yea, he's not really like chris bosh, who had a solid offensive game coming out of college. And he's definitely not Joe smith. he's more like andris, but a little shorter and probably even faster.

Joe Smith wasn't that bad, if he had hitted the weight room, he be putting 20-10 on normal days. His second yr was his best season. 18.7 and 8 rebounds are good number by a PF.

Wright isnt Joe Smith so there is no need of comparing both of them.

But how effective he will be during the rest of the Don Nelson era, is a big question mark.  First, like a lot of 19-year olds entering the league, he is unskilled offensively.  So he'll have to get his buckets on althletic plays, and in Nellie's system, he might get some.  Second, he is terribly skinny, which means he is going to have all sorts of problems on defense and posting up on the box on offense.  Again, he'll probably only score on fastbreaks, weakside baskets and alley oops.  Defensively, despite his shot blocking potential, he will be burned so much that Nelson will have to find some creative way to play him.

All in all, I doubt he'll play much his first season.  He'll have to bulk up some to get decent on defense, so that he can stay in there long enough to block shots and ignite the fast break.  He has nothing beyond a short jump shot, so he'll have to develop an offensive game.

But the real proablem he'll have with the Warriors, is that he is a poor rebounder for a prospect.  The Warriors have enough bad rebounders as it is, so with his other faults, he'll really be struggling for playing time his first couple of years.

On another team he would start out at SF, but on the Warriors he might play center, who knows?  I don't see him having much of an early impact and I still half expect him to be traded.  But if he has any personal drive, I would guess that he will eventually find his niche in the NBA.

BW is listed at 205 lbs (probably around 200 more),

Other skinny guys.
KG is listed at 220lbs
Bosh is at 230lbs
AK47 is at 225

For contrast
Boozer is listed at 258lbs (daym!)

So this leads me to believe that even though BW is going to be a "athletic" speed type player, he's still going to need to put on at least 20
to weight as much as other the "athletic" big men in the league if the weight issue is any indication of success (very loose indicator outside of talent/skill and other factors I might add)

He is still growing into his body, and he has the frame to add some weight without losing mobility, so hit the weights Rookie!