Introducing... Brandan Wright and Stephane Lasme

by Fantasy Junkie on Jul 3, 2007 10:38 AM PDT in Links Comment 28 comments

Welcome to the Bay

Yesterday, Brandan Wright and Stephane Lasme were introduced as Golden State Warriors (Belinelli was unable to attend). The two newest Warriors smiled, spoke to the media, and held their jerseys up. Typical rookie intros. The atypical situation that Brandan Wright finds himself in is the possibility that he might be on his 3rd team in the upcoming days. With all the rumors swirling about including him in a potential trade for KG, he knows he can't rest easy until the dust settles.

"Right now, I feel good about the situation. I feel like everything's in place, but if I were to be traded, it would be just one of those things, a business decision," Wright said. "When you get to the (NBA), you might have to take some hits sometimes. Like I said, it's a business as much as a game. It would be a big thing for me if I was here for five years, and had my family (living in the Bay Area) and all that type of thing, but we'll see what happens."

As far as his talents and what he can bring to the team, Wright knows his own scouting report well.

"I think I'm an athletic guy, a big guy that can run the court, use my talents and abilities to create matchup problems," Wright said. "I think I can make a lot of plays in transition, think I can block a lot of shots, get a lot of rebounds and just run the floor real well."

"I think I can really use my length to my advantage and grab rebounds that are out of my area," Wright said. "I feel like I can bring a real tough aspect to the rebounding of this team."

I remain skeptical that a 6'10", 200 pounder can bring a tough aspect to the rebounding, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He may just be wiry strong. He'll have to put on lots of muscle and bulk up. For this year, I don't expect a whole lot out of him, but given 3 years he could become something similar to Chris Bosh.

As for Stephane Lasme, like most second rounders, he'll have to prove himself to stay on the team.

Lasme may be facing an uphill battle to crack the roster as a second-round pick, but don't expect him simply to be a shot-blocking wonder based on his record-setting credentials in that department at UMass. "Everyone knows me because I blocked a lot of shots," Lasme said. "I can rebound, and I hope that coach likes that about me, and hopefully along the way they're going to see some other stuff that I can do well. There are a lot of things that I can do."

I like the fact that he can block shots and rebound, but I'm skeptical about what a guy 6'8" can do in the paint. I know there have been some undersized guys who have done well, but the majority of players in the post are a couple inches taller. If he can run the floor and shoot a little bit, he'll make the team. But I don't expect much from him this year, maybe 5 minutes per game. I'm hoping for more.

Welcome to the team guys, for now.

I'll go out on a limb here and make a prediction. Either Andris Biedrins or Brandan Wright or both will not be a Warrior by the time the season starts. In order for Nelson to come back, he'll want another star player on the roster. The current set of players is not a lock for the playoffs and is definitely a roster geared towards the future. Why Nelson would come back with the current roster is beyond me. At this stage in his career he doesn't want to develop players, he wants to win, now. So, assuming that Mullin, Cohan, Rowell, etc want Nelson back, a trade must be made, most likely by the end of July. In order to land a significant player, the Warriors will have to give up one or both of those players. So Brandan, don't unpack all your bags yet.

What do you think? Will Brandan Wright still be with the team by start of the season? How about the trading deadline?

0 recs | Comment 28 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Decent Lasme comparison...

Jason Maxiel from the Pistons. He's like...6'6 but powerful, plays with energy, cracked their rotation even while blocking some shots, picking up some steals, and boarding.

I don't think it's too unrealistic to see him show us these things in the summer and make the team as frontcourt depth.

Still bitter about Dominic McGuire...gr...

by OptionZero on Jul 3, 2007 10:44 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Good point

I see the comparison, but Maxiel -- who definitely CAN play -- is a lot thicker than Lasme; more in the Wes Unseld mold. Still, guys who rebound in college can usually find a way to rebound in the NBA, so long as they can take the hitting down low. It'll be fun to watch what he does in Vegas.

by johnl on Jul 3, 2007 12:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

josh smith

is who i project. does lasme have sick hops?

by eshock on Jul 3, 2007 2:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm

hoping this guy ends up a steal like Paul Milsap was. We all know what he did to us in the playoffs.

by J Rich 4 MVP on Jul 3, 2007 11:07 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Haven't seen Lasme play

but the two players mentioned in this thread have 20-30 pounds on him so I wouldn't expect a Maxiel or Milsap. Is a poor-man's G. Wallace more reasonable?

by BingBluNT on Jul 3, 2007 11:21 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

you could

make a case for a poor man's ben wallace, but gerald is an athletic swingman, lasme is a big man.

by travisl212 on Jul 3, 2007 4:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haven't decided yet

I totally understand the idea that Nellie is on the fence and may not come back unless we get another big name like KG; he's looking to win now in the last few years of coaching he has left in him. And I have read multiple times how enamored Mullin has been with KG for years, but I just get this feeling Wright isn't going anywhere. I have nothing to go on but my gut, but it's telling me he will be a Warrior. Trading him for KG would ease the pain the fan base is feeling from the loss of JRich, but if Wright turns out to be the next Bosh (great hopeful comparison Junkie, I was thinking the same thing) then all will be forgiven. As for Lasme, he will get his shot in the SL, but I doubt he will be involved in any trade scenarios. And can he be? I thought second rounders did not get guaranteed contracts, so he technically would have no salary value, making him impossible to trade unless he were actually signed. Am I correct on this? Greater minds on this site, help me out here.

by Tony Stark on Jul 3, 2007 11:32 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

wright

i really think he can be like Shawn Marion in transition. of course he doesn't have the shooting ability and nowhere near the polished 2 on 2 game that Marion has, but i really think wright can be a monster running the floor. i did not watch him as closely as i should have at UNC, but does anyone know what type of foot speed this kid has? could he possibly guard some bigger 3's and bother them with him with his length? if he is the type of player we could use to guard the 3,4, 5 positions, then wow. but that is probably just a pipe dream. he seemed to play close to the basket every time i watched him, but man if he has the foot speed we may have found ourselves an AK-47 defensive type (AK-47 in the 5 games against us, not the rest of the 91 games the jazz played).

Bosh is a good comparison, but i am trying to envision Wright in Nellieball.

by Nellieball on Jul 3, 2007 11:45 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

the dude

is nothing like marion. why are poeple comparing bigmen to swingmen. as of right now he is a poor man's bosh, maybe even a poor man's dwight howard, but he is getting better. yes he can run and is athletic, but he's not gonna play anything like a swingman.

by travisl212 on Jul 3, 2007 4:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dwight Howard

Is a man child who came in with the body of a 25 year old. Wright is more like Bosh because both of them were/are tall, stick-thin big men, with large wingspans. Unfortunately, Wright does not have any sort of jumpshot or killer spin moves yet. Hopefully he at least has passion like Bosh though.

by Mdawg851 on Jul 3, 2007 5:44 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

you didn't get what i was saying

i was saying the dude is not a swingman. and i didn't say he was chris bosh or dwight howard, i said "poor man's" indicating that overall they are not as good as or they are lacking something that the person they are being compared to has.

by travisl212 on Jul 3, 2007 11:13 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wright in college

I'm a UNC alum and watched them every opportunity I could, which meant about 15 games. Wright is a stellar athlete with amazing footspeed. He committed to UNC and said he made the decision because Carolina's offense (an up-tempo secondary break) would allow him to use his speed in the open court. It did.

He'll be faster than most big men, much faster in many cases. He's got great footwork so he's rarely left behind following his man. He's got great hands so he didn't pick up fouls. I believe he had more blocks than fouls, which is usually tough to do. To protect Hansbrough from foul trouble, Wright often drew the tougher inside assignment because Hansbrough is a much more polished player on offense and the team needed him in the game. Hansbrough was more prone to fouling on D, hence the match-ups. I suspect that he'll be able to guard many 4's and 5's if guards are properly harassing their men such that a point guard can't wait for a hulking giant to back Wright down. If the other team is successful in slowing the pace, he may have problems. But he's quick enough to make switches on most NBA 3's and will be able to come weak-side to challenge shots.

He's not a polished offensive player. He may never be one, but he's consistent in that he doesn't force shots. Ever. In the whole season, he made at least half of his shots in all but 3 games, IIRC. That's a testament to him following his coaching, but also a testament to his judgment, and soft touch near the rim. (If it was easy for a guy to hit 60+% from the field just by sticking to dunks and layups, why is it that only the tiniest fraction of players ever do this?)

I'm not sure if the notion that he 'lacked desire' has merit or not. His scoring went up and down but he was also a freshman in a system where he wasn't going to be the guy fed in the post every time. Game flow in that system will mean sometimes his scoring is going to fall. He has a particular look on his face most of the time that gets interpreted as not caring, whether or not it's true. It could just be the shape of his face. Robert Parrish had a similar laconic expression and in his Warrior days was widely criticized, probably in error, for not caring because of that.

I also don't know if Bosh is the best comparison. Similar build, but Bosh was both a better scorer and better rebounder in college. Bosh has more range (but I don't know if that matters as much as many think in terms of effectively adding to your team's ability to win), but Wright was never supposed to shoot from further out, so he could possibly surprise. And Bosh was a soloist getting rebounds. Wright shared the post with Hansbrough and had a team with enough depth to keep his minutes lower. I think Wright is faster than Bosh and it wouldn't surprise me if he's as good a rebounder in the pros.

I'd suspect that Bosh is overall better, because it's the safe bet, but Wright has a chance to be very, very good.

[The scholarship spot he took was apparently offered to Durant and Hawes and Wright first. Durant declared for TX early, Hawes stayed at home at U-Dub. Roy then apparently extended the offer to Thaddeus Young on a first-come-first gets it offer to see if Wright was interested. Wright snapped it up. All four were one-and-done as it turned out.]

by jae on Jul 4, 2007 5:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

perspective matters

good to hear from someone who watched him play vs multiple types of opponents over the whole season and knew a bit about who else was being recruited at that spot and how he was utilized

by hardcore on Jul 4, 2007 6:18 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nellie put together this team.....

i'm sure it was more of his descission to ship out JRich for a player like Wright and to get Belinelli, that was the first step to have him stay.

by DK510 on Jul 3, 2007 12:13 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed...

Here is Nelli's comment that was in today's Examiner:

"I like guys who are lean and mean but this guy is ridiculous," coach Don Nelson said. "He was one of my favorite guys in the draft. ... The potential is unlimited. I don't know how ready he'll be. He has work to do. He's really good at a lot of things already. As he matures and fills out a little bit he could make a really big impact."

by faithndraft on Jul 3, 2007 12:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Trade him

Trade Andris... I know imma get a bunch of poopoo on my head for this one but really trade AB and keep Wright i think wright has more potential, plus hes a better offensive player than AB

by gizardwizzlizard on Jul 3, 2007 12:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

HMM

Certain defensive dominance>>>Offensive Potential

by yehyeh82 on Jul 3, 2007 1:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Our system

Is built for depth and stamina. If we trade half our team away for KG, we'll need a whole different system. I've heard Nellie say that he would build around a big man if he had one, but I think that would hurt us in chemistry and getting used to. Everyone loves the run and gun, and if you trade away our depth and then switch to a slow half-court style then we'll probably be worse than before.

Don't get me wrong...KG is great, but he's not worth trading away half our team since we'd change our style of play. Also KG and Baron are in their 30s and don't have the legs they used to have. You take away our depth and we'll have two beat up and tired superstars going into the playoffs.

by Mdawg851 on Jul 3, 2007 2:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Depth is overrated

How deep is San Antonio?

I see your point, but you can't really make it without specifics. You wouldn't trade away half the team? What if it's the crappy half? We wouldn't be obligated to morph into a half-court team: KG's versatile enough to play any style of game.

Also: Baron's 28, and last I checked, was already on our roster. KG's 31, same age as Duncan.

by Sleepy Freud on Jul 3, 2007 4:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Specifics

I don't know what your obsession with specifics are, but I was assuming we all know the very least of who has to go in the KG trade(Monta, Wright, Foyle(salary purposes)), and then we'd then include one of our other starters in Harrington or AB. There's the specifics you want, and there's no way in hell would Baron finish the whole season playing our style of basketball and have energy left in the playoffs without depth at the guard spots.

San Antonio isn't deep? Lets look at why they don't need to be deep first of all:

THEY ARE A DEFENSIVE MINDED TEAM and run a post-up offense with Tim Duncan, and have Parker and Ginobli that slash. They don't need depth because they can actually slow down the game, they have great team defense, and they have tons of veterans or older players rather than rookies, so they don't need to be taken out for silly mistakes(Monta, Pietrus, rest of our bench in the playoffs).

Look at the salary distribution, and you tell me why they are winning...hmmmm...maybe it's because Tim Duncan is the most fundamentally sound player in the NBA, and they have sharp shooting veterans like Horry, Barry, Finley, all getting paid squat cause they want rings. Not to mention Bowen getting paid 3mil for winning defensive player of the year 2 years ago, and is still known as a beast on D.

That's why the Warriors are not the Spurs because:
A) We don't have a dominant low-post threat to throw it into
B) All our role players are paid more than the Spurs role palyers
C) We play weak defense and just try to steal the ball to outscore our opponent
D) We settle for jump shots rather than slashing to the rim and hit free throws
E) WE ARE HORRIBLE AT FREE THROW SHOOTING

There's your specifics why we cannot trade for KG unless we change the system first, because we do not play like the Spurs/nor will if we got KG, thus meaning Baron's knee will fall off from playing 40 min/game for 60 games of the season. Keep the depth, extend Monta and AB, resign Barnes, and if we have anything left, use the MLE and get a player that only plays defense and crashes the boards. Problem solved.

by Mdawg851 on Jul 3, 2007 5:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Obsession with specifics

Um, no. I just wanted to know what you meant by "half the team." There's a big difference between, say, a package of AB/Wright/Harrington/Monta and a package of Wright/Monta/Cabbages/Foyle. Most people on this site would support the latter but not the former. It's in between where it gets interesting -- hence the request for specifics.

Your other points are true enough, but really neither here nor there, since (a) they have very little to do with what I wrote; and (b) Mullie/Nelson seem to have made up their minds to go after Kevin Garnett. Your pounding on your CAPS LOCK key and ending your post with "problem solved" doesn't make you any more likely to dissuade them.

by Sleepy Freud on Jul 3, 2007 9:00 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Our system was predicated upon

the talents at hand - Nelson used what he had available. As you say he would build around a big man if given the opportunity. The success we had after the trade last year speaks to the fact that teams can benefit from changing the chemistry, they can get used to playing together. Remember too that Nelson only used 6-7-8 guys in the games that really mattered; depth is huge for 82 games, but in the playoffs less important.

Maybe we need to look at the KG question another way. If we subtracted AB, JRich, Monta and Harrington and add KG to last year's playoff push would we have beaten Dallas and Utah and gone on to the Western Finals? I think so. We beat Dallas thanks in large part to the defense on Dirk, and lost to Utah in large part due to the lack of stopping Utah inside. Lots of other factors too, to be sure. But San Antonio barely got past Phx, and with KG aboard Duncan is not the same threat.

Why did I subtract AB, JRich, Monta, and Harrington? AB, Monta, and Harrington could be part of a KG trade, as could Wright, who we got for JRich (forget about the trade exemption for the moment). In fact, not all four of them would go in any KG trade but even if they did, we'd be closer to a championship than now.

Once KG gets traded to another team, or re-ups with Minnesota, or somebody here convinces me that he's not the best possible horse to hitch our wagon to enroute to a championship team I'll shut up and go along with the youth movement.

by hardcore on Jul 4, 2007 12:12 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

the great thing

about having a 10 million dollar trade exception is that it allows the team to take some time before making a move (since it expires in a year). SEveral articles have pointed out how the greatest thing we got from the trade is flexibility. We are not forced to make a move now. We can wait to see how Wright turns how, how much Biedrins has improved, see if POB wants to step it up (can you imagine have 3 first round big men in their early 20's acheiveing their full potential on the same team?) and the second rounder as well. We can see if KG really is slowing down like they say he is. and then we can act accordingly.

so right now i say there's a very strong chance wright will be on our starting roster for 07 08.

can't wait btw.

by dso on Jul 3, 2007 4:00 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

great points

about the three top 10 picked young big men. even if POB doesn't work out, we know andris is a stud and wright will be a stud. twin towers right there. monta as a star scoring combo gaurd, PLEASE if they could get gerald wallace who is a freak of an athlete, young, defensive minded, strong, versatile swingmen... that could be our future. maybe they will get a lot better and we will still have baron and he will still be dominant, idk.

by travisl212 on Jul 3, 2007 4:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

the more i think about it

the less I actually want kg. if we get him, on paper, we would have oen of the most talented teams in the league. yet, we would have almost no depth. is it financially possible to get artest through a s&t with barnes or pietrus? if it would be it would allow barnes or pietrus to get more money than they previously would have, and it would allow them to stay in nor cal (if they would want to). artest would fit in perfectly with davis and jackson who i like to refer to as "the ticking timebombs." After, I say we go all-out for josh smith or gerlad wallace.

davis/ellis
artest/bellinelli/azubuike
jackson/harrington
wallace/wright
biedrins/foyle

now I do not know if that is financially possible, but not only is the SL better than last year, imo, but it is signifigantly deeper. we keep all of the promishing young players, and add 2 potentially game-breaking vets.

we will miss your j rich

by ripjrich on Jul 3, 2007 5:52 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

no kg

eww yuck...have you seen his contract? pass.

Warriors, Stupidest franchise in the league.

by kenntoe on Jul 3, 2007 6:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

i was more intrigued by lasme

before i found out he will already be 25 in december.. same age as pietrus.

by the evil monkey on Jul 3, 2007 6:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

slow down a sec...

many posts before me have compared brandan wright to some of the leagues best players (bosh, marion, etc...). the dude is a solid college player who can run some. i watched most of north carolinas games and he can definately ball but there are some holes in his game, namely he can get run over by anyone his size or bigger. i think the more apt previously mentioned comparoson is AK-47. hes long n lankey and plays like AK.

i say if the opportunity presents itself, trade him n AB for garnett. KG is a monster!!! he dominates everyone he plays against....remember the lakers won three sraight titles with shaq, kobe n role players (barron, kg and the dubs are a valid comparason)

by RC650 on Jul 3, 2007 7:55 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs