(01-06-2020, 07:41 AM)DanSchwartzman Wrote: Cato interview with Wright. Nothing special, but it got me to thinking. We brought him on (and paid him $9.5mm) to take on a starter role here. He says he'd prefer to start and so neither the team nor the player got what they wanted.
The problem with him I see is that he is a very reluctant shooter. So if you replace THJ with Wright the offensive capability around Luka would be very low. Good teams will not just leave players wide open all the time so he could have time to shoot. Here is the difference THJ brings - he is able to shoot it with very little space. I guess Wright would be more suitable to replace DFS in the starting line-up, but he has excellent season so far and is arguably better player.
Another thing I noticed about Wright is that he is a bad lob passer - tried couple of times with Powell and failed miserably. Haven't seen him tried afterwards.
All in all, I don't think he can be more than a back up for a contender unless his offense improves. I don't think Mavs would have a problem replacing his production, so if a right opportunity comes along, I wouldn't hesitate to trade him. I doubt he has a very positive trade value - we might get more suitable back up player and that's it. Here is how much back up point guards are paid:
Atl - none!
Bos - 12,5 (Smart)
Nets - 10,6 (Dinwidie)
Cha - both PG start
Chi - rookie (Dunn)
Den - 1,5 (Morris)
Det - 7,3 (Rose)
GSW - both PG start (when healthy)
Hou - 2,1 (Rivers)
Ind - 3,5 (McConnel)
LAC - rookie (Shamet) or 8 (Williams)
LAL - 2,75 (Caruso)
Mem - 8,5 (Jones)
Mia - 19 (Dragic)
Mil - 9 (Hill)
Min - 1,8 (Napier)
Pel - both start (Ball and Jrue), next in line is min contract Jackson
NYK - rookie (Smokes)
OKC - 16 (Schroeder)
Orl - 7,25 (Augustin)
Phi - min contract
Pho - min contract
Por - rookie (Simmons)
Sac - 12 (Joseph)
Was - 6 (Smith)
Uta - 13 (Clarkson)
Tor - both PG start
SAS- rookie (White)
Cle - not relevant (contract mess with all the tanking, gazillion PG on the team)
With some exceptions, back up PG that are paid similar then Wright or more, have a much bigger role and impact on the team.