NBA Draft: 5 Late-Round Prospects The Timberwolves Should Target

Delon Wright, G, Utah

Physicals

Height (in shoes): 6’5.5″   Weight: 181 pounds   Wingspan: 6’7.5″   Standing Reach: 8’5.5″

Experience

Age: 23   Class: Senior

Draft Projections

DraftExpress: #30   NBADraft.net: #21

Potential Fit

A long, lanky and highly-skilled combo guard, Delon Wright — the younger brother of Portland Trail Blazers forward Dorell Wright — would fit handsomely alongside Zach LaVine in the Wolves potential backup backcourt.

With the way the team is currently constructed, Minnesota is best off maximizing LaVine’s exposure to the 2-guard position, while still giving him a solid dose of ball-handling responsibilities.

By pairing LaVine and Wright together, the twosome can conceivably share the ballhandling duties with one another in a combo guard setting — much like how LaVine operated with Lorenzo Brown during the latter part of the 2014-15 season, except Wright is a much more talented playmaker.

Unlike LaVine, the former Utah Ute is as crafty as they come with the ball in his hands. He is already an advanced pick-and-roll negotiator and plays with a pace and a feel for the game that belies his age and experience. In fact, he averaged 1.428 points created (scoring and assisting) per possession this past season, which ranked third in the entire NCAA, per DraftExpress.

Wright’s ability to control the tempo as well as create fruitful scoring opportunities for both himself and his teammates should theoretically complement Zach’s otherworldly athleticism, fast-twitch slashing and solid spot-up shooting perfectly.

In addition, at a smidge under 6’6″, Delon also has the size and length to defend the two.  When playing exclusively at the point, however, his height lets him survey the court, look over atop his diminutive counterparts, and pick apart opposing defenses with his elite vision — especially off the bounce and on the move.

Wright is also a terrific finisher at the collegiate level, driven in large by his herky-jerky, change-of-pace style, in conjunction with his vast array of Euro-step maneuvers when operating within the tight confines of the paint. Most notably, Delon converted on approximately 61.3 percent of his at-the-rim shot attempts this past season.

His most translatable skill, though, is most certainly his hounding brand of defense. If paired at the side of LaVine, who — to put it bluntly — is a walking turnstile at the moment, Wright can potentially mask a lot of the defensive inadequacies of his teammates. More explicitly, Wright has proven to be a highly capable defender both on and off the ball.

When defending on the ball, Wright effectively uses his length, lateral quickness, and scrappy nature to hound opposing ballhandlers — limiting opposing players to only 0.46 points per possession (PPP) on isolation plays and forcing a turnover on roughly 27 percent of said isolations.

Additionally — and perhaps most importantly — Delon possesses an innate unremitting motor to aggressively contest every shot, disrupt every pass, while actively anticipating on every help opportunity.

Not surprisingly, despite not being the most explosive athlete nor gifted with the longest wingspan, Wright still managed to average more than 2.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per 40 minutes this season.

The glaring trouble, of course, in acquiring the services of Wright will be the team’s primitive makeup.  More specifically, the Wolves will assuredly house two gruesome shooters at the point of their attack and compound their ongoing troubles in creating more 3-pointers and spacing.

Moreover, Wright will essentially be a finished product right from outset. At the age of 23, Delon is one of the oldest prospects in this year’s draft.

To mitigate his shooting woes, the Timberwolves must draft Towns and bring over Nemanja Bjelica, as the duo has the skill set to inversely generate the spacing the Wolves’ battalion of wings — namely, Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad — need to operate on the block.

Next: Tyus Jones