Free Agency: 5 Bargain Power Forwards for Orlando Magic
Brandan Wright is the only guy of these five options that offers rim protection.
Per-36, he has blocked 2.2 shots during his career, and in the 2015 season with Dallas, he averaged three blocks per-36.
Wright is also capable of putting the ball in the bucket. He averaged 11.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per-36 while shooting an outstanding 58 percent from the floor. For his career, he is shooting 60.6 percent from the field.
Wright is also about to enter his prime at age 27. The Magic could obtain Wright for about half the money they paid Channing Frye last season, as Wright was paid just $5 million last season.
Wright has been a lottery bust thus far. He was taken No. 8 overall in the 2007 draft, but he was never able to add bulk to his body (he is 6-foot-9 and a rail-thin 205 pounds), and he failed to develop his game much beyond dunks. Wright took 51 percent of his shots last year from within three feet, and he took 87 percent of them from 10 feet and in.
So, the Magic would sacrifice floor spacing with Wright on the court, but it would be made up for in having a guy that can run the court and finish hard on breaks.
At his absolute best in his career, he has looked like the lottery pick he once was (let’s hope we are not making this same statement about Aaron Gordon beyond next season).
What is really interesting though? His season-best win share is about the same as Channing Frye’s. And again, he comes at half the price and is entering his prime.
This seems like a winning situation, even if he does not become much more than the middling talent he has been thus far.
Of the five options in this slideshow, Wright is the one guy who still has potential to become a very good player. It is hard to say in light of how mediocre he has been thus far, but sometimes it is just all about being in the right place at the right time.
He has not been on a sustained basis. Maybe he could form some consistency in a Magic uniform.