No Surprise – Brandan Wright to the NBA

General NCS Basketball101

It isn’t a big surprise…but, it is welcome news for NC State and the rest of the ACC. (Link)

North Carolina freshman forward Brandan Wright will announce he is declaring for the NBA Draft on Monday afternoon at a 4 p.m. ET news conference, according to his former summer coach.

With Wright, the Tarheels were undoubtedly projected as the #1 team in America going into next season. Even without Wright, the Tarheels will sit atop many polls to start the season as their core star power of Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough will have PLENTY of experienced support with Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, Danny Green, Alex Stepheson, Quentin Thomas and Deon Thompson.

If the Tarheels project an obvious hole in their roster next year then it is the role that Reyshawn Terry played this year — a true versatile wing at the 3F spot who can create and shoot with ample effectiveness from the outside.

With all of this returning talent, expect Roy Williams to hold on to the scholarship for the 2008 recruiting year. Carolina is already being mentioned on the top of the list for MANY of the Top 25 players in the country in 2008.

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General NCS Basketball

101 Responses to No Surprise – Brandan Wright to the NBA

  1. chris92heel 04/23/2007 at 5:05 PM #

    “Next year Brandon wouldn’t have been the least important of the three. He was the least important last year because he was a freshman and took less shots than Hansbrough. That would have changed this year as he would have surpassed Hansbrough in terms of importance. ”
    LOL. He was going to displace the all-american?

    “For UNC, all three were replaceable. They have experienced guys at each of these positions to step into their roles if anyone did leave early.”
    No, they really aren’t. There isn’t a player on the roster in Tywon’s league as a PG. The team is different when he’s playing. Bobby is a solid PG, Quizzle has his moments, but Tywon is just in another league.

  2. chris92heel 04/23/2007 at 5:06 PM #

    “Most people saw a team that when the half court game wasn’t clicking lobbed a ball up somewhere about 12 1/2 feet in the air to a freakish condor of a man. It looked like shades of Alcinder playing Woodens high/low game. I thought it was very impressive and if you think there not going to miss that luxury then your kidding yourself.”

    Where did I say that we wouldn’t miss him?

  3. packpigskinfan23 04/23/2007 at 5:24 PM #

    Wright was overrated in his role at UNC in my opinion. I dont doubt he is extremly talented, but it always seemed like he wasnt utilized for ANYTHING offensivly other than get a rebound and dunk it. Can the kid shoot? have we ever seen him shoot?!?!

    I think it also needs to be noted that he did not hire an agent. He very well could be in sky-blue next year in Chapel Hill if he dosnt go at least 3rd or 4th…

  4. chilly water 04/23/2007 at 5:53 PM #

    tywon lawson is a nappy haired ho….and hardcore ho, i forgot to mention hardcore ho, because he is

  5. PurplePeopleEaters 04/23/2007 at 6:53 PM #

    So let’s see here…

    Lawson
    Ellington
    Green
    Thompson
    Hansbrough

    bench
    Frasor
    Ginyard
    Stepheson
    Thomas

    vs.
    Degand
    Fells
    Grant
    Costner
    McCauley

    bench-
    Hickson
    Horner
    Gonzalez
    Smith
    Thomas
    Johnson

    I seriously think we have the better team for the first time in a while. It’s a close matchup (they have a better backcourt, we have a better frontcourt).. It’ll be interesting, especially with sid already having a year under his belt. I see these two as the 1 and 2 in the ACC next year.

  6. blpack 04/23/2007 at 7:21 PM #

    The gap is closing and Sidney just needs to keep bringing in talent. 3 solid teams in the Triangle next season. I wouldn’t bet against the Pack being the best one by season’s end.

  7. theHowling 04/23/2007 at 8:23 PM #

    “Quizzle”

    made me laugh…

  8. Mr O 04/23/2007 at 8:39 PM #

    An all-american who wouldn’t go in the top 10 or a top 5 NBA pick?

  9. brickman 04/23/2007 at 8:52 PM #

    what i like about it they have no def. around the basket now !come on handjob playing def. what a joke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . and by the way he was the best all around guy they had .. they try to make hand job the great one and if i was bw i would have left that choke of a coach .for not using him . even billy packer knew that and we know how much of a da he is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  10. PurplePeopleEaters 04/23/2007 at 9:32 PM #

    UNC fans greatly underestimate the departures of Terry, Miller, and Wright with no one coming in. I’m not saying they won’t be good but I really believe that they are going to be worse next year. It only makes sense unless all of their players improve A LOT.

  11. choppack1 04/23/2007 at 10:09 PM #

    PPE – You know, 2 years ago I thought they’d probably suck, but they turned out to be pretty decent. If that was the case then, I believe they’ll be pretty durn good next year…They’ll still be deep, tall, fast and talented.

  12. El Scrotcho 04/23/2007 at 10:19 PM #

    It would be a mistake to discount the enormous mismatch he provided, but I wouldn’t be surprised if UNC is better next year just by virtue of the obscene amount of talent on the club. There’s a lot of talent there to take up the slack he’s going to leave. If Ellington becomes the player everyone is saying he is, they will be scary good. Would they be better with Wright? Hell yes, practically unbeatable.

  13. chris92heel 04/23/2007 at 10:58 PM #

    Mr. O,

    1 – pro game vs college
    2 – the nba drafts on potential.

  14. brickman 04/23/2007 at 11:56 PM #

    c92heel , handjob scores points and gets rebounds but you have to play def. to .handjob trys that mess in nba and he will be sent packing he will not be able to stand around basket and pump and pump .if your so called man was able to pass to a open man the holes would have been hard to handle . and by the way no one and i mean no one can change the shot for the other team like bw did .

  15. PackHooligan 04/24/2007 at 7:55 AM #

    I have to agree with Chris here. Wright would have gotten an expanded offensive role this year, but they have other guys who can make up for that scoring (I personally think Thompson is going to be a very good player). The areas where they will miss wright the most are offensive rebounding and defense, both places the heels were very good at last year. The heels just have so many talented big guys that I think the loss of Lawson would have been the biggest. The difference between him and Frasor is significant, and it was getting larger by the game last season. I just hope one of our guards can stay in front of lawson next year.

  16. packpigskinfan23 04/24/2007 at 8:05 AM #

    I think Hansborough knows hes not not going to be successful in the NBA. He is not Shaq’s size, yet he plays just like him. In the NBA he is gonna get tossed around and beat up 82+ times a year.

  17. noah 04/24/2007 at 8:23 AM #

    Hansborough is a 6-7 power forward with average athleticism. He’ll have a nice college career and play 10 years in Europe.

    There are worse fates that he could have.

    As far as the Holes next year…I think they’ll probably end up being a top-five team all year long. They still have obscene talent.

  18. BoKnowsNCS71 04/24/2007 at 8:36 AM #

    An article about Wright and then an article about Jordan. WTF. Am I on SFN or THFN? 😉

  19. westwolf 04/24/2007 at 9:09 AM #

    No…Wright was the one guy on their team that really created a physical mismatch, not for for us but for others as well. He was one of those guys that, because of his height and length, when he would get the ball at certain spots near the hoop there was not much a defense could do to stop him. They have no one else on the roster like that.

    Hansborough is very strong but he can be stopped. The rest are just very talented players…but no one who is unstoppable.

    We split last year with them when we had to use walk-ons…why wouldn’t we do at least as well next year when they lose a McDAA, 3rd pick in the NBA, and we add a McD AA among others?

  20. CedarGroveWolf 04/24/2007 at 9:27 AM #

    Hansbrough will be like Hodge, great college player, little NBA career. Hansbrough isn’t staying because he loves unc so much, he knows he won’t be a lottery pick now & doubtful later. He’s trying to get a jumper to get a team to pick him in the 1st round.

  21. choppack1 04/24/2007 at 10:31 AM #

    It will be interesting to see if the conference teams have gone to school on how to defend Hansbrough and if they’ll be allowed to do it. Michigan State, USC and Georgetown had some success in getting him farther away from the basket and he was forcing shots up from 10-15 feet. He’s much less effective there. Sadly, I think the refs will allow him to dictate the terms of his own success…

  22. Mike 04/24/2007 at 11:03 AM #

    Here’s one for you Cedar. Hodge was considered by many one of the top HS players in the country. I remember reading in SI that Hodge was the HS player of the year. If he was so good coming out of HS, what happened and why is he struggling in the NBA or DNBA? The coaching was superb at the collegiate level……….

  23. chris92heel 04/24/2007 at 11:05 AM #

    I’d love for ACC teams to guard Tyler like MSU and GTown did.

    He only had 59 pts and 20 boards in those two games. ;>

  24. BoKnowsNCS71 04/24/2007 at 11:47 AM #

    Mike — Have to wonder if a couple of drive by bullets put wrinkle in his development and ability to recover.

  25. Mike 04/24/2007 at 11:54 AM #

    A couple bullets certanly did not help, but Hodge was already demoted at that stage. My point was he should have developed more in his time at NCSU, a subtle dig at HWSNBN that was probably uncalled for but I could not resist.

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