Joseph Treutlein
The third leading scorer on a very successful Hoyas team, Chris Wright is returning to school as a senior after steadily improving his game in each of his first three years on campus. Now he will look to make a case for himself in the NBA draft, where his attacking style and aggressive defense will be his strongest selling points.
Standing 6'1 with a very well built frame and very good athleticism, Wright has great physical tools for a point guard and he's not shy about putting those tools to use, constantly throwing his body around on both ends of the floor and playing the game with a tenacious motor. He has a quick first step, the agility to change directions off the dribble, great upper body strength, and a pretty good vertical as well.
On the offensive end, Wright actually does most of his damage in transition, having very good end-to-end speed with the ball and creating a lot of opportunities to push the ball with his work on the defensive end. He shows great body control in the lane and has no problem drawing or finishing through contact, while he also shows the vision to dish the ball off when his lane closes.
In the halfcourt, Wright unsurprisingly gets most of his offense spotting up or making cuts off the ball in Georgetown's Princeton Offense, something that plays well to his scoring strengths. In the lane, he shows a very nice right-handed floater to complement his ability to get to the free-throw line, though he does have trouble finishing over weakside help when going all the way to the rim at times.
Attacking the basket out of isolations, Wright isn't as strong as when someone else is setting him up, not being the type of player to consistently create in one-on-one situations. While he will incorporate occasional spin moves or make subtle changes of direction with the ball in the lane, he mostly relies on his strong first step getting separation from his man.
Wright complements his attacking game with a pretty good three-point shot, being excellent from range when open but struggling heavily when contested. He has a smooth motion with a high and quick release, and he even shows nice flashes pulling up off the dribble when he gets necessary space, but he shows major problems when he has a hand in his face with his accuracy falling off considerably.
As a point guard is where Wright has the most question marks projecting to the NBA, though not because he's inadequate at the college level. Wright actually does a good job in his role at Georgetown, not being a selfish player, displaying good court vision and passing ability, and finding a good balance of scoring and passing in Georgetown's offensive system, but unfortunately their Princeton Offense takes the ball out of his hands frequently and many times his role is closer to a shooting guard than point guard.
While Wright shows good court vision finding open shooters and hitting cutters in the lane, while also looking pretty proficient in the rare situations he gets to run a pick-and-roll, there are little opportunities to assess him creating for others off the dribble on drive-and-dishes, something that's partly due to the offense and partly due to his own limitations.
While there are questions about how he will adjust to a different role on the offensive end if he makes it to the NBA, the same can't be said on defense, where Wright shows excellent physical tools, fundamentals, and a non-stop motor. Physical and aggressive in isolations with great lateral quickness to go along with it, Wright projects very well on the defensive end. He brings a complete game to the table on this end of the floor as well, doing a great job fighting through screens on pick-and-rolls and being very dangerous picking pockets both in man-to-man and crashing passing lanes.
Wright is clearly an excellent college player and there aren't many questions about his physical tools either, but role will be his biggest concern projecting to the NBA as it's unseen if he can be a full-time point guard and there aren't many niche teams where his off-the-ball tendencies would seamlessly fit in. Also, players in those roles tend to be great shooters as opposed to pretty good shooters, so Wright would help himself considerably if he takes his shooting game to the next level this season, and his draft stock may depend on it, as his situation likely won't allow him to show similar strides with his floor general abilities.
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