The Sacramento Kings traded Cory Joseph last week to the Detroit Pistons for Delon Wright. In Wright, the Kings get a guard with nice size and length. At 6’5” he can see over guys in passing lanes and he takes long strides on his drives to the basket, where he finishes with finesse. When going up against smaller point guards, he can use his handles and size to blow by defenders. Wright is better on the ball than off. He can guard decently, particularly second-string shooting guards.
For his career, he averages 7.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 45 percent from the field and 34 percent from three. In 36 games for the Pistons this season, he averaged 10.4 points, 5 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 29 minutes per game.
There are some similarities to Wright’s game to Tyrese Haliburton’s. Though he is 28 years old and doesn’t have the upside of Haliburton at this point in his career, he has similar patience to Haliburton, good instincts, sneaky athleticism and is crafty. He can dish some nice dimes, but isn’t a stellar shooter from three, unlike Haliburton. He can knock them down when his feet are set though. He really shines, however, when driving to the rim and showing off his finishing abilities.
Wright played 23 minutes off the bench Saturday night in his first game as a King and had this nice drive to the basket.
Welcome to Sacramento, Delon Wright pic.twitter.com/RejUpGIh1c
— Tony Xypteras (@TonyXypteras) March 28, 2021
He finished with 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.
It will likely take some time for Wright to get into a groove with his new team. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of his past highlights to see what the Kings could have in their new guard off the bench.
Driving to the Basket
As displayed in the video above, one of his best abilities is driving and finishing at the rim. His patience on some of these plays is impressive.
Passing/Pick and Roll/Baseline
Because of his ability to drive, he can run the pick and roll effectively, is able to pass out well and uses the baseline for extra space to find open guys (something Haliburton is good at also).
He serves as the roller here:
Beautiful use of the baseline:
Defense
He isn’t an elite defender, but is serviceable and with his length is able to get into passing lanes and block shots.
Shooting
He isn’t an elite shooter either, but is able to knock them down when his feet are set. And he has the ability to pull off nifty step backs.
It will take a little time for Wright to get incorporated into the Kings offense, but he can light it up when he gets on a roll. He has notched a handful of triple-doubles in his career. He is a much different player than Cory Joseph and fits the mold better for the type of guard to fill in for De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton off the bench.
And he’s also a bit of a Kings historian. You have to love tweets like this:
It’s an honor to wear 55! Appreciate you @55buckets for allowing me to wear this special number. JWill made it cool for guards to wear that double nickel, it’s an honor bro.
— Delon Wright (@delonwright) March 27, 2021
Welcome to Sac, Delon.
I won’t give him a hard time bc he will always be the man who replaced Joseph, but my first impression is “Why do we need a poor mans’s Haliburton when we have Haliburton?”
And any guy getting in the way of Guy getting minutes is a hindrance, unless he is really good. Wright may be pretty good, but he’s kind of slow. Where’s the burst?
I do expect him to play much better tonight after his inauspicious debut. I am more excited by Terrence Davis and think he and Guy would make a great pairing. Davis and Guy are two aggressive players who approach the game the same way.
Assuming that Wright plays with more tempo, as he gains comfort with his teammates that should happen, he will good. We saw the Joseph methodical style, that is not conducive to anything or our personnel. This is what I will be wanting to see as to whether Wright can be a plus player or not.
The other thing is we do not have time for Wright to acclimate himself in 2-3 weeks, we need him to play well now for our playoff push. I doubt the coach will effectively get this across as he lolligags around with jaded vets like Moe Harkless and once we are buried in the standings will realize he sucked from Day One.
Being a good team is not easy with Fluke at the helm!
I disagree…you can’t have too many slasher/ball handler/playmakers on your team. His D is average, but he’s long and aggressive. He is a perfect guard to come off the bench and give Fox and Halli a rest. I like him.
Yea and Haliburton-lite is not a bad thing at all. I’ll have more of that please!
The team needs 5 guys on the court, so having multiple guys who can drive, pass, and shoot is good. The thinking that we already have a guy that can do that is what got Marvin drafted over Luka :-/
Side, Kyle Guy is a feel good story and I hope he’s successful, but in no way has shown he is a reason the Kings should make any other personnel decisions.
I could have used you in yesterday’s thread Yeti. Hahaha
Wright is a useful bench player. Guy is a project with limited upside. Since the Kings refuse to rank, there is limited opportunity for a guy like Guy.
I like Guy as well but I think Wright is the better all around player at the moment. I think Guy has a really good chance to crack the rotation next year if he continues his current development, I can see him as a spark of the bench in a Lou Will/ Clarkson type. There’s also no reason why he can’t get at least 10 minutes a game but seeing how Luke mostly plays a 9-man rotation, Guy is certainly the odd man out. Would been nice if Luke extends it to a 10-man rotation and having either Guy or Jeffries be the 10th guy depending on the match ups. As mentioned on this article, Wright is much better with the ball ON his hands, so having Wright running the point and Guy as the shooting guard could work.
CoJo was awful……just awful….
Gotta say…getting that many down votes on a take that isn’t racist, sexist, homophobic etc, is pretty darn impressive.
Great article! I was hoping for a Delon Wright write up!
I see why we traded for him. He will be a great addition to help bolster our bench. I think it won’t take him too long to get the offense down.
He should have the offense down by tonight.
Luke: Hey Delon this is DeAaron Fox….give him the ball and get the hell out of the way ð
Sometimes looks like Haliburton runs the ofense when Fox is the one who acknowledges that it’s time for a break or something different
Does anyone know a website to show how many minutes he was on the floor with Hali / Fox / Both?
This can help perhaps:
PopcornMachine’s GameFlows – Cleveland Cavaliers @ Sacramento Kings – Mar 27, 2021
Great find–thanks for sharing that, Rik!
Everything super useful is named “Popcorn”. Anyone remember dialing P-O-P-C-O-R-N back in the day to get the time of day?
at the tone, pacific daylight time will be …
Great find? That’s been around for 15 years….. LOL
(I keed I keed Rik.)
ohhh…..I’m an ignorant newbie when it comes to stats websites 🙁
You woulda liked 82 games. It was quite simple.
I think it will be more like, “Get the ball to Holmes at the free throw line and get back on defense”
One more guy to feed Holmes’ push shot, I like it. Nice finishing abilities too.
Seems like a good fit with any of the guard combos we can throw out there and for a backup, his versatility may be a real plus.
Wright completes the 4-guard rotation. He’s a decent upgrade over Joseph. Heck he may carry us all the way to the 11th seed!
Wright completes the 4-guard rotation. He’s a decent upgrade over Joseph. Heck he may carry us all the way to the
11th7th seed!There…I fixed for you.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGS
i was thinking about it, and there’s a lot of fun play-in matchup possibilities. The storylines for Kings vs. GSW/Grizzlies/Mavs write themselves.
My goodness how could Luka be a franchise player if his team only makes the play-in game this season?
Bjelica with a better haircut IMO
True. I think we continue to rise in the standings though. That 7th seed is looking pretty good. I like our chances against Phoenix in the first round. Everyone else at the top…not so much. We have a slight chance with Denver, but I feel like they would ramp up their defense and shut us down.
I’m just ready to end this drought. We have a fighting chance as long as we have, ahem, “Playoff Fox” & “The Rookie”.
good write up. I think his point guard skills are needed in the bench unit now that Haliburton is starting. Double nickel.
Any word on what he brings to the locker room? Is he a locker room glue guy, i.e. shumpert?
I may not like it but I guess I need to embrace the push for the play in and if Delon is a glue guy that may give me some hope.
I don’t know, but the fact that he asked if he could wear 55 gives some insight. That was an educated and thoughtful action. His on court demeanor seemed good, just looking at body language. I’d say the early returns are promising for him being a positive locker room influence.
This is terrific content Blake, excellent work.
I like him on our team. He seems like a nice upgrade over CoJo. I am disappointed that this will mean fewer minutes for Guy, but Wright seems like the better (or at least safer) option for now. It is hard to see coach playing a promising unproven player (not named Bagley) over a veteran.
I was generally impressed with the defensive effort from the new players. The offense looked rather shaky, as one might expect. A bit of time to scrimmage should really help. I also like that the new guys played minutes with each other. If they don’t know the team and the team doesn’t know them, the may as well play together.
I think he’s the kind of player who will be able to contribuute in the postseason. patient, has the ability to go to the rim and is a bit robust on D.
I fear that this team’s style is not ideally suited for the play-offs or ins. The defenses gets more intense, the pace slows down, games get more physical and refs swallow their whistles. Wright seems like a guy who can handle that environment without missing much of a beat.
OK, but what does this have to do with Kings?
<sarcasm font>
Well Carl let me explain it to you in simpleton terms. When the Kings are 1 game back from the participation trophy round (h/t to kings pulse) the message will be “look progress, with the right moves in the draft and free agency we’ll easily make the 9th/10th seed next year”
</sarcasm font>
I am getting into the spirit of things.
why don’t you try and play
alongin?Someone in another thread wrote PIT (play in tournament)
My first thought was this
See Spackler? Even a cynical half Euro-step can do it.
I’m here for Spackler cynicism. Because I want to enjoy a postseason berth with your salty tears in my cup.
Great work, Blake!
I checked Detroit Bad Boys (pistons fansite) and they did not do this kind of video breakdown for what Cory Joseph could offer the their team. TKH rules!
They DID however, use the word KANGZ in the comments section. I wonder what the Detroit equivalent would be? “Pistanz”?
Maybe it’s PISStons
hehehe!
Probably because Cory Joseph doesn’t inspire anyone to write about him unless it’s the CoJoSlo moniker so infamous around here.
Thanks for the great write up.
Are there any stats to back up the contention that DW is an upgrade over CoJo? I certainly believe that it is true.
Advanced stats on D?
I am not worried at this point about the financial implications but is he better? I liked CoJo’s defense but did I like the effort or the result? I did not like him pounding the ball all the time. Not sure of how well he fit with Fox.
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