Revisionist History: What would we change about this NBA season?

Revisionist History: What if Brandon Wright had stayed with the Mavericks?

By: Kevin Yeung (@KevinHFY)

It’s far from the greatest injustice of the season, when the Dallas Mavericks still get to go to the playoffs and when Brandan Wright has made himself a new home with the Phoenix Suns. Even if Rajon Rondo’s edition of the team hasn’t lived up to expectations, more outrageous things have happened this season than Wright leaving the Mavs.

But we should acknowledge the rarity of such a perfect, hand-in-glove fit between player and team. Wright, a former lottery pick of the Golden State Warriors in 2008, had gone through most of his early NBA career struggling to find a role. Many players, whether lottery picks or second-rounders, go through the same motions in the league. Not everybody gets to be a superstar.

In Dallas, Wright found a home that seemed as if it were custom-made for him. Rick Carlisle employed an offense that was basically an endless stream of pick-and-rolls and kick-outs. Wright could’ve been bred to play under him! He was tall, lanky, fluid and bouncy, the perfect pick-and-roll finisher. Riding the simplest play in the entire league league, a rim roll in a spread offense, Wright had immense success polishing off bounce passes and lobs from whoever was there to throw them (over the years, Jason Kidd, Darren Collison, Jose Calderon, Vince Carter, Devin Harris and Monta Ellis).

We grew to conflate Wright with the leaderboards for True Shooting Percentage and PER for how often he’d top them. Last season, he ranked first and 13th respectively. Wright was the consistent roll man who stayed through three and a half years of the Mavs’ seemingly constant roster overturn. Until he was traded, he and Dirk Nowitzki were the only players left from when Wright initially joined the team in 2011.

Wright was on pace for new career-highs with the Mavs this season, but it didn’t last. In the summer, the team had brought back a similar rim-rusher in Tyson Chandler, who had the role before Wright during the team’s 2011 title run. Together, they briefly worked a historically great offense until December 18th, when Wright was sent to Boston in a package for Rajon Rondo. Now he’s in Phoenix, where dynamic Suns ball-handlers Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight have made for fun new friends. Things could be worse, but even still, I’ll miss watching a pair as perfect as Wright and Carlisle together.

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