Tony Wroten

by A.J. Coltrane

“Tony Wroten” refers to Husky freshman guard Tony Wroten. He was a highly rated recruit, and some people are very high on him so far [ESPN Insider Link]:

A number of NBA scouts and GMs now feel like Washington’s Tony Wroten(Rank: 19) might be the best NBA point guard prospect in college basketball…

and

..But Wroten is the real deal. He’s tall, has eyes in the back of his head, can get to the basket at will and, when he’s focused, he can take over a game. His second-half performance against Duke on Saturday was, at times, special. He’s still wild and tries to do too much, but it’s rare to find a player with his size doing the things he does. Said one top NBA scout, “He’s the second coming of Gary Payton.”

Emphasis mine.

The last sentence is what really got my attention.. I watched the Duke and Missouri games, and I know Wroten came in highly regarded, but still, my eyes weren’t telling me THAT. He seems like a nice young guard who’s still figuring it out. I haven’t seen “future Hall of Famer”.

Think about what Payton was — a great defensive player with good size and court vision. He was also a marginal shooter coming out of college and his shot never really developed much beyond “solid”.

The Gary Payton comment prompted me to look around a little further, and here’s a second opinion by David Thorpe (also Insider), following the Missouri/UW game:

Wroten looked for the spectacular play almost every possession rather than the easy one…

He has a terrific feel for slithering to the rim for buckets. Wroten has no idea how to play basketball, but has a great idea how to score and see the floor. Once he learns to read and think the game, his talent can grow to enormous heights…

He was not inclined to do much on defense in this game and missed some opportunities to get back on defense. I would have liked to see him handle that better…

However, he is a poor free throw shooter thanks to rushing his way through the shot as if a defender is about to come guard him.

Does that sound like Gary Payton? I’d point the phrases “no idea how to play basketball” and “not inclined to do much on defense”… One thing about Gary is that he worked hard, all the time, especially on defense… He was also really savvy and had a high basketball IQ.

Here’s the ESPN draft report card:

Wroten is even bigger than Payton was — Wroten is listed at 6’5″, 205 lbs. If he can get rid of the “reckless” then maybe he’s a point guard at the NBA level, otherwise he’ll be a tweener combo guard.

Which is useful, but it’s not Gary Payton.

At the college level though.. he could be *very* effective.