I don’t think I’ve ever heard Steve Buckhantz, the Wizards play-by-play guy, get as excited about anyone as has about Thomas Bryant. Maybe he has in the past, before I started watching Wizards games, but not recently. Is he really so starved for an honest basketball player who just goes out and plays hard that he’s willing to get attached to a marginal talent like Bryant? John Wall must’ve done a number on him.
But now Wall is gone forever, and he can’t hurt anybody anymore. Bryant certainly doesn’t need him. He scored 31 without him, and now he’s scored 21 without him. All he needs is Tomas Satoransky feeding him easy dunks. That part stays the same. Wall or no, he’s not going to create his own shot very often.
And that’s okay. Dwight Howard (what even happened to him) was a good theoretical fit for the ‘Zards, but he had the bad habit of trying to make stuff happen for himself too often. Bryant doesn’t need that to play hard. He doesn’t sulk if he doesn’t get post touches that result in a bricked hook. He just runs up and down the court doing whatever he can do to affect the game.
Damn, now I’m sounding excited about him to. Maybe Buckhantz is right to be excited for him.