Former Georgia Tech forward Moses Wright went to the NBA draft combine last week in Chicago hoping to present himself as a prospect with a future in the league.
He left, at the least, with additional invitations for pre-draft workouts, which would suggest his efforts were successful.
“I thought the combine went very well,” Wright said Tuesday after a workout with the Golden State Warriors. “I showed people what I’ve been working on and just what I do – having that high energy and high motor playing on the floor. Overall, it went well.”
Besides Golden State, Wright auditioned for Milwaukee, Memphis, New York and San Antonio. He has visits scheduled with Detroit, Dallas and Indiana.
In two scrimmages at the combine, playing a total of 49 minutes, Wright scored 22 points (10-for-18 shooting) with 10 rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists. Wright said he has tightened up his shooting stroke.
“I had a couple people from the Spurs, a couple people from Milwaukee tell me I did a great job at the combine,” Wright said. “That was good.”
His workout with the Warriors was the third he’d shared with former teammate Jose Alvarado. They were at the team’s practice facility along with four other draft prospects — Derek Culver (West Virginia), Zaccheus Darko-Kelly (Providence), Tyson Etienne (Wichita State) and Anthony Tarke (Coppin State). Of the six, Wright was the only one who was invited to the combine, and Alvarado was the sole G League camp participant.
Credit: Charles Rex Arbogast
Credit: Charles Rex Arbogast
“That’s always a positive, having somebody that you know, that’s been with you throughout your whole college, to do it with you,” Wright said. “It’s fun having him around. Just traveling to all the different places, meeting all these different people is always a good thing, too, because you’re building all these connections that are going to take you farther than what basketball can do.”
In conversations with team officials, Wright said he has been asked what he can bring to the team.
“I’ve responded, just my energy, effort, interior defense, shot blocking, rebounding,” he said. “Just all that so I can get myself into a rotation and gain everybody’s trust.”
He also has gotten used to telling teams about his story of being a swimmer and tennis player before landing on basketball in high school and coming to Tech as a lowly regarded signee, which many Tech fans can recite by memory. With a laugh, Wright said it had become repetitive.
“Everybody gets the same story from me, but it’s little details are added every time I tell the story,” he said.
When a media member covering the Warriors told him that it wouldn’t be a stretch to call him a “zero-star recruit,” Wright broke out in a laugh.
“(Josh) Pastner said that all the time,” he said.
As for the draft, Wright said he is not focused on actually making it into the two-round selection, as it doesn’t solely determine who will be in the league for the long term.
“At the end of the day, I don’t really care if my name gets called,” he said. “It’d be a great thing for everybody around me, to celebrate with me if my name does get called on draft night, but wherever I fall, if my name does get called or not, it’s just going to add on to my story.”
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