Washington Wizards recently signed relatively unknown forward, Johnny O’Bryant. Ti Windisch provided analysis on the new acquisition.
I didn’t believe in the concept of having friends on the internet – digital pals, if you will. The notion that you could become buds with someone whom you’ve never interacted with in reality – or at least in the flesh – is somewhat bizarre.
Ti Windisch changed my mind.
The Rubberband Man, as I call him, is one of the main voices of FanSided’s Milwaukee Bucks site, Behind the Buck Pass.
As the worst guest to appear on his podcast, Timeout With Ti, I’ve gotten to know him a bit. For some odd reason, he continues to have me back on his show. For that, I’m thankful.
So, when news broke that the Washington Wizards were going to sign Johnny O’Bryant on Saturday, I had to contact Ti to get some insight.
Unless you’re a Bucks fan or live in a basement filled with shelves stacked with videos on obscure NBA players, you likely haven’t even been aware of O’Bryant’s existence.
Given that most aren’t familiar with the former Bucks’ big man, Ti was kind enough to enlighten us by answering four questions.
1) JOB, as you called him, averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds per game last year in Milwaukee. He shot an underwhelming 41 percent from the field too. I know these basic stats don’t tell the whole story, but how did JOB manage to get another job?
The real question here, Ben, is why didn’t Johnny O’Bryant get another job sooner? Or even, why was JOB cut in the first place? To that end, here is the best workout video you, I, or anybody else has ever seen:
In all seriousness, JOB is really good at two things. He hustles hard, and he almost always makes the smart play.
For O’Bryant, the smart play typically is not to shoot the basketball.
That may sound harsh, but JOB understands that he’s probably the fifth option on offense almost all the time he’s on an NBA floor.
O’Bryant averaged just 1.3 turnovers per-36 minutes last season, less than all Bucks aside from Rashad Vaughn, who was too busy missing shots to turn the ball over.
Even with a low field goal percentage that largely stems from O’Bryant’s inability to score around the rim, he still added 0.3 wins to Milwaukee last season. That’s not a great mark, but it’s better than seven other Bucks, including veterans like O.J. Mayo and Greivis Vasquez.
In short, JOB is the ideal ninth or tenth man. He’s never going to argue for more minutes, and you get maximum effort out of him each and every night. He doesn’t shoot very often, and his mid-range jumper is actually very serviceable.
You can’t expect much from him, but JOB will do his best.
2) He’s 6-foot-9, but can’t shoot nor protect the rim. What’s he good at, exactly?
I would argue that he can shoot.
O’Bryant is a perfect 100 percent 3-point shooter, after all! Just because it’s the smallest possible sample size doesn’t mean you can hold that one-for-one shooting performance against JOB!
Although O’Bryant might not have much touch from beyond the arc, he’s actually a great mid-range jump shooter.
He made 43.5 percent of his pull-up shots last season, which would make him the fifth-best pull-up shooter in the NBA he if qualified. The only guys better were Kawhi Leonard, C.J. McCollum, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
Of course O’Bryant wasn’t really close to qualifying, as he only took 23 pull-up jumpers last year. But still, in very limited usage he did well from mid-range. That may be one of the only things he did well at, but at least JOB has something to hang his hat on in the NBA.
It’d be nice if that something wasn’t one of the more inefficient shots in basketball, but at least he’s got something to hang his hat on.
Aside from being voted as the NBA’s best player, of course.
Who's the best player in the NBA right now
— Behind the Buck Pass (@BehindTheBucks) December 13, 2015
3) Washington has a full frontcourt (Gortat, Morris, Mahinmi, Smith and Nicholson are on guaranteed contracts). Does Johnny O’Bryant have a legit chance to make the roster? How’s he different from the aforementioned players?
Let’s go over the advantages those players have over JOB. They’re all probably better and definitely more proven at the NBA level. There are probably more specific points you could make here, but I think most all of them are covered by that sentence.
Let’s look at Johnny O’Bryant’s advantages over those players.
He’s cheaper for sure. There’s no way he’s getting more than a veteran minimum deal, and it’s probably barely guaranteed, if at all.
That means O’Bryant is getting a fraction of the money all of those other players are. Is Jason Smith better than JOB? Maybe. Is he five times better? I highly doubt it.
Monetarily, O’Bryant makes sense for just about every team. Of course Washington would have to pay anybody they cut for JOB, which then makes it much less feasible to sign him.
If the Wizards had a hole at backup to the backup power forward, I could definitely see O’Bryant making the team. As is, there might not be much reason to expect it.
He’d have to really impress Washington, which is something Eric Maynor has done so it’s clearly not impossible.
4) I love players with wacky histories and personal quirks. Why should I get invested in Jay Oh, knowing that he’s likely not going to be on the roster in just a few months? Make me care about him, Ti.
Here’s a fun fact about Johnny O’Bryant: he’s the best big man to come out of LSU since Shaq. That’s right, recently-inducted Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neal and potential someday Hall-of-Famer Johnny O’Bryant share an alma mater. That has to mean something.
O’Bryant is charismatic. Look at this dancing routine. How can he have any trouble finding a roster spot when he adds this much to a team’s locker room?
I don’t make empty promises, Ben. Here’s a promise for you.
Not one time, not ever, will you watch a Wizards game featuring Johnny O’Bryant and go “Man, Johnny O’Bryant is taking too many shots away from John Wall and whoever is filling in for the injured Bradley Beal!” Not once. It will never ever happen.
He’s a team-first guy, and his only answer to all the criticism he gets (and he gets a lot of it) is to work harder. If that’s not the American Dream, I don’t know what is.
Here’s a video of him dunking four times in a game, which currently comes in as the fourth-best day of my life.
Please give JOB a job, Washington. He deserves it. We all deserve it.
Next: Wall Gets Birthday Wishes From LeBron, Others
Personally, I’m sold on Johnny O’Bryant. If and when he eventually gets cut, my heart will shatter into a million Eric Maynor bricks.
Shout out to Ti – my friend – for taking part in this wacky Q&A. Give him some love on Twitter. He deserves it.