Wright and Noah in town

It was a day of visual oddities with Florida forward Joakim Noah and North Carolina forward Brandan Wright in town for workouts today at the Celtics practice facility in Waltham.

While Noah shared his workout with Michigan center Courtney Sims, Wright made it known he did not want to compete against other players. So, after Noah and Sims left the court, Wright went through approximately 40 minutes of drill work with assistant coaches Armond Hill and Dave Wohl, while Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers watched from court level.

There was nothing in the individual workout that made Wright any more or less appealing. He made shots from the elbows. He missed shots from the elbows. He made free throws. He missed free throws. He rebounded. He ran the floor. Noah watched part of Wright’s workout from the sidelines, joking with Rivers during a break in the action. But the most noticeable part of the show was the fact that Wright was all by himself.

“It’s tough [to judge talent] with a one-on-zero workout,” said Rivers. “I look at an athlete and see shot form, how they run, how they handle things. For example, Noah, I really enjoyed how verbal he was. It was probably the loudest workout we’ve had in some time.”

Added Ainge: “You clearly can’t make a choice in these workouts. If you did, the best drill guy would get drafted.”

Odds and ends
Another strange sight was that of assistant Clifford Ray, who was only partially sidelined by a boot on his left foot. While recovering from left foot surgery to deal with an old injury, Ray still tried to get in on the workouts, pantomiming post moves. Ordinarily, Ray would be in the thick of things, banging around players with a pad.

The Celtics have become known for the grueling conditioning test they ask prospects to perform at the end of each workout. Players are given three minutes to sprint up and down the floor. At the end of the run, their score is how many times they run up and down with each length counting as one.

Director of player development Michael Crotty jumped into the run with Noah and Sims. Crotty, a former point guard at Williams, bested Noah, though not by much. Crotty finished at 28, while Noah came in at 27 1/2. Running by himself, Wright finished with 24 1/2.

The Celtics don’t expect to hold any more workouts this week at their training facility, but will travel to see Jeff Green this Friday.

After both workouts, the Celtics brass as well as the coaching staff, checked out a computer system designed to breakdown and analyze players’ shots. To show just what the software could do, it took images of the players during the workouts.