The newest version of the dictionary includes words such as “crunk” and “ginormous.” Strange? Yes. But NBA-types speak a language twice as exotic. Scouts, executives, GM’s, broadcasters, janitors and popcorn guys all use some of the strangest, most nonsensical terms you will ever hear.

“Tremendous upside potential,” “physical specimen” and “wingspan” are just a few examples.

Use of them reaches a crescendo during the summer. They come out of the mouths of draft analysts and summer league commentators as often as Paris Hilton similes come from the pens of journalists.

It can be overwhelming for those familiar only with college ball. That’s why I’ll make it simple — the only term Kansas fans really need to know is this: “tweener.”

Julian Wright, who was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets 14th in June’s NBA draft, is the perfect example of a tweener. And odds are, that status is going to limit him in his NBA career.

If you don’t know, a tweener is a player who doesn’t have a position. Several factors can cause tweenerism: height, ball-handling ability (or lack thereof), strength, etc.

Being a tweener isn’t necessarily a bad thing. All kinds of tweeners have been successful in the NBA. Washington’s Antawn Jamison is one.

At 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds, he’s not a prototypical power forward. He doesn’t have the game of a small forward either. Still, Jamison has skillful post moves to make up for his lack of size in the paint, and he’s improved his outside shot — he shoots about 40 percent from three-point land — enough to average 19.4 points per game during his nine-year career.

But more often than not, being a tweener is a bad thing. Final Four hero Ed O’Bannon of UCLA is the poster child of these never-weres. He averaged about five points a game during three NBA seasons before being cut. At 6-foot-8 and 222 pounds, he could never adjust to life on the wing.

O’Bannon is eerily similar to Wright. Wright is 6-foot-10 and 225 pounds. That means he’s too small to play in the post like he did at KU and will likely struggle as O’Bannon did.

Wright’s shortcomings are obvious. He doesn’t have a good enough outside shot to be a threat on the perimeter. He struggles guarding smaller, quicker players. And let’s face it, Wright handles the ball like he has flippers. Every time he dribbled it during a fast break last season you were more frightened than the American public when it found out Rosie O’Donnell was a candidate to host “The Price is Right.”

So why did he get drafted in the lottery?

Like most other tweeners, Wright is an athletic “physical specimen” with a long “wingspan” and “tremendous upside potential.” He could develop into a special player. Could.

The conditions have to be just right for a tweener to succeed. Jamison needed two years before he really found his niche. The Detroit Pistons’ Chauncey Billups, who many viewed as a shooting guard in a point guard’s body, didn’t find success until he landed with the perfect team, the Detroit Pistons.

During summer league sessions, Wright played exactly like what he is — a classic inconsistent tweener. One game he scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out four assists. That came one night after he didn’t make a field goal. It’s obvious that Wright is going to be a work in progress for at least a couple of seasons. Nobody knows how he’ll do in the NBA. Nobody.

The only certainty about his future is this: He’ll always be a tweener. It’s up to Wright to find a way to contribute in this league and turn into an Antawn instead of an O’Bannon.

— Edited by Erick R. Schmidt