Which Wizards have been impressing at Summer League?

Which Wizards have been impressing at Summer League?

All right, Wizards fans. It is 110 degrees in Las Vegas, but thank goodness for air conditioning. Bejian Todd alongside Chase Hughes here at the Thomas and Max Center in Vegas. Chase, Wizards are now two games through their summer league slate. I want to know what you think about their overall performances so far. What you’ve seen? I think we’re seeing strength in numbers. Just a lot of talent for the Wizards in terms of the quantity, right? How many first round picks do they have over the last four drafts? I think it’s 11. And so, we’re seeing a lot of guys play and a lot of guys who aren’t playing, but the strength in numbers allows it. So, some guys have it, some nights, sometimes they don’t. And I think a great symbol of that is I was talking to some people with the league who put together the schedule for the summer league. They have the Wizards in the main gym every night playing in prime time for most of their games. And the reason why is because they’ve taken notice that the Wizards have a lot of young talent. And speaking of young talent, a lot of that young talent has been very physical on the defensive end. That’s what we’re going to get into next. Alexar had eight blocks tonight. Keshan George had five steals. A lot of players have been coming out there and showing their physicality on the defensive end. How important is that for building team culture, especially in the summer league? It’s very important. And one thing that we’ve heard from some of the guys you mentioned, like Keshan George and Alex, they’ve already been in the gym for over two months. So, they’ve been able to add some strength and both of those guys have said that they’ve already noticed the benefits from that. And I think tonight we saw Keshan George really impose his will on the Brooklyn Nets. I mean, he was in their face. He was forcing turnovers and using that strength, but it’s also his core strength he he said that has improved. And I noticed in the first game he boxed out Kaman Malawatch who weighs about 40 or 50 pounds more than that was crazy. He boxed him out and got the rebound. Now let’s talk about offense. Trey Johnson had 21 tonight. He’s got 39 over his first two games. The Wizards leading scoreer, by the way, over that entire span. He is a bucket. This is what we knew we were going to get from him coming into the NBA. And he’s shown thus far that he can score at all three levels. He’s very efficient. He went to the free throw line eight times tonight. So, he is putting the ball on the floor and they’re putting the ball in his hands and he is scoring. What have you like from his game? Few things that have stood out. Obviously the shooting. He’s not scared to take shots, contested shots, and he’s making them, right? But he’s also very shifty off the dribble, which I didn’t realize as much as now that I’ve seen him in person. There was a play in the first game where he just was stop, start, stop, start. It kind of reminded me of SGA or Luca, and it’s very advanced for his age to understand that ability to sort of get the defense off balance. That’s what he’s trying to do. And then third, he plays hard. this guy for a full 40 minutes out here, 48 minutes. He plays hard. And I was talking to a coach the other day who watched one of his pre-draft workouts with other lottery picks. And he said there was a very stark contrast in how hard they were going through every rep. Trey Johnson was 110% on every shot, every dribble, every rebound. And I think he plays the same way. So it’s not just the way that he plays, it’s also how he practices. And that’s a great sign for the Wizards. He also said tonight, we asked him about it postgame. He said, “The front office doesn’t care if I score. They want to see me play defense.” And he’s done both of those things. He’s scored and he’s played defense. So, let’s wrap it up by saying, “Who has impressed you the most out of all the Wizards players who have played thus far in summer league? Who has stood out to you?” It’s Keshan George. He had a great offensive game and defensive game in the first game. The second game, the shot wasn’t falling, but he forced five turnovers with steals. He was getting rebounds. I think he was a big reason why they won that game. And every time I watch Keshan George sort of do something surprising, I think back to last preseason, a friend of mine who is a scout for an Eastern Conference team walked up to me before a Wizards game and said, “Keshan George is the best young player on this team.” I was like, “High praise.” I was like, “You mean of the rookies?” He said, “Of all of them.” I was at the time I thought Keshan George was going to play some for the Capital City Go. Obviously, he had a very good rookie year. And that’s not to say that he’s definitely going to be better than the other young guys like Alex Sar Balokali. We know they have their ceiling. It’s going to take time to determine, but I think we need to start viewing Keshan George as just as talented and as having just as high a ceiling as those guys who were picked much higher in the draft. For me, it’s Trey Johnson because of the fact that he’s a bucket and he’s showing that 2-way versatility that we didn’t really see from him at Texas all that much because a lot of it was screen navigation and it was different schematic things. But now that he’s in the NBA and getting time against guys who are going to be NBA rotational players, he’s showing that he can defend, put the ball in guys’ chest, score at all three levels, and he’s been very impressive for the sixth overall pick.

From Las Vegas, Nevada, Chase Hughes and Bijan Todd report back on which Wizards have been standing out the most through the team’s first couple of Summer League games.

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Which Wizards have been impressing at Summer League?