Sorry I am not a Wizards fan but I watch some Wizards games because I have Ky in fantasy basketball.
From what I observe he is a really good player. He is probably your best playmaker and plays both sides of the ball well. His biggest flaws are probably his Turnovers and picking up silly fouls. Also I wish he would be a lot more aggressive on offensive looking for his own shot, he seems content setting it up for his teammates.
My question for your sub is, why is his usage rate so low? It seems like Brian Keefe never draws up any plays for him. Him and Sarr are probably your most talented players but he is not being utilized fully.
We should have Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper to go with George and Sarr (2&3 in some order) and well into our rebuild season - but we got royally screwed by the lottery and those texas dingleberries and were stuck tanking one more year for our best player.
Remember that we were one ping pong ball awat from having wemby as well.
We had 6 of 11 chances for the last ball to get Wemby… so had over a 50% chance on that last ball and still didn’t get it…
Yeah, absolutely...fuck Texas for real. That was dogshit.
Harper on this team would’ve been absolutely perfect
Because we're still at the beginning stages of rebuilding this team. What happens with this draft and off season is going to be a pretty big step one way or the other for us
but isn’t that more reason to give him more reps and responsibilities to see how he does this season before a Cam Boozer or an AJ Dybantsa comes in
bold of you to assume Adam Silver would let us get a top five pick in a draft this stacked
First thing I thought.
He's kinda getting a lot of reps and responsibilities, actually -- he's their lead ballhandler about half the time, which probably won't be his eventual role.
We don’t have an established Point Guard to run the floor.
CJ is more of a combo guard as is Bub Carrington. KG is a point forward in every sense of the word but he needs someone who is a legit 1 to run the floor
CJ and KMID, that’s why
Cj: I got it, no need to move or cut or anything. Check out this sick contested mid range jumper
CJ is impacting Ky's usage rate not so much Middleton. Ky is still 5th in usage on the team - only Sarr, CJ, and surprisingly Cam and Vuk are ahead of him. Ky's usage rate will go up but it's not that low - it's at 21% compared to 25%
Vuk is a shot chucker. Can't wait to get rid of him
CJ should not be getting all those minutes and shots up in my opinion
I’m sure it’s frustrating for you. But for us, he is our tank commander and will lead us to the promised land of a high draft pick.
First half is trade showcase for the vets. After deadline the kids will have the keys
Respectfully, having the vet leader in your locker room and pretty much annual 20+ppg guy take a backseat before February just doesn’t happen
He’ll continue to be showcased for potential trade and then get scaled back after deadline if he is even still here
Take as old as time
Would not be good for team morale / locker room dynamics to diminish him and Middleton at this stage at all sadly
They’re increasing his trade value. He’s supposed to be washed and they’re showing that he’s still got it.
he shouldn't, but he'd be a locker room cancer if we forced him to sit
Here's the thing: so far as the team has made public, every player, at least the young ones, are being evaluated not on their production, TS%, or any other overall metric, but solely on how well they execute the things that they are being asked to do by the coaching staff at this chunk in the season. And those things they're being judged on might have nothing do do with what goes in the box score, and will differ based on the concepts the staff feels each player needs to master, and will change over the course of the season. So we will see players "break out" for a stretch of games, and then go quiet for a stretch of games, and we as the fans are not privy to whether players are succeeding or failing in the traditional sense, either statistically or by the eye test, because we just don't know what the team is asking them to do.
Take the case of Bub Carrington. When we first got him, we thought he looked great. He proved durable and then hit the wall in his rookie season, opened his second year as one of the worst players in the league, and his stat sheet has been strong the last few games, coinciding with a move back to the starting lineup. Is it because he turned the corner? Is he just on a hot streak? Or was he being graded the first month or so of the season solely on things like, "Offensively, get to X point on the court Y number of times per game, and defensively, execute five switches exactly as they were taught in practice and disrupt two opposing offensive possessions", or something else that doesn't show up in the box score, and since those things are things he's not good at yet, he looks lost, but he's doing exactly as asked?
The fact is, all we really know about how the process seems to be going is that Cam Whitmore appears to not be buying in in practice, so he's not playing in games. And even that was probably more transparency that the front office would have preferred. As frustrating as it is, we literally, like the old 76ers mantra, have to trust the process. It's possible only Middleton, CJ, and Bagley are out there just playing their game and trying to do well. Or maybe even they are following coaching instructions to put the youngsters in situations where the specific things they're being evaluated on can occur.
A longwinded comment, but the gist is: don't try to use the stats to judge how successful the team believes each player is, and don't expect the staff to make the same decisions as a team that's trying to play winning basketball. Not because they're tanking, but because they may still be being taught the basics. The fact that Ky isn't on the bench is about as much as you can hope for. And don't draft ANY Wizard in fantasy basketball for the next couple of years.
this is an interesting insight I didn’t know about, thanks
I fully believe that Bagley is in our midterm plans. He's 26, on a great deal, and has clearly bought in on what the front office is doing here because we traded him and he came back! I'm not saying there was tampering there, but maybe G-Wiz worked a little magic, you know? 🤔
And you can see how drastically his shot diet has changed over the past few weeks. With Alex out he's been allowed to take all sorts of midrange shots that he wasn't allowed to when he was coming off the bench. Probably told to focus on aggression and physicality around the basket because it's historically been his weakest traits as a center.
I think he's totally bought in and will be a great budget backup C for us for 4 or 5 years to come
The real answer is we arnt trying to win games at the moment. Yes, George is good at creating his own shot, but right now they are focusing on other areas of his game so he can be a more well rounded player. If Keefe isnt drawing up plays for him, it is because that is not what they are currently working on.
Growth > Wins at the moment.
what is with people saying that we need to "draw up plays" for certain players, we're not trying to win, and competent offensive players need to be able to generate offense without specific ATO plays drawn up for them
also Sarr is our best player, but Kyshawn is a close second
Yes we’re not trying to win but we’re damn sure trying to score points. Drawing up plays for certain players in certain situations, especially for us, is to see how guys will respond in that scenario. That’s ABSOLUTELY important for development and player evaluations from the coaches viewpoint
that's really stupid
So you think we just go out there and play pick up, huh?
I watch a lot of non-Wizards basketball and it might shock you to realize that the overwhelming majority of plays executed are not ATO plays, this isn't football, good players just freestyle basically everything and actively read defenses in real time
Yes - Kyshawn George is the best player on the team. You are correct
hilariously, at the moment, yeah probably.
Alex Sarr wouldn't be as far behind if he didn't get hurt so often and might be the best atm
Statistically it’s Sarr but George gets a ton of ball handling reps, he’s just not as aggressive as he should be because he struggles creating separation. It’ll improve once he’s scaled down into more of a second side guy.
After the trade deadline that may change. McCollum is playing great and they’re increasing his trade value by playing him so much. Other vets might be traded as well.
The team should run through Sarr n Ky and it’s infuriating that as a tanking team we have so many possessions end in Cj’s hands for no fucking reason
The Wizards are optimizing for organizational risk management, not upside discovery. Even if the front office says “develop the kids,” coaches still protect their reputations. OKC, Orlando, Detroit empowered their coaches with job security + explicit mandates:
“Let it be ugly. We will not blame you.”
This is organizational cowardice, not basketball logic.
Keefe won’t be our long term coach, he’s just the guy steering us through the major tear down and rebuild with which, he’s done exactly what he’s supposed to do.
I imagine Dawkins has someone in mind for the real job when the team needs to start taking the next steps. I reckon they are coaching college ball right now.
Gee golly I hope so
They did it at OKC. That’s a pretty good track record.
You hit the nail on the head. Keefe has no idea what he's doing as a coach. Sarr, Kyshawn & Tre Johnson are being criminally underutilized. It also hurts that we don't have a true PG to facilitate the offense. Bub is trying but it's not his specialty.
Ky also isn't selfish. He doesn't try to takeover games. We see flashes of it like against Memphis the other night. He's shooting 40% from 3 & can attack the basket very well. He's only averaging 11 shots a night. if that goes up to 16-20 he would be an All-Star.
Once CJ & Middleton are gone this team will look completely different offensively. Next year will be when the wizards put the league on notice. If we get a competent coach and a PG it will make life alot easier for our young guys offensively & they will be able to lock guys down defensively.
No? Lol
Kyshawn is the best all around player we have, I’d say Sarr is more valuable. The think with Ky is that he is the most unselfish player on the team, so if he’s not scoring it’s because he’s getting his teammates involved, hes usually the one making the play for others instead of having a play drawn up for him because nobody else plays point guard