The Wizards were really young last season but unfortunately for them, they were also really bad. They allowed their young players to get a ton of playing time, but that only resulted in them being the worst offense in the league and third worst on defense. Their plan was to allow their young players to improve throughout the season as they gained more experience, but I am not sure that was achieved.
Their #2 pick Alex Sarr showed some good defensive instincts, but his offensive numbers were putrid the entire season as he finished the season shooting 39.4% FG and 30.8 3pts. Their three most “efficient” players last season are now all gone, as Jonas Valanciunas was traded midseason while Jordan Poole and Malcolm Brogdon departed this offseason. Therefore, the Wizards will need an incredible turnaround in order to be just decent on offense in this upcoming season.
Washington got CJ McCollum to run the PG position, but he is more of a scoring first player than a real playmaker. They also got Cam Whitmore from Houston, who lacked playing time in a loaded team such as the Rockets, but who will certainly play more at Washington. However, their main hope for this season will be their rookie Tre Johnson, who was the #6 overall pick in this draft. Johnson is bound to be a pure three-level scorer and he should give the team a good boost in scoring punch, even though the Johnson/McCollum duo won’t surely pass the ball often to their teammates.
The remaining young players of the team (Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and Tristan Vukcevic) will surely have a lot of minutes once again in order to prove that they can be legit rotational players in the NBA. However, it will be hard for the team to remain competitive when all of them are on the court at the same time, just like it happened last season.