Trae Young began his Washington Wizards career with a quiet night (by his standards) and a loss to the tanking Utah Jazz on Thursday.

The former Atlanta Hawks All-Star posted 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting with 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 turnovers in a 122-112 Jazz win. It was Young’s Wizards debut after joining the team before the NBA trade deadline and sitting out with knee and quadriceps injuries.

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He got his first points as a Wizard quickly.

No Wizards player cracked 20 points, while Jazz rookie Ace Bailey posted a career-high 32 points.

It was about a month ago the Wizards officially bought low on Young, who posted gaudy stats with the Hawks but had the limitations of his game become a little too apparent. He got a fresh start with the Wizards, who gave up a veteran in CJ McCollum, a young shooter in Corey Kispert and no draft picks to insert Young into their youth movement.

That tenure officially began with a loss to a team fined half a million dollars earlier this season for “overt” tanking behavior. Of course, the Wizards probably aren’t sweating the result too much from a long-term perspective.

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How much will Trae Young and Anthony Davis play together?

The same day Young first suited up for the Wizards, the team announced Anthony Davis is progressing as expected and will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Under normal circumstances, the Wizards would want Davis and Young playing as much as possible after acquiring both in blockbuster trades this season. Of course, we all know how committed the Wizards are to winning this season.

Along with the Jazz, Washington is one of several teams in the running for the top odds in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery, which will decide who gets first bite at one of the most loaded draft classes in recent history. The Wizards have every reason to limit their new stars’ minutes in pursuit of better lottery position, to the point their general manager had to insist to reporters that Davis really is coming back this season.

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With Young already on the court and Davis supposedly on the mend, it looks like the duo might actually play together in some of the Wizards’ 20 remaining games. It won’t be many games, but there should at least be some value in getting the two some experience with each other.