{"id":170598,"date":"2025-07-14T18:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/170598\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T18:40:10","slug":"what-do-the-young-wizards-guards-need-to-improve-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/170598\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do the Young Wizards Guards Need to Improve On?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Wizards<\/a> are in the midst of their Summer League<\/a> campaign. Now is a great time to begin looking at the needed improvements from a team\u2019s younger players. While it\u2019s important to see development, it\u2019s hard not to try and peek into the future of the team during a solid offseason for the front office. The Wizards seem set with Alex Sarr<\/a> and Bilal Coulibaly<\/a> being cornerstones, but the frontcourt is a vastly different story. There are three Wizards guards who could eventually secure the lead role. However, what do they need to prove to become just that?<\/p>\n

What Do the Young Wizards Guards Need to Improve On?<\/p>\n

While the Wizards have a plethora of guards, there are truly three to focus on as a possible cornerstone to a future contending Washington team. Their prized rookie Tre Johnson<\/a>, the all-around guard that is Bub Carrington<\/a>, and the crazy athletic and fast AJ Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tre Johnson<\/p>\n

Tre needs to prove a few things. Heading into his eventual season debut, Johnson will need to prove he can become a more reliable and effective shot-maker while showing some new playmaking ability.<\/p>\n

While averaging the most points in the SEC<\/a> last season, Johnson\u2019s splits could\u2019ve been better. He shot 42.7% from the field and 39.7% from three. While rookies usually struggle with their splits, if the Wizards want him around for the future, he\u2019ll need to showcase at least the potential to be a more efficient scorer.<\/p>\n

For the playmaking, the Wizards need a replacement for Jordan Poole<\/a>. Poole and Johnson both have similar games: shoot first, pass second. However, if Johnson can provide 75% of what Poole did last season, the Wizards may have their guard of the future. It took Poole a while to truly develop as a consistent passer, but Johnson could easily outpace Poole if Washington\u2019s roster improves its team shooting numbers. Last season, the Wizards shot 43.9% from the floor, putting them 28th in the league<\/a>. Their three-ball percentage wasn\u2019t much better, at 33.5%, or 29th in the NBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Johnson\u2019s first two Summer League games, he has shot a combined 14-24 from the field and 5-11 from three. While the scoring has shown up (no surprise), his playmaking hasn\u2019t. With only three assists across the two games, the Wizards may need to fill that void with their rising sophomore.<\/p>\n

Bub Carrington<\/p>\n

Bub Carrington<\/a> had an interesting start to his NBA career. Carrington played all 82 games last season and had a mix of decent performances and some he\u2019d rather forget. Carrington will need to lean much more into being a pass-first point guard. Additionally, he must work on his consistency in scoring the ball.<\/p>\n

The passing is no doubt something Carrington is already exceptional at. Last season, he averaged 4.4 assists, with a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. However, with Poole being replaced with Johnson, the team loses their secondary playmaker, and Carrington will need to shoulder a bigger burden in that category. CJ McCollum<\/a> can help lift a little bit of that weight, but if Carrington wants to prove he can be the lead guard of the future, he\u2019ll need to build on last season\u2019s numbers.<\/p>\n

Next, his consistency must improve. While none of the rising sophomores were consistent last season, Carrington must be able to score when he gets his opportunities. Shooting at a 40.1% rate isn\u2019t the worst, but he must become a more effective shooter. In February<\/a>, Carrington posted 50\/40\/90 splits across the 11 games Washington played. While no one is expecting him to become that consistent overnight, his numbers may need to be closer to those than what they finished last season.<\/p>\n

Across Carrington\u2019s first two Summer League games this season, he\u2019s shot 6-16 from the field. His second outing was much better, as the first game he shot 1-9 from the field. As for his assists, it hasn\u2019t changed much. He has eight over the two games, however, it\u2019s important to note that with Summer League, Carrington isn\u2019t playing with all of his teammates. The roster is filled with guys aspiring to get a deal, and they aren\u2019t all NBA ready. Carrington\u2019s numbers should improve as the regular season starts.<\/p>\n

AJ Johnson<\/p>\n

AJ Johnson<\/a> is the biggest question mark of all the young players in Washington. After being traded from the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, Johnson was able to prove he deserved minutes on a young and uncompetitive Wizards team. For Johnson, consistency is a big area, but the other area is on the other end of the floor.<\/p>\n

Johnson is an extremely athletic finisher, and easily could improve his splits. However, his three-point shooting is the true area of concern. While not being known as a shooter, Johnson absolutely has to become a better outside scorer. He shot 26.7% from three this season between the Bucks and Wizards. To put it bluntly, that is awful. While Washington does have some other weapons from beyond the arc like Sarr, McCollum and Kyshawn George<\/a>, Johnson must improve if he wants a long term stay in the nations capital.<\/p>\n

Defense is Johnson\u2019s next area of improvement. If Johnson can grow on this side of the ball, he can certainly carve out a few more rotational minutes for himself. The guard room is loaded, but none are great defenders, except for Marcus Smart<\/a>, who may not be on the roster next season. Johnson\u2019s defensive rating last season was 124 across the 22 games he played for the Wizards. While that\u2019s not great, Johnson has the athleticism to become a more capable defender on faster and smaller guards.<\/p>\n

Across his first two Summer League games, Johnson has shot 7-16 from the field and, more importantly, 0-4 from three. Neither of those are exactly great, but as mentioned, the Summer League is a small sample size. Johnson should certainly continue to see the floor regardless next season, but if no improvement is shown, he\u2019s certainly the first guard out the door on this list.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/p>\n

The Wizards guards all have some things to work on. For the sophomores, it\u2019s all about building on their game from last season. For Tre Johnson, it\u2019s all about finding your new role on a team that\u2019s filled with young and promising talents. Summer League will continue to provide these three guards with ample playing time. Those minutes will give them solid opportunities on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Rhona Wise-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards are in the midst of their Summer League campaign. Now is a great time to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[28158,4008,7,2644,6,952,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-170598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-2025-nba-summer-league","9":"tag-aj-johnson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bub-carrington","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-tre-johnson","14":"tag-washington","15":"tag-washington-wizards","16":"tag-washingtonwizards","17":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114853054027855563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}