{"id":796269,"date":"2026-07-26T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/796269\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T12:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:27:16","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-grumpy-my-wizards-summer-league-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/796269\/","title":{"rendered":"The good, the bad and the grumpy: My Wizards summer league takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the thing with being a cranky old guy \u2014 I have to kvetch before I can get to the good stuff.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my gripe with the Wizards 2026 summer league: they shut guys down. AJ Dybantsa and Will Riley appeared in only two games. Tre Johnson played in just one!<\/p>\n

I know the official line. They don\u2019t have anything to prove. No need to risk injury. Blech and blech.<\/p>\n

\"Rookie<\/a><\/p>\n

Rookie AJ Dybantsa impressed in summer league. Getty Images<\/p>\n

All these young guys have a lot to prove. Injury risk is minimal, and they\u2019re going to spend the rest of the offseason working out, training skills, and playing tons of pickup games.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another up-and-coming team with youngsters actually played the youngsters. Third overall pick played all six games (and 177 total minutes) for the Memphis Grizzlies. Second-year wing Cedric Coward got 162 minutes in six games.<\/p>\n

Yaxel Lendeborg played 170 minutes for the Golden State Warriors. The Chicago Bulls gave Caleb Wilson four games and 111 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets gave guys they expect to be in their rotation three or four games for the most part. The Charlotte Hornets went 3-5.<\/p>\n

New Cleveland Cavalier Meleek Thomas, who dropped mega points on everyone he faced, played four games.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying play guys until they collapse from exhaustion. And to be clear, I don\u2019t know what the \u201cright\u201d way is. My guess is that treating 19- and 20-year-olds like they\u2019re too precious and fragile to even face the risk of summer league competition probably isn\u2019t the best way to engender the tough, competitive ethos the Wizards say they want.<\/p>\n

Well\u2026okay, I have one more grumble: allowing 10 fouls per player in summer league. This is dumb. In the NBA, players get six fouls for a 48-minute game. In the NCAA, it\u2019s five fouls for 40 minutes. In FIBA competition, it\u2019s five for 40. In other words, one foul for every eight minutes of action. Then summer league where it\u2019s suddenly double that? Dumb.<\/p>\n

The 2026 prize for Prodigious Hacking goes to Aidan Mahaney, who suited up for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He committed six fouls in 15 minutes of action \u2014 a rate of more than 19 fouls per 48 minutes (extrapolated, which I\u2019m doing here for entertainment value only).<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s top hacker this summer was Julian Reese at 11.7 fouls per 48 minutes.<\/p>\n

Okay, some numbers and thoughts for key Wizards from summer competition (PPA is my all-around production metric \u2014 in PPA, 100 is average and higher is better; ortg = offensive rating (points produced per possession used x 100), usg = possession usage percentage; all box score stats are per 48 minutes unless otherwise noted):<\/p>\n

AJ Dybantsa \u2014 PPA: 293 | ortg: 103 | usg: 33.6% \u2014 In his 51 minutes of action, Dybantsa showed why the Wizards made him the top pick. Good size, great athletic tools, impressive skills. He scored 50 points in those 51 minutes, and averaged the second most free throw attempts per minute in summer league. Worry point: Just 1-11 from three-point range, which led to the slightly subpar overall efficiency (-2.2 relative to the summer league average).Will Riley \u2014 PPA: 216 | ortg: 136 | usg: 26.1% \u2014 Shot well from everywhere (67.3% effective field goal percentage) and made frequent trips to the free throw line (more than 10 attempts per 48 minutes). Worry point: Riley\u2019s high PPA is mostly from unrealistic shooting efficiency. His rebounding was below average, his turnovers elevated (just a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio), and he had zero steals or blocks in 57 minutes.Tre Johnson \u2014 PPA: 87 | ortg: 105 | usg: 32.8% \u2014 Got up 20 shots in 28 minutes. Yay, I guess. Worry point: My concern about Johnson in the 2025 draft evaluation was the non-scoring aspects of Johnson\u2019s game. That concern manifested on the floor during the regular season, and it showed up again in summer league (just two rebounds, one assist and a steal in 28 minutes \u2014 four turnovers, though).<\/p>\n

The rest of the summer league roster will likely be part of the Capital City Go-Go, another team\u2019s G League squad, or perhaps overseas. Some numbers and a thought or two:<\/p>\n

Norris Agbakoko \u2014 PPAL 148 \u2014 Great name. Played well in summer league, but it\u2019s tough to see much of an NBA future considering he\u2019s already 26-years-old. Maybe the next Anthony Gill?Chris Livington \u2014 PPA: 145 \u2014 I was kinda impressed by Livington, who I think might hsve the size and physical tools to be a backup NBA wing.Seth Trimble \u2014 PPA: 140 \u2014 His summer league looked a lot like his pre-draft eval \u2014 impressive defender, good rebounder for a guard, and he shot just 4-15 (26.7%) on threes.Reece Beekman \u2014 PPA: 118 \u2014 Lots of assists and steals, not much scoring.Domari Monsanto \u2014 PPA: 103Julian Reese \u2014 PPA: 76 \u2014 Rebounded well but struggled to convert inside.Kadary Richmond \u2014 PPA: 74Felix Okpara \u2014 PPA: 49 \u2014 Not too good. Had trouble finishing, meh board work for a big, didn\u2019t block many shots. The numbers that stood out were bad: 5.5 turnovers and 7.6 fouls per 48.John Camden \u2014 PPA: 39R.J. Nembhard \u2014 PPA: -66Most On-Brand Award goes to Cam Boozer, who led summer league in on\/off and scored efficiently, got rebounds, set up teammates, and got lots of steals.Brooklyn\u2019s Egor Demin (231 PPA) launched 30 three-point attempts in 76 minutes.Darius Acuff Jr. (Sacramento Kings) and Darryn Peterson (Utah Jazz) each had a 10 PPA in summer league. Remember, in PPA 100 is average and higher is better.Chicago\u2019s Caleb Wilson (133 PPA) shot 13-31 from three-point range in four games. At North Carolina last season, he shot 7-27 in 24 games. He also did a good job on the boards, and generated steals and blocks. Also, 1-in-4 of his possessions ended in a turnover, and he committed more than six fouls per 48 minutes.Favorite summer league name: Boo Buie, who played for Chicago.Cleveland\u2019s Meleek Thomas was officially summer league\u2019s leading scorer at 27.3 per game. His per 48 average was 45.1. Dybantsa (who didn\u2019t qualify for leaderboards because Washington removed him from the lineup) averaged 47.3 \u2014 No. 1 among all players, even low-minute guys.Brayden Burries (256 PPA) had a nice summer for the rebuilding Milwaukee Bucks. He shot reasonably well, and produced well across the board (rebounds, assists, steals) while avoiding turnovers.For the Toronto Raptors, YODA favorite Allen Graves (189 PPA) was productive across the board (as he was at Santa Clara). He hit shots from everywhere, rebounded, assisted, generated steals and didn\u2019t commit many turnovers (1.7 ast\/tov ratio).<\/p>\n

Let me know in the comments if there\u2019s someone in particular you\u2019re curious about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the thing with being a cranky old guy \u2014 I have to kvetch before I can get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,3494,682,468,3920,3892,683],"class_list":["post-796269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-washington","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washington-wizards-statistical-analysis","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116986278548392192","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796269","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=796269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}