Ever since the Washington Wizards traded veterans CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to the Atlanta Hawks for star guard Trae Young on Jan. 7, their young core has been tasked with leading the team on the floor. However, the organization also must learn how Young (knee, quadriceps) will mesh with the “Wiz Kids” when he returns from injury, which won't be before the All-Star break.
A scout predicted how the 27-year-old would affect second-year players Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, and Bub Carrington, via The Athletic's Josh Robbins.
“I think it [the trade] helps Sarr, for sure. In pick-and-rolls, that’s going to help Sarr,” the scout said. “I think it will help Kyshawn probably a little less because he’s handled the ball so much and because he’ll have to take a backseat.”
“Carrington, the scout added, may be the Wizards prospect who stands to lose the most with Young now in the fold,” Robbins wrote. “Carrington will continue to receive heavy minutes this season while Young sits, but Young’s presence next season almost certainly will relegate Carrington to a role off the bench as long as other players on the roster remain healthy.”
Carrington came into this season as Washington's lead guard after earning Rising Star and Second-Team All-Rookie honors as a combo guard last year, but he hit a wall in the first few weeks. Then, the 20-year-old more than doubled his scoring average from November to December (6.3 points to 13.7) on a nearly 10 percent higher field goal clip (36.6 to 45.3) and has logged 10 out of 24 games with a 3.0-plus assist/turnover ratio since Dec. 1.
Carrington told ClutchPoints after Monday's 110-106 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers that the constant reps are helping him improve, as he's yet to miss a game in his NBA career and is second only to George among the Wizards' currently rostered players with 28.3 minutes per game this season. But will the Baltimore native's development stay on track if and when his minutes go down with Young in the lineup?
Bub Carrington could be Wizards' long-term sixth man
While Carrington has had ups and downs, his constant availability has put him in the NBA record books. On Monday, the former Pittsburgh Panther became the eighth player in league history to log 500-plus rebounds and 500-plus assists before turning 21 years old, per Wizards PR.
That's partially because Carrington gets more playing time than many players his age have gotten historically and currently, but he's shown that he can be efficient with his minutes too. That's why the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder fits the bill as Washington's sixth man of the future as long as he keeps progressing.
The Wizards have prioritized player development over winning for Carrington's entire career, but next season will be a different story. On SI's Bryson Akins revealed on Wednesday that ESPN's Bobby Marks told him that “the Wizards know they have to start winning next season, or there could be regime changes happening in Washington,” via the “All Wizards Talk” podcast.
That means that while letting young players average nearly 30 minutes and play through mistakes is helpful for development, the organization will have to change its strategy next year. If winning is the priority, it makes more sense to give the keys to Young, a four-time All-Star who led the NBA with 11.6 assists per game last season.
The 27-year-old is a pure point guard, so it's clear what position he will play. Sharpshooter Tre Johnson is also a better fit as a starting shooting guard than Carrington, as he could become the first rookie to ever finish the season with a 50 percent field goal clip, 40 percent 3-point clip, and 90 percent free-throw clip.
That scenario leaves Carrington with a bench role, as he doesn't have the size to play in the frontcourt. But the 2024 No. 14 overall pick has accrued more than enough experience to shine as a sixth man, so that's not a bad thing.
The Wizards will get to keep experimenting with rotations whenever Young does play this season, which will be a preview of next season. The main differences are that they're prioritizing keeping their top-eight protected lottery pick instead of winning this year, and whoever they draft with that pick will likely start and/or receive significant minutes right away next season.
Regardless, if Carrington excels coming off the bench when Young starts this year, it'll show that he deserves to be a part of the later stages of Washington's rebuild. General manager Will Dawkins explained that the organization's rebuilding vision is divided into four steps: “deconstruction, laying the foundation, building it up, and then fortifying what we've built,” per The Capital Hoop Caucus's Troy Haliburton.
“Deconstruction” involved trading the biggest names on the team that Dawkins and company inherited from the previous administration, like Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, Deni Avdija, and Kyle Kuzma. They're “laying the foundation” this season by developing their draftees like Carrington, Johnson, Sarr, George, and third-year guard Bilal Coulibaly. Acquiring Young before the Feb. 5 Trade Deadline gave them a head start on “building it up,” which means prioritizing winning. Carrington's experience and development from the second phase have given him the tools to keep him in the fold for the third step, whether he starts or comes off the bench.
