The Washington Wizards have spent years trying to figure out how to get good players. Now they have the opposite problem: they have so many good players they need to figure out how to get them all touches.
General manager Will Dawkins addressed that directly on Friday when he announced Trae Young’s four-year, $212 million max contract. The conversation, he said, was about something Young has rarely done in his career: play off the ball.
“We have multiple decision-makers, and we’ve talked to him about playing on and off the ball,” Dawkins told The Athletic’s Josh Robbins. “I think we’re going to open that up for him in a way he hasn’t been able to do in his career.”
The numbers from Young’s five-game cameo with Washington last season back that up. He posted a career-high 52.5% assist rate with a career-low 24.6% usage. Those five games are a small sample, sure. But they show what the Wizards want to run with Young, AJ Dybantsa, Anthony Davis, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson all on the floor together.
“We’re trying to build a team with multiple decision-makers,” Dawkins said during the joint press conference with Young. “In the few games he did play for us last season, he had his highest career assist percentage with the lowest usage. So it just shows we can move the ball and make everybody make decisions.”
Young has never had teammates like this. Not in Atlanta. His best All-Star teammate there was Jalen Johnson, who made his first All-Star and All-NBA teams last season after Young had already been traded. Now Young shares a locker room with a five-time All-NBA big man in Davis, the No. 1 overall pick Dybantsa, and three first-round picks from the last two drafts who all project as future All-Stars.
“I definitely feel relieved,” Young said. “I’ve been on teams before where I was clearly not the best player. I’ve been on a team with the best player in my class, and I loved it. I loved giving him the ball, making sure he’s in his right spots, ’cause at the end of the day, we won. It helps me if we win; that’s all I care about. The more talent we have around here, the better.”
Sarr put up 16.3 points on 48.2% shooting in 48 games last season. George averaged 14.8 points on 43.8% shooting with 4.5 assists against 2.6 turnovers. Tre Johnson scored 12.2 points a night as a rookie. And Dybantsa, the NCAA scoring champion, already looked comfortable getting to the rim in his Summer League debut Thursday.
So Young can run pick-and-rolls with Davis or Sarr, kick out to George or Johnson, or let Dybantsa attack closeouts. Dawkins pointed out that Young has ranked in the 99th or 100th percentile in scoring passes created in six of his eight NBA seasons. The guy can find people. He just never had this many options to find.
Young is third all-time in career assists per game at 9.8. He’s sixth all-time in career usage rate at 31.79%. That usage has to drop if Washington wants to keep everyone involved. But if those five games last season tell us anything, Young can still produce without dominating the ball.
The Wizards haven’t made the playoffs since 2021. They won’t be one-dimensional this time around. They might even be fun.
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