Bub Carrington’s place in the Washington Wizards’ rotation may have gotten a little easier to overlook this offseason, but his shot did not.
In his first game with a non-tanking Wizards team, Carrington gave Washington exactly the kind of floor-spreading the roster needs. Coming off the bench for 19 minutes, he scored 10 points and handed out four assists. He hit three of six shots overall and went two of three from deep, and he was the only player on the team to make more than one 3-pointer.
That matters for a Wizards group that still has a real spacing problem. If there’s one thing this roster can’t afford, it’s cluttered driving lanes and crowded possessions, and Carrington helps ease that pressure. His flaws are obvious, but so is the value of his shooting, and that combination makes him one of the more useful young pieces on the team.
The Wizards do have other perimeter options. Trae Young is a good shooter, though not an especially efficient one from long range. Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson both bring solid shooting, and Khris Middleton adds spacing as well, even if age and injuries mean he may not be available every day.
Carrington, though, brings a very specific kind of offensive profile. His shot selection can be polarizing, but it has worked well enough so far.
He rarely gets to the rim, and most of his attempts come from outside. When he does look to score, he often settles for mid-range jumpers instead of pressuring the basket or hunting fouls.
The numbers from last season tell the story. Carrington made 40.8 percent of his 3-point attempts, taking five per game, while only 7.9 percent of his shots came at the rim. Those rare trips inside were converted at a 49.1 percent clip.
The problems finishing at the rim and getting into the paint are hard to miss. Even so, his outside shooting is valuable enough that the Wizards can’t really afford to take it off the floor.
That importance only grows on a roster with Anthony Davis, Alex Sarr, AJ Dybantsa, Deandre Ayton, and Bilal Coulibaly all expected to play meaningful minutes while also bringing below-average or negative 3-point shooting. In that environment, a player who lives on the perimeter becomes even more valuable.
Tre Mann’s arrival made Carrington’s role look a little uncertain this offseason. But the first glimpse of this team showed the same thing clearly: Carrington’s 3-point shooting is what keeps him in the mix, and the Wizards are going to need that skill to reach the offensive ceiling they think is there.
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Washingtons biggest issue has been its shooting, and that puts extra pressure on every possession when the Raptors are across the floor. The matchup also carries a personnel wrinkle on the Wizards side, with AJ unavailable for the game, which only narrows the room for error as they try to keep pace with a Toronto team that looks built to make opponents work for every clean look. [Read more 🡒]