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Washington Wizards Summer League Signees: Marcus Keene

By Ryan Eugene

Dec 10, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Central Michigan Chippewas guard Marcus Keene (3) goes in for a layup during the second half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center. Illinois beat Central Michigan 92 to 73. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 10, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Central Michigan Chippewas guard Marcus Keene (3) goes in for a layup during the second half against the Illinois Fighting Illini at State Farm Center. Illinois beat Central Michigan 92 to 73. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports /
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Washington Wizards’ summer league team features a lot of promising undrafted players. But, only one did the unthinkable in the 2016-17 season. Meet Central Michigan guard Marcus Keene, who averaged 30 PPG in 32 games last season.

Immediately after Thursday’s draft news began to break about the players that the Wizards had signed to their summer league team. They signed Villanova forward, and 2016 NCAA Champion Kris Jenkins. They signed four other promising players, covered in this round up. They also came to terms with junior guard Marcus Keene, who led Division I Basketball in scoring this season at 30 points per game.

In addition to 30 points per game, Keene’s season stats included 44.7% field goal shooting, 36.8% shooting from three, 4.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game. Among his knocks, and the reasons he went undrafted, are his small stature (he’s only 5’9″ and 175 pounds) and turnover issues (he had a turnover ratio of 1:1).

Still, his offensive repertoire speaks for itself, and you can see exactly what led to him leading the country in scoring below.

He has extreme range, is explosive considering his size, and can score in a multitude of ways. Of course those qualities, and his size will and have led to comparisons to Isaiah Thomas, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Keene first needs to show during minicamp and summer league that he can play with and against bigger and faster competition.

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His junior year, he came out of nowhere. That was his first year at Central Michigan, after spending his first two seasons at Youngstown State. His junior season in 2014-15, he averaged 15 points per game. This past season he averaged 21 shot attempts a game, after 11 his sophomore year at Youngstown State, and obviously was the focal point for the Chippewas offense.

Of course, with an average of 30 points per game, Keene had to have scored significantly more than that in many games this season. In fact, Keene scored at least 40 points seven times last season, including a 50 point outburst against Miami (OH), where he hit 10 three pointers and 10 free throws.

Of course he won’t walk into the NBA and immediately score 30 points, but his offensive output is not a hoax, because he didn’t play in a major conference. And of course defense will be an issue at the next level, but it’s not something that will intimidate Keene this summer.

Next: Washington Wizards Undrafted Free Agent Round Up

From a fan’s perspective, it will certainly be fun to watch Keene try to match his excellent junior year production in the NBA Summer League, and potentially into training camp.

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