Washington Wizards: Backup Point Guard Dilemma in D.C.
In the midst of a rough stretch without John Wall, the Wizards and head coach Scott Brooks have an important decision to make moving forward. The question is simple, who should the primary backup point guard be once Wall returns?
For the Washington Wizards, the backup point guard position has been an oddity since the early 2000’s. Specifically, I distinctly remember Antonio Daniels holding down the second unit and not batting an eye while he was out on the floor.
Since then, the Wizards backup situation as seen a multitude of different players audition for the position, but their stints with the team have been very short lived. Players like Ramon Sessions and Andre Miller have been the most successful backups in recent memory. Now 22 games into the season, the Wizards are yet again searching for consistency from that position.
Recently, John Wall was ruled out for approximately two weeks as he deals with discomfort and inflammation in his left knee. Not only would the Wizards be missing 9.2 assists per game, but they’d be missing an all-star floor general to run their offense.
In the meantime, the Wizards have given the nod to backup point guard Tim Frazier to start in Wall’s place. The Wizards acquired Frazier this off-season from the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for a 2017 second-round pick.
Should Frazier remain Wall’s primary backup?
While there were high hopes for Frazier’s play heading into the season, the three-year man out of Penn State has had a rough start to the season. Frazier is averaging 3.7 points, 3.9 assists, shooting 40.3 percent from the floor and a career-worst 25.9 percent from three.
Unfortunately, Frazier’s play as a starter the last four games have been an extension of his play as a backup this season. With Wall out his struggles have been watched through an even smaller microscope.
Now, has Frazier performed well in some contests? Absolutely. However, the consistency and skillset hasn’t been there enough for his job as the backup, and starter while Wall is out, to be safe moving forward.
In this play here, Frazier opts against an open three-point attempt, drives into the lane and telegraphs a difficult backward pass to
. The result was an easy turnover for the Atlanta Hawks defense.
While Washington doesn’t need Frazier to carry the entire load offensively, they do, however, need him to take high percentage looks when he does decide to shoot the ball. Here’s an example of a low percentage look early in the shot clock that kills the flow of the offense.
With all that being said, Frazier does have some positives to his game. More specifically, Frazier rebounds adequately for his size and position. This clip shows Frazier bringing down an offensive rebound and keeping the possession alive.
However, the plan in the off-season was to improve in that area by letting players like Brandon Jennings and Trey Burke walk. At the moment, Frazier has striking similarities to those former Wizards and that’s what has been disappointing thus far.
Wizards options for backup point
So what are the Wizards’ options at the moment? Well, I think what we have here is a very compelling situation. In the last four games, Washington’s most impressive point guard hasn’t been Frazier, but instead, it’s been none other than the two-year guard out of the Czech Republic, Tomas Satoransky.
Being Wall-less has forced head coach Scott Brooks‘ hand on playing Satoransky extended minutes and the guard has made the most of it. In his last four games, Satoransky has a total of 40 points, 22 assists, 14 rebounds, shooting 63.6 percent from the floor and hasn’t committed any turnovers.
Including scoring a career-high 17 points against the Detroit Pistons last Friday night, Satoransky has played with a distinct poise and confidence he hasn’t shown since his time in the EuroLeague. All that being said, let’s take a look at some of the plays from the last couple of games that has people excited for what Satoransky can bring to the table.
In this clip, Satoransky recognizes
trailing on the play, drags Mahinmi’s defender away from the paint and quickly makes a beautiful pass for the easy layup.
A clear area Satoransky has an advantage over most players is his 6’7″ height and wingspan at the point guard position. Subsequently, Satoransky puts both of those to use here, as he creates space with a spin move and finishes with contact over Andre Drummond for the layup.
Finally, Satoransky shows why he’s one of the most athletic players on the team by soaring in for an offensive rebound and finishing the play with an and-1 layup.
Sticking with the theme of the last four games, Satoransky has a plus-minus of +38, while Tim Frazier has a plus-minus of -29 with almost identical minutes per Basketball-Reference.
Now, Frazier has been subject to a few games where the starters have struggled as a whole. However, Satoransky has played with both the starters and backups during this stretch and still has a positive plus-minus.
To be frank, Washington has looked it’s best and most fluent both offensively and defensively with Satoransky on the floor opposed to Frazier. Although Frazier brings a lot of energy, Satoransky is Washington’s second best point guard on the roster and his versatility on both ends makes him very valuable.
Yes, it’s probable Frazier could start to turn things around in the next couple of games. However, I believe Frazier is what he is at this point and doesn’t give Washington a significant edge when Wall is off the court.
Right now, the logical choice for Brooks should be to roll with Satoransky as the primary backup once Wall returns. The fact of the matter is that Satoransky has looked like a completely different player, albeit a small sample size, out on the court this season compared to last season.
It’s hard to argue against Satoransky because of what he can bring you on both ends of the floor. Not only will he distribute the ball at a high rate but he can create for himself while driving, finish through contact, defend, switch onto multiple positions and run the pick and roll effectively.
The only negative to his game is his outside shot and even that right now is going in for him due to the confidence he’s playing with. All the signs seem to point to Satoransky at this point in time.
Need more proof? Look no further than Kelly Oubre Jr. and the strides he took in his second season last year. Still raw, Brooks was able to develop Oubre tremendously because he received consistent minutes, so why couldn’t this work with Satoransky? Minutes are crucial to development and Satoransky has definitely earned them.
Only time will tell what direction Scott Brooks plans to go in for the backup point guard, but we can at least start the conversation in the meantime.