Wizards add backup point guard in Chasson Randle

Chasson Randle, who has spent most of this season in the G-League, joins the Washington Wizards as they search to fill out their roster

The Washington Wizards signed Chasson Randle to a non-guaranteed contract on Tuesday, giving the team at least one true backup point guard behind John Wall. The move also allows the Wizards to fulfill the minimum number of players on a roster of 14 after last weekend’s trade shipped out two players for one.

Following the trade with the Phoenix Suns over the weekend, the Wizards gave up Austin Rivers as well as Kelly Oubre Jr. in exchange for Trevor Ariza. Although not a traditional point guard, Rivers had played the role off the bench to spell Wall, playing 61 percent of his minutes this season at the position, according to Basketball Reference. Other than Wall (and excluding Jordan McRae who has only played 25 total minutes this season), no other Wizard has played more than 3 percent of their time as the primary ball handler.

Cue Randle, who took part in Washington’s training camp and ultimately made the team before he was released last month after zero in-game appearances. He has since spent his time on the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards’ G-League affiliate. In seven games for the Go-Go, Randle averaged 23 points per game.

Since going undrafted out of Stanford in 2015, Randle has bounced from between the NBA, G-League, and overseas. He most recently played in the NBA during the 2016-2017 season for both the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks, appearing in a total of 26 games and averaging 5.3 points per game. Last season, for Real Madrid, Randle was a Spanish league and EuroLeague champion. He also played for Team USA in the multiple FIBA World Cup Qualifying games this fall.

While a hard and resilient worker, Randle seems to fit the mold of many of Wall’s recent backups. It’s unclear how much playing time Randle will see, but he joins a long, relatively disappointing line of stopgaps such as Brandon Jennings, Trey Burke, Ramon Sessions, Tim Frazier, and Ty Lawson that have attempted to be a serviceable substitute for the All-Star Wall. Randle is less proven and has less experience than all of those names.

Although both have served as starters on the wings in recent weeks, Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky are the probably the best option at this point whenever Wall comes out. This will require adjusting the rotation some, especially in order to stagger Wall and Beal’s minutes.

As for Rivers, reports indicate that the Suns will release Rivers upon acquiring him.