Washington Wizards 2020 NBA Draft: Saddiq Bey profile

Saddiq Bey: Weaknesses

While Saddiq Bey helps address two of the Washington Wizards’ three biggest offseason concerns — three-point shooting and defense — he certainly doesn’t help in the rebounding department.

Despite his size and despite playing nearly 34 minutes per game, Bey only averaged 4.7 rebounds per game as a sophomore. That’s down slightly from the 5.1 boards her grabbed as a freshman. Is part of that due to Villanova having Bey on the perimeter more often on the defensive end? Sure.  But Bey’s assertiveness on the boards, or lack thereof, left a lot to be desired. And you can see that lack of aggression elsewhere in his game, too.

Although Bey is a dangerous shooting threat, he can be passive on the offensive end and does not always look to capitalize when guarded by smaller defenders. Plus, Bey is limited athletically, which could be part of the reason he doesn’t exactly force the issue on offense. Either way, the passivity mixed with an inability to blow by defenders if/when he wants to limits his offensive ceiling.

The timidness on offense also hurt Bey’s ability to get to the foul line. Bey averaged just 2.9 free throw attempts per game as a sophomore. What’s even more troubling is he struggled to make the few shots he did take at the charity stripe. Despite shooting over 45 percent on two and three-point field goals, Bey shot just 76.9 percent on free throws. That was actually a dramatic improvement over what he shot his freshman year, 64.4 percent on 1.3 attempts per game.

And he’s 21 years old. Which isn’t exactly a problem, but he certainly won’t be the youngest player available.