Washington Wizards: 3 Biggest surprises from the first half of the season
By Jamal Bedell
No. 2 – Davis Bertans is not a top-40 ranked 3-point shooter
Davis Bertans is known for one thing: shooting. And not just shooting from anywhere, but beyond the arc in particular. Bertans is nicknamed the Latvian Laser because he’s not afraid to let it fly from deep and can heat up in a flash, at any given moment! Last year, Bertans was the sixth-best 3-point shooter in the league, shooting 42.4 percent from three on an absurd 8.7 attempts per game! Before this season, Bertans’ career three-point percentage was above 40 percent, so the expectation was that his hot shooting would continue this season.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite been the case. The sharpshooter struggled dramatically to find his rhythm right out the gate. He was only shooting 28.6 percent and 34.8 percent from beyond the arc in December and January, respectively. That’s a tremendous drop-off from last year! This offseason, the Wizards rewarded Bertans with a five-year, $80 million contract because of his consistent flamethrower from three. His poor start to the year had fans nervous that the deal may have been a mistake even though, initially, fans were ecstatic about the re-signing.
In his defense, Bertans did miss the start of Training Camp dealing with visa issues in Latvia so it took him a while to get in game-shape once the season started. Thankfully though, he’s starting to find his shooting stroke as of late. In the month of February, Bertans’ shooting percentage went up to 43.5 percent on 7.7 attempts per game from behind the arc. He’s now shooting 38.2 percent from three on the season and is inching closer to his career average of 40 percent. Even though he’s starting to heat up, Bertans is currently tied for 48th in the league in terms of three-point shooting percentage.
Of course, there’s still plenty of time for him to move up the rankings, but that’s pretty low for one of the NBA’s best 3-point shooters. He has to get this percentage up in the second half of the year to justify the Wizard’s $80 million investment.