NBA Draft Grades 2022: re-grading the Wizards’ draft picks 1 year later

It’s been nearly a year since the 2022 NBA Draft, meaning it’s that time of year where we evaluate players based on their rookie performance. While it is way too early to tell how their careers will turn out, evaluating a player based on their debut season can sometimes give an idea of what they can do in the future.

Last year, the Wizards only had two picks in the draft, the tenth and the 54th overall selections. They selected Johnny Davis, a shooting guard out of Wisconsin, and Yannick Nzosa, a center who played for Unicaja Malaga in Spain.

Nzosa was a draft and stash selection since his contract has yet to expire in Spain, and he only played four minutes this season. Due to these circumstances, his draft selection will not be graded here.

Johnny Davis had a disappointing season with the Washington Wizards

While he was picked tenth overall, meaning nobody expected him to be competing for the All-Star game or anything, Davis still fell plenty short of expectations. This hits particularly hard due to the fact that Jalen Duren and Jalen Williams were both selected immediately after him.

He had nothing going for him on offense nearly all season. This extends to the G-League, where he put up underwhelming numbers. It’s not usually a good sign when a top ten pick struggles in the G-League.

For much of the season, he was being outplayed by undrafted players. He couldn’t find any scoring opportunities and that led to his defense faltering as well. This pick looked awful for a majority of the season.

However, Davis showed some hope towards the end of the season as the big three began sitting out games. He was getting good looks on offense and he looked great on defense. Some of his jump shots even started falling.

This end of the year surge raised his grade a little, but not much.

Grade now: D

While I may be optimistic giving Davis this rating instead of an F, I think he showed a lot of potential as a starting caliber player at the end of the year. He likely won’t ever be an elite shooter, but he showed that he can be a threat off the ball as a cutter and can easily become a top tier defender in the NBA.

If the Washington Wizards decide to keep Johnny Davis around, he could turn into a key part of their rotation.