It’s not much of a stretch at all to say that Johnny Davis’ rookie campaign was a complete and utter failure. He under performed in both the NBA with the Washington Wizards and the G-League with the Capital City Go-Go.
After being drafted tenth overall just over a year ago, Davis went on to average a disheartening 5.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal per game with the Wizards. He picked up most of his total stats in the season when he saw a huge increase in games played and minutes following a slew of injuries and the decision to shut down the starters.
To really emphasize how impressively bad he was last season, he averaged 11.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.1 steals per game with the Go-Go. At one point during the year he was coming off the bench in the G-League.
On top of his poor stats, outside of good perimeter defense, he failed the eye test as he just was not anywhere near an NBA level on offense last season. His abysmal efficiency further proves this point as he made 38.6 percent of his field goals, 24.3 percent of his three-point attempts, and a disgusting 51.9 percent of his free throw attempts.
While there is some hope that he may grow into a solid role player, there are a few aspects of his game that could hold him back.
Johnny Davis has really struggled to move the ball with the Washington Wizards
One of the key aspects for every role player, even defensive specialists is the ability to get the ball to stars. Johnny Davis has shown through every game of his professional career from the summer league to the G-League, and even in the NBA that he really isn’t that talented at moving the ball.
He may be able to get away with this someday if he becomes one of the best shooters in the league like Corey Kispert, Duncan Robinson, or Luke Kennard, all of whom are also not great at moving the ball. Players like this often are tasked with shooting whenever they get a pass.
However, Davis is one of the worst shooters in the league and has no history of being even an above average shooter in the past. It’s difficult to imagine that changing any time soon.
While it is possible for him to learn a greater feel for the game, it’s unlikely. Most players who add the ability to facilitate the offense later in their careers tend to leverage their already great scoring gravity to create open looks for teammates. This was the case with Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant.
With Davis’ complete lack of scoring gravity, he can’t leverage any defensive attention into creating shots for other players.
For a player who stands at only six-foot-five to have almost no ability to either shoot the basketball or find his teammates, there isn’t much of a role in the modern NBA for him.
Speaking of shooting…
Reason number 2: Johnny Davis is a horrendous shooter
As I’ve already mentioned, the three-point shooting for Davis was a disaster last season. While there was room for optimism following his sophomore season with Wisconsin, there isn’t much left after his rookie season.
What really killed that optimism, however, was his complete inability to hit three-point attempts off the catch. He only converted on 29.1 percent of these attempts, a horrible mark for any player, even worse for a shooting guard.
He is not good at moving off the ball either. This limits the quality of looks he gets in catch and shoot opportunities. But even fixing that area on offense wouldn’t be enough to end his shooting woes.
There is not a ton of optimism for improvement right now as his shooting form also isn’t great. While his base is almost perfect, his release is extremely mechanical and he flares his elbow out a decent amount.
It is possible for players to reconstruct their shooting form, but that takes time that Davis may not have, and it will get worse before it gets better.
With the Wizards having nothing but time to give and a strong likelihood that they aim to do nothing but lose games, especially in the 2024-’25 season, he may be given that chance to improve. It’s still not likely.
The truth of the matter is, there aren’t many players left in the NBA who aren’t at least good in two different areas. Even players like Patrick Beverley or Andre Drummond are capable in more than just one thing. Johnny Davis, past perimeter and help defense, does nothing at an NBA level.
Johnny Davis is not athletic enough at his size to truly make an impact with the Wizards
While Johnny Davis is quick enough and can jump high enough for a player that’s six-foot-eight, he only stands at six-foot-five. At his height and athleticism, he will continue to struggle at getting to and finishing at the rim.
While he did shoot 70.8 percent at the rim last season, only 14 percent of his shot attempts came from within three feet of the basket. Many of those opportunities were also break away shots in the fast break or errors made by opposing defenses late in the season.
He is below average in terms of quickness, speed, and verticality and is just straight up not very strong for an NBA player. He was able to cover this up at the collegiate level but has clearly struggled adjusting to the size and strength of the NBA.
Even with Wisconsin, Davis liked to settle for midrange jump shots a lot due to his relative lack of size and athleticism. This has continued into his NBA career where over 35 percent of his shot attempts come from between three and 16 feet.
His only issue is the fact that he is only average in the midrange compared to the rest of the league. This is really the only area where he is even close to average on the NBA level, and it is the least effective aspect of an offense.
Part of the problem for Davis is the fact that the three biggest weaknesses in his overall basketball ability make the other issues stand out even more.
While it may be impossible to see the future, right now Johnny Davis projects to have a career more similar to Jan Vesely than to Patrick Beverley. While it’s unfortunate, this one will likely be marked up as a failure for the Washington Wizards.