The Washington Wizards just wrapped up their Summer League schedule, and some of their rookies looked really solid. Unfortunately, the rookie that everyone was paying attention to ended up playing super poorly.
Second-overall pick Alex Sarr had perhaps the worst Summer League of anybody this offseason, and it was wholly because of his inability to maintain any sort of offensive game.
Sarr got a ton of flack for the way he played, and things were only made worse because of how well Reed Sheppard—who the Houston Rockets took one pick after Sarr—played during Summer League. He was named to the All-Summer League First Team and looked like the best rookie in the class.
Wizards get terribls grade because of Alex Sarr, but that's disrespectful to Bub Carrington
And unfortunately, because of how poorly Sarr played and the fact that the Wizards may have whiffed on their pick at No. 2, rookie Bub Carrington caught a stray from Bleacher Report’s rookie rankings.
Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report compiled a list of grades for every team’s rookies and how they performed in Summer League. Washington got the worst grade of any team at a D-.
Bailey noted that the biggest part of the grade was because of how bad Sarr was, since he was the second-overall pick in the draft, but that’s unfair to Carrington, who looked really good.
In the article, it noted that Carrington and Kyshawn George, the Wizards’ other first-round pick, played well, but their grade was brought down heavily because of Sarr.
But Carrington played well enough to bring the grade up a little bit. The Pittsburgh point guard looked like a legitimate player, and someone who could be a star in the future.
In five games during Summer League, Carrington averaged 15.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists while shooting 32.9% from the floor and 35.9% from beyond the three-point line. He was named to the All-Summer League Second Team.
It’s pretty unfair that Carrington (and George) got dragged down with Sarr into the worst grade of any rookie group. Sarr was terrible, but the fact that Carrington was as good as he was should have brought the grade up at least a little bit.