Johnny Davis: Too Soon To Declare A Bust?
The Washington Wizards feel totally lost. Mostly because unless they somehow win the NBA Draft lottery on Monday, they find themselves in the same spot for about a decade. Not bad enough to secure elite players and not good enough to win anything important. Is it fair to say that the 2022 NBA Draft for the Wizards was a waste of time? Will it be another year the Wizards turn the card in for another player like Johnny Davis? Is it too soon to declare him a bust?
You may ask why I’m picking on the Wizards? It’s a fair question. However, I’d argue that irrelevance is the worst possible thing to be in sports. The Wizards are very much on the irrelevant list of NBA teams that includes the Charlotte Hornets and Portland TrailBlazers. Other than that, the NBA feels pretty wide open at the top and a group trying to land Victor Wembanyama at the bottom.
In the blogger draft we did last year, Davis went with the 11th pick. That was somehow too low as the Wizards pulled the trigger at pick 10. Karl gave the pick a B- in his draft grades a year ago so maybe it feels unfair to criticize with hindsight bias. Yes, it’s also been a year and there is time for the former Wisconsin product to turn it around.
If we’re being truthful, it just feels like no way this ends well.
The Shabazz Napier vibes have a good stench all over this one. Davis was terrible as a rookie and it’s hard to figure out what he’s good at. During the 2022-23 NBA Season, Davis averaged 5.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and one assist per game across 15.1 minutes per game in 28 contests. The shooting numbers were god awful posting a line of .386/.20/.51.9. If you barely hang around 50% from the free throw line as a guard, I’m not sure you’re good enough to play for the Shanghai Sharks.
What’s the best case scenario here? Davis figures it out down the line and becomes a Jordan Clarkson spark plug off the bench? That feels like a big maybe. At this point would the Wizards even get a second round pick via trade? What is Davis good at? I still don’t know.
Will the Wizards learn their lesson this year? That’s probably the biggest story. This Brad Beal thing is done. It’s never going to work. Every year the Wizards just turn the card in for wherever their picking and it turns out to be a non-factor pick like Corey Kispert, Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura, and Troy Brown previously. Regardless of how you feel about each player, I think we can all agree neither of which capable of moving the needle on this Wizards team.
Is it too early to call Johnny Davis a bust?
I think not. In fact, he’s probably the worst pick of that group I just mentioned. The odds of Davis ending up overseas within a three year period feel a lot higher than the odds of him becoming a factor in the league.
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