The season may be on hold but we have already seen enough to grade the Washington Wizards players on their 2019-20 season.
In the middle of an NBA hiatus that could end with the cancelation of the 2019-20 season, we decided to had out grades for regular season performances. We begin with the 2019-20 Washington Wizards.
These grades are mostly based on how the players performed relative to expectations. As a young team going through somewhat of a rebuild, expectations were relatively low for a lot of these players. This is especially true for those that were added to the roster and almost nothing was given up in return. That was factored into the grading as well.
Garrison Mathews: Incomplete
Garrison Mathews was injured on and off for different stretches of the season so it’s a bit hard to evaluate his performance. The highs were pretty high (torching the Miami Heat comes to mind) and the lows were pretty low (struggling in certain G League match-ups). But that’s to be expected from a player picked up on a Two-Way contract.
Despite the inconsistency, I would still like to see Mathews back in Washington next season. He was brought in to be a shooter and looked the part enough times to warrant keeping around. He also seemed to make strides defensively as the year went on.
Jerome Robinson: Incomplete
Unfortunately, Jerome Robinson was only able to play 13 games for the Wizards after joining the team at the trade deadline. In those games, he averaged six points and 3.5 rebounds. He made a couple of big-time, tough shots but he also disappeared for stretches. Part of that is youth and needing more time to adjust to a new team mid-season.
Next year is going to be a big one for Robinson as he needs to start showing more actual production. He can’t rest on the fact that he was a lottery pick forever. Of anyone on the team, he could have most benefited from the remaining games of the regular season to grow and play through mistakes. Hopefully, starting the year in Washington will allow him to get more comfortable and carve out a role from the start.