Wizards’ Season Will be Full of Lessons for Bub Carrington

WASHINGTON Bub Carrington is right where he belongs.

Carrington made his NBA career debut on Thursday night in front of a hometown crowd in Washington, D.C.

just 40 or so miles away from where he grew up in Baltimore.

The 19-year-old earned the start, in part, due to Malcolm Brogdons injury that kept him out of the game.

But regardless of Brogdons injury status, Carrington is clearly going to have a large role for the rebuilding Wizards.

Perhaps more importantly than a large role in a season like this one in the nations capital, Carrington has a large opportunity ahead of him.

He has the ability to make mistakes live on an NBA court (against the worlds best players) as a rookie.

Not many get to say that in the association.

On the very first possession of basketball (that counts Im excluding summer league and preseason here) since his freshman season at Pitt wrapped up, Carrington was guarded by Jrue Holiday.

Holiday is a six-time NBA All-Defensive team member, a reigning NBA champion, and a gold medalist with Team USA.

A couple of possessions later, Derrick White matched up on Carrington, as he did frequently throughout the rest of the game.

White, also, is a multiple-time NBA All-Defensive Team member, a reigning champ, and an Olympic gold medalist.

This experience is invaluable for a rookie and this was only night number one of his professional career.

There are ten players under the age of 20 that have played in the NBA so far this year.

Carrington, through one game (I know, tiny sample size), has the most minutes under his belt out of any of them.

In fact, the Baltimore native played the most minutes out of all rookies in this weeks career debuts, surpassing the Wizards No.

2 overall pick Alex Sarr in that category in game No.

1.

Again, its a small sample size.

It is legitimately one game, and Im not here to make any bold takes about a guys career after one game.

All Im saying is that after watching the Wizards shootaround on Thursday morning, talking to Carrington, and watching the season opener on Thursday night, I believe hes right where he should be.

The Wizards may have a historically bad season this year, but theyre young, and theyre giving their young guns a chance from the jump.

THE TAPE Bub Carrington NBA Debut Film Shooting & on-ball defense #ForTheDistrict pic.twitter.com/i4W0vsg9Pu George Michalowski (@MichalowskiCBB) October 25, 2024 MAIN TAKEAWAYS I looked back at Carringtons performance the day after the game, and had a few main takeaways: Aside from a pair of possessions (bit Tatums pump fake and White backed him into a foul), Carrington held his own on the defensive end.

There is room to improve, sure, but I was pleasantly surprised with his performance on that side of the ball.

As a whole, the Wizards team defense looked like its communication needed some work.

On the offensive end, out of his six shots, I would categorize five as good looks.

His first attempt felt a bit rushed as it was right out of the gates in his NBA debut.

However, its something weve seen Bub do countless times before in college pull-up for a three on a fastbreak.

Most of his misses came on shots that he will make more times than not open mid-range attempts.

He obviously wants the missed dunk back.

But overall, his shot selection was promising, and his skill set, as we saw during the preseason and summer league, looked like it will prove to be effective in the NBA.

INJURY UPDATE Carrington was a full participant in Wizards practice on Friday.

This is great news for Carrington and the Wizards after he went down hard after that missed dunk and tweaked his ankle.

Bub Carrington was a full participant in Wizards practice today, per Brian Keefe.

Sigh of relief.

Bijan Todd (@bijan_todd) October 25, 2024 This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Sports Now and was syndicated with permission..

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