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The NBA announced the picks for All-Summer League First and Second Teams, lists that were determined based on everyone's performances at the games' Las Vegas, NV hub. The finalists were stacked with big-name prospects and notable deep-cut breakouts, but one specific assortment of talents were nowhere to be found within the roundup.
Despite AJ Dybantsa, Tre Johnson and Will Riley accounting for three of the top four scorers across the summertime festivities, the Wizards' trio of young stars were shut out by voters.
They each averaged marks of at least 25 points in proving themselves a step above most other fringe pieces looking to make statements of their own, though we should clarify their easily-explained exemptions before anyone gets carried away. Unlike those who earned this distinction, the Wizards' young corps did their damage before bowing out of Summer League action, with that wing trio combining for a mere five games of televised play.
That simply couldn't match others like the efficient-shooting Milwaukee Bucks guard Brayden Burries or the constantly-winning Yaxel Lendeborg, who played the entire Las Vegas schedule in elevating the Golden State Warriors' developmental squad into summer champions. Just like it's learned to do over the course of the regular season, the NBA is clearly prioritizing those with more impressive attendance numbers, and Washington's never quite shared that same priority over its own rebuild.
Doing Their Damage and Departing
Few were surprised when Dybantsa and Riley were shut down after their second Summer League performances.
Even if the rising rookie wasn't as statistically impressive as his fellow jumbo playmaker in Riley in that 104-85 win over the Sacramento Kings, they'd each made their cases clear. Dybantsa is the real deal as a do-everything athlete worthy of the hype, and Riley, the patient distributor with growing 3-point range and an inspiring determination to increase his paint touches, clearly listened and responded to the outside calls for the Wizards' young corps to put on some muscle.
Neither had much more to prove, even if Dybantsa's own distance shooting still leaves some to be desired while Riley could still afford to mature as a downhill, physical threat. Those long-term focuses couldn't be solved over another week of scheduled play, encouraging the Wizards to delve back into last summer's playbook and shut down their most intriguing pieces.
Johnson, who arguably outshone both Dybantsa and Riley in their group-wide opener, only made one flashy-shooting appearance before Washington determined that its evaluators had seen what they needed to.
For a team that's already established near the top with star veterans like Trae Young and Anthony Davis to empower more proven prospects in Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George, the Wizards have made it clear that they're still all-in on developing their youngest contributors. Even if they came up short in impressing league-wide voters with their small sample sizes, that first weekend of Summer League's return reminded all of just how much the quietly deep squad will be working with this fall.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/wizards/onsi as Wizards' Young Stars Get Shut Out from Summer League Awards.
