Tre Johnson Looks to Augment Wizards' Playmaking Pool

Several of his newest teammates were readier to jet off than we expected, though, with Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George making rather-sudden leaps into future star conversations. Everyone seemed to have grown as a passer over the summer, and Johnson's been right there with them.

He's completely backed up the knack for finding a pocket to get a shot off anywhere on the floor that he advertised, and does so with a Kevin Durant-esque fluidity that requires real comfort as a handler. Johnson still won't be mistaken for a point guard, but he's fitting right in as a ball-moving threat on offense just 23 games into his stint in the show.

Working the Two-Man Game

In discerning Johnson's approach to the expanded opportunities that naturally arrive in the later stages of rookie seasons, look no further than his first start back from a long hip injury. He was a team-high +18 in a 116-112 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, and his hot start could be easily attributed to how he collaborated with teammates.

He's already clearly comfortable as a pick-and-roll operator, leveraging Sarr's screening when he can to trap defenders on his back and maneuver into his spots. He scored the Wizards' first basket of the outing by staring a drop defender in his face and rising up in the paint, the lone area in which he's struggled to score.

"Tre has a lot of gravity," Sarr observed after the game. "He has that middy pull-up that teams respect, so they don't really know where to commit to, me or Tre. We haven't been doing a ton of that, but it's definitely gonna be something for us in the future."

Fans have been clamoring for his getting more touches by dashing away from off-ball screens, but he may be similarly-worthy of showing what he's got to offer as an initiator. Add him to the list of burgeoning playmakers that makes up the Wizards' core, a growing group that the play-finishing center has taken gleeful note of.

"We have a lot of guys with gravity," he said. "Coming off of ball-screens, I just really gotta run and make myself available, and they'll find me or the open man in the corner."

Johnson also had four assists in that most recent contest, a season-high for the budding hooper. These are admittedly small steps, but he's already paying off the trust that the team placed in him during draft season and adding to an already-exciting band of scorers and playmakers.