Tre Johnson's Defense Among Next Wizards Season's Make-or-Break Factors

The Wizards' Need for Reliability

As confident as Johnson's been about his abilities to comfortably slot into the NBA, his self-awareness as a defender is refreshing, if nothing new.

He provided scouting reports of his own before logging a single big-league minute in pointing out his shortcomings as a defender, repeatedly clarifying a desire to improve on that side of the ball amidst his chase to solidify himself as an all-around threat.

The Wizards may need him to be helpful on that end quicker than fans may have anticipated, though, even if his stopping ability was never tabbed as a particular strength of the skinny guard pre-draft.

Sharing Washington's backcourt with Trae Young will spare Johnson from ever being the worst defender of the bunch in the team's prospective rotation, but the smaller point man is much more essential to the group's offensive flow and dynamic. Johnson isn't the same caliber of table setter as the 4x All-Star, making it that much more necessary that he pull his weight to help make up for the lead guard's deficiencies on head coach Brian Keefe's preferred end of the court.

He isn't alone in his generation of aspiring defenders, even if bigger wings in Kyshawn George and Bilal Coulibaly have each flexed more potential and physical advantages on that front. A team's defensive culture is only as good as the weaker links on the floor, and Johnson seems to sense the need to escape liability-status and join his fellow prospects as two-way impact pieces in fueling the turnaround, especially as other fellow youngsters continue making their own intriguing cases for logging heavy minutes in the near-future.

The lanky Will Riley doesn't offer these same concerns; neither does the sturdy Jamir Watkins, the dogged Justin Champagnie or even breakout newcomer Julian Reese. Before long, the two Tre(a)s are alone at the bottom of the functional depth chart as defensive hazards, and that's before a fresh round of incoming rookies further complicates Keefe's lineups.

Johnson's already flashed the shooting touch and instincts, tools rare enough to guarantee him regular burn regardless of present flaws. But as satisfying as the highlights were, his summertime itinerary sounds about as defined as could be within a week of the Wizards' regular season mercifully coming to a close. If he's looking to maximize the minutes he's seeing in continuing to advertise his upside, this desire to continue closing up blind spots while fortifying his already-established strengths is the way to go about approaching a healthy offseason.