Washington Wizards 2019-2020 Team Awards

OTG is diving into awards, but not for the league as a whole. To make it more interesting, we are passing out cyber trophies to the players that stood out on each individual team.

If the NBA regular season is indeed over, the Washington Wizards ended the year 9th in the East. The team could really light it up with one of the best offenses in the league, finishing 6th in points per game.

That said, the other half of the game of basketball is stopping the other team from scoring, and Washington surrendered the 2nd most points per game. Still, there was promise on the squad and there are players to talk about.

Most Valuable Player: Bradley Beal

This decision is about as easy as it gets. Bradley was ready for his trophy when I started this piece. He is without a doubt the most important player on the Wizards, and without him they would have easily been one of the worst teams in the league instead of fighting for a playoff spot.

Beal led the team in offensive win shares, win shares, offensive box plus-minus, box plus minus, and VORP (value over replacement player). There’s a reason why he’s been the subject of trade speculation. Beal’s a star and can score at will, averaging 30.5 points per game which was 2nd only to James Harden.

Beal had ten games with at least 40 points, and went for at least 50 twice. In the last 22 games he lit it up for 35.8 points per game while leading the team to a 10-11 record.

Defensive Player of the Year: Gary Payton II

I said it before and I’ll say it again: part of the game is stopping the other team. And Washington had one of the worst defenses in the NBA. I almost gave this award to another OTG writer to give out to another team, because truly no Wizard was worthy.

Upon further review, though, there were some endearing defensive efforts in Washington.

If your dad is “the Glove,” it’s probably a requirement to know how to play quality defense. Junior had 16 steals in his first four games, averaged 2.7 thefts per 36 minutes, and had the best defensive rating on the team. Payton and Chiozza were the only players on the team with a positive defensive box plus-minus.

Sixth Man of the Year: Davis Bertans

Despite coming off the bench, Bertans was the second most prolific scorer for the Wizards, averaging 15.4 points per game. He was one of only five players in the entire league that came off the bench for at least 50 games and still managed to average that many points.

Davis can catch lightning in a bottle, and when he gets hot, it’s like a flamethrower set on full power.

Opponents will burn while he torches them and displays that evil looking grin of his. It’s pretty fun to watch and he’s going to get paid this summer as he will be a free agent. The league pays for shooting and he definitely supplies that as no other player in the NBA made more three pointers at a better clip than he did (3.7 threes on 42.4 percent shooting).

Rookie of the Year: Rui Hachimura

With the ninth pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards selected Rui Hachimura out of Gonzaga, becoming the first player from Japan to be drafted in the first round.

He’s off to a pretty good start in this league; he averaged 13.4 points, 6 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game. Staying healthy was a challenge for Hachimura.

Rui ranked sixth in points and third in rebounds among rookies and deserves to make it onto an All-Rookie Team. He needs to improve his long-range shooting and get his defense to translate to the NBA, but he has already shown signs of doing that and the future is bright for him. In 21 games from November 29 to March 3, he shot a respectable 33 percent from beyond the arc and averaged 15.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1 steal per game showing improvement over the year.

Most Improved Player: Troy Brown Jr.

Due to the state of the team and with John Wall out for the year, there were several players that had more of an opportunity this season and there are several names that I could have put here. However, being that Troy was their first round pick (15th overall) in the 2018 NBA Draft and likely has more of a chance of being a significant part of their future, he gets the award from me. His shooting splits went from 41-31-68 in 2018-19 to 45-34-75 in 2019-20 and he improved in nearly every statistical category, even doubling up from the season prior in some. He averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game and became a main part of the team’s rotation.