2024 Summer League: Carrington leads Wizards to victory over Atlanta Hawks

The NBA Summer League is back.

Again.

The highlights of my evening were eating a Reuben sandwich (5 out of 10), some chicken wings (3 out of 10), and part of a chocolate chip cookie (1 out of 10). Also, I think I fell asleep during the second half.

At least I had the feeling of waking up abruptly and feeling like I had missed something. I rewound to the last thing I remembered and a few minutes later I had the feeling of waking up abruptly and feeling like I had missed something.

This time I didn’t rewind and I’m reasonably sure I stayed awake until the end. I saw 18-year-old Bub Carrington hit a late three-pointer to preserve the lead… and then Hawks guard Nikola Djurisic hit a three-pointer and miss the first free throw.

At this point, I think I should back up and give the big picture: The Washington Wizards played the Atlanta Hawks, a game that featured the first overall pick in the 2024 draft and the second overall pick. Both guys (Zaccharie Risacher for the Hawks and Alexandre Sarr for the Wizards) played well and had some good moments.

They both come from France, so long live France, I guess.

Washington’s second first-round pick, Carlton “Bub” Carrington, played well: 19 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists. Justin Champagnie shot 8 of 10, and had 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Good job by him.

Jules Bernard took some pictures, it was nice.

Sarr’s game included a stretch in which he blocked three shots in two possessions, a sideways shot off a three-dribble, a few wild (and inaccurate) shots and a few “stop that nonsense” fouls.

Washington’s last first-round pick in 2024, Kyshawn George, had a lousy game: 7 points on 3-8 shooting, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals (not bad at all), but also 4 turnovers and 5 fouls in just 22 minutes.

Wizards general manager Will Dawkins was interviewed during the second half by game commentators Mark Jones and Doris Burke. I don’t think I slept through the entire conversation, though I don’t recall hearing anything of substance.

To be fair to Dawkins, his Hawks counterpart Landry Fields was interviewed in the first half, and the only thing I remember is Fields repeatedly using the words “small sample size” like it was a smart thing to say.

For the Hawks, first-round pick Risacher was pretty good. He shot well from two-point range and not so well from three-point range (just 3-9). Overall, he looked calm and confident, which might even translate to a good NBA player.

Keaton Wallace and Miles Norris were okay. Dylan Windler was pretty good too.

Oh yeah, the Wizards won, 94-88.

Telling statistic: The Hawks’ field goal percentage was an atrocious 45.3%, and they lost by six points.

Four factors

Below are the four factors that determine wins and losses in basketball: shooting (EFG), rebounding (offensive rebounds), ball handling (turnovers), fouls (free throws made).

Statistics and measurements

Below are some performance metrics, including Player Production Average (PPA). PPA is my overall production metric, which rewards players for the things they do to help a team win (scoring, rebounding, playmaking, defense) and penalizes them for the things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, poor defense, fouls).

Game Score (GmSC) converts individual production into points on the scoreboard. The scale is the same as that of points and reflects the performance of each player. total contributions for the game. The lowest possible GmSC is zero.

PPA is a per-possession metric designed for larger data sets. In small samples, the numbers can get weird. In PPP, 100 is the average, higher is better, and the replacement level is 45. For a single game, the replacement level is not very useful, and I reiterate the caveat about small samples sometimes producing weird results.

POSS This is the number of possessions each player had on the court in this game.

ORTG = offensive rating, which is points produced per individual possession x 100. The league average last season was 114.8. Points produced are not the same as points scored. It includes the value of assists and offensive rebounds, as well as the credit shared when receiving an assist.

USG = offensive usage rate. The average is 20%.

ORTG and USG are versions of stats created by former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver and modified by me. ORTG is an efficiency metric that takes into account the value of shots, offensive rebounds, assists, and turnovers. USG includes shots from the floor and the free throw line, offensive rebounds, assists, and turnovers.

+PTS = “Plus Points” is a measure of the points gained or lost by each player based on their efficiency in that game compared to the league average efficiency over the same number of possessions. A player with an offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) of 100 who uses 20 possessions would produce 20 points. If the league average efficiency is 114, the league would produce an average of 22.8 points over the same 20 possessions. Thus, the player in this hypothetical situation would have a +PTS rating of -2.8.