Glen Rice Jr. heading back to the D-League after early season struggles

After Bradley Beal's strong debut against the Dallas Mavericks last night, we weren't shocked to see this press release from the Wizards:

WIZARDS ASSIGN RICE TO FORT WAYNE MAD ANTS

Washington, D.C. - The Washington Wizards announced today that guard Glen Rice has been assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League.

Rice has appeared in five games this season for Washington while averaging 2.2 points in 8.5 minutes per game.

As you can tell from those raw numbers, it's been a rough year for the Summer League MVP. Even after Bradley Beal's injury opened up a great chance for Glen Rice Jr. to capitalize on some open playing time, he was being passed over by Randy Wittman for Garrett Temple and Rasual Butler. And before you try to make this about Wittman preferring veterans to young guys, consider Glen Rice is 3-15 from the field this season (20 percent), and has only had a positive plus/minus in one game (his three minute stint against Toronto). That's not going to get you playing time at any age in the NBA.

Before the season, we said that Glen Rice Jr. has proven he's mastered the D-League and Summer League, but hasn't shown he can make an impact on the NBA level. For Rice Jr.'s sake, we hope this assignment to the D-League helps him figure out how to translate his success to the NBA level. At this point, either the third time will be the charm, or it will be three strikes and he's out.