Game Info

When: Friday, July 6 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time
Where: Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada
TV: NBA TV

What to watch for

What does the Wizards’ frontcourt of the future look like?

The Wizards have two big men under contract to develop for the first time since the Trevor Booker/Kevin Seraphin era. The team acquired Thomas Bryant off waivers earlier this week to go along with Devin Robinson, who is entering the second year of his two-way deal with Washington.

The key to Robinson and Bryant’s success will be much different than Booker and Seraphin’s. Both players had successful seasons as stretch bigs in the G-League, but need to show they can do it on the next level and round out the rest of their game to have a shot at making it in the NBA.

Robinson had a horrendous shooting performance with Washington last season in Las Vegas. He shot 4-of-22 from the field and just 1-of-8 from deep. Thankfully, his performance in the G-League with Delaware and Westchester last season was much more encouraging. He averaged 13 points while playing just over 26 minutes per game. He was efficient as well, shooting 38.1 percent from deep on over three attempts per game, and making over half of his shots from the field.

Bryant will need to follow the Channing Frye development path to make it as a stretch five in this league. His numbers in the 72 minutes he played in the NBA during his rookie season weren’t much better than Robinson’s last year in Summer League, but he had a good G-League campaign. He shot 36.7 percent from deep while averaging nearly five 3-point attempts per game. He averaged 19.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.4 blocks in 37 games with the South Bay Lakers.

If Robinson and Bryant can effectively space the floor in Las Vegas, it’s going to make things much easier for the Wizards’ 2018 draft picks, Troy Brown and Issuf Sanon, as well as everyone else on this year’s roster, to find space to attack the rim and kick out to open shooters.