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Wizards 2020-21 Player Evaluations: Chandler Hutchison must improve his all-around shooting for next season

The reserve wing player needs to improve his shooting, especially close to the basket as he heads to the fourth season of his rookie scale contract.

By Albert Lee
Indiana Pacers v Washington Wizards - Play-In Tournament
Chandler Hutchison wasn’t bad statistically but he was still not necessarily an average NBA player.
Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images

Chandler Hutchison was a midseason addition for the Washington Wizards in the 2020-21 NBA season. Let’s take a quick look at his time in D.C. and what the future holds for him.

Stats

Hutchison averaged 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in all 25 of his appearances in the 2020-21 season. As a Wizards player (18 appearances), he averaged 5.2 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.

Strengths

Hutchison shot a career-high 82.6 percent from the free throw line for the entire 2020-21 season. He hasn’t been a strong performer on that end historically, going back to his college days at Boise State. His best game for the Wizards was his Washington debut on Mar. 29 when he scored 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Weaknesses

As Kevin Broom noted back on May 26, Hutchison’s PPA (player production average) is just 32 for his time in Washington. That’s below the number of a typical rotation-level player.

As a refresher, here’s how to interpret the PPA number from Kevin himself.

PPA credits players for things they do that help a team win (scoring, rebounding, play-making, defending) and dings them for things that hurt (missed shots, turnovers, bad defense, fouls). PPA is pace neutral, accounts for defense, and includes a “degree of difficulty” factor. There’s also an accounting for role/position.

Why was Hutchison not so great in his appearances as a whole? In general, his shooting was never very good, in particular from close range, where he didn’t shoot above 41 percent from the field from all of his shots that were nine or less feet away for the entire season.

Given that the average NBA player shoots better than Hutchison did (and his own three point shooting wasn’t particularly great either), he was not a positive gamechanger to say the least. This is an area he must improve on heading toward next season.

What’s next for Hutchison

Hutchison will be on the Wizards’ payroll next season for about $4.02 million barring a trade. Next year is Hutchison’s last year of his four-year rookie-scale contract which is a team option the Chicago Bulls granted before trading him.

It is tempting for the Wizards to want to trade him, but since he was below average all season, they may very well just let him stay and just not renew him for a sophomore contract.