Wizards’ Wes Unseld Jr. unplugged: Spencer Dinwiddie is ‘a dynamic fit’, new ways to use Bradley Beal and more
LAS VEGAS, NV - AUGUST 10: Corey Kispert #24 of the Washington Wizards dribbles the ball during the game against the Sacramento Kings during the 2021 Las Vegas Summer League on August 10, 2021 at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.
Wes Unseld Jr. knows what a good screen action looks like. After all, he coached Nuggets stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic for half a decade.
Murray and Jokic have become particularly adept at the dribble handoff, a play when the star guard curves around the NBA’s reigning MVP to grab the rock from Jokic, who also acts simultaneously as a massive screener and basketball dispenser. Murray can shoot, drive or make a play for a teammate as the defense scrambles to stop him. If the league has a premier dribble-handoff combination, these two are it.
But there is an All-Star guard in Washington who thrives in dribble handoffs as much as anyone, and Unseld — who was an assistant in Denver from 2015 until this summer when the Wizards named him their head coach — sees parallels between the way his former stars ran dribble handoffs and the way Bradley Beal can in D.C.
“It’s a simple action, but you can get a lot of mileage out of it, especially late game,” Unseld said in a conversation with The Athletic earlier this month at the Las Vegas Summer League. “We’ve all seen it, and Denver has had a lot of success doing it. I will definitely use a lot of that, as well, because we know (the Wizards are) very efficient using that.”
They’re abundant, too.
Beal has received more dribble handoffs than any player in the NBA during each of the past two seasons, according to information compiled by data-tracking site Second Spectrum and supplied to The Athletic. And he’s blown out the rest of the competition in that stat.
In 2019-20, he received 21.1 dribble handoffs per 100 possessions. The second-place finisher that season averaged only 13.6. This past season, Beal averaged 16.0 per 100. Second place was 13.8.
And who was the runner-up in both of those seasons? None other than Murray, each time.
“Not to akin their individual talents, but I think that two-man combination is dynamic. When you have a guy who can score the ball like both of those guys (in Denver) can, it’s a tough thing to guard,” Unseld said. “And then you have to choose. Do I chase over (the screen)? Well, if you chase over, you’re creating a two-on-one. Somebody’s open. If you go under, both are capable shot-makers.”
Beal has never scurried around more dribble handoffs than he did in 2019-20 when the Wizards instilled more motion into their offense than they had in previous seasons with John Wall out from the beginning of training camp. Unseld wants to reinforce those principles.
The reigning All-NBA guard has reached an expert level at using handoffs to head in every which direction. He’ll curl around them. He’ll approach a teammate as if he is about to grab the ball and drive downhill but instead will come to a stop and back cut his defender. Murray and Jokic do this beautifully, too.
The return of Thomas Bryant will matter for the Wizards too, even if they have a trio of capable centers.
As Unseld mentions, when both players in a dribble handoff can score — and especially, when both can shoot — it makes decisions far more difficult for defenses. Bryant will likely miss the beginning of the season as he recovers from the ACL rupture he suffered in January. Washington can scamper Beal around all kinds of screens in the meantime, considering he can run those actions with Montrezl Harrell, Daniel Gafford, Rui Hachimura and others. But when Bryant comes back, he’ll add a new wrinkle.
He is the one Wizards center who shoots 3s. And he does it quite well; he’s at a 41 percent clip over the past two seasons. He can pull a handoff back, take a dribble into the paint and finish around the hoop. He and Beal already have chemistry together.
The Wizards’ new coach knows something about this kind of offense. Maybe he can teach his new squad a subtlety or two he learned in Denver.
Unseld touched on several more topics during his conversation with The Athletic, which followed a summer-league practice in Las Vegas.
‘A dynamic fit’
Unseld called new point guard Spencer Dinwiddie “a dynamic fit” next to Beal.
“On paper, it’s one of the most dynamic 1-2s, 2-1s, however you wanna call it, on the East Coast,” he said. “So, I’m excited to have both those guys. I think they’re about the right thing. I think they’re gonna play together, make us better. Honestly, the way they can score the ball, they’re gonna bail us out of a lot of tough spots.”
The addition of Dinwiddie — who signed a three-year, $62 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade deal to Washington — is one of many changes to the roster since the last time Unseld spoke with reporters about his vision for the upcoming season.
The trade that brought Dinwiddie to D.C. and sent Russell Westbrook to Los Angeles also included four more players coming to the Wizards: Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Harrell and Aaron Holiday. The personnel is not the same as it was heading into draft night.
“On a macro level, (changes to the team) don’t change our overall philosophy when it comes to spacing, playing with pace, shots, as far as what we value,” Unseld said. “That doesn’t change. I think you’ve got to shift your gears as far as some of the nuanced things you run. … I think as coaches, we all steal from each other, so there are gonna be some things that are very similar-looking to what you’re accustomed to.”
Dinwiddie is, of course, the big fish of the summer. He missed nearly all of last season with an ACL injury but averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists in 2019-20. He’s been one of the league’s top guards at getting to the line, a trait that will work well next to Beal, who shares the same strength.
Beal, for example, had a 33 percent free-throw rate (free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt) last season. Dinwiddie had a 44 percent rate in his most recent healthy season. To put that in perspective, only two qualifying starting backcourts around the NBA last season boasted a couple of guards with individual free-throw rates above 30 percent. One of them was Beal and Westbrook.
(I could give you 30 guesses, one for each team in the league, and you still may not get the other backcourt. It’s the Timberwolves’ Ricky Rubio and Josh Okogie, who posts elite free-throw rates every season partly because he rarely ever shoots and partly because a defender trying to stop his drive is like a cat trying to stop a bowling ball.)
Beal, though, has played with a free-throw glutton before — just last season. And this time, he’ll have more shooting around him with the additions of Caldwell-Pope, Kuzma, first-round pick Corey Kispert and an eventually healthy Bryant, which will theoretically open up more driving lanes.
“It gives you a different dynamic,” Unseld said. “Obviously, you have two dynamic guards who can score at will, so I think it gives us a lot of flexibility on offense.”
What to do with the rotation?
Unseld has a problem any coach would appreciate: some player, at any given moment, might feel like he deserves more playing time than he’s receiving. The Wizards are deep. And their new coach will have to carve out a rotation inside a roster filled with forwards and big men.
Particularly intriguing will be what route Unseld chooses once Bryant returns from his ACL injury. The Wizards have three centers: Bryant, Harrell and Gafford, the projected opening-day starter. Each could justify consistent playing time.
“I made this point to those guys when I spoke to them. All of that is great, but all of our decisions are gonna be based on what’s best for the group,” Unseld said. “I may at times ask somebody to sacrifice a little bit for the betterment of the group. There’s times when I may ask (them) to do more. And I think that’s a fair way to look at it, and I think it’s just one of our pillars. It’s about us. It’s about ‘we,’ not ‘me.’ ”
The Wizards are stacked with forwards, too. Kuzma, 2019 first-rounder Hachimura, 2020 first-rounder Deni Avdija, Davis Bertans and Anthony Gill are all conventional forwards, and more players could receive time at the three or the four, as well.
“That gives you more flexibility,” Unseld said. “It allows you to play big at times. It allows you to downsize.”
He also says Hachimura could play center at times and likes Kuzma as both a three and four. Unseld believes Caldwell-Pope, a 3-and-D threat who can play the three but more consistently defends guards, has shown he can guard big wings in moments.
“I don’t know if doing it on a full-time basis is fair, but there are gonna be some nights we’re gonna have to ask him to do that,” Unseld said. “Just like anyone else, we’re gonna have to ask him to do some things that maybe are out of their box, and we’ll find things schematically to help manage that.”
Unseld calls Kuzma “a weapon” for the way he can shoot and play at multiple positions.
“Whether you wanna call him a two, three or four, he’s gonna be out there. He’s gonna space the floor. He’s gonna make shots,” Unseld said. “I think the game has moved away from the standard point guard, two-guard, small forward, etc. I think you wanna put your best matchups out there.”
Of course, there is one name missing from this list: Kispert, the sharpshooter who the Wizards selected with the No. 15 pick in the NBA Draft last month.
The team is loaded up with competent players. It’s difficult to imagine Dinwiddie, Beal, Caldwell-Pope, Hachimura, Gafford, Kuzma, Bertans, Avdija, Harrell or Raul Neto out of the rotation heading into the fall. Well, that’s 10 players. A healthy Bryant would be another possible contributor. And Holiday still could fit in somewhere.
So, where does Kispert fall? And will he play right away?
“I don’t know. I never wanna paint myself into a corner, commit to something I’m uncertain of, but I think he has a good chance to be impactful,” Unseld said. “I said at draft night, he’s got a discernible NBA talent. His maturity, the fact that he’s played four years at a high level for a great coach — he’s disciplined. He understands his strengths. He’s gonna play to his strengths. And his ability to stretch the defense is a premium in the league.”
Creating chemistry
This group’s dynamic is almost entirely new.
Westbrook wasn’t just a fixture on the court last season. He also was the loudest voice in the locker room. Now, he’s gone — as is most of the coaching staff, including most assistants and Scott Brooks, the team’s head coach for the previous five seasons. Well-respected veterans, like Robin Lopez and Ish Smith, have gone to Orlando and Charlotte, respectively.
Maybe even more striking than all the basketball changes in Washington are the personality ones.
“It takes time,” Unseld said when asked for his philosophies in building chemistry inside an environment that will present something new for everyone. “I think the most important thing is being able to have that organic relationship build slowly. You have to take those unscripted moments to just spend time, whether it’s on the floor with players.
“Obviously, we had an opportunity to kinda bond a little the last few days (in Las Vegas), grab some meals. I think that those are great moments to kind of figure each other out. The sooner we can do that, I think it allows us to exude our strengths. They can understand how we wanna teach, how we’re speaking the same language. I think that transitions into your group. The sooner that happens, the chemistry now develops.”