Trae Young’s Role Could Define the Washington Wizards’ New-Look Offense

The Washington Wizards have more offensive talent than they’ve had in years.

Now comes another challenge: figuring out who gets the basketball when the game is on the line.

Washington enters the season with established stars in Trae Young and Anthony Davis alongside No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa and a growing collection of young talent. That creates an interesting question about how Young will adjust after spending much of his career as the unquestioned engine of Atlanta’s offense.

During a recent appearance on Locked On Wizards, Wizards on SI’s Henry Brown cautioned against assuming that adjustment will happen immediately.

“God bless all the hopeful Wizards fans who think that Trae Young is in for this kind of epiphany where he just uses the ball less and keeps that high assist rate. I think that’s sort of ambitious to assume it’s going to be that quick of a transition. Maybe it will happen, but I don’t know. I still think it’s going to be a lot of Trae Young, and especially at the end of these games. That’s where, if there’s going to be any time where Trae is going to go back to his old habits of saying, ‘I got this,’ it’s going to be in the clutch.”

That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Young has built his reputation as one of the NBA’s most dynamic offensive guards, and putting the basketball in his hands late in games is hardly an unreasonable strategy.

But Washington is also building something bigger than this season.

Dybantsa is expected to eventually become the centerpiece of the Wizards’ offense, and those high-pressure possessions could be valuable opportunities for the rookie to develop into that role.

That leaves head coach Brian Keefe with an important balancing act.

The Wizards are no longer in a position where developing young players and trying to win games are completely separate goals. Young and Davis give Washington established veterans capable of taking over late, while Dybantsa represents the player the franchise hopes will eventually become its long-term offensive leader.

There may not need to be one permanent answer.

But when Washington finds itself in a close game with two minutes remaining, who Keefe trusts with the basketball could tell us plenty about where this team’s priorities stand.