{"id":129904,"date":"2025-03-21T11:37:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=129904"},"modified":"2025-03-21T11:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:37:33","slug":"saddiq-bey-first-wizards-game-2024-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/21\/saddiq-bey-first-wizards-game-2024-25\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Round Pick On Track To Make Wizards Debut In 2024-25"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After tearing his ACL last March, Washington Wizards forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/beysa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saddiq Bey<\/a> \u2014who signed <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/10\/wizards-sign-20-million-forward\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a three-year deal<\/a> in July \u2014is preparing to take the court for the first time this season. According to The Athletic&#8217;s Josh Robbins, Bey will practice with the team&#8217;s G League affiliate on Friday and Saturday. The &#8220;goal is for (him) to play in NBA regular season games in April,&#8221; Robbins reports.<\/p>\n<h2>Saddiq Bey On Track To Make Wizards Debut In 2024-25<\/h2>\n<p>The 19th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, Bey has career averages of 14.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 0.8 steals per game. Prior to his anomalous 2023-24 campaign, he had converted 36.1 percent of his career 3s (40.1 percent on corner 3s). With that in mind, the Wizards could look to use the Villanova product as a stretch-four, especially if his ACL injury has negatively affected his athleticism.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Saddiq Bey will practice with the G League&#8217;s Go-Go today and Saturday, sources told <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a>. The Washington Wizards&#8217; goal is for Bey to play in NBA regular-season games in April. Bey tore his left knee&#8217;s ACL on March 10, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoshuaBRobbins\/status\/1903069190342181362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If so, it could go a long way towards making their offense more effective, especially with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kispeco01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Corey Kispert<\/a> now out <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/18\/washington-wizards-corey-kispert-unfortunate-injury-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">for the season<\/a>. To that point, Washington&#8217;s offensive rating (107.0) is dead last in the NBA. Their 3-point percentage (.335) ranks 29th but they&#8217;re taking 39.4 3-point attempts per game, seventh in the NBA. With that in mind, Kispert, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/poolejo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Poole<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/champju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Champagnie<\/a> are the Wizards&#8217; only rotation player shooting above league-average from 3.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, only Kispert and Champagnie play in the frontcourt.<\/p>\n<h3>Growing His Game<\/h3>\n<p>Hopefully, Bey&#8217;s athleticism hasn&#8217;t diminished.<\/p>\n<p>Like any player, the ability to score in a variety of ways only makes him a more viable offensive option. That being said, he&#8217;s shown the ability to get to the rim off-the-dribble or off-ball. He can even score on post-ups.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"fr\">J\u2019ai aussi beaucoup aim\u00e9 le match de Saddiq Bey : 16 points \u00e0 7\/10 au tir en sortie de banc. \u00c0 l&#8217;image de son putback dunk en fin de match, son \u00e9nergie est pr\u00e9cieuse.<\/p>\n<p>Et m\u00eame si \u00e7a reste compliqu\u00e9 off-ball, je le trouve de plus en plus solide en d\u00e9fense sur l\u2019homme. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NhD3M0Lw7E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NhD3M0Lw7E<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pierre (@pierrebrgs_) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pierrebrgs_\/status\/1725210597296394510?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In fact, in 2022-23, he scored 1.10 points per possession <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/players\/playtype-post-up?SeasonYear=2022-23&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=TEAM_ABBREVIATION\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on post-ups<\/a> when he was with the Detroit Pistons and 1.09 points per possession on post-ups after he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. That same season, he scored on 47.2 percent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/players\/drives?Season=2022-23&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=TEAM_ABBREVIATION\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">of his drives<\/a> when he was the Hawks. In 2023-24, he scored 1.37 points per possession <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/players\/cut?SeasonYear=2023-24\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">on cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"fr\">C\u2019est toujours compliqu\u00e9 en d\u00e9fense, mais il faut donner du cr\u00e9dit \u00e0 Saddiq Bey pour son adaptation offensive depuis la blessure de Jalen Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Il avait d\u00e9j\u00e0 un style de jeu agressif avant, mais il h\u00e9site encore moins \u00e0 aller jouer physique sous le cercle pour compenser. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aOZFTqDG9F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/aOZFTqDG9F<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pierre (@pierrebrgs_) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pierrebrgs_\/status\/1734621141736538614?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, with his age (26) and the state of the Wizards franchise, Bey should be allowed to develop his game.<\/p>\n<p>If it doesn&#8217;t work out, it&#8217;s no skin off of Washington&#8217;s back. They&#8217;re probably not making a run to the NBA Finals just yet. If it does work out though, it might only serve to accelerate their rebuilding process.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After tearing his ACL last March, Washington Wizards forward Saddiq Bey \u2014who signed a three-year deal in July \u2014is preparing to take the court for the first time this season. According to The Athletic&#8217;s Josh Robbins, Bey will practice with the team&#8217;s G League affiliate on Friday and Saturday. The &#8220;goal is for (him) to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":129906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1608,62,3],"tags":[4745,1732],"class_list":["post-129904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wizards","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-nba-injuries","tag-saddiq-bey"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129908,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129904\/revisions\/129908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}