{"id":130420,"date":"2025-03-24T15:15:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T19:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=130420"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T18:34:44","slug":"aj-johnson-wizards-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/24\/aj-johnson-wizards-role\/","title":{"rendered":"What is AJ Johnson’s Future Role on Wizards Roster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the last Wizards’ game for the season in just a few weeks, they have already begun giving the young guys the rope. Before the trade deadline, four players were looking to benefit the most from the influx of minutes. Bilal Coulibaly,<\/a> before his injury<\/a>, Alex Sarr<\/a>, Kyshawn George<\/a>, and Bub Carrington<\/a> were going to be on the court, getting reps and improving headed into the offseason. However, a new rookie was added in the Kyle Kuzma<\/a>–Khris Middleton<\/a> trade<\/a>, who was also looking to snag up minutes. AJ Johnson<\/a>‘s role has continued to increase in the last few games. Will the Wizards’ keep him around, and if so, what will his role look like next season?<\/p>\n

What is AJ Johnson’s Future Role on Wizards Roster?<\/h2>\n

Current Role<\/h3>\n

Johnson’s role has been steadily improving since joining the Wizards at the deadline. In his last six games, he’s playing 25.8 minutes a game and started in two of those. Johnson has averaged<\/a> 9.2 points, 4.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds in those games. What sticks out most is his shooting splits, which sit at 43.8% from the field and 30.4% from three.<\/p>\n

Johnson is currently shooting better from the field than Sarr, George, and Carrington on the season. Three-point shooting has been a struggle all season, Washington sits 29th in the league for three-point percentage<\/a> this season (33.6%). Johnson has made the most of his opportunities and has possibly inserted himself as a piece of the future for the rebuilding squad. While he’s been playing well, there are a few reasons he’s recently been playing so much.<\/p>\n

Roster Injuries<\/h3>\n

With the Coulibaly injury mentioned, the squad is missing some key rotation players, and that has given Johnson a chance to take some spotlight for himself. Malcolm Brogdon<\/a> has been out since mid-February, Saddiq Bey<\/a> has been assigned to the G League<\/a> and is expected to make his season debut in April this season, and Corey Kispert<\/a> recently suffered from a season-ending thumb injury. The next-man-up mentality is ringing true for Johnson,\u00a0no doubt. This certainly plays a role in his minute increase.<\/p>\n

Before the last six games, Johnson only had one game with double-digit minutes. With this in mind, Johnson will need to continue his play and improve it, if he’s looking to keep the minutes he’s been given. The offseason will provide the team with a decent amount of time to figure out everyone’s roles and add new faces.<\/p>\n

Draft Implications for Johnson<\/h3>\n

Another layer to the minute situation is if the Wizards get a top-five pick. According to NBA.com’s latest mock draft<\/a>, the Wizards are projected to get Dylan Harper<\/a>. Adding another guard to the Wizards’ young core would be intriguing. Carrington would likely move to the backup point guard or shooting guard role, while Johnson could maintain quality minutes at the two-guard. However, when accounting for Jordan Poole, \u00a0<\/a>Malcolm Brogdon<\/a>, and Marcus Smart<\/a>, it complicated things. Drafting another guard could lead the Wizards to let Borgdon walk in free agency and\/or trade some combination of Poole and Smart to go all in on this young core.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

While Johnson for now is getting the minutes, that could certainly change as the roster gets healthy. The Wizards will probably keep him around headed into next season. However, if his development slows and he isn’t improving, they could also look to shop for him. For now, Johnson has a home in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the last Wizards’ game for the season in just a few weeks, they have already begun giving the young guys the rope. Before the trade deadline, four players were looking to benefit the most from the influx of minutes. Bilal Coulibaly, before his injury, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, and Bub Carrington were going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":130492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,18],"tags":[49598],"class_list":["post-130420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-wizards","tag-aj-johnson"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130420","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\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130420"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130493,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130420\/revisions\/130493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}