Turnovers Remain Washington Wizards' Biggest Preseason Concern

Three games into the Washington Wizards' preseason, their new look offense has provided more than a couple flashes of what's to come in the regular season.

An offense run through Trae Young looks vastly different than it did just a year ago. He's dished out 19 assists in his last 51 minutes of play. That doesn't mean it has all been pretty. He's also turned it over 13 times in that span.

"I think it's building our chemistry," Kyshawn George said after the game. "We could see each other looking for a specific type of connection...we're trying to figure out how to get ourselves open for [Young] to throw us the ball."

The turnovers aren't exclusively a Young issue. In three preseason games, the Wizards have turned it over 69 times, exceeding the 20 marker every night.

Against Brooklyn last night, Washington only turned it over seven times in the first half, looking on pace for its cleanest game yet. The tides turned in the third quarter, as the Wizards turned it over nine times, with Young responsible for six of them.

"We know they're going to pressure us," head coach Brian Keefe said postgame. "I thought we did a really good job of that in the first half. You saw the passing; I think we had 24 baskets with 20 assists."

The first half was a solid encapsulation of the offense at its best efficiency. Young posted nine assists by halftime, with just two turnovers. His court vision is impossible to ignore. The Wizards were finding clean, open looks consistently -- leading to them knocking down 10 of 20 three point attempts.

"We're learning and growing," Keefe said. "We're going to take advantage of looking at the film and see what we need to get better at."

Not all turnovers are created equal. Over the course of three games, there's been a bit of discrepancy on the different ways the Wizards have turned it over. Some have been maybe the correct read on a pass, but the execution was off. However, some have looked sloppy.

"We were trying to make the right play," Keefe said. "They were putting two on the ball and this is the chemistry we're learning; spots, where guys like things, when to roll, timing...they were turnovers of trying to do the right thing on the court, and that's what I was pleased with tonight."

One noticeable way Washington has turned it over is on entry passes to the paint. It has happened with Young, Anthony Davis, George, and others. The Wizards have prioritized searching for mismatches in the paint, or simply having one of their bigs seal their defender away from the basket. These looks have been available, but the passes need better execution. Perhaps a lot of those can be corrected through repetition. 

In the third quarter, Young had his pass tipped and stolen on three-straight possessions where he tried to find Deandre Ayton around the rim. Of his six turnovers in that quarter, five of them were passes directed at Ayton.

Despite those miscues, Young has played with a pass-first mentality in the preseason. He's only attempted nine field goals in the last two games.

"His ability to kick the ball ahead and draw crowds and get two on him and he's delivering it," Keefe said of Young. "You can see why our offense was so good -- it's because he made the right play."

When Young takes care of the ball, it has made a difference for Washington's offense, so it hopes any mistakes happening now will be a thing of the past by the regular season.

The same ideas apply to George, Washington's secondary ball handler in the preseason. After turning it over four times against New York on Thursday, he cleaned it up last night with four assists and zero turnovers. 

"I've been the point guard my whole life," George said. "It's just being able to do it at this level, and we've got a whole ton of support outside of this, so I'm going to just go out there and do it."

For Washington, its high-turnover totals don't look great on paper, but it believes these miscues will be ironed out with time.