Trae Young Excited to Experiment With Wizards’ New-Look Offense

The Washington Wizards held their Media Day on Monday, with several players speaking to the media, including point guard Trae Young.

Coming into his first full season with Washington, Young will be the Wizards’ starting point guard, but he is not the only guard on the team capable of initiating the offense. He was asked about having multiple initiators on the floor and said it will allow him to “experiment” with parts of his game that he hasn't been able to showcase as much in the past.

Young is looking forward to getting on the court and putting this new plan into action, but he knows it will take time for everything to come together.

“It’s one thing to go through it in practice and against each other, but it’s another thing to get on the court and actually do it,” Young said.

“When the games come, the preseason comes, I think it will be very, very important. But it’s not going to happen overnight. Like I said, it’s going to be reps that make it easy…”

When Young does initiate the offense, he'll have several talented big men he can work with in pick-and-roll situations, including Anthony Davis, Alex Sarr and DeAndre Ayton.

That raises another question for Washington: How will the Wizards manage lineups featuring multiple big men?

“Maybe you put all three of them together,” Young said. “There’s a lot of different ways that we can play, and that’s...a good problem to have.”

Young added that the preseason will be particularly important as the Wizards figure out how to utilize their different combinations and develop a plan heading into the regular season.

Another player Young has his eyes on is No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa. Young knows the rookie can score with ease after averaging 25 points per game as a freshman at BYU, but he believes his role is about more than simply putting up points himself.

At the end of the day, Young said it is his job to get the talent around him the ball and put his teammates in positions to succeed.

“I just need to get them the ball, and so for me...in this offseason, just preaching to them and playing with them a little bit, they get to kind of feel that and see that, and so hopefully when the games come, it just comes so naturally and easy.”

The Wizards will get their first opportunity to put some of these ideas into action when they open the preseason on the road against the reigning NBA champion New York Knicks at 7:30 p.m. ET.