Wizards' Corey Kispert uses 'drinking through fire hose' line to describe youngsters
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The Washington Wizards may be 2-9, but their rebuild is right on schedule. Second-year guard Bilal Coulibaly along with rookies Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, and Kyshawn George have all shown promise, and Corey Kispert is impressed.
The 25-year-old explained how the aforementioned quartet has changed the team’s offensive dynamic.
I asked Corey Kispert how the Wizards' newer players have changed the dynamic offensively…he said they're "learning faster than expected" and it's like "drinking through a fire hose" when they handle the ball #wizardspic.twitter.com/v8ocs7kkZn
— Joshua Valdez (@joshvaldez100) November 7, 2024
“A lot of it’s what we’re preaching. These guys are just kind of filling in with what we’re trying to teach. They have a good feel for the game, but it’s still early for them,” Kispert said. “There’s a lot of things that are rough around the edges for those guys, and that’s to be expected. They’re learning a lot faster than expected, too.”
“They’re off to a really really good start, they’re learning a lot really fast, they’re doing a good job of implementing it with being on the ball and handling it a lot. It’s like drinking through a fire hose. They’re doing an awesome job of being competitive and learning those things, and also being reactive on the floor.”
While veterans Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma have been the headliners offensively, Coulibaly is third on the team with 14.7 points per game on a robust 54.5% clip from the field. The rookies aren’t far behind, either. Sarr has 10.5 points on 36.5% shooting, George has 10.1 on 36.8%, and Carrington has 9.6 on 42.7%.
It would be hard for Washington to ask for more of any of those players thus far. Additionally, they’ve all made plays off of the dribble, which is especially impressive in Sarr’s case as a seven-footer.
The young quartet’s ability to dribble, facilitate, and create their own shots will do wonders for the offense over the coming years.
Wizards showed encouraging signs against Hawks
The biggest problem for both the young players and Washington as a whole so far is consistency. They’ve played well for small stretches, but often regress after good performances. That’s to be expected for a new-look team with several moving parts and inexperienced players.
The Wizards’ 129-117 NBA Cup loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night was the latest example. Head coach Brian Keefe sounded off on what went wrong, via the team’s YouTube channel.
"I thought we came out tremendous in the first quarter, you know, that was one of our big things is we wanted to start off the game well," Keefe said postgame. "We came out, we punched first and give them credit. They came out and they got us in that start of the second quarter, they started getting a little more physical and they made a good run, so credit to them."
Sarr was a bright spot, though, as he had a career-high 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting with seven rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and four steals across 31 minutes. While the French international is known as a defensive player, this outing showed that his “drinking through a fire hose” type of preparation has paid off on both sides of the ball.
Coulibaly, on the other hand, has already had four games with 20 or more points. Additionally, George also has one, and Carrington has had two 16-point games.
It would be encouraging if just one or two of the young players had been producing to this level, but the fact that all four have been impactful this early on shows that the Wizards are on track to be a contender within the next few years.
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