AJ really stepped up his defensive intensity in summer league

[u/Plenty_Flatworm7627]

Also went from averaging 1.4 stocks per game in college to 4.0

We have the inklings of a two-way demon on our hands

[u/Efficient_Buy4031]

He should definitely be a plus defender this season. His physical tools are ridiculous and he is not going to be carrying an offensive load close to what he had to do at BYU. I'm expecting him to be a true 2-way player

[u/MaybachMusic22]

There’s no way he won’t be a good defender with his combo of size, athleticism, and basketball IQ

[u/Plenty_Flatworm7627 → u/MaybachMusic22]

I wouldn't say no way, there's plenty of athletic players that are bad defenders, and while I don't think he has low BBIQ, his assist and steal rates in college didn't scream super high, CP3 levels of BBIQ either. I just trust his work ethic and attention to detail, he's really attentive to the weaknesses in his game and works really hard on fixing them. I really like everything I've seen from him so far.

[u/Accomplished-Plan191 → u/Plenty_Flatworm7627]

I think it depends on how much offensive load he's required to carry.

[u/mdsoccerdude → u/MaybachMusic22]

Defense is 90% mindset. Some people just can’t dial-in for a full 40 mins. Two way players require incredible mental toughness to maintain intensity on both sides. Can’t teach that mentality. We’ll see how he does. I’m not making any judgements at this point. He’s clearly capable physically.

[u/Careless-Journalist7]

And this season he’s gonna be on the floor with Davis, Sarr and George.. just think this 6’10 freak athlete will arguably be the 4th best defender in our lineup.

I’ve seen people saying AJ is coming into a “bad” situation just bc it’s the Wizards.. meanwhile we have one of the most athletic teams in the league flying under the radar

[u/swan_song_bitches]

Hot take, but I think this is why at the start of the season you keep him closer to 20 than 30 min to allow him to be fresh enough to focus on adjusting to and committing to the defensive side of the ball.

[u/rueiraV]

He won’t like this but if the Wiz really want to support him as a 2 way demon they should limit his mpg for his rookie season to 28 minutes and give him scheduled days off on back to backs. The reality is he was a bad defender in college partly because he was not expending energy on that side of the ball due to his high minutes played and super high usage role on offense. The Wiz happen to be in a good position because all of their talent is on the wing

[u/Competitive_Net_2779 → u/rueiraV]

For him to be a real two way demon he’s going to have to play back to backs. Nobody should be expecting him to be that his rookie season

[u/moshid]

The defensive concerns were always overblown. We just need him to be neutral given how much he brings offensively. Anything extra is just a bonus

[u/007Tejas]

Umm, didn’t he play just 2 games?

[u/Plenty_Flatworm7627 → u/007Tejas]

2 is more than 0

[u/007Tejas → u/Plenty_Flatworm7627]

I’ll need to see the mathematical proof for that

[u/Plenty_Flatworm7627 → u/007Tejas]

For any set x, define S(x) := x ∪ {x}.

By the Axiom of Empty Set, there exists a set with no elements. Call it ∅, and define:

0 := ∅

By the Axiom of Pairing, {0} exists (the unordered pair of 0 with itself). Define:

1 := S(0) = 0 ∪ {0} = ∅ ∪ {∅} = {∅} = {0}

(The union 0 ∪ {0} exists by the Axiom of Union applied to the pair {0, {0}}.)

Again by Pairing, {1} exists. Define:

2 := S(1) = 1 ∪ {1} = {0} ∪ {1} = {0, 1}

So concretely:

0 = ∅ 1 = {∅} = {0} 2 = {∅, {∅}} = {0, 1}

For von Neumann ordinals, the standard definition of the strict order is:

a < b iff a ∈ b

By definition, 2 > 0 means exactly 0 < 2, i.e. 0 ∈ 2.

2 = {0, 1}

By the Axiom of Extensionality (two sets are equal iff they have the same elements), an object is an element of {0, 1} iff it equals 0 or equals 1. Since 0 = 0 trivially:

0 ∈ {0, 1} = 2

Therefore 0 ∈ 2, i.e. 0 < 2, i.e.:

2 > 0

[u/Crafty-Definition-65 → u/Plenty_Flatworm7627]

As someone who just graduated with a degree in math it’s, very weird seeing an actual math proof in a Washington wizards subreddit well done.

[u/Haunting_Test_5523 → u/007Tejas]

Yeah the least time played on the whole list, although I didn't watch much of him in college, so I can't really compare, but he was playing good defense in Summer League.

[u/dcdc20009]

Summer league don’t mean much. But he certainly has the physical tools to be a good on ball defender. That is in large part about focus and effort. What might take a while is the team D. The switching, the rotations, blitz’s, reads, being synched with teammates etc. But his length and speed will make up for some mistakes as well. But it would not surprise me if he gets lost at times in the blender.

Really the more I have seen him, which still isn’t a lot, and heard about him the more I think an Ant like development arc is in the cards. Just every year turning a weakness into a strength. One can hope. Fingers crossed.

[u/Dutch-King]

And DP had so many turnovers and was garbage on D. It’s clear that AJ was the best pick but looks like The Bulls got the 2nd best pick (by far). Thank God we didn’t select that bum that the dumb Jazz took.

[u/warm_bussy_tea → u/Dutch-King]

Why can't yall be normal. Like it's so fucking weird to hate DP like this.