Scan the list of NBA leaders in three-pointers made per game and you’ll see some familiar names: James Harden Paul George, Buddy Hield and, whoa, there’s Karl-Anthony Towns!
But tied with Towns is someone you may not have expected to see: Davis Bertans.
The Washington Wizards forward has broken out in a major way, shooting 47 percent from the floor and 45.3 percent from beyond the arc. What’s wild is he shoots 3.7 threes per game and 4.8 field goals overall, which means he’s basically a three-point sniper almost exclusively.
In the Wizards’ 119-113 upset over the Philadelphia 76ers, Bertans hit 7-of-13 from distance. And here’s a stat that will blow your mind:
WOW. And the whole story around how the Wizards acquired Bertans was wild, too.
Back in the offseason, the San Antonio Spurs needed to make cap room for free agent Marcus Morris. It appeared, per reports, that Morris had agreed to a deal. So in order to carve out the space, they sent Bertans to Washington in a three-team trade that got DeMarre Carroll to San Antonio and Aaron White to the Nets.
But then … Morris backed out and signed with the New York Knicks.
Not to rub salt in the wound here, but guess which team is currently last in three pointers made this year and probably could have used a long-distance stretch sharp-shooter? Yep. The Spurs.
Look, it’s not entirely their fault. They thought Morris — who is currently having a career year for the horrendous Knicks and has hit 2.8 threes per game — was in and he backed out.
And now, the Wizards have him along with some intriguing building blocks in Rui Hachimura, Thomas Bryant and Moritz Wagner to go with Bradley Beal. And who knows, maybe John Wall will return and look like he did pre-Achilles injury?
If you’re in the Wizards front office, you have to be extremely pleased with how that all worked out.
