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Dez Wells To Play For Washington Wizards’ Summer League Team

By Colby Giacubeno

Mar 22, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Maryland Terrapins guard/forward Dez Wells (44) during the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the third round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 22, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Maryland Terrapins guard/forward Dez Wells (44) during the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the third round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports /
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This offseason is a very important one for the Washington Wizards. It kicked off with the 2015 NBA Draft last Thursday, where they made a surprising move trading with the Atlanta Hawks for Kelly Oubre Jr., whom they selected 15th overall.

Although Oubre is extremely raw, he does possess the ability to knock down the outside shot consistently, which was one of the areas the Wizards had to address this summer. With their second pick in Aaron White, a power forward from Iowa who might spend a couple seasons overseas before joining the official roster, the Wizards did not address their two biggest weaknesses that they planned all along heading into draft night.

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They will have to spend the remainder of the offseason looking for a back up point guard and a stretch-4. Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reported that the Wizards have signed undrafted Maryland star, Dez Wells, to play on their NBA Summer League squad starting on Jun. 4. Even though Wells went undrafted, he can without a doubt play in the NBA. If he takes advantage of this opportunity with the Wizards’ Summer League team, it is very possible that he may be on the official roster come the first regular season game.

Prior to the draft, a number of mock drafts had the Wizards taking point guard Jerian Grant from Notre Dame to help with depth at the position. Obviously since that didn’t occur, Wells has a tremendous opportunity to still make a dream come true by playing for an NBA team.

The big criticism surrounding Wells is whether or not he would play point guard or shooting guard. At 6’4″ with a body that is certainly ready for the NBA, Wells would have a strength advantage over most point guards but would have a slight disadvantage at shooting guard because of his height.

At Maryland, Wells mostly played shooting guard, which had been his primary position throughout his collegiate career, but he does have experience at point guard as well. His junior season, he had to play point guard for the Terps simply because of their lack of having a player who could run the offense, get others involved and score when needed to. Wells fit that position as best as he could.

Last season, Wells averaged 15.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game as he was the senior leader for the Terps team that lost in the third-round of NCAA Tournament play. He tallied six 20+ point performances, all of which resulted in wins for Maryland.

What draws NBA teams to Wells isn’t only his matured NBA body, but also his freaky athleticism. Especially this season with star freshman point guard Melo Trimble, there were many occurrences of Wells being on the finishing end of an alley-oop on a fast break. Throughout his career, Wells is no stranger to rising up on a bigger defender and posterizing them with a thunderous slam.

There are some things that Wells will definitely need to work on if he wants to make the final roster for the Wizards. In their third-round game against West Virginia, Wells finished with eight turnovers, which doesn’t speak well for putting him at point guard, but it is just one game. That game will stick with Wells as he looks to improve on the weaknesses of his game.

After his pre-draft workout with the Wizards, Wells responded to a question that asked him what he will need to workout and without hesitation he said, “I have to work on decision making and ball handling.” The good thing about what he said was at least he knows what he has to work on, which is sometimes not the case with guys entering the NBA.

Since he played at Maryland for three years after transferring from Xavier, Wells has become a fan favorite in the DMV area. There is no doubt that if Wells can perform at a high and efficient level during the summer league season, he will get invited to training camp. He has the athleticism and basketball IQ to make the transition from shooting guard to point guard and would be a great fit for what the Wizards are looking for.

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