Washington Wizards: 5 players the Wizards need to target in free agency

Number 5: Aron Baynes

Aron Baynes looks the part of an NBA dinosaur. He is a bruising center that has made his living grabbing boards and patrolling the paint. However, that judgment is incredibly superficial. Over the past two seasons, he has shown that he has to be taken seriously behind the arc. His most recent season, in Phoenix, he hit 35.1 percent of his threes on 4 attempts a game in only 22.2 minutes a game.

Bayne’s 3-point ability isn’t even his best offensive attribute. He is one of the league’s best screen-setters, a trait John Wall and Bradley Beal would no doubt appreciate. In 2019-20 Baynes averaged 3.0 screen assists per game and the season before that he averaged 3.1 in only 16.1 minutes a game. On a rate basis, Baynes has been one of the league’s better screen setters throughout his career and has now added volume and efficiency to his 3-point game.

While Baynes doesn’t have the lateral quickness to be a switch everything defender, Centers that can pair that with good interior defense and a varied offensive game don’t come cheap. Baynes is in his 30s and is coming off of a two-year $10.648 million contract. The Wizards could likely snag him on a reasonable contract and, as an added bonus, he would be an excellent defensive tutor to the offensively tantalizing, yet defensively porous, Thomas Bryant.