So far in the NBA playoffs, many young players have played a value, like the Thunder's Holmgren, although he is a rookie, but his ability to play tough battles is too good, in the past period of time to help the Thunder cross the first round of the playoffs, but also helped the Thunder in the second round and the Mavericks to play a big score of 2-2, although this season is Holmgren's rookie season, but he has played close to the level of stars, averaging 15.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3 blocks per game, the average number of blocks in the league.
The Thunder will build around Alexander, Chet and Jay in the future, and as long as they maintain their three-core roster, perhaps within five years, the Thunder will be able to dominate the West. At the same time, their current opponent, the Mavericks, is also better in the playoffs, it can be said that if it weren't for Doncic playing with an injury, the Mavericks may have gotten the match point in the face of the Thunder now, they have a great advantage in other aspects, but Doncic is not stable enough due to injury.
Mavericks rookie Lively also played well, so far in the playoffs, he has averaged 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.1 blocks in 20 minutes per game, shooting 54%, although he lacks experience, but Lively is not stage frightened in the playoffs, he and Gafford have a good support for the Mavericks' interior line, Gafford is also very good at eating cakes, so far in the playoffs, Gafford has averaged 8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, shooting 51%.
Although the cake brothers played well, they are not the third core of the Mavericks, and now the Mavericks have played from a dual-core team to a three-core team, and Eastern Europe finally has qualified helpers around them. Since the start of the playoffs, Doncic and Irving have been targeted by various pinch shots by opponents, so there are not many opportunities for the two to make easy shots, and in such a situation, the team needs other role players to step up, and Washington stepped up.
In the first round against the Clippers, although Washington did not play well on the offensive end, he did a good job of limiting George and Leonard's offense, and the Jr. averaged 12 points per game in the playoffs, which you might say was due to his injury. But George played very well in the regular season, averaging just 19.5 points per game and shooting 41 percent from the field in the playoffs, compared to 22 points per game and shooting 47 percent from the field in the regular season.
It can be said that Washington locked up George, in the second round of the playoffs, because the opponent was crazy to flank Eastern Europe, so Washington got more opportunities in the bottom corner, he punished the opponent with a stable three-pointer, and at the same time, Washington was able to hold the ball and impact the inside, and he could also grab the board, he used his physical talent to crush the Thunder without a front. The Mavericks were able to tie the Thunder 2-2, and Washington was a great contributor.
In the past three games, Washington directly became the team's scoring champion, in these three games he scored 21 points and 12 rebounds, 27 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, 29 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, in the past three games he averaged 25.6 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, in the past three games he scored more points than Doncic and Irving, such a performance is indeed beyond everyone's expectations, the Mavericks from the Hornets trade him, definitely made a lot of money.
So far in the playoffs, Washington has averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks per game, shooting 45.9% from the field, 42% from three-point range, and 2.9 three-pointers per game. Now Washington is the third core of the team. And his annual salary is only 16.48 million, which is definitely worth the money, you must know that Washington signed a three-year, 48 million contract with the Hornets last offseason.
In other words, Washington will be a very valuable player in the next two years, his 3D style of play is very consistent with playing next to Doncic, and Washington is 25 years old like Doncic, it is estimated that the Mavericks will keep him and let him cooperate with Doncic. Washington's original draft template was Dream Chaser, to be honest, in the past few years, everyone may have paid little attention to him, so I didn't find him like chasing, but in the past period of time, he is too much like a dream.
In addition to not chasing dreams, he is very similar to peak dreams in other aspects, playing very passionately, teammates dunk him to celebrate, dare to provoke in front of the opponent's bench, and the defense is also top-notch, he just has no ball, otherwise his organizational skills are also very good, Washington is definitely a player worth developing, it can be said that the Hornets missed a good puzzle, and his ability to play tough battles is very good.
It is worth mentioning that Washington has scored 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 three-pointers in 3 consecutive playoff games, looking at the history of only Doncic and Curry have done it, he may eventually grow into a more offensive dream, of course, if you want to chase the height of his template, he still needs to work hard to improve all aspects of himself to help the Mavericks win more victories, having said that, what do you want to say about Washington and the Mavericks? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.