Skip to main content

Wizards’ Corey Kispert hitting his stride early in Year 2

By Chase Hughes

Kispert hitting his stride early in Year 2 for Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

WASHINGTON — The trajectory has continued for Corey Kispert.

After raising his field goal percentage every single month of his rookie year, the Wizards’ second-year pro is shooting even better through his first month of this season. Through nine games, he’s in the coveted 50-40-90 tier: 56.6% from the field, 48.4% from three and 91.7% from the free throw line.

Despite missing eight games and a month’s worth of practice time to begin the season, and despite stumbling out of the gate last year as a rookie, Kispert looks noticeably better already in his second NBA season. He’s shooting at a high clip and is maintaining that level as he bounces back and forth from the bench to the starting lineup.

Kispert, 23, says doing that is “easier said than done.” Jumping between the first and second units means playing with different personnel, yet Kispert is not missing a beat.

In the Wizards’ win over the Miami Heat on Friday, Kispert came off the bench to score 17 points, shooting 5-of-8 from three. On Sunday, he was in the starting lineup and contributed 14 points and six rebounds, shooting 2-of-3 from deep. He has reached double figures in four of his last five games, shooting 13-of-19 (68.4%) along the way.

Kispert’s consistency is appreciated by head coach Wes Unseld Jr., who has had a lot of moving parts in recent games due to injuries in his rotation.

“I think it’s just a credit to the way he plays, the way he moves and cuts,” Unseld said, adding: “He’s able to find easy points just by being a facilitator, a ball-mover, a screener. He does so without handling the ball or dribbling, which is a key to a lot of our offense.”

From the moment he took the floor with the Wizards after being drafted 15th overall in June, 2021 Kispert has stood out for his off-ball movement. He stays in constant motion, whether that’s cutting through the lane or respacing on the perimeter to give his teammates room to operate.

Kispert received an advanced degree in that brand of basketball through four years at Gonzaga University. He’s also in a good place to apply that knowledge with Unseld Jr. aiming for an equal opportunity offense.

“No matter what I’m doing or who I’m on the floor with, my job is the same. It may be a kind of one-size-fits-all deal for me, which is nice,” Kispert said.

Now that Kispert is living up to the billing as a 3-point shooter, the Wizards are seeing some positive domino effects. Other teams have to respect his range and, as Unseld Jr. explained, that creates “gravity” by drawing defenders away from the basket.

Kispert is trying to counter that by also proving he can score around the rim. Through cuts in the halfcourt and by running the floor in transition, Kispert is finding lanes to the basket to score. He’s 11 of 12 so far this season on shots within five feet of the basket.

Kispert is solid at finishing in the lane because he’s got good size, strength and touch, with the ability to get up around the rim, having registered a 37 1/2-inch vertical at the draft combine. Kispert has been working to combine all of those traits to become a more multi-dimensional scorer.

“On every scouting report in America it’s going to be shooting No. 1. I’ve gotta make teams pay for that,” he said.

Another area where Kispert is showing early improvement is on the defensive end. He says he’s “a lot more comfortable” this season simply because he has one year of experience under his belt. That has helped the game slow down and has also given him a better foundation of knowledge to work with.

Last season, Kispert was facing opposing players for the first time in most cases. Now that he’s played against the entire league a few times, he has a better grasp of players’ tendencies.

As he explained it after Tuesday’s practice, it gives him a better chance to be “proactive” rather than “reactive.” The numbers are backing that up so far. Players guarded by Kispert are shooting 40.3% this season, according to the stats website Second Spectrum. That is third-lowest on the Wizards (to Rui Hachimura and Jordan Goodwin) and it’s 4.1% lower than those players defended by Kispert have shot for the season overall.

Put another way, players assigned to Kispert shoot 4.1% worse than usual. That’s a fairly big difference.

Kispert has only played nine games, so his numbers have to be presented with caveats. But so far he is off to an excellent start and that is despite beginning the year with an injury. That’s not bad for a guy in his second year.

Ian Mahinmi on his involvement with NBA Africa, time with Wizards

By Chase Hughes
Ian Mahinmi on NBA Africa, his time with Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonFew NBA careers have ended under more unusual circumstances than Ian Mahinmi's. His last game was on Feb. 2020 and weeks later the entire league shut down due to the coronavirus. He did not play in the NBA's playoff bubble that summer. When he laced them up for his last professional game, there wasn't an inkling it would be his ride off into the sunset.After the Wizards' time in the bubble came to a close, as did the four-year contract he signed to join them in free agency in 2016, it left him at a crossroads with a 12-year NBA career in the books and his whole life ahead of him.It was shortly thereafter that Mahinmi was approached with an investment opportunity in NBA Africa. Mahinmi joined as a minority owner, attaching his name to a group that includes strategic partners and investors like former President Barack Obama, actor Forest Whitaker and former NBA players Dikembe Mutombo, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.Mahinmi, who has roots in the West African country of Benin, has since been directly involved in the sport's expansion across the continent. That includes an appearance at the tip-off of the Basketball Africa League's (BAL) third season this week in Senegal."This is definitely, for me, the next chapter. I feel like everything I've done has led me to this," Mahinmi told NBC Sports Washington during a phone conversation from Dakar.The BAL features 12 teams from 12 different countries split between two conferences, the Nile and Sahara. The teams include players with G-League and Division 1 college basketball experience. They play 38 games over three months in Dakar (Senegal), Cairo (Egypt) and Kigali (Rwanda).The games are available to watch in all 54 African countries and 214 countries in total across the world. There are also 45 games from this NBA season being broadcast in primetime throughout the continent on various platforms.NBA Africa, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and has additional offices in Senegal, Nigeria and Egypt, also has other initiatives to drive interest in the sport among African youth. Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. participated in a Basketball Without Borders camp in Egypt last summer."At the grassroot level, the game is popular now. The game is being played," Mahinmi said. "And obviously, as you know, basketball is not only the game. It's the whole lifestyle. The game goes with the music, the music goes with the swag, the clothes, the shoes, the sneakers."Mahinmi, who grew up in France, believes the full potential of basketball in Africa has barely been realized. That is despite multiple Hall of Famers hailing from the continent including Mutombo and Hakeem Olajuwon. Joel Embiid, who is from Cameroon, is a favorite to win this year's NBA MVP award.Soccer remains the No. 1 sport across Africa, but Mahinmi believes basketball is well on its way to the mainstream."It's been like a whole ecosystem awakening. For me to be a part of that, it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time," he said. "This BAL league has changed the whole landscape of how basketball is viewed on the basketball continent."Mahinmi has drawn a sense of gratitude from his involvement with NBA Africa, as he continues to transition away from his professional basketball career. It's a revitalizing new venture for him after an admittedly disappointing tenure in Washington.Mahinmi's four-year, $64 million deal did not work out for the Wizards. He appeared in only 180 games and struggled to provide the impact they signed him for.Mahinmi points to injuries as a major reason for his performance and suggests they were worse than initially reported."My time with the Wizards was very challenging... My first steps as a Wizard, I injured myself. I injured myself in training camp and this was like such a tough start. I felt like from that injury, it was like a ripple effect," he said."That year we had such a good team. I believe we had aspirations of going far. I hurt myself, took a while to come back, then came back and I hurt myself again. I obviously wasn't healed all the way, trying to come back quickly for the playoffs. I hurt myself again, the same injury. I tore my meniscus twice in my first year. We don't talk about it a lot, but that trauma of tearing my meniscus twice took me a while to get back to myself. I didn't feel comfortable until maybe a year-and-a-half after. But a year-and-a-half after, a lot had changed in the Wizards organization. It was tough, it was tough for me. I felt like I gave it my all, but it was just like physically I wasn't at my best."Mahinmi said the Wizards not reaching their potential during those years remains a "regret," though he is happy he was able to play better during the 2019-20 season and end his career on a personal high note.Mahinmi is now out of the NBA, but still in basketball. And with NBA Africa's initiatives, he has a chance to impact the game for many years to come.
Read Next Story

Related News

Ian Mahinmi on his involvement with NBA Africa, time with Wizards

6 Wizards draft prospects to watch in NCAA Tournament

With little room for error, Corey Kispert supplies the best stretch of his career