4 NBA players who need a comeback season in 2022-23
By Josh Wilson
NBA players in need of a 2022-23 comeback: Davis Bertans
- 2021-22 WAR: 0.7
- FiveThirtyEight WAR projection: 1.5
Davis Bertans had a rough season for most of 2022-23 that has made his contract (5 years, $80 million) look disgusting, so bad that it finds itself as one of the five worst in the league.
Of 450 players with 500 or more minutes last year, he was one of just 11 who got worse compared to the previous season in all 7 of these categories compared to the previous season:
- PER
- TS%
- 3PR
- FTR
- Win shares/48 minutes
- BPM
- Points
His per-36 minutes scoring went from over 16 points to 13.9, and he went from three 3-pointers per game to 1.4. Bertans is known as the Latvian Laser thanks to his shooting abilities, so without that, it begs the question: What does he bring to the table? His defense has always been suboptimal and, despite being 6-foot-10, he’s not a threat around the rim, attempting fewer than 10 percent of his career field goals within two feet of the rim.
To add some context to his struggles, Bertans was with the Wizards up until the trade deadline when the Mavericks acquired him in a trade deadline deal. According to Bertans, the environment in D.C. was not conducive to getting players in a groove and there were major struggles with chemistry:
Davis Bertans on what went wrong for the Wizards 😬
— Hoop District (@Hoop_District) February 12, 2022
"It's tough to have team chemistry when every single day, the team is basically fighting with each other about 'I want to get more minutes' and 'I want a bigger role.'" pic.twitter.com/KCHOALRpIw
In fairness to Bertans, he started to make a comeback after he was moved at the deadline last year with his primary skill, 3-point shooting, hitting 36% with the Mavericks in the regular season and converting on 37.3% in the postseason.
Prior to last year, though, Bertans sunk over 40 percent of his career threes.
Bertans’ shooting ability should complement Doncic’s ability to thread the needle with passes quite well, so the more those two continue to grow together and get in sync, the greater the likelihood that Bertans makes a comeback next year.