Wizards Sign Shaun Livingston

Posted on November 15, 2012

Jacob Raim - WashingtonWizards.com The Wizards today announced the signing of Shaun Livingston along with waiving Jannero Pargo. Livingston, 6'7 and 175 lbs, brings good size and a wealth of experience to the PG position for Washington. No stranger to DC, Livingston played 26 games, starting 18, for the Wizards in 2009-10 and averaged a very solid 9.2 points and 4.5 assists. Originally drafted #4 overall in 2004 out of high school by the Clippers, Livingston was looking like he could be entrenched at PG in LA before an absolutely debilitating and gruesome knee injury (note that if you go looking for this injury on YouTube it could scar you) cost him over a year of time. Before the injury occurred in 2007, Livingston was averaging 9.3 points, 5.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 30 minutes a night. Livingston was lauded for his work ethic which got him back on the court faster than anybody expected as some prognosticators assumed his career was over. Since his return from injury, Livingston has played for 5 teams, including his best run in 2009-10 when he played for the Wizards which netted him a 2 year deal from the Bobcats after the season. This preseason, Livingston was in camp with Houston but was the victim of the dreaded numbers game and was one of the last cuts. Being 6 feet 7 inches and a true point guard gives Livingston an asset that immediately makes him a distinct matchup problem for teams on both ends of the floor. Livingston has always had a playmaker's mindset when approaching the point guard position to create for his teammates and has always had elite court vision and ball handling skills. He should be able to find Beal and Crawford a lot of good looks and will always look to them first before driving or taking his own shot. He's never been a 3 point threat (in fact over his career he's only attempted 39 threes) but rather a point guard who likes to get to the basket and is efficient at it as evidenced by his excellent career FG% of 46%. For a guy who had a career threatening knee injury, the explosiveness that Livingston still showed during last season with Milwaukee was shocking. Livingston is a solid on the ball defender who really can bother smaller points with his 6 ft 11 inch wingspan but he can struggle against more physical point guards with his lanky stature. He could also help Beal out on defense by being able to defend shooting guards if Beal gets switched on. There is no doubt though that for the most part he is a matchup nightmare on defense as evidenced by the fact that during his time with Charlotte, the Bobcats' defensive rating was 8 points better with him on the court than without. Coming out of high school many considered Livingston to be the best prospect in the draft but injury problems really derailed him, similar to another highly drafted Wizards out of high school, Martell Webster. The potential is certainly still there for him to be a solid PG in this league. He's just 27 years old despite having 9 years of experience plus the entire year he missed. He will probably ease into his minutes with Price starting and now Crawford playing some point but it would not be surprising to see him playing major minutes at the point before Wall comes back.