LAS VEGAS — After the Washington Wizards selected Issuf Sanon in the second round of the 2018 draft, he spent a turbulent season stashed in Slovenia. His team, Petrol Olimpija, which competed in three leagues, played through a coaching carousel and the instability forced Sanon out of the rotation. Sanon said he collected a “DNP-CD” — short for did not play, coach’s decision — for the final four months.

But at least he had “Prison Break” to keep him occupied.

“It was a good one,” Sanon said about the show, which became his unexpected English tutor.

Although Sanon did not develop on the court in the way he would have expected, he improved as an English speaker in part due to the now-canceled FOX television series about a man who hatched a scheme to spring his innocent brother from prison. With a better command of the language, Sanon, the 19-year-old Ukrainian guard who was the 44th overall pick last summer, has returned to the Wizards as a more confident player.

Following his experience overseas, Sanon wants to take a cue from his favorite American show and break out during the NBA Summer League schedule.

“In the end I didn’t play for four months for coach’s decision,” Sanon said about his Petrol Olimpija team. “So now I am hungry and we will see what’s going on in summer league.”

Last July, Sanon played with the Wizards during their brief stay in Las Vegas.

Although Sanon could communicate and understand the instructions and plays told to him in English, he still needed a moment or two to process the information. This year, however, Sanon has shown such a command of English that he doesn’t mind speaking to reporters — something he was shy to do previously.

Sanon has a word for his 2018-19 season: “frustration.” It had started as expected, with the young NBA draft pick sharpening his skills as a nightly contributor. When Petrol Olimpija played in the ABA League, Sanon was listed as a shooting guard and appeared in 17 games.

Then as the season went on, according to Sanon, Petrol Olimpija changed coaches three times and he became an afterthought in the rotation.

In Las Vegas, Sanon might not play many minutes, but at least he can rediscover his feel for the game.

“I love to play defense. I don’t care how much I score and stuff like this,” Sanon said.

“If you play good defense, everything will come. So I just want to help my team.”

Last Saturday night during the Wizards’ summer league debut, an 84-79 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, Sanon played fewer than nine minutes, but assistant coach Robert Pack noticed how he crammed effort into that short time on the floor.

“He played hard. He played well,” said Pack, who is coaching the summer league team in Las Vegas. “He’s a guy who plays with a lot of energy, he plays aggressive and that’s what we want out of him and I think he will continue to get a feel.

“It’s a short time [and] he’s played with a lot of new guys, so he’s trying to feel his way out, especially from not playing a lot [last season].”

In a sign of his growing self-belief, Sanon, who has more two years remaining on his contract with the team in Slovenia, said before the team went to Las Vegas that he wanted to show the coaches that he belongs in Washington.

“I’m happy to be here because it’s different for me,” Sanon said. “I’m ready to stay here. I’m going to do everything to stay here.”

Still, the Wizards will probably need Sanon to undergo at least two more years of seasoning overseas.

Tomas Satoransky remained with his international team for three seasons after Washington drafted him in 2012, but when he did finally come to the U.S., he developed into the team’s starting point guard in place of an injured John Wall.

The summer league might not reveal the depth of Sanon’s development, but he remains confident that his time will come.

“Just get ready for me,” Sanon said. “I’m coming soon.”