Well, tanking seems to have finally paid off for the Washington Wizards – – sort of. After three years of mediocrity between the 2020/2021 regular season and the 2023/2024 regular season, the Wiz tore the team down to the studs for a total makeover. So, in the last three regular seasons the Wizards have lost:
- 67 games in 2023/2024
- 64 games in 2024/2025 – – and – –
- 65 games in 2025/2026
The lottery ping pong balls have not fallen their way until this year and that is the reason I said that tanking paid off – – sort of.
Last year, there was a certified, bona fide, identified overall number 1 pick – – Cooper Flagg. This year, the consensus is that this draft is deeper than previous years, but there is debate about who to take at the top of the draft. There is more riding on this selection by the Wizards than normal; they have a whole new front office management team, and they present themselves as highly “analytics focused” with a “holistic view” of the team make-up and its contribution to the community of Washington DC. Let me put the punctuation on that management posture:
- Don’t blow the #1 overall pick!
If you do not live in the DC area, I would be surprised if you have seen the Washington Wizards play more than 20 minutes of basketball over the past two years; they are more than just bad; they are unwatchable. They did not tank the way some other teams did; I do not recall any games where the Wiz were leading or close in score after three quarters and then the team sat the starters for the entirety of the fourth quarter to assure defeat. The Wizards achieved their bottom-feeding status the old-fashioned way; they earned it. [Hat tip to an old ad-campaign for Smith Barney and John Houseman here.]
The best college player I saw last season was AJ Dybantsa (BYU) and as soon as I say that I must point out that college basketball and NBA basketball are not congruent games. I think there should be two other players given serious consideration by the Wizards’ mavens over the coming weeks:
- Darryn Peterson (Kansas): He showed flashes of brilliance, but he missed games with muscle cramps and a sore hamstring. The NBA season is more than twice as long as the college season so there is one question mark. Another is that he supposedly did his own load management last year and sat out games as a ‘healthy scratch”. I have no idea if that last red flag is real or not, but the Wizards’ brass had better figure it out correctly.
- Caleb Wilson (UNC): Here in the DC area, we get to see a lot of ACC basketball and what stood out for me about Caleb Wilson is that he plays at full speed all the time. He is athletic and he is super-competitive. He did not have the same stats as some other players who are mentioned as potential “top picks” but in the end, he may wind up being the best pro.
[Aside: Recall that Michael Jordan was not an overall #1 draft pick and turned out a bit better than OK.]
While the Wizards’ braintrust are pondering whom to take at #1, there is another player who should go in the middle of the first round that I think is intriguing. Koa Peat (Arizona) is a bruiser who will compete for every rebound and loose ball. The reason he will be available in the middle of the first round is that he does not shoot well; he is OK with his jump shot but not a “deadeye”. Nevertheless, I will offer two points in favor of Koa Peat going earlier than some folks think he will go:
- Anthony Edwards was not a good shooter in college. His field goal percentage was only 40.2% and he was 29.4% from the college three-point line. That is sort of good and certainly not great. Last season in the NBA, Edwards shot 48.9% from the field and 39.9% from three-pint range. With work, shooting is a skill that can be improved significantly.
- Charles Barkley was a bruiser and a ferocious rebounder in college but did not arrive in the NBA with an outside shot that worried any defender. Charles Barkley learned to shoot and had a more than decent NBA career.
I am not saying that I think Koa Peat will turn out to be a hybrid of Anthony Edwards and Charles Barkley, but given Peat’s physical size and strength, he might just be worth a pick closer to the Top Five than is generally projected.
Finally, let me close here with this observation from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson:
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………