The 2024-25 NBA season is here! We break down the biggest questions, best and worst case scenarios and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
2023-24 end
Offseason moves
Additions: Alexandre Sarr, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George, Jonas Valančiūnas, Malcolm Brogdon, Saddiq Bey
Subtractions: Deni Avdija, Tyus Jones, Landry Shamet, Eugene Omoruyi, Jules Bernard, Hamidou Diallo
Complete roster
The Big Question: How long will it take to go from “deconstruction” to “reconstruction?”
Any mystery about the Wizards’ direction disappeared after new team president Michael Winger and new general manager Will Dawkins spent their first months on the job dumping Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porziņġis for veterans on short-term contracts, future draft picks, 19-year-old French lottery ticket Bilal Coulibaly and former Warrior Jordan Poole.
That direction: down, as cheaply and quickly as possible.
Poole endured a brutally maybe and joyless a season, full of looking away darkness and tried sauces gone wrong. Things went better for Kyle Kuzma, who put up numbers; Avdija, who played a career-best all-round ball; and Jones, who remained every ounce the high-floor janitor as a starter that he was as a backup in Memphis.
And none of that mattered. Like, not even a little bit.
Washington dropped like a stone, posting its worst net rating in at least two decades and the worst record in franchise history — which, if you consider the history of this franchise, says something. (mind blowing statistics of John Schuhmann of NBA.com: The Wizards became the first team in the last 39 seasons to go winless in the second game of back-to-backs, losing all 13 of them.) Coach Wes Unseld Jr. took the fall, “transitioned” into a “front-office role” for a few months before assistant-turned-interim head coach Brian Keefe got the full-time gig — and, with it, a short-term outlook that still looks awfully bleak.
The 2023-24 Wizards top three finishers in value above replacement player – Jones, Avdija and Daniel Gafford, traded midseason to Dallas – all will ply their trade elsewhere. Veteran guard Brogdon, imported from Portland in the Avdija deal, is already injured, tearing a ligament in the thumb on his shooting hand. The Wiz signed Bey knowing he would miss most of this season rehabbing a torn ACL — a possible extra game, but not one with much immediate value.
That’s kind of the vibe on this whole roster. Between Coulibaly, Sarr, Carrington and George, the Wizards will likely give actual rotation minutes to four players age 20 or younger. All offer some intrigue — Coulibaly as a keen perimeter defender, Sarr mixing pick-and-pop 3-pointers with tough rim runs while blocking shots and defending in space, Carrington as an attention-grabbing shot creator, etc. – but you can’t really expect much more than “plot” from such young prospects.
Beyond that quartet, there are only three Wizards owed guaranteed money beyond 2025-26. It is Poole who is a good bet to stay put, given the three years and $95.5 million staying on his contract. There’s Bey, who is slated to make less than 4% of the salary cap in ’26-27. And it is Kuzma who famously declined the opportunity to join the Mavericks at last February’s trade deadline, and who – as a 6-foot-9 forward who can score and rebound, and whose contract decreases with time — is very aware that he will continue to hear his name come up. (As Kuzma recently said to Josh Robbins of The Football Club: “I’ve been in trade rumors for eight years. This is my eighth year in the NBA.”)
The rest of the Wizards’ vets — Brogdon, Marvin Bagley III, Richaun Holmes (whose two-year, $25.9 million deal has only $250,000 guaranteed for next season, effectively making the center a $12.6 million trade exception) — are short-term. , How likely to be flipped for whatever draft pick isn’t nailed down is how to stick in DC Even Valančiūnas — whose size, rebounding and ability to take the beating playing the 5 has real value for a team looking to ease Sarr’s acclimatization to the NBA — has price to move on a below-average contract with a non-guaranteed final season.
It all feels very threadbare, temporary – an ugly house almost finished stripped to the studs before contractors can start building from the new blueprint.
“If we really think about it – the phases of the reconstruction – there is the deconstruction phase. It is the establishment of the foundation. There’s the rebuilding of it, and then there’s the fortifying of what you build,” Dawkins told reporters on media day. “We’re still focused on deconstructing and laying that foundation.”
Translation: If someone offers us something for any of our non-new-scale guys — including shooting guard Corey Kispert, set for restricted free agency after the season — we’ll probably take it. Let the not-old-enough-drinking collective take their balls, and let the chips – and lottery ping-pong balls – fall where they may.
Everyone knew Washington needed to rebuild, and would feel a lot of pain in the process. knowing something and indeed feeling however, they are two very, very different things.
“I think it’s important to remind everyone,” Dawkins said during media day, “that we’re still early [in the process].”
Translation: This season will hurt too.
Best case scenario
Sarr, Coulibaly, Carrington and George are all showing signs of being legitimate NBA rotation players sooner rather than later … but don’t do it in dramatic enough fashion to, you know, win a bunch of games. Winger and Dawkins can find draft-compensation-rich takers for several of the Wizards’ vets, reloading Washington’s draft coffers and giving the front office more flexibility to pursue roster-reform trades that can add talent in the same timeline as its bright young things Poole reproduces his post-All-Star risehelping to re-establish its value both inside and outside the District. The Wizards look more consistently competent, but still lose enough to land near the top of the lottery odds, land one of those high-end prospects, and enter the summer feeling closer to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
If everything falls apart
None of the kids really pop, they all look like they’re going to need a a lot longer in the proverbial evolutionary furnace. Poole isn’t rebounding, looking like one of the worst contracts in the league, and the best Washington can get for any of its good-not-great vets is a couple of backup second-rounders. The Wizards lose even more than last season but are thrown into the lottery odds, and have to watch other teams get the cream of the crop while trying to make the best of what’s left. DC fans feel a familiar creeping fear: that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually a train about to run them over.
A fancy spin
It’s going to be a bumpy ride rostering any Wizard this season. Poole was terrible for long stretches last season, but he came alive after taking over point guard duties. Brogdon is injured, so that Poole opens the season as the main facilitator, which should help his assist numbers. Kuzma’s shooting 30% from the floor in the preseason. He’s also been air-passing left and right lately, so I’m out on Kuzma unless you play in a points league.
Sarr is an interesting prospect known for his defense. However, his offensive bag isn’t ready, so Sarr will primarily be a rim protector, rebounder and disruptor. I like Valančiūnas, but I’m concerned about his long-term outlook. If he doesn’t intend to leave DC via trade, there’s an easy double-double expectation in the eighth round. — And Titus
schedule 2024-25
I think this team might be bad enough to lose 62 games without trade any of its veterans, and I think it will trade those veterans. It’s inferior to me. Take heart, Washingtonians. courage
