How The Wizards Won The 2024 NBA Draft

How The Wizards Won The 2024 NBA Draft

all right so draft night wrapped up for the Wizards now I am recording this before they pick at number 26 overall but essentially they’re two biggest picks of the night have already happened they picked Alexander SAR at number two and they went and made a huge trade sending Denny abdia over to the Trailblazers in exchange for that 14th pick and they got a really really good pick at number 14 a really good Guard from Pittsburgh but the biggest news of the night obviously for the Wizards is the point that they traded away Denny OB and I understand some of the disappointment I feel like Wizards fans right now are pretty torn on it so there’s one side of the fence where people are like Denny’s a former lottery pick who just started really hitting his stride he was amazing last season grew in many different areas of the game why trade him away right you get a player in the lottery for him to develop and he looks like he’s near the peak of his development Why move him away right why move him when he’s just starting to get some momentum there is another side of the fence where people are like the Wizards have a lot of wings right so if they didn’t move away from that they’d be looking at having Kyle kosma kabali ABIA right they’re really really stacked when it comes to Wings with having that it’s tough for certain guys to develop right and so I think that’s what the abdia move was about was maybe opening up some opportunities for kulali right his usage wasn’t that crazy last season as a lottery Pick A lot of times he’s kind of relegated to like just sitting out there on the perimeter to kind of catch and shoot rolls and duties at times this frees up some space for him to develop right and that’s not taken away from anything Denny did I understood why Wizards fans and Reddit or social media in general were disappointed and I get both perspectives but I do think this is good for allowing kabali to develop a bit more he’s a lottery pick picked him very high in the draft last season allow him to grow into the type of player that he needs to be now it’s also going to come with trading away some other guys there are some vets on this team that are kind of holding up spots that will be better off being somewhere else another name I’m thinking about is Kyle kma I think Kyle kosma is a good player but I think he’d be better off somewhere else again trading away a veteran who’s just kind of sitting up here taking up a lot of shots while you’re not winning when you could move him away from more assets while allowing your younger guys to develop so I think Denny was the first step to allowing some of those younger wings out there to develop and grow right so that’s my perspective on moving away Denny for that 14th pick which turned out to be a really really good player who proba come off the bench but still right I understand both sides of the fence I understand the disappointment but again it seemed to be about allowing guys like kabali to develop a little bit more and opening up the floor for him so that’s the thing about moving away Denny ABIA as far as picking alexar at number two I think alexar is the best player in this class now you can say what you want to say say this is a weak class right it’s the worst class we’ve seen in years whatever the case may be still the Wizards got the best player in this class Zachary ret is not the best player in the class he’s a really good player maybe he made more sense for the Hawks in their situation but alexar has the most upside in my opinion a really really good defensive big guy who can play and drop Elite level rim protector great athlete around the rim does a great job at finishing plays does have a lot of jump shooting upside and potential can run the floor so it really help this team from a pace standpoint he’s the most talented player in the class and they picked him and I really like what they’re doing right now it looks like they’re slowly starting to develop a little bit of a defensive identity like I said look at their last two drafts during the start of this post Bradley Beal rebuild like I said last year when and picked up Bala kulali whose best trait is his defense now you pick up Alex sawar whose best trait is his defense to go along with his athleticism and things like that we’ve seen a couple of young rebuilding teams kind of take that approach right where they’re focusing on building a really strong defensive culture throughout their rebuild good example of that the Orlando Magic they were able to get into the playoffs and be one of the best teams in the East strictly off of their ability to defend at a very high level I’m not saying the Wizards are doing that exact same thing but it looks like it right their focus the last two drafts has been picking a really good defensive player with those High picks I like that I like it a lot um and so there’s a lot of excitement to be had right now for wizards fans I really think their GMS have done a general good job these first couple of years of this rebuild there are a lot of complaints right a lot of questions about what they’re doing right people like I said seem really torn on how the Wizards are doing so far far through this first couple of years in this post Bradley Bill era I’m going to say this right this is a really good time to be excited about a rebuild look at the scope of the league the last four titles have been won by teams that developed a core from top to bottom look at the Milwaukee Bucks they woned in 2021 and that was essentially a team led by Yannis tumbo and Chris Middleton yes Drew holiday was added but that duo that core of those two guys was built from the NBA draft the boss Celtics this year right Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown they were built up from the NBA draft 2022 the Golden State Warriors Klay Thompson Draymond Green and Stephen Curry built up from the NBA draft and developed a ton of chemistry amongst themselves over the years even look at the Nuggets back in 2023 right they got some really good pieces outside of Nicole yic and Jamal Murray but those two guys that duo built from the ground up this is a time to be excited about a rebuild because right now with the league being so wide open there being no favorite right now to win titles what we’re seeing is those teams that are taking time to develop something from the ground up it’s working right this isn’t a league where the super teams are winning that’s not working that’s seen as you know a recipe for disaster more than being a recipe for Success look at the Suns look at how the Nets turned out a couple of years ago this is a good time to have a team that you favor that’s rebuilding because rebuilding teams or teams that are building from the ground up those are becoming very successful talk about some of the teams that we’re really excited about going into next season the Thunder built from the rebuild position and you know from the ground up think about also the Orlando Magic like I mentioned earlier they built their thing from the ground up and I think next year they’re going to be really really good and they’re just going to continue to get better so that’s why it’s an exciting time to be a fan of a team that’s rebuilding right um and also on top of that the Wizards don’t have to have everything figured out this particular draft right so I’m seeing again people on Wizards red or wizard social media critiquing stuff here and there they don’t have to have everything figured out just this particular draft as I mentioned earlier this is year two of a complete rebuild you get good pieces to develop this year see where you’re at and anticipate picking really high in what will be a more talented class next year Point Blank period right so we don’t have to have every single thing figured out here this season is about developing the pieces we already have making space for those pieces to develop and working on those guys and allowing them to grow right um so like I said what we had last season was year one of a rebuild with solid draft positioning what we have this year is year two of a rebuild with really really good draft positioning with having the second pick and the 14th pick and what we’ll have next year is a year three of a rebuild with really really good draft positioning as well so I think generally speaking if we’re looking at things this wizard front office is doing a solid job with where things are right now and there are also some tradable assets that are still on this team Kyle kosma right they’re still Malcolm brog and he has an expiring contract maybe they can shop him off somewhere this off season he’s of value since he has an expiring contract and maybe get some assets back for him Jordan P maybe at some point in time UPS his value to become tradable down the road right there are still tradable pieces on this Wizards team what if you like sign and trade tyus Jones somewhere and get some pieces back for him so they still have assets right so it’s not like they’re in the gutter or anything I think generally this Wizards front office has done a good enough job as I said they’ve established kind of a culture through their last couple of drafts in picking defensive-minded players they’re going to build from there I like what they’ve done I’m really excited to see how things turn out for them this season as I mentioned they have the 26th pick and we’ll see who they pick from there but I think generally they have done a great job I don’t think there’s too much to be worried about for wizards fans be happy that you came out with two really good lottery picks you came out with the best player in the class and alexar and they’re just going to continue to get better and build off of what they already have they have a new culture a new team identity so we’ll see what ends up happening but I think generally this Wizards team as I said have done an amazing job to get things started in this post Bradley Beal era

The Washington Wizards were busy these last few hours leading up to the 2024 NBA Draft. Not only did they have the 2nd pick of the event (that turned into Alexandre Sarr, arguably the best player in the class) but they also shipped away Deni Avdija for the No. 14 pick. This move was met with mixed reviews from Wizards fans as some were excited about the growth of Avdija while others saw the benefit of the trade. Either way, to say the Wizards took a step forward in their rebuild process would be an understatement. Now, with Kuzma, Jordan Poole, and others on the roster, it is quite the enigma to see what the Wizards do moving forward

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro
0:38 Trading Deni Avdija
2:57 Alexandre Sarr’s Future With The Wizards

#nba #nbabasketball #washingtonwizards #wizards #nbadraft #2024nbadraft #draft #basketball #basketballhighlights #nbanews #nbarumors #sports