Potential options for Wizards’ No. 6 overall pick in 2025 NBA Draft | The Sports Junkies

Potential options for Wizards’ No. 6 overall pick in 2025 NBA Draft | The Sports Junkies

The draft order, I think, can be a little bit overrated. I always, you know, whenever I have these arguments with friends of mine, I say, “Well, look at, you know, look at the teams that have won titles this century. 25 teams. Like, how many of them won just because they got lucky on lottery night?” Like, that’s just not often how it works. I think no matter what, you you’re going to win if you see things that other teams don’t in in the draft itself. And, you know, I think the Warriors are probably the best example of that. They built an entire dynasty without the top five pick. But you know, they’re not alone. The Nuggets, the Bucks, a lot of these teams built it and it had nothing to do with them just getting lucky with a ping pong ball on lottery night. We’re joined by Chase Hughes, Wizards reporter for Monumental Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter, Chase Sports. So you tweeted this last night. Some names to watch for the Wizards include VJ Edgecomb, Trey Johnson, Ace Bailey, Derek Queen, and Jeremiah Fear. We know that Bub Carrington was stumping for his hometown guy Derek Queen from Baltimore. Which of those players do you think makes the best fit if they stay put at six? I mean, Derek Queen definitely stands out. Um, I mentioned Edgecom and Trey Johnson. I feel pretty confident they’ll be gone. You just never know. Like, guys can fall, things can change from here to the draft. But Derek Queen, um, first of all, what an unbelievable rise as a draft prospect. Like this guy was not even on mock drafts before the season. And a lot of people thought he was going to be, you know, someone who would go to college for multiple years, like not the type that would be one and done. But he just kept rising up, kept rising up, became a first round pick, then a lottery pick. And now I firm fully expect he’s going to be in the range of the Wizards, you know, around the sixth pick. And u, you know, he does have a long history with Bub Carrington. I, you know, Bub was telling us they his family, Derek Queen, one side of his family lived three doors down from him in Baltimore. and you know they went to the same schools play for the same AAOU team not at the same time but they’re they’re really good friends and you know so that could be a silver lining you know Derek Queen is arguably the best local prospect since I would say Otto Porter I think in terms of how high he could be drafted maybe the best Maryland prospect since Steve Francis in terms of how high he could be picked so um that could be fun I mean I saw him play against Ruckers this year I went to see him I thought he’d be you know first round pick I was really there to Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey who I thought would be two top five picks and Derek Queen absolutely took over that game. He looked like the best player on the floor. So, I’m really high on his potential uh as an NBA player and if if he came to the Wizards, that’d be a cool story. What do you think the biggest need is right now for this team position-wise? Well, you know, I think they’re at a point in the rebuild where they just have to go best player available, even if they have that position on their roster. But in terms of, you know, a a need, I mean, they’ve they’ve got their rim protector and Alex Sar. They’ve got their wings with Bal Koulibali and Keshan George. So, you know, Derek Wayne, you could argue would fit in pretty well uh with his offense. Um, I think they’ve gone defense these first few drafts and they’ve laid a decent foundation defensively. It hasn’t really shown up in the numbers yet, but like you could see the potential, but they’re the worst offense in the league. So, if they could get a scorer like Derek Queen who, you know, maybe someday could average 20 points a game or something, then uh that could fit in pretty well. But there’s going to be several guys, you know, available, I think, who present high upside on offense. So, I would just say scoring in general. And then don’t put it past Will to go after a freshman. He’s done it the last two years. And if you look at mock drafts, there’s three of them that are projected to go, I don’t know, top 10, 12, 13 kids, you know, kids I’ve never seen play. But, um, your your thoughts on that possibility? Yeah, well, one name in particular is Nolan Trayor and, uh, going into this year, he was expected to be a top five pick because he’s like a really big athletic point guard. He just had a pretty bad season in his professional league overseas. So, I think it’s possible he could be there at 18. And, you know, his skill set sort of being a natural point guard, that’s another thing that they haven’t really drafted yet. Uh, I mean, Bob Carrington’s more of a combo guard. So, um, yeah, I can’t rule out the fact the, uh, the possibility of another French player coming here. Hey, Chase, usually at 18 with former Wizards, you know, front office offices running drafts, I’d be like, uh, I’m not really confident they’re going to find a guy. and 18’s going to help them. But Bob being picked at 14 last year, I mean, he he had a really good rookie campaign. He he scored almost 10 a game, four rebounds, four and a half assists, shot 35% from three-point land. Like, that was a good find in the mid-irst. So, I I have confidence that Will and his staff that they’re going to find a contributor at 18. I mean, it’s just more bites at the apple, right? You know, I I there was this clip recently that went viral of Eric Dcasta, the Ravens GM, talking about the draft, how unpredictable it is in the NFL, and he said the only thing you can do is get as many picks as possible. And, you know, it just gives you more chances. And you look at some of these teams that have uh rebuilt successfully recently, like the Houston Rockets, like they had all these top picks, right? They were in the lottery trying to get the number one pick. The best player they’ve drafted is Alfren Shangon. He went 16th overall. They had the second pick that year. and they found a better guy at 16. And uh you know the Oklahoma City Thunder, they got Jaylen Williams, I believe it was with the 12th pick and they had a bunch of picks in that draft, including the 11th pick, they picked a bust uh Usmani Dang, but they found a potential superstar at 12. So, you know, even the the best front offices swing and miss sometimes. So, just the more picks you get, just the greater odds you’re going to find a good player. And I think we saw that last year. The Wizards were able to take some chances and it looks like they may have gotten some good players who have really bright futures as you mentioned with Bob and Keshan. Chase, thanks as always for the time, man. We do appreciate it. We’ll talk to you again soon. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, buddy.

Wizards reporter Chase Hughes joins the Sports Junkies to reflect on the team landing the No. 6 overall pick following the NBA Draft Lottery and shares why there are several players to be optimistic about landing in the Draft.

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Potential options for Wizards’ No. 6 overall pick in 2025 NBA Draft | The Sports Junkies