Can Washington AFFORD to Lose their 2026 First-Round Pick to New York? Poole’s D.C. DAYS NUMBERED?

Can Washington AFFORD to Lose their 2026 First-Round Pick to New York? Poole’s D.C. DAYS NUMBERED?

even though there isn’t high expectations this upcoming season unfortunately is it better for the team to lose more games than win we’ll explain next on Locked On Wizards you are Locked On Wizards your daily Washington Wizards podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day what is going on everybody welcome back to another episode of Locked on Wizards where myself Abdullah will be co-host and diehard Wizards fan that provides hometown insights and passion for his beloved Wizards talk about the Wizards potentially needing to lose more this upcoming season and how it it could affect the 2026 NBA draft for our whiz and I am here with the great Ben Strober producer with DC sports talk stations 1067 the fan and the team 980 thanks for making Lock on Wizards your first listen every day part of the locked on podcast network your team every day and remember Lockdown Wizards is free and available on all platforms including YouTube at Lockdown Wizards where the best way to help us grow is to comment anything below and today’s question is do you think it’s necessary to the Wizards should lose more this upcoming season just so they can secure that top eight pick potentially or if it falls out of the top eight New York will get it so is there a cause of concern of wanting to lose more this upcoming season let us know comment down below today’s episode is also brought to you by FanDuel right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet hit wins ben let’s talk about it you brought up this topic and I love this topic the trade at all a lot of fans don’t know that the the pick up coming this upcoming year falls out of the top eight it goes to New York so take it away yeah so this is really the final domino that falls in what was a crazy trade almost five years ago when John Wall our beloved John Wall is sent to Houston in exchange Russell Westbrook comes over but one of those last pieces part of that trade that is finally falling here that puts the Wizards in a bit of a quagmire here at at this point is the fact that if they do not have a top eight pick next year that is not protected New York would receive that first round pick i think there’s a couple ways to look at it though because the Wizards also do have a 2026 pick swap with Phoenix which I think could very much work out in its favor uh that’s something that we can get into a little bit more however if you are the Wizards and you are focused on development and building your young core I mean we spent the entire episode yesterday talking about Jordan Pool and the potential of him being trade we’ll talk a little bit more about it in the last segment for this episode today and a lot of you guys in the com This is such a polarizing topic and I love to see how passionate people were about this situation and there were a lot of you that are like us saying “We want to keep the pool party going.” And there’s a lot of people that are on the side of you know we need to move on from Jordan Pool we need to continue to build what we have he doesn’t fit the long-term plans and I totally understand those points i think those are really fair arguments to make and with all this being said about a top eight protected pick uh you know I I think what we’re seeing from this Washington team if especially if Jordan P does get dealt around uh draft day or draft night that there is a commitment to trying to build long term and if you’re the Wizards front office at this point I mean the expectations are not going to be high for this team next year even depending on who they add with the sixth and the 18th pick and the 40th pick as well um you know they’re not going to be expected to be a very good team i think they’re going to be better than last year because you’re going to have the young talent that this team has develop and and play better in year number two than they did in year number one i don’t think it’s going to be enough to get them over the hump especially not in the Eastern Conference at this point however if you’re the Wizards you’re essentially incentivized a little bit to lose right here if you finish in the bottom four in the NBA that guarantees you a top eight pick that means the Wizards would have that top eight protected pick at this point but I don’t know it’s It’s really going to depend on how confident the front office is going to be and who they have on the roster if they feel like the current roster they have in place is good enough at that point which they’re not going to be good enough next year to win a ton of games but if they feel like they are good enough to be developed and some other pieces can be added in in free agency or that pick swap that comes into play from Phoenix maybe that goes out the window and the Wizards won’t be as incentivized to win but you know we’re not the general major we’re not Will Dawkins here and the Wizards never admit to tanking we we’ve seen that already from Tedes in here so it’s going to be interesting to see but I think it might be in the best interest that the Wizards do retain that pick even as just Arsenal if they don’t even need it yeah definitely bob a lot of great points and I agree with you i think one thing for sure I I put out a a short earlier talking about how if the Wizards did keep Jordan P I think at most and a lot of things have to go right this team wins 30 games this upcoming season i think without him 22 to 23 the I’m the mark for me is 25 and that benchmark sits well going from 15 to 18 25 it’s improvement but also one thing you have to consider a big reason a big reason why you want that high pick in a 2026 NBA draft is the amount of talent in that draft we talked about 2025 with Cooper Flag Ace Bailey Trey Johnson Dylan Harper the list goes on and on but 2026 you got AJ Debonsza who I mean is a super a future superstar has all the intangibles Darren Peterson Lights Out point guard Native Met the Boozer Twins there’s there’s so much talent in the 2026 draft elijah Arenas hopefully comes back from that car crash accident there’s so many things so many so much talent in this upcoming draft where you can’t especially in a Wizards team where you’re trying to get as much talent as you can it’s going to be hard to build that championship team if you miss out on any of those guys so if you’re the Wizards I still think they’re going to be able to finish bottom four bottom five i think they’ll get that hopefully top eight pick i mean again you you get the six pick LA this upcoming year it’s frustrating it really is but you just don’t want especially in a team in New York who you’re going to be competing against for years to come and they have a good team that built around him with Jaylen Brunson i know they fired coach over Mikuel Bridges Jaylen Brunson and have a lot of young talent there so if you’re the Wizards there’s got to be a lot of incentives to make sure I don’t even want to say tank because obviously in today’s NBA Adam Silver doesn’t want a teams to admit that they’re tanking we clearly saw it from Ted Leonis but you want to realize that it’s better for the future to not win as many games obviously win games but realize that that top eight if we don’t have that top eight pay that first round pick especially in a loaded draft class it could come back to haunt us look this team hasn’t been to the postseason since 2021 and you were in high school Ben i I was a senior in high school and I’ve just graduated college so they went the entirety of us being in college without them making a postseason whatsoever and they were in the playing tournament in 2021 so it’s not like they’re realistically uh competing they haven’t realistically been a competitive team in now 8 years which it’s insane to think about how long it’s really been it’s going to be a decade by the time the Wizards maybe are even close to being a playoff team again uh given the way the timeline looks right now but I wanted to bring up the comments that Will Dawkins made at his end of year session where he addressed the media he said “Well they understand that they’re not close but they are closer.” And he continued to preach how there’s going to be a lot of patience that comes forth and after a second season he said he wants the Wizards to be a team that advances to the playoffs and stays there for multiple seasons rather being one that’s bouncing in and out maybe one year you’re an 8 seed the next year you have a down year someone gets hurt then you’re an 11 seed and you’re missing out on the playing tournament completely he said he wants to build a team that by the time it’s ready to compete they’re going to be in the top three to five in the Eastern Conference year in year out be competing uh for a chance at the NBA finals every year so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team’s record look maybe a lot similar to 18 and 64 because you have to remember the Wizards were on pace at one point last year to have an even worse record than that i think the solid basketball that they played down the stretch especially in the second half uh helped them save face a little bit they went on a buzzer beater in the final game from Bob Carrington who played in all 82 games as a rookie and they didn’t even have most of their guys playing in that game i mean it was clearly a classic tank job at that point uh Bal was injured but he was he was pretty much sitting out at that point i don’t think his injury was really so bad where he needed to be out for the rest of the year i just think you know it was more of a precautionary thing at that point obviously P wasn’t playing in that game and it was all just young kids playing in that game and the Wizards found a way to to get it done and win in Miami on a buzzer beater but you know that’s that’s kind of the moral of the story here with this Wizards team is that they honestly even though it’s just 18 wins which is nothing it’s almost you know if you’re if you’re a serious team and you’re not in a rebuild stage it’s pathetic almost um they kind of overachieved in a way especially down the stretch but that’s you know it was a good thing i was happy to see guys developing i was happy to see the young kids getting better because I knew the Wizards were still going to be ultimately in a position to try to land the first pick and and of course that didn’t even happen but you know the Wizards did their best to try you can’t you can’t blame them for the lottery sucking the way it does the lottery is just flawed the lottery is such a flawed system and that’s why if you’re a Wizards fan right now you think “I’m not doing this again i don’t even care why Why should we ever tank again clearly the lotteryy’s rigged or something.” And I’m not even saying that because you know the the lottery being rigged is such a big discussion i it’s flawed why does a team that finished with the second worst record in all of basketball have higher odds of picking six than it does anywhere else i just don’t think that makes any sense that’s where the fault is in the NBA lottery system so I I can totally understand why there’s going to be a ton of Wizards fans probably in the comments of this video saying “Why are we doing this again like we we already proved that tanking doesn’t work that we we can’t get rewarded with a good pick.” Yeah no I unfortunately I have to agree with you but it it’s kind of interesting because last year when we got the second overall pick it didn’t really hit hard that much because again all weaker draft imagine if you hit second overall this year like it would have been a lot more like hey we got Dylan Harper man you get your point guard right there you get your point guard right there and now you really have to deal Jordan P i mean it would have made the decision harder to deal Jordan Pull or draft the guard at two and Dylan Harper but it is what it is the Wizards next upcoming year if you lose more games obviously you want to see improvement in the win column but also realize that you want to get to keep that top eight pick because like I mentioned there is a lot a lot of talent going into the 2026 NBA draft and talking about talent we’re going to talk about big threes in the NBA and how they are currently overrated but before we do quick word from Lollipop lollipop is a kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health with just two to five grams of sugar and nine grams of prebiotic fiber in every can Lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut traditional sodas are loaded with sugar and trust me I was a big Pepsi fan growing up but it has a lot of sugar like 39 grams in a regular Coke or 44 grams in an orange Fanta lollipop flips that script with just a fraction of the sugar no artificial sweeteners and gut friendly ingredients like Olly Smart a blend shown to support digestive and overall health it’s soda that tastes like the real thing but actually does something good for your body i love the classic root beer i’m a big root beer guy guys and trust me when I had that first sip it felt amazing it really didn’t I I felt like it wasn’t that much of an alternative like I I felt like hey this is something I can drink i can drop down Pepsi and I was a big uh Pepsi kid growing up a lot of sugar i realized an alternative like lollipop could definitely help uh with my sugar cravings and it’s been great again I think in my opinion root beer is there there’s a lot of flavors grape classic uh soda root beer i think root beer is the best so just get a free can of Lollipop just buy any two cans in store and then reimburse you for one head to drinkallipop.com/lockedonba to claim your free can and find lollipop near you that’s drinkollipop.com/lockedonba stuff is good Ben i’m telling you welcome back to Lockdown Wizards i’m Abdullah here with Ben Schrobert talking about our beloved Whiz Kids and now Ben I bring up the fact big threes you know we saw in Miami LeBron LeBron James D wade Chris Bosch we saw with the Warriors i mean 2017 with Steph Curry Klay Thompson i mean it wasn’t even a big that was a big four just super team the whole super teams in general for me and this is why I wanted to talk about it because this transitions to the Wizards look at the the Thunder look at the Pacers right now in the finals two teams that they have in superstars in Tyresese Halleurn and Sha Gives Alexander but you really don’t have any big threes so this goes back to the Wizards saying that “Hey develop young talents and find their roles.” Do you think big threes and just super teams in general are overrated in today’s NBA oh you’re muted Ben my bad oh my bad my bad i think there’s more parody in the NBA than we’ve seen in such a long time and we have an NBA Finals right now where it’s Oklahoma City in Indiana in it and everyone screams “The ratings are going to be terrible nobody wants to see this.” I love to see this because for so many years we get Cavs Warriors in the NBA finals and the Cavs never even had a super team they had LeBron he is a superhum uh to say the least that’s that’s what I have to say about LeBron James right now but the Warriors absolutely a super team the Heat back when LeBron was there you could classify that as a super team but we’re seeing from these teams that are now making runs in the postseason the NBA in this new era of parody it’s about depth it’s not about having three superstars that carry the weight i mean look what we saw from Benedict Matan yesterday a guy that wasn’t even playing significant minutes in the previous series and then he comes on the scene here in the NBA finals and wow he turns up for maybe one of the best games of his entire NBA career in the biggest stage he puts up 27 points uh coming off the bench for Indiana and there’s been so much bench production throughout this series aaron Wiggins a former Turp who dropped 18 the other day alex Caruso who had 20 off the bench bryant Ben the former wizard thomas Bryant another key piece off the bench who now is a three-point shooter evidently but that’s just my point right here is that the more depth you have the more guys you can stack on your team not even necessarily just having one superstar i think every team needs one or two superstars at least one superstar player uh to kind of be the transcending talent that is able to get your team over the hump but if you can pair that alongside just a ton of other talented serviceable role players people that are able to do what they do best I mean think about TJ right now on Indiana yesterday off the bench five steals in 15 minutes it doesn’t even make any sense but that’s why Indiana won that basketball game and that’s why Indiana’s in the driver’s seat right now to potentially win its first NBA finals depth is everything and I think we’re entering an era where we’re not seeing super teams built as much and I love it and I really hope that’s what we’re building here in Washington yeah again this goes back to the whole defense is effort and clearly TJ McConnell he goes out there picks up 94 feet not the biggest guy on the court uh not the most skilled guy on the court but it just it goes to show that what we need is to replicate that here in Washington that emphasized that defensively we need to get better and going back to super teams and big threes if we saw it with the Brooklyn Nets I mean remember that video of Kyrie KD James Harden shooting in practice everyone thought the league was over that didn’t turn out well i mean I get I get the whole Kevin Durant having a big foot that three losing the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime also it’s the Suns i mean that was a big three that people were saying and it’s just there’s only so much superpower you can put into one two or three guys you have to be able to distribute the sugar as I like to say you got to have guys that play their role effectively and that’s clearly what we’ve seen in OKC and Indiana and the great thing is I’ll go back to Will Dawkins as a big part of that uh success going up to their finals run right now in OKC he has the blueprint i think he’s trying to emulate that blueprint here in Washington it’s so interesting because for so many years I almost make the comparison right here to baseball and I know a lot of our listeners maybe don’t even care about baseball but the way the NBA has molded and shaped and what we’re seeing from the teams that are making runs to the NBA finals at this point is that the sport is becoming less star driven than it used to be i’m not saying it’s not star driven like baseball i think baseball’s a sport where superstar players don’t even necessarily matter i mean think about the 2019 Nationals team juan Soda was only in his second year he was really the only realistic superstar player uh on that team just a bunch of really good solid players young players and veterans but we’re almost seeing that in the NBA right now because one team or each team will have at least one or two superstar players but you pair that alongside depth and people that play really well within their roles and like you said the sugar is distributed around and everyone is on the same page as a team playing great team defense sharing the ball well offensively getting good looks um you know not seeing one person just dominate possession of the basketball that’s more what we’re seeing from the NBA the past couple years which is a complete shift i think that’s why we’re entering such a prosperous era of NBA basketball because there’s so much talent to go around that we’re not even seeing this like whole super team uh you know madness being built by teams around the NBA there’s so much parody and I think the Wizards are going to be one of these teams to try to emulate what other teams have built yeah and that starts with pick six pick 18 hopefully getting that top eight pick in 2026 to land with those guys that I mentioned earlier so if you’re the Wizards man you have to consider it’s not that much splashing on i mean we saw in the past Ernie Grunfeld Tommy Shepard overpaying for guys that just giving guys like Yan Mahheim a boatload of money and then not producing out there on the court that’s what different that’s what the difference is in Will Dawkins he brings in veterans that actually contribute and doesn’t overpay them and I know we talk about Cory Kper and all and how he could be on the trade block but even giving him that extension it was still a team friendly contract justin Champeni a ve a very friendly contract giving him a two-way going from a two-way to actual NBA contract and he’s contributes meaningful minutes so the whole idea of just superstars uh team super teams big threes it’s just unnecessary and we clearly see that in today’s NBA and if if you’re the Wizards I can’t wait till they build this team and figure out how all these young guys will contribute and they’re all going to contribute in meaningful ways and everyone’s going to find their role and a guy that I’m looking forward to is AJ Johnson and I think he’s a guy that’s just not being talked about enough i saw videos of him saying uh from people on X saying “How the heck did the Wizards get this guy?” Look at his highlight clip for just these limited minutes that he’s been getting and on top of that you have a guy in Jordan Pool who I think can be an all-star and I’m saying this if he’s not traded if he’s traded you hope you get a lot of draft capital in return a guy in Bub Carrington who 19 20 years old just so freaking young he’s a dog and Alex Sar a guy who we think can be a top five top seven center in this league it’s just going to take some time and it’s going to be exciting couldn’t agree with you more you hit it on the head right there Abdullah yes great minds think a lot as they say Ben but like I mentioned we’ll try big threes let us know you guys your guys’ thoughts in the comment section is it overrated i mean we clearly saw the recent big three in Phoenix they’re they’re falling apart as we speak guys but now we go back to the talk of the the talk of the past couple of days jp 13 is he eventually going to be moved on from Washington we know you guys know that we don’t want that to happen but the rumors have been speculating and it’s been heating up but before we do a quick word from FanDuel the NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances major momentum shifts and can’t miss moments whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player there’s never been a better time to get in on the action fanduel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props performance trends and same game parlays fans have way more ways than ever to play uh smart and win big the NBA finals are underway the Pacers are up 2-1 and the MVP SGA has been on fire recently and you can look at Tyres Hallebran who is a playoff riser and shows up during crunch time find out who you like place the prop place the prop bet and win you can combine live prop bets midame while watching and then you start to see the trend on who’s going to step up why not back it with the same game parlay and pick two players in the same game to have great games new to FanDuel it’s a perfect time to sign up head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet if it wins you’ll get $200 on bonus in bonus bets make every moment more with FanDuel official sports betting partner of the NBA welcome back to Lockdown Wes i’m Abdullahub here with my good friend Ben Strober talking about JP3 ben we we’ve been emphasizing that we don’t want the pool party to end we wanted to keep going but there’s been a lot these rumors are starting to heat up and there’s ideas of getting two first round picks in return a lot of Wizards fans are saying that if we don’t get two first round picks in in return for a guy in JP 13’s talent we shouldn’t do the trade let me know your thoughts Ben well so everyone that commented and we appreciate everyone that that weighed in on this subject because it’s such great discourse and it’s really interesting to see how Wizards fans feel about this situation all the comments that are in favor of trading Jordan Pool is saying “You guys are crazy you’re not getting two first round picks for Jordan Pool like we’re valuing him too high we’re falling in love with him.” Kind of like how we did with Bradley Beal i have a couple thoughts on that but first what I’ll say is as Van you’re right you’re right that the Wizards probably are not going to get two first round picks for Jordan Pool that that is probably too high of value however that’s just what a lot of people have determined what they think he’s worth whether we are overvaluing him at this point and maybe it would be a mistake to hold on to him for too long if the offer is right however I’m under the impression right now that it’s not my call you know I I have my thoughts and Abdullah you and I we both like Jordan Pool we we like to see him and we think he could be a pivotal piece here but the one thing that I love so much about this front office is that there’s direction and that you have a sense that you know where this franchise is heading and if that means that Jordan P has to find his way out the door because that’s what Will Dawkins and Michael Winger decided is best for the organization I’m accepting of it i’m not going to complain about it i’m not going to sit here mope and whine that’s just how it is how you know for you know the people that bring up the situation with with Bradley Beal how we we were falling in love with Jordan Pool like we did Bradley Beal i think that’s a lot of you guys listening right now that are trying to say that you’ve learned your lesson because you were in love with Bradley Beal and you know you were enamored by the idea of giving him the supermax contract i never was on that boat i actually like Jordan P as a player better than I did Bradley Beal at the I think Bradley Beiel severely lacked a clutch gene when he was here in Washington there were a lot of games where he turned the ball over late in games uh dribbling the ball off his foot i don’t know why that was such a common thing but it was here in DC dribbling the ball off his foot in big possessions and I’m not trying to make this a a Bradley Beal hate rant here by any means i just was never a fan of the contract i didn’t really think he was worth it at the time and then they put the no trade clause on top of it which topped all that off that was the cherry on top Ben yeah but but just to you know finish up the thoughts right here I am good with what this front office decides to do i don’t want anyone who’s listening to think that I think I know everything and I’m the GM i’m here to weigh in on my opinions i like Jordan Pool i think he could be a point guard on a championship level team is that going to happen in Washington that remains to be seen there’s a lot of speculation that he does get traded i mean but that’s why it’s exciting right now because you know we have the opportunity to talk about things like this there are people that care and I’m glad that our audience cares so much about the future of this franchise because it has been rough for so many years now but we have the most loyal fan base possible and that’s why we appreciate all of you that listen yeah Ben couldn’t have said it better enough wizards fans we deserve it but also one thing that we have to realize is the P word patience any of you whoever is listening to this right now whether you’re a JP3 fan or not you have to accept the moves that Will Dawkins will be making because at the end of the day he’s shown us why he’s way better than previous regimes and you’ve seen the progress so I’m starting to accept the fact that we are going to trade him i don’t know if it might be after the draft but even if come draft because again we saw last year with trading Denny FD and a lot of fans were upset about that but now with the emergence of Bub Carrington how he could be a future all-star point guard here in DC people are forgetting about Denny FD and there’s probably some Denny FDA stands who are still attached to him but at the end of the day those those fans are people are going to be attached to whatever going back to Bradley Beal I mean I don’t think anyone was a fan of that contract no trade clause like that is absurd and now look how he his career has fallen off in Phoenix i mean let’s let’s speak facts right now he’s he’s hasn’t been playing good and I think they want to move on for him and move on from him and you get some draft capital those pick swaps and on top of that you get Jordan Pool who even if you move on from Jordan Pool you’ll get draft capital in exchange that draft capital was for Bradley Beal if you put transitive property so if you’re the Wizards right now and Wizards fans have to realize that Will Dawkins knows what he’s doing he’s general manager for the reason a general manager he was a big part of OKC for 15 years and I think he’s trying to emulate that plan here in DC And we’ll just have to see this upcoming year we have to see progress defensively not getting killed the paint not getting getting killed in the paint every night um individual performances in Balak Koulali that year or three stride offensively want to see a more aggressive Alex Sar and all starts with that so if JP 13 moves on and that’s Will Dawson that’s the best move let’s do it yeah I think we’ll have to save for another episode at some point the idea of Washington bringing in a shooting coach because that’s something that’s been flirted around a little bit uh over the past couple weeks just read a Washington Post story recently um detailing maybe Will Dawkins thoughts on that that’ll be really interesting to bring up but you you know I think you hit it there perfectly about patience with this Wizards team and that’s why this whole episode is that do we really see it as a conundrum that the Wizards are going to be in i don’t really think so because I don’t think they’re going to be talented enough anyway to win that many games where it is going to be a problem but you know you kind of have to put that on the back burner that that top eight protected pick is something that this front office likely would be thinking about at this point but if the players are developing and they’re playing so well that they win 35 games somehow by some miracle hey I’m all for it then you’re ahead of schedule at that point yeah that would that would that would mean you’re ahead of schedule by a long shot because even Will Dawkins said in his exit interviews he said “We’re getting closer but we’re not close yet.” So maybe they’ll prove him wrong we’ll have to see it’s all going to depend what happens after this draft i was gonna say man you brought up shooting coaches i say you hit a blethal shooter i mean that man does like so many side quest he’s always He’s always in the DMV yeah he’s in the DMV big Wizards fan too i always see him commenting on Wizards uh posts but I agree man this for us Wizards fans if the team wins 30 plus games upcoming year you’re going to be excited when they get that draft pick but hey like that’s progress from 15 to 18 to now 30 plus yeah it’s funny uh Lethal Shooter comes into Leo Pizza in College Park all the time and uh when I was working there in college I served his table a couple times i should have put out the pitch so Wizards fan that’s my bad i I I should have put out the pitch for him to be the shooting coach but maybe they’ll hit him up you know who to blame if a Wizards player misses a wide open three you blame Ben Strober here but yeah guys let us know we’re wrapping up this episode right here locked on woods let us know your thoughts on pick eight a top eight pick potentially next year is it are the wizards in a conundrum to potentially incentivize incentivized to lose more than win games but also does that affect team chemistry and overall development of these young guys do you think the idea of big threes superstar teams are overrated in today’s NBA and JB13 I mean it’s been heating up the rumors whether you like him or not do you think it’s best uh in the Wizards sake and JP 13’s NBA career sake for him for both parties to move on and what do you get in draft capital thank you for making Locked on Wizards your first listen today for your second listen check out the locked on NBA big board show nba draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast i’m Abdullah that’s Ben Stroberg we are signing out hail to the Wizards

The Washington Wizards’ path to success takes center stage as hosts Abdullah Ayubi and Ben Strober break down the team’s rebuilding strategy. From securing a coveted top-eight draft pick to the swirling trade rumors around Jordan Poole, every angle is explored. The duo tackles the effectiveness of “big threes” in today’s NBA, challenging conventional wisdom on star-studded lineups. Will the Wizards strike gold in the 2026 NBA Draft? Can they build a contender without a superstar core? Tune in for insider analysis on Will Dawkins’ vision, potential roster moves, and why patience might be the key to Washington’s basketball renaissance.

0:00 Need to lose more to secure top 8 pick in 2026
12:31 Superteams overrated?
21:33 JP days numbered in DC?

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