2025 Washington Wizards Summer League Preview | Monumental Sports Network

2025 Washington Wizards Summer League Preview | Monumental Sports Network

[Music] Viva Las Vegas. That’s what they say when you land at the airport, especially when the temperature is a cool 107° outside. But guess what? Basketball’s played indoors and we are outside Thomasson Mack where if you’re looking closely, you don’t even have to look that close. Yes, you recognize that young man on the left side of your screen, Trey Johnson, number six overall pick for your Washington Wizards there and ready for work. Welcome inside the concourse at Thomas and Mac Pavilion along with Coxville. Chase Hughes with you. Uh first of all, Chase, let’s go ahead and get to it. This is the Wizards summer league draft, excuse me, summer league preview brought to you by Cisco and we are excited to be in here. here. I know a comment we were having before we got on air is this is the coolest I felt in a couple years for summer league. Highs of 110, a little cooler than 120, which is what it was 2 years ago. I’m just happy to be here. My flight was delayed a couple hours. I made it and I can report that about half of the Wizards front office also made it safe and sound cuz they were on my flight. Well, guess what? I too had travel issues, but I got in here last night and you know what that means? We both were clamoring going full out to get here to see this roster take the court for the first time because we’ve got a jam-packed summer league schedule for you. And the cool thing about it, first of all, we got four games stretched out between now and the 20th of July. But all of them, Chase Hughes, are played on the Thomas and Max side, not on the Cox Pavilion side. Would you mind unpacking the value in being able to take center stage for every game that we have, including the first one tomorrow? Yeah, it’s a pretty big difference in the size of the arena at times, the size of the crowd. There’s a much bigger capacity in Thomas and Mack. And I think it’s because the Wizards have a ton of talent on their summer league roster. And I think a big reason for that is not only the three draft picks, but also the rookies from last year. And we must note that that is very unusual to have this many holdovers on a Wizard summer league roster. It’s a new philosophy for the organization that GM Will Dawkins has brought over from the Oklahoma City Thunder. He explained it to me a couple years ago about how valuable it is as a developmental resource. And they do that in Oklahoma City and they’ve done it for a long time. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden. Those guys played multiple years in the summer league. And the way Dawkins described it is he keeps that in his back pocket. If a young guy is like, “I don’t know. I played in Las Vegas last summer. Do I have to do it again?” He says, “Well, Kevin Durant did it. Russell Westbrook did it. James Harden did it. What’s your excuse?” I love that philosophy because what it says is you’re locked into growth and development. One year is not enough in this league. If you want to stay at the table proverbally and literally, you’re going to have to go to work night in and night out, including a summer league. So that’s why we’re glad to see it. I want to take a closer look at the roster for this summer league because this is 2K summer league 26. That’s for the game. But this roster taking form for the 2526 season. Check this out. AJ Johnson above Carrington, Trey Johnson, Leaky Back Black, Keshan George, Kadari Richmond, Alexar, and Will Riley. Some significant athleticism to be taken accounted for. Of course, you got a couple of Johnson’s on there, but we’re not done. Jamir Watkins, Liam Robbins, Dylan Jones, Zeke Mayo. Hey, Chase. This name these names are starting to jump off the screen. Anybody, especially some of these other guys that were a little less familiar with, stand out to you at all? Well, John Watkins is going to be interesting to watch. You know, he’s probably got the most to prove of their draft picks over the last couple years because he’s a little bit older. He was a second round pick. Most of these guys were first round or lottery. But, you know, this I think the summer league, it’s interesting. A lot could be made sometimes of individual performances, but I think what is a valuable glimpse in the summer league is organizational talent. And the Wizards are going to have a lot of that on display if they turn into contenders in a few years. The core of that team is probably going to be on the court and probably going to be playing on Monumental Sports Network. And I’ll give you a specific example. I’ve been watching the Summer League for a long time. I’ve been coming here for years. The most talented summer league rosters I’ve ever seen were the Oklahoma City Thunder two, three years ago, and that ended up being a precursor to a team that just won a championship. So, you’re telling me there’s a template there that should be could be considered something worth following. I like where you’re going there. But you talk about returning players as we’re doing right now. Here’s what one of them had to say about the asset of being able to return the value that it brings to the Washington Wizards. That’s Bub Carrington. As a matter of fact, here’s I’ll do for you. It’s a full comment for you guys because Bub is bub and we love what he has to say. But looking at the ranks, Alex R rookie year, second in everything, minus points and field goal percentage, but we knew that he was a second overall pick. So it’s fitting that he’s second in those categories. Look at Bub Carrington. First of all, perfect attendance, played all 82 games, led rookies in minutes on the court, fifth in points, but I like what he did in the assist department. By the way, can drop the ball and that’s why you see him tied for first and threes. But he made a big shot against the Heat. Oh, that’s the way you close out a season. If you’re going to do it, do it that way. Your thoughts on Keshan though? So Keshan George, look at those ranks. Like if someone told you one year ago today that he would rank that highly among NBA rookies, I would have been very surprised. Yeah, this time last year, it was before he stood out in the summer league. It was before he had a strong preseason and then played his way into the Wizards rotation. A year ago, I would have thought he would have spent some of some of his time with the Capital City Go, you know, maybe 15 or 20 games. So, I feel like moving forward, if we wanted to give out superlatives and awards, maybe the Keshan George award would be the breakout player of the Wizard Summer. I like that. That sound that’s got a nice little ring to that, my friend. Well, you know what? You’re absolutely right. And as I mentioned before, Bob Carrington, his thoughts on guys like Keshan being able to return for another run at Summerlake. Truthfully, like we’re all like getting bigger. Like, you know, as some I don’t think a lot of people would expect, but like we’re all like truly like getting bigger. like we’re all taller, like way more, getting stronger. You can tell we’re getting faster because I feel like we had the skill, we had the kind of the mind to keep up with those guys in the league, all around the league, but we just weren’t kind of physically there yet to keep up with those guys. And I think that’s we’re making really good strides to be there. For you personally, how much did you add any height? Did you? Yeah. Yeah, I definitely I won’t give you all the specifics. I’m not getting out the scout, but I’m like big as right now. Like I’m like I’m like huge. If there’s one thing you can guarantee, but I’m guaranting answer to any question you have to ask. But Chase, go ahead. The floors. Yeah. So, I’m not surprised that these guys have gained some weight, and I won’t be surprised if they look appreciably better on the court because they last played on April 13th. That’s when Bob Carrington beat the Miami Heat with his buzzer beater. I did the math. Okay, so that was 88 days ago. October 1st is usually when they begin training camp. That’s 83 days from now. So we are at first of all the midway point of the offseason and second of all they have had almost 3 months since the season ended. They’ve been in the gym since May 6. So over two months of lab work to put on display. Chase, I want to echo exactly what you’re saying because most people naturally think once a season comes to its conclusion that everybody runs to their proverbial corners and it’s like, “Hey, I’ll see you during training camp.” Not these guys. You’ve been there. I’ve been there. We’ve watched them put in the sweat equity literally in the heat of summertime, giving up the vacation time. Yeah, one guy may go away for a week, another one may go away for two weeks. Some of these guys stepped right back into the building 7 days at the end of last season. And that is why we’re seeing the beginning of what we like. You know, an interesting note on that, you know, I’m a numbers guy. I love analytics. I read some research recently about how young players don’t often make big leaps within a season. You might think that like, oh, okay, a guy’s going to be much better in March than he was in October or November. No, they tend to make much bigger leaps in the off season, and this is the first full NBA off season for these guys. So, there’s a chance that they could get significantly better over the course of several months. You know what? You talk about the course of several months. I want to talk about the arc of our number two overall pick, how we started. You like numbers? I don’t know what today’s date is, even though I do. But we’re back at square one for what was Alex Sar’s rookie year. He came to summer league, had a couple of struggling moments. Why? Because this is your first crack at full NBA competition as a whole. But then we saw how many accolades did we just read off the screen for Alex in his rookie year. You have to respect what Summer League can do for a player’s growth and development. The number two overall pick, named all rookie first team last season. Why? Because he showed that he can stay on the court. Never got in foul trouble. Always knew where to be. Defensive juggernaut. Can stretch the floor, knock down threes at his discretion. That’s what you want to see, especially of our number two overall pick. Yeah, first team all rookie. That is not easy to do. And what he can do this year is just level up from last year. I don’t think his summer league last year was that bad. He had one game obviously that much was made of, but overall he looked pretty good, especially his first game against Zachary Reese. He was solid. So, he can put that behind him. He can draw some confidence from having a good performance. Um, you see him there, you know, uh, playing and throwing down a lob. We didn’t see enough of that last year. That would be a good example of an improvement for him if he could be more aggressive around the rim. And he’s going to have an interesting match up in game one against Kaman Malawatch. Arguably the best big man in this draft, a guy who played at Duke with Cooper Flat. Now, with that in mind, what is a challenge that he can learn from that matchup as well because I think there’s opportunity for Alex to continue to grow in that particular game tomorrow. I’ll go back to the idea of just him being aggressive. You know, take uh take initiative. Uh be assertive. Yeah, you’re the secondyear player. Come on. Malawatch is a rookie. He’s going to be the one who’s wideeyed playing in his first summer. Alex Sar has been on this court before. He’s been in this environment. I kind of think of it like a video game. You know, you can beat the level. Like, you know, Cam Whitmore is a guy the Wizards has traded for. Shout out to him. He’s beaten the summer league level, right? He was the MVP of the league last year. I think there’s a chance that we see that happen with one of the Wizards young guys this year where they come back and they just look way different and they look like they’ve advanced past this stage of their career. I want to quickly give Cam Whitmore some some flowers real quick. You’re absolutely correct. last summer league. We’re sitting there courtside watching the Houston Rockets take on the LA Lakers when Reed Shepard was drafted and of course we saw Ronnie James and everybody in the gym was like Cam Whitmore is jumping out of the gym and I know you got an article about his verticality and what he was able to do in comparison to the entire Wizards roster. So, shout out to him. But guess what? He’s got a teammate who also likes to jump out of the gym and I’m thinking about AJ Johnson. Obviously, we acquired him in the middle of the season due to a trade. This is another opportunity for him, a guy like Keshan. But let’s talk about AJ and the upside that he can possibly get out of being here this summer. Yeah, don’t discount AJ Johnson. By the way, the last time I saw him was in Chicago at the NBA draft combine. He was just walking around the lobby wondering where you’re supposed to go. Yeah, he was invited by the league to go there and speak to the impending rookies, the picks. Yeah, pretty cool. Um, you know, he’s a mature guy. He knows what he’s doing. He’s played for two different franchises, so I think he had some experience and wisdom to impart. But this when I watch these highlights and and think back to some of the plays that AJ Johnson made this year, I think about his potential and the fact that I feel like the Wizards are starting to enter a competition phase on their roster where they brought in a bunch of young guys, but the last few years there wasn’t a whole lot of competition for minutes. But don’t forget about AJ Johnson. He could push Above Carrington. He could become a bigger factor in the rotation than a lot of people expect. He could push a Trey Johnson. Now, they have a lot of young guys at different positions that are going to be competing with each other for minutes. They get along really well. Yeah. But, so it’s going to be a friendly competition, but keep that in mind for AJ Johnson. Well, you talk about that competitive spirit. Let’s just go ahead and and and talk about the elephant in the room because I know you’ve been tracking all of our Wizards coverage on mindalsports.com and of course on social. Let’s talk about this year’s draft pick. Trey Johnson coming in at number six overall. Of course, Will Riley at 21 and you talked about Jir Watkins at 23. Trey Johnson, certified bucket. He’s on the side of the building for a reason. Matter of fact, there’s like three defenders right here. The cool thing about it is first round overall pick out of Texas. He has hit the ground bonding with Bub Carrington. Like it it it’s almost uncanny, Chase. It’s almost unbelievable the chemistry that these guys have been able to to to discover and develop over such short a period of amount of time as adults. Why? Because they go back to how old, Chase? Uh I don’t know how long. They go back to eight, nine years old. Like, no, that was him and Camington. Um, but their history also goes back to AU ball. These guys all know each other. Well, as they say, Bob knows everyone. Yes, everybody does know Bub. And Bob absolutely is like the mayor of the world. But the coolest thing about Trey is what was the scout on him? Walking bucket, great character, high motor, great shot release, knows how to play on both ends of the court. These are the measurables for those watching at home. His standing reach is at 85 coming in at 190. But look at that wingspan. Almost 611, 8 1/2 in hands. Chase, I like what I’m seeing, especially out of a guy who’s going to be able to be in the back court along with Bub Carrington because again, this is a Wizards summer league preview brought to you by Cisco. Yeah, he’s also got about a 38 inch vertical leap, so he can jump. Um, but it’s all about the shooting. I mean, he lit it up from every zone on the court last year at Texas. The one that stood out to me the most, he shot about 40% from NBA range on 200 attempts. So, this guy’s not going to have to adjust to the NBA three-pointer, which a lot of young guys do. But I want to talk about the back court. Buck Harington, Trey Johnson, they’re getting along really well off the court. We can see it already. I could see it as soon as I walked into the practice gym the other day. But there’s, I think, a lot of significance for those two guys as a duo and what we see from them on the court, which begins tomorrow night. It’s a new era for the Wizards. If you think about the Wizards franchise, for a long time, they’ve kind of been defined by their back courts, right? You had Earl the Pearl Monroe and Phil Shane back in the 70s when they won a title and then Gilbert Arenus and Larry Hughes led the team into a new era in the early 2000s. John Wall, Bradley Beiel led them into a new era. We don’t know if these guys will reach those heights, but Friday night could be the beginning of a decadel long partnership of two guards who were both lottery picks, the same age, and are becoming fast friends. And what’s cool about it is neither one of them are afraid of that moment. If that is to be their destiny, they have the personality and the character to walk into it with great ambition. And there’s a little bit of competitive banter amongst the two of them. Case in point what question you wanted to ever ever ask about uh Trey Johnson? I want to ask him like do he ever think that he’ll get to the shooting capability that I am at? Like I wonder like if he ever had aspirations or anything like that to shoot like Bob. Have there been any uh shooting competition between the two of you yet? Yes, there has actually. And I’ve been Listen, put a belt to that rookie. Put an absolute belt to that young. What What’s the score of the Oh, Trey, what’s up? out the shoot from competition. Like what’s the what’s the what’s the what’s the score right now? I’m up. Bob’s up. 3-2. It’s probably the other way. I think it’s a three. I don’t know if he’s won two games. I don’t know if he’s won two games. Okay. So, what what happened today? I let the rook get a little win like today. Him winning two games is the stretch and I kind of told him last night that he wasn’t going to win no more. Mind you, we going to Vegas tomorrow. You know, let the rook build some confidence going to the summer league. I don’t want him to go down there, you know, start shooting bad. You think, “Oh, it’s cuz Bob been beating up on me all week.” Like, you know, I don’t I’m the nice guy at the end of the day still. Like, let’s be real, guys. If you’re of a certain age, remember that my buddy commercial? Like, every time I see those two together, that’s the sound that runs in my head because they do have a brotherly like camaraderie already. By the way, the revelation above character’s new number. You saw the video on social. The fact that he and Trey already having that chemistry, it obviously has to translate to the basketball court, doesn’t it, Chase? 100%. First of all, Bob Carrington’s a clever guy, man. He He’s got the quips. Like, he he might be one of the funniest guys in the league in a league full of funny people. Thanks. But, uh, in terms of the chemistry, you know, I’ve been in this industry long enough to see many different times a player come and crash a media scrum and ask questions. Actually, it’s kind of Bub’s move. He kind of stole his because he did. He started doing it last year. Yeah. And it usually goes well. So, you know, fans might not think that it’s an indication of team chemistry, but one time I saw it not go well. I was covering the Nationals. I used to cover baseball and Ryan Zimmerman was doing an interview. I won’t name the player, but a teammate came up and started asking questions and Ryan Zimmerman was not happy about it. So, that was an indication that they did not have team chemistry. This is the exact opposite. These guys like each other a lot. Dude, this is one of those situations where it makes you want to be on the team. like you want to be a player in this locker room learning and sharing and laughing and having these moments because my thought is yes we’re here in the middle of July in Las Vegas. I’m thinking about late December, midFebruary, early March. That dog days, the dog days of a regular season where you’re really going to have to lean into how much do you like a guy when he gets on the plane and you just say, “Go into your seat. Please, please leave me alone.” Or is it, “Oh, I got your seat. Stay right here, bro.” Like, I see these guys as being seatmates, row mates on flights when they’re on the road. And I think it’s just going to be so great for Wizards fans to watch their growth as a pair and individually. And it was so funny because they were talking about the shooting competitions that they’ve had at practices. And we saw a little bit of it yesterday. And who won depends on who you ask because Bub Carrington said he won. I don’t think said he won. I don’t think Trey’s ever lost. I know. But I mean, without having actually seen it, I would probably bet on Trey Johnson just cuz he’s a great shooter. But Bub Carrington could shoot, too. So, it might have been pretty close. It’s like you got to walk it and talk it. And right now, it’s a hard competition. We’ll figure out later on in the season who ends up actually winning these uh these little duels. But I do want to transition to another guy, another first round acquisition, Will Riley out of Illinois. We know that Will’s got the height, he’s got the wingspan, he’s got the athleticism. The interesting scout on him was what who is his comp on the in the league. Of all the names that were named for the comp for Will Riley, it was who? Keshan Jones. And I’m like, what’s wrong with having multiples? Right. What’s wrong with having multiple guys that have at positional height? What’s wrong with having multiple guys that can knock down shots at a clip and have that hunger and passion for the game? Something that DC fans, in my opinion, hold as a standard chase. They’re the same height. They play the same way. They both wore orange in college. So, it’s it’s a natural comparison. And maybe that’s why I have picked him for the Keshan George award, the breakout summer. Um, but for Will Riley, honestly, I’m not really going to be looking at the shooting numbers. I’m gonna be looking at two things. One, how big and fast does he look on the court because size, athleticism, motor, those are big strengths for his. And then you see the scoring and you see the assists. If you see the points that he created per 40 minutes, you can see why Brad Underwood, who coached him in Illinois, told our colleague Chris Miller, he’s the second most talented offensive player he’s ever coached, only to Mike Beasley. I think Will Riley’s one of these guys that once you get to the fourth or fifth summer league game, some of the secondyear players are not going to be playing probably. True. I think they’ll probably put the ball in his hands and and see what he can do at this stage as a playmaker because GM Will Dawkins said he was really impressed when he did that down the stretch last year in Illinois and when he did that in the AAOU ranks. I think to to echo your point, there’s an opportunity for Will that I not necessarily say doesn’t happen for other guys, but I think he has the most runway, right? There’s still a lot of undefined and undetermined elements of his game. Summerly is the best place to find that. Why? Because it kind of feels like just free form basketball. What do your instincts say? What are your basketball IQ? How does that manifest? And I think Will’s got a lot in his bag that he hasn’t even unlocked yet. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do. But let’s transition even further. How about Jamir Watkins out of Florida State University. Now, this is a young man. Talk about athlete. Chase. Athlete. Not just basketball player. Athlete. Mr. Watkins is going to be a problem for anybody wanting to defend him this year. Big Wings fan, physical defender, experienced defender, played a bunch of years in college. He’s again the oldest prospect the Wizards have. It’s going to be interesting to see how does that translate in the summer league physical defense, which isn’t something you usually uh associate the summer league with. Also, his biggest strength is getting to the free throw line. He averaged about eight free throws a game last year. Huge. Can he generate free throws at the NBA level? He’s going to have to adjust to the officiating. But also like Will Riley, I expect toward the end of summer league him to play some on the ball and run the offense. We saw that with Bal Kuli a couple years ago. Last year we saw it with Kean George and Alex Sar toward the end of the summer league. I feel like Jamir Watkins could do the same thing because like Will Riley he created a lot of points last year when you add up the points he scored and the assist that he dished out. Interestingly enough the fact that we’re talking about the measurables for a player right here earlier when we looked at Trey Johnson and I said that hand length was eight and a half. Look at Mr. Watkins 9 and a quarter. Just that little bit extra when you’re playing the position way that he does. The ability to control the ball in your hand has to give you an advantage. Yes, he is older, as you said, an older prospect. So, he should be more comfortable than a lot of these guys. Everybody’s most of these guys are like 19, 20 years old. Mr. Watkins, I’m telling you, just like we were last year, we’re like, “Yo, Keshan’s going to be the one that you got to make sure you pay.” I’m telling you now, I’m pick I’m just I don’t know if I’m ready to vote yet, but just just just I’m getting close to pushing the button. So, shout out to Jamir. Your thoughts on him? Yeah, I mean he is a very physical player and he plays with an edge and I said earlier that he’s got a lot to prove. That’s what I’ll be watching. Like like what type of tone does he take to the court? Cuz I feel like he’s not going to be messing around like No, no, it’s all business. He’s a second round pick. There’s not that he just doesn’t have the same guarantees as a guy who was selected in the lottery. So, I feel like sometimes you see those guys in the summer catch other teams by surprise, catch other players by surprise because there are some guys who come in here and they know that, you know, like they were drafted pretty high. Their role in the rotation next season’s going to be pretty secure. They don’t have as much to prove, but Watkins does. So, keep that in mind when you watch him. To echo that, he reminds me he he brings this thought to mind. A young man who used to wear the number one because he was going to be the first college graduate in his family. The ability to dedicate and commit and complete that task shows me discipline. Shows me a guy that knows how to lock in and complete the mission under all circumstances. That’s the kind of guy that you want to have. And you know that hunger bug, whatever was activated to complete that is going to be activated on the basketball court. But there’s another firstear guy here, the first year head coach in the summer league, JJ Outlaw. Now, we know him as a player of multiple sports, but now he gets to hold the reigns for these Washington Wizards during summer league. and he’s got a lot of tools at his disposal, including the returning players. I think anytime you get an opportunity to be a head coach and you’re in a leadership role, I think it’s a huge responsibility, um, you know, you have a lot of accountability to the guys, to the organization. Um, you know, I’m I’m always excited to take any of these live reps as I can. Um, something that, you know, is a challenge. Um, but, you know, we pride ourselves on being able to stand up to challenges. And so for me, uh, it’s just about doing the best that I can for our guys in our organization. JJ, what can we expect in terms of playing time in Vegas for guys going into their second year like Bub, Keshan, Alex, and AJ Dylan? Yeah, I mean, they’re going to play uh for sure. Uh, how many games? You know, we’re not sure yet, but uh they’re definitely going to play. They’ve earned the right to be out there. They’ve earned the right to be in leadership and um roles with this with this group. And I think it’s really important for them to be out there to, you know, pass on what they’ve learned in their first years to Trey, to Jamir, to Will, all of these guys. So, it’s really, really valuable that they’re out there and they’ve earned the right to do it. Summer League head coach JJ Outlaw previewing his expectations for the returners and of course every Wizards player that’s going to be taking the court here during summer league. This is Summer League preview brought to you by Cisco here on Monumental Sports Network. Chase, your thoughts on JJ and what we know of him as an athlete and as a person, but how do you think that’s going to affect the guys on the court? Yeah, it was great to speak with him. You know, we don’t talk to the assistant coaches very often. It’s a good spot for these guys to step into and get some experience talking to the media and so I had to ask him about his background playing in the NFL. If you’re a Wizards fan who don’t know about JJ Outlaw, he played professional sports but not basketball. He played for the Philadelphia Eagles. So he is technically part of the Andy Reid coaching tree because I believe he played for the Eagles in ‘ 05 06. So I asked him I was like have you taken anything from your football coaches cuz he’s learned from both basketball and football coaches and he said yes and he named a few of them. Um so really interesting background and we also heard from Bob Carrington about how football maybe has influenced JJ Outlaw and the way he coaches and he said you can see it in during practices with his intensity. I was just thinking that word say get out of here the team. It feels like you’re in a football locker. Yes, I was going to say the intensity and the requirement of toughness. Yeah, that’s that’s what comes from the football side of it. It’s like you’re going to get bruised. You’re going to get bumped around. Get up, play the game. At the end of the day, it’s about what you do and the 9450 and the time allotted on the board. I love the fact that he is going to be the one calling the shots this summer. And I think the guys respond to that, especially remember a lot of these guys are also multisport athletes themselves. So, hey, you get a football guy who’s also paid his dues, by the way, paid his dues on the basketball side. JJ Outlaw is welld deserving of being the head coach during summer league. But I want to remind everybody about the summer league schedule for the Washington Wizards tomorrow. Taking on the Phoenix Suns on the 13th of July. That’s when we take on the Brooklyn Nets. And then don’t forget the Sixers on the 15th and then Utah on the 16th. Now, Chase, we normally come to summer league and most of these games are on a condensed schedule. Get a lot of backto-back days and we’re in and out of here. They’ve stretched these games over a considerable amount of time, seven days to be exact, from the the 11 to the 16. Your thoughts about any particular match ups that Wizards fans should be aware of in any of these four games. There’s some good match ups in each of them. So, Wizards Suns, that’ll be Alex Sar against Kaman Malawatch. We mentioned their 10th overall pick, best big man in the draft attitude. The Nets had five first round picks, five, including Demon of BYU, who they picked eighth overall. He’s a very talented player. The Sixers have VJ Edge, the third overall pick, a shooting guard much like Trey Johnson. He’s known for his defense. So, if those guys go at it, as they did last year in the Big 12, well, actually, Texas, man, but that would be a great matchup. Offense verse defense. And then the Utah Jazz have Ace Bailey who fifth right ahead of the Wizards. Him and Trey Johnson, whoever plays for the Wizards, you know, of the sophomores, but him and Trey Johnson, that could be a great matchup on the offensive end. I’m looking forward to watching every single one of these games. Obviously, if you have a chance to come out to Las Vegas, see them in person. But don’t forget, all four of these games are going to be on Monumental Sports Network. We’re going to take them all live. You can see them for yourself. This is the first chance for all of us to see this new roster for the 2526 season. When I say I couldn’t be more excited. I’m actually underelling it. I’m jumping out of my skin to watch these guys play today. They’re not on the court. Tomorrow night, taking on the Phoenix Suns. That’s the first crack at it. Chase, I think we we got one here. This is going to be a good season, brother. Any final words real quick? 100%. I’ll say about the Wizards collecting Youngtown is if you look back at rebuilds that have worked, they take a while, but usually they collect the pieces early. So when I’ll say the Wizards become contenders, the key components are probably going to be playing on Monumental Sports Network over the next 7 to 10 days. Foundation is the most important part of the house. Can’t build it without it. And we are going to continue building brick by brick live from Las Vegas. This is the Wizards Summer League preview brought to you by Cisco. Thank you to the crew back in Monumental Sports Network and of course our partner Chase Hughes. I’m Wes Hall. We’ll see you on the court cuz the game’s on.

​@realweshall and Chase Hughes get you ready for some Washington Wizards NBA Summer League basketball in Las Vegas, presented by @Cisco

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2025 Washington Wizards Summer League Preview | Monumental Sports Network