Wizards 2nd Rounder Jamir Watkins PROVED he BELONGS | Marcus Smart BOUGHT OUT

Wizards 2nd Rounder Jamir Watkins PROVED he BELONGS | Marcus Smart BOUGHT OUT

On today’s episode, the man with the most to prove in the summer league for the Wizards, it was Jamir Watkins, and he certainly earned his spot. Let’s talk about it on Lockdown Wizards. You are Locked On Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. DC family, this is Lockdown Wizards, where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. It is your team every day. Alongside DC Sports content, creating Savon and Credential media member for the Washington Wizards. That’s Abdullah Aub. Check him out on Instagram, the DMBB Sports Zone page. I’m Ben Strober. I cover all things DC sports for 1067 the fan and the team 980. Check me out on Twitter, Benstrober Media. Real quick, today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money and use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. A lot to get to in today’s edition of Lockdown Wizards. We’ll tease a special guest that we have coming on for tomorrow’s show. So, be sure to stick around for that later on. Uh but first order of business, Marcus Smart was bought out yesterday uh by the organization. He signed a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. We’ll touch on that, what he means. And the Wizards additionally uh waved Blake Wesley as well, who came over as part of the Kelly Olen trade just a couple weeks ago. So, the team is now down to the 15 standard contract maximum uh that we would see throughout the regular season. But a man that’s on a two-way contract for this upcoming season, the second round pick, Jir Watkins. What a performance he had in Washington’s win over New York in the final summer league contest. The Wizards finished two and three in the summer league. But Jir Watkins a real bright spot uh led the team in the final contest against the Knicks. Sorry, he was second in scoring of 23 went four of 11 from beyond the arc. So super high volume of three-point shots. That’s something we’ll touch on. But just another excellent performance for him defensively, amassing another six steals uh to go along with that. He’s a guy that has proven to me that he belongs on the NBA floor. And because he’s on the two-way contract, he is only able to play in a maximum of 50 games. The same thing applies for Tristan Vuchic and Jaylen Martin. Uh at this point, Abdullah, I think he’s a guy that should play every night for this Wizards team. Definitely, Ben. Averaging 3.8 eight steals per game through five games. It doesn’t matter if it’s a summer league or G-League MB. That’s really, really impressive from the second round pick from Florida State. Nearly seven foot wingspan. You just put all that together. Offensively, I think he’s only going to get better. But defensively, I need to see him every night, especially if the Wizards want to compete every game. A guy like him will get on the floor, grab for loose balls, and against five steals, one eight steals. I mean, that is incredible coming from a guy who has so much to prove. A lot of people questioning the second round pick because again there was ideas of let’s draft the big man. We didn’t go big with our first round pick. We didn’t go big man with the second first round pick but we go with a guy in J Watkins who seven foot wingspan like I mentioned the the guy that can go out there and just take over games and lock down defensively pick up 94 feet and like you mentioned we only see 50 games at a two-way contract players. Maybe he could be upgraded. We saw that last year with Justin Champeny but I want to see him play game one to game 82 because defensively we need as much firepower as we can get. Absolutely. And I take a lot into the stat. So, this is the way it’s coined now. Steals and blocks combined as stocks. Uh, I want to invest in that to be honest for Jir Watkins because 10 of them, 10 stocks, uh, in one of the games he had in this summer league. Uh, simply absurd. He finished the summer league averaging four steals per game. That was good for the best in all of the NBA summer league. Right behind him, or tied, I should say, for the lead in steals. the summer league. Keeshan George averaged four per game in the two games that he played. So, the Wizards were all over the place defensively throughout the summer league in terms of uh their markings on the leaderboard. Alex Sar five and a half blocks per game. And of course, that’s uh brought up a significant amount because of the eight block performance against Brooklyn in the second game. But there’s a lot of good things that you’ve seen defensively about Jir Watkins. One thing I wanted to touch on was him offensively, and you heard me say it a couple minutes ago, four for 11 from beyond the arc, and that’s something that the Wizards are going to have to mold to be part of his game, his ability, uh, to get a shot off and catch and shoot opportunities and be effective at knocking them down. And so far throughout the summer league, uh, he has struggled a little bit at that. But one thing I did notice going back and, uh, looking at the game logs from his time at Florida State, he never was a high volume three-point shot guy. the most he ever took in his career at Florida State was eight in a game. And he took on average seven per game throughout the summer league and then 11 in that final game and albeit uh more of an more of a offensive role for him in those kind of games because they don’t have a lot of other guys playing uh other than Dylan Jones who had a pretty nice showing in the final summer league outing there. But I really wonder if this was all strategic uh from the coaching staff here for Jir Watkins. They told him, “We need you to go out there uh and take as many three-point opportunities as you can because that’s the kind of role that you’re going to carve yourself out for uh in the NBA here.” And I don’t know if maybe you go out there and get him a high volume of attempts, whether he’s playing games with the go- go because he’s going to play games with the Capital City Go as it stands right now. Can only play in 50 games in the regular season. It’ll be interesting to see how they kind of balance that out. Does he play games early on or do they wait until later in the season and kind of have him just ride it out and finish the season? But he’s a guy to me that would provide them good enough minutes just because what he does defensively, reading passing lanes, disrupting uh the offensive flow and system of the opponent. He’s a guy that they could really utilize, not because obviously they’re they’re going to win a lot of games next year, but a guy like him on the floor um providing what he does defensively, contribute to a couple steals, a block or two, uh and then even if he puts up six to 10 points per game, coming off the bench in around 15 minutes of play, that’d be a really solid contribution for him. I just wonder if we’re going to see that three-point shot develop the way they’ve tried to do so here in the summer league with a high volume of attempts. He averaged 18 points per game in college. So, the guy wasn’t a scrub offensively in college, but like you mentioned, the three-point uh position of him being a guy that can only shoot it from three. Maybe he he can expand on his offensive back. We’ll just have to see. But if he’s doing one thing right, it’s playing defense. Keep putting him out there. If you’re good at one thing, keep going at it because again, defensively, the Wizards have been so lackluster these past couple years. And just ever since they got rid of John Wall, we just didn’t have a guy or just a defensive anchor team. And it was frustrating to see teams like the Indiana Pacers, which I get they just went to the NBA finals, but last year put up 160 points and getting blown out by 50 points at home. We don’t want to see that anymore. And I feel like guys like Jir Watkins are going to be the ones that make more close games or those blowout games more competitive by getting a steal or two that you wouldn’t have got seasons prior. So, I can’t wait to see his uh rotation, how he fits in the rotation here in DC. And I really hope coach Kee gives him those minutes. The whole two-way thing might li may limit him, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye on the capital city go because the capital city go does a great job of developing players. Like I mentioned, Justin Champini, Jordan Goodwin, as Isaiah Todd at one point when I was watching the Wizards, he was a guy that I liked from the capital city go. So development right there I’m not worried about because they’ve proven in the past they can do their job. So I can’t wait to see how Jir Watkins does his regular uh his first rookie year. Yeah, that’s one thing that they have done well with the go- go is develop guys. So maybe it would be something that’s beneficial uh for Watkins, especially because what the one thing we’re concerned about is his ability to get off those catch and shoot opportunities. He started off pretty strong against New York. He knocked down his first two shots from outside and then really cooled off from there. Eventually, you know, finished the game missing eight of his last 10 I I believe at that point or or seven of his last nine actually. I can’t I can’t do math. But, uh, the bottom line is with Jamir Watkins, he’s a guy that is going to be a work in progress offensively. But, he just showed me so much because what he’s able to do on the defensive side of the basketball that he’s a guy that will get plenty of minutes for this Wizards team when they are able to elevate him up uh for parts of the season to to play in games. And maybe we do see some more movement because Cory Kissper, you and I have talked a lot about has he played his last game in Washington or not? you and I both seem to think he has, but um that’s probably a move that would come a little bit later on as we get a little bit closer to the season. It’s tough to think about, Abdullah. There’s not going to be any Wizards basketball for for three months and you and I are just going to have to keep on waiting for it to happen. But if Kisspert does eventually uh get traded away, depending on what the compensation is in return there, if the Wizards just get draft picks or or whatever does happen with Cory Kisspert there, uh does that leave the opportunity for either Veovic or Jaylen Martin or Jamir Watkins to get elevated to a standard contract to uh hit that 15 threshold? That’ll be interesting to see. At this point, get what you can from Cory Kispert. I don’t really care about a specific player that I would target. I just draft capital. We’ve seen in these past moves with Will Dawkins and company, they want to get as much draft capital as they can and they’ll use those second round picks that they get. A lot of people claim they’re useless, but they’ll go out there and get a Cam Whitmore or they’ll make moves like trading for Marcus Smart and then eventually flipping him and getting Will Riley or more draft picks. So, I don’t mind what we get from Cory Kissper at this point. It’s more about the youth movement and he’s just he’s old he’s older than all these young guys and just doesn’t fit the timeline and again wasn’t a Will Dawkins draft pick. Yeah, couldn’t couldn’t have said it any better myself there. Abdullah, real quick, Marcus Smart was bought out yesterday. What does that mean going forward for the Wizards? We will talk about that next here on the program Lockdown Wizards. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Uh, one of the things I noticed that was surprising about Monarch Money was just how much I was spending on groceries and buying food out. And ever since I got Monarch Money, I was able to budget and uh really create a plan for what I did going forward. and I have saved a whole lot of money since then. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year. Marcus Smart no more in DC. Washington agreed to contract buyouts with him and Blake Wesley. So that trims down the roster to 15 standard contracts as it is right now. And Abdul, my first thoughts, I was kind of like, dang, you know, I thought Smart was going to be a guy we’d be able to pull off a trade for, potentially get some draft capital in return because I think of the veterans that this team had, he was on the more teamfriendly deal uh that they could have had to to move him. And he’s a real asset to have on a contending team because of how great he is defensively. I mean, he he’s kind of like what we just talked about in the last segment that you hope Jamir Watkins could be a a three indeed type player that is super impactful on playoff teams like Marcus Smart was for so long in Boston. And I think that’s a great fit like a glove out there in Los Angeles. Suddenly, maybe the reservations that you and I had about LeBron or Luca leaving the Lakers at this point, maybe those doubts are a little bit less. I don’t know if that would really put them over the top out west there, but I do think Marcus Smart fits in pretty well uh with the Los Angeles Lakers. What do you think? Yeah, so again, I was funny because we were talking about it. I don’t know if DeAndre or Marcus Smart still makes you a contending team in the West, but that’s a topic for a different day. Going back to the Wizard standpoint, I think it does suck. I loved Marcus Mart’s aggression when he came to Washington as a vet knowing that he was on a losing team, knowing that this team wasn’t going to contend. He was still going out there providing 110% loose balls. This is what I want to see Jir Watkins do essentially. And him being a mentor for young guys like Bub Carrington, like AJ Johnson, but and al and also you can flip the coin and say, “Hey, Marcus Martin being opens up reps for now AJ Johnson now Carrington, Trey Johnson, CJ McCullum is going to have a heavy load potentially and also he’s going to be a mentor.” So, I can’t wait to see how the Wizards manage this situation where Marcus Smart was essentially one of your best perimeter defenders. Now he’s gone. You got you got Balok Koulali back. Hopefully, he’ll come back fully healthy and play a full season, but now you have Jir Watkins in the rotation. Can he crack it? Trey Johnson, a lot of people are questioning his defensive ability, but with his size, I think there’s definitely some promise there. Bub Carrington needs to be more aggressive offensively. So, I can’t wait to see the mentorship coming from CJ McCullum because he’s a guy who just was traded here from New Orleans, straight away from Jordan Pool who had the keys here in DC and now he now he’s gone off to New Orleans. So, I can’t wait to see how Will Dawkins and his crew capitalize on this season and losing a guy like Marcus Smart, it does suck, but at the end of the day, I always go back to the whole youth movement. It’s all about the young guys now. You’re trying to make sure you maximize their efficiency come this year two of Keshan, Alexar, Bub Carrington, and year one of Trey Johnson. Yeah. And I kind of made the comment just a minute ago where I was saying it kind of stinks that we weren’t able to uh trade him, get additional draft compensation in return for Marcus Smart. But if you really think back to every move that has happened since they acquired Marcus Smart from Memphis back in February, in return, they got that 2025 first round pick, which was the 18th pick. uh turned that into Will Riley who was picked at 21 and then they were able to get Jamir Watkins at number 43 because they traded back three spots. Uh you see look you got two players you think can make pretty good impact in the future high upside guys out of Riley and Watkins and then also additionally two future second round picks. So it was not an all foro move for Marcus Smart. I think uh they actually really did get a lot uh to build on with acquiring him at the trade deadline last year and of course he came in here and he was a phenomenal mentor. He he’s a guy if you want to preach defense to your organization, he was the guy to do it because he’s he set the standard. Want a defensive player of the year and he he kind of really standardized what is playing terrific on ball defense on the perimeter in the modern day NBA. And hopefully everyone in the organization that was there uh to play with him for the final 20 or so games of the season got to pick up a lot from that. Another guy that was bought out as well yesterday, Blake Wesley. uh we knew it was coming between Malachi Brain and Blake Wesley that one of those guys would probably uh get bought out and waved at some point and uh Wesley was the odd man out. So this does open up those opportunities as you mentioned for backup guard minutes behind Bub Carrington. I think this gives an opportunity for AJ Johnson because I think coming into the summer league uh even before that a lot of people were saying where is AJ Johnson going to get his minutes with this team? is he going to have enough of an opportunity uh to grow his game and develop as a former first round pick? And now the answer seems pretty clear that he will get a much larger opportunity here um because of the buyout that took place. And AJ Johnson showed them some flashes throughout the summer league. He had a couple up and down performances. Uh but the playmaking ability and the vision is one thing that we’d like to see him work on, improve on, and now there will be a much larger opportunity for him to do it at the professional level against, you know, the top of the top tier guys here in the NBA. Yeah. And we saw Flash the second half of the season, but I want to see how he does in the first half of the season. Can he be that potential six-man that I somewhat talk about at times? I mean, again, it’s a lot of a lot of load for a young guy, but I think the potential, it’s untapped. He’s so freaking athletic. I think offensively if he gets that shot better, he’s going to be such a such a great threat because teams are going to come up on him and he can just take a good blow by him to the straight to the rim. Needs to get better at finishing. I think offensively he’s already there and defensively he can be such a menace, a great two-way player potentially. So, we’ll just have to see. And again, this Marcus Smart move opens up the gate for AJ Johnson and this is what Will Dawkins wants. I opened up opportunities for you. Can you go out there and capitalize? So, I can’t wait to see how AJ Johnson comes in year two because again, I think it’s a steal that we got in for Kyle Kzma because the way Kyle Kosma’s saga ended here in Washington. The fact you get a a gem potentially gem or I don’t want to say gem, but untapped potential AJ Johnson, it’s going to be exciting. Yeah, he’s an example. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks and Johnson is a big part of that equation. Another guy that is being thrown at the wall to see if he sticks or not is Dylan Jones. And after having a couple DNPs in the summer league, he did show out in the final contest of the summer league. He’s a guy that right now has a safe spot, but that is probably subject to change. We’ll see. But we’ll talk about Dylan Jones and what we saw from him this summer league here when we come back on Lockdown Wizards. [Music] Dylan Jones led all scores against the Knicks in the final summer league contest. Had 25 points in the win over the Knicks. And look at the shooting splits for him. Eight of 13, an efficient 61% from the field, including knocking down two of his three attempts from beyond the arc. Dylan Jones is a guy that’s kind of got that widebody frame, but we haven’t really seen what his role looks like in an NBA uniform because one, he didn’t really get any opportunities with the Thunder and uh the team won 68 games last year, won the NBA championship. There wasn’t really a spot for him in Oklahoma City. Uh and even with the G-League affiliate, didn’t really get the opportunity to see him play in his actual role. I know the Thunder kind of had him playing uh in more of a wing style role where they just kind of had him spotting up a little bit and they didn’t really see him drive to the basket and look efficient the way he did in this last summerly game. I think he is effective at uh getting downhill and using his body to try to create space, especially around the rim. So, I think he kind of got an unfair rap in Oklahoma City and Sam Prey was willing to deal him to the Wizards uh because of some contract stuff. Kobby Jones goes over there and then they wave him. But now the Wizards maybe saw what was a little bit of potential there for Dylan Jones. And before the summer league, I would have said he’s a guy that is not guaranteed to make this team. But after the moves of Wesley being bought out, Marcus Smart as well, I think Dylan Jones has a safe spot. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Wizards choose to utilize him. And if they do the way they were or the way they used him through the last couple games of the summer league here, um, you know, I think he could provide you some quality minutes. They just have to kind of find out what role serves best for him. He’s a former first round pick uh from a year ago, obviously, and they traded five picks to trade up and get him. So, it’s got to mean something, especially from Sam Press, one of the most brilliant GMs in NBA history. Saw something in him. What was it exactly? Well, the Wizards are maybe about to find out here, Abdullah. Yeah. And I love how he attacked that last summer of the game against the Knicks. Like you mentioned, 25 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, eight of 13 field goal range, two three from three-point land. Was really good at attacking the basket. And again, it goes back to taking advantage of your opportunities. None of the the year two guys didn’t play. Trey Johnson got shut down. It’s my time to shine. I’m going to go out there and ball out. And again, Sam Presley believed in me so much. The team was just so good. I get shipped to a place in Washington where they’re trying to find and establish a culture here. They traded for Cam Whitmore and they he they think he can be really good. But I’m Dylan Jones and I was a former first round pick. I’m surrounded by former first round picks. There’s something here that’s brewing here in DC and I think Dylan Jones can be part of it. I think if AJ Johnson can step up, he could be a guy that can step up and be that backup point guard. So he is really, really talented as well. And again, it goes back to Sam Pra training five second round picks for the guy. I mean, that means something. He has some value there. And again, it didn’t work out in OKC because I’ll keep mentioning the surplus of talent that they have. But I think he can carve a role here in DC. We’ll just have to see how it comes down to his rookie year. Will it be a situation, Jir Watkins, where we won’t see him till the second half of the season? Will we be battling in the G-League? I I don’t know. But I have so much confidence in Capo developing talent that even if he’s there, he’s going to get a lot of good reps. And come regular season time, if we’re losing games by 20 points in the fourth quarter, put him out there. I can’t wait to see how he does in this year coming up because again, we’re still trying to figure out who can be that superstar here in Washington. Trey Johnson could be that guy. But then after the superstar, you need to find role players that are going to be here long term. That’s essentially what Oklahoma City built and they just won a championship. Yeah. In Oklahoma City, 54 games played last year in his rookie season, only playing around 10 minutes per game. And uh that’s a little bit generous. I think it’s a little bit inflated because he did start three games last year in Oklahoma City. and just not a whole lot really on film for Dylan Jones throughout the last season. And the uh the host of Locked on Thunder, I think, put it best. He said, uh, didn’t really see any flashes from him, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily his fault. I just don’t think he was really given the opportunity to do so. Uh, and one thing that Ryan Styles he he preached in his episode when Dylan Jones was still to Washington was um he just he felt like it was a good opportunity for him because he’s going somewhere uh where there’s not really a whole lot of solidified players yet here in DC. Obviously, we we’re starting to get an idea of what our young core looks like, who might fit uh going forward, but there’s still a lot of unproven pieces in this Wizards organization. And I think Dylan Jones is a guy that should get more than 10 minutes per game. I think he’ll have a much larger opportunity here with the Wizards. And I think maybe Dawkins in the front office saw something in him uh that they could utilize going forward. Even if they do craft him into playing or being more of a role player for eventually when this team is on the up and up, hopefully a year from now or so. uh you know, you could live with that if you start to get really quality minutes out of Dylan Jones on a team that already has a solidified starting lineup in its star players. And I think that’s the best part about Washington right now, Ben, is that you’re a young guy coming into the situation where there’s no expectations. There’s no playoff expectations, no championship expectations yet. So, you can go out there and just play basketball. And that’s what Wol Dawkins wants. I think that’s the environment that he wants to build right now. And then a year from now is when, okay, now we got to see some progress. We want to see winning. And by then, you’ll see you have those key guys, those key court players, and you have those players that will come off the bench that can score and defend. So, I can’t wait to see how it all pans out. Yeah, I I I just feel like this season upcoming, I’m I’m looking forward to it so much because I want to see all the year two guys. I want to see the new additions. Cam Whitmore, Dylan Jones. How good do those guys look in a Wizard uniform? because I I put Cam Whitmore as high as number three in my list of the young core just because his per 36 minute uh mark 22 points per game is absolutely ridiculous stuff what he’s able to do offensively. Can he put it together uh on both ends of the floor? You know, a lot of people give the rap for Cam Whitmore that he he’s kind of a black hole out there when he touches the basketball, but we’ll see how he is in this uh team oriented basketball role that he’d probably have here in DC because all the other young pieces and just how many minutes do we see from a lot of these guys, Dylan Jones included. Uh there’s a lot of time uh that we will have to wait before any of that happens. But it is exciting to think about that we’re going to be, you know, looking out for these things as the season goes on this year. hopefully seeing a competitive team for 82 games, even if it doesn’t mean a lot of winning. Let me ask you this, Ben. Do you think, because I know you mentioned you’re really high on Camward like I am, do you think he starts game one at the four? Uh, I don’t think so. I don’t. Do you think takes that spot? He probably does just because what he’s done here already. I feel like obviously he’s a guy that they drafted. Uh, they’ve seen him play here for a year. So, I don’t think Cam Whitmore would start. And and we’ve already got a lot of comments from people saying Cam Whitmore is already the best player on this team. He could be. Uh that does remain to be seen, but talent-wise offensively, he might be the best scoreer this team has right now. I don’t know if they’d give him the knot to start right away. Uh because of what Keshan George has done, especially they’ve talked about him so much this off seasonason. They’re like, “Wait till you see what Keshan’s been working on. He’s had the best spring. He’s going to have the best summer.” And the proof was in the pudding how great he was uh in the just two Summerly League games he played at both ends of the floor. Really good offensively in game number one. Not as much in the second game, but great on on defense nonetheless. So I don’t know if they would give Whitmore the edge over George. And I know that that probably upset a lot of people because I think we have a lot of Cam Whitmore truthers already uh that are part of the fan base. And I think that’s a good thing. Like he’s going to be a super easy guy uh to root for to be great here. guy grew up going to Wizards games from the DMV. The pride and joy of Art Bishop Spalding, he’s going to be a lot of fun uh to see how his role increases as the season goes on. I think he probably starts out on the bench here in DC, but eventually works his way into the starting lineup if I had to guess. But that’s just my take. I’m not the coach. I’m not the GM. So, what do I really know? No, I I I agree with you there. I think again, Keshan here longer. You can’t really just start a guy right off the bat. he has to earn his spot here in the nation’s capital and I think Cam War is just going to do that. I think he’s in a great situation here like you mentioned grew up in the DMV area and it’s exciting. This is a guy that I wanted back in 2023. And the fact that you get him for two second round picks, just another masterclass performance from Will Dawkins in the front office. But this starting five, Ben, I’m every night I’m thinking like going now talking about the back court since we have some time left. CJ McCullum, how do you balance the minutes with him and Trey and you do you do you put Bub purely at the one? Like is he ready for that position? Like how do you how do you think that’s going to pan out? I think CJ starts at the two to start the season. I just don’t see CJ Mcome coming off the bench for this team. And I think Trey Johnson will play a ton of minutes. He might play the one sometimes. I I think that could be a high possibility. I think we’ve talked about AJ Johnson being a backup point guard. Uh him and Bub could duke it out for the one position. I don’t know how they view uh Bub Carrington this point. they do think he is indeed fit to be the starting point guard at least for this upcoming season. Uh but Trey Johnson is going to get plenty of minutes. I’m not worried about that. It’s just going to be interesting to see how they rotated and and if they do make any changes as the season goes on. Yeah. Again, I’m excited for it and I know this next episode coming up is going to be really exciting as well. So, lots of content coming up here for Lockdown Wizards. Should we Should we Should we let everyone know who’s who will be on the show tomorrow? I don’t know. I think we should keep it secret. Keep it a secret. All right. Well, we we’ll keep it a surprise, but be on the lookout for tomorrow’s episode. A very very special guest that all of you are very familiar with. Uh you could take a guess in the comments and see if anybody has any idea. It’s not John Wall. I It’s It’s not It’s not anything. It’s not Bradley Bill either. It’s I I will say that it’s not it’s not a former player, but uh take a guess in the comments, but a very special guest will be on here to give some very incredible insight uh ahead of a long long three months here before we have Wizards basketball again. So, uh it’s tough times for you and I, Abdullah. So, just hypothetically, because again, I got this question out of nowhere right to me. If we were to um interview a former player, Ben, would I know the easy answer is John Wall, but I don’t I want to interview Marshian Gortai. That would be so cool. So, he he’d be high up on my list for sure. Oh, I gota I got to think about this for like a long time wizard. Well, like Gilbert Arenas would be such an easy one because like he’s a podcaster himself. Like he would be hilarious to get on a podcast, but I don’t think that would ever happen. Trying to think who else Na N would be cool. Paul Pierce would be cool. His time here in DC at the end of his career. Jason Smith, that duke never missed a mid-range shot. I’d love to get like a random role player like what if they got Andre Miller or Raman Sessions on Garrett Temple. Oh lord. Garrett Temple. That’s Let’s get Yan Vesley on the No, people would Andrew Nicholson. Yani, man. Take me back to those times, man. Ask Yan Mheime what he did with all that money we gave him. Yeah, that that that that’s a great way to start off the podcast. What have you been doing with all that money they gave you for no reason? Oh man, he’s probably somewhere out there in France en enjoying life. Kevin Sarapin, you just reminded me. That’s a good one. Drew Gooden. I mean, he is part of the broadcasting team, but I love to talk to also because he was part of that LeBron team in 07. So, that would be an interesting talking point, too. Yeah, for sure. Well, be on the lookout for tomorrow’s episode. Very special guest. Going to be a good time. Let us know what you guys thought about Jirro Watkins throughout the summer league. What does his role look like for this Wizards team this year? and Dylan Jones included. How do you see him shaping up as the regular season approaches? Long time to go before we have some Wizards basketball again, but Abdullah and I will be here to keep you company along the way on Lockdown Wizards. We thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen today for your second Final Lockdown NBA podcast where there is no offse. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. For my co-host Abdullah Yubie, be sure to check him out DMV sportzone on Instagram. I’m Ben Strober. You can check me out on Twitter, Ben Strober Media. We will see you tomorrow for a very special edition of Lockdown Wizards. Stick with us and go Wizards.

The Washington Wizards selected Jamir Watkins with their second-round pick, and after the Summer League, he PROVED he belongs. He is on a two-way contract, so Abdullah and Ben break down what his role will look like. Also, Marcus Smart and Blake Wesley were bought out, getting the team down to 15 standard contracts. What did we see out of Dillon Jones in the Summer League?

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