Preseason Preview: Washington Wizards

What’s good y’all and welcome back to another preseason preview video. In today’s video, we’re going over the Washington Wizards. In case this is your first preseason preview video of mine that you’re seeing, basically what I do is look at the offseason, give a little recap there, and then try to look into the future a little bit and see what we can expect in this upcoming season. I’m going to be dropping videos on all 30 NBA teams. So, make sure you check out the channel for the ones I already uploaded, and then make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on the ones coming forward. Also in the description, there’s a link to a channel, The Round Ball Renaissance. I will be making an appearance on there later this week. The episode I appear on should be up there. So, make sure you go check out that and show some support there. Uh, real good episode on the New York Knicks. As you guys know, that’s my favorite team. But, let’s just jump right into it and talk about the Washington Wizards. The reason you guys are here. Last year was a very bad season for the Wizards. There’s no other real way to say it. They were the 15 seed out east. They went 18 and 64. just one of the worst teams in the league. They have missed the playoffs in the last four seasons and then now they have back-to-back years of losing less than 20 games. Obviously, you need more improvement than that. I know they’re a rebuilding team, but less than 20 games, back-to-back years, that’s that’s not acceptable. And I think the front office of the Wizards kind of seen that, too, because they made a lot of changes this off season. And hopefully uh now that they have like some real young talent on their roster, we could start to be seeing some steps. And I guess we could just get right to it and talk about the offseason moves the Wizards made because there were a bunch of them. Before we talk about the guys they brought in, I do want to highlight the guys they lost. And one of the biggest losses that was very surprising to me was Jordan P. They traded Jordan P to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for CJ McCullum, Kelly Olen, and a second round pick. And although I did say it was surprising just because I really didn’t expect this to happen, I do think now, you know, taking a few steps back and looking at it as a whole, I think there’s a few reasons why they ended up trading Jordan P. The first reason is contract. Jordan Pool is making $31 million this year, $34 million next year. And in a little bit, we’ll talk more about CJ McCullum, who he was traded for. But CJ is an expiring deal that allows the Wizards to be able to kind of just wipe their hands if they want this off seasonason and open up a lot more money in free agency. And then also, I think the Wizards just kind of see Jordan Pool on the outside of their rebuild because last year they had an incredible draft, obviously getting Alex Sar and then Bub Carrington, Keshan George. Uh they have a few other really highlevel young players in my eyes on this roster that we’ll get to in a little bit. Uh but he kind of just maybe was on the outside looking in and they were like, “All right, you’re making a lot of money. Uh we kind of have other players at your position that we want to put more time and effort into.” So yeah, let let’s trade you. Bring in a vet. I do still think that Jordan Pool is a good player. Obviously, I just think that what he brings to the table and what the Wizards are looking for right now in their rebuild, they don’t really match up. So making the trade does kind of make sense. Marcus Smart is another guy that the Wizards are losing this off seasonason. they bought him out of the rest of his contract. Mid-season last year, they traded him for him from the Grizzlies. It was more of just a salary dump deal that they were taking him on. Um, and then, yeah, this offseason they bought him out. He signed a new deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. I do just think Marcus Smart age-wise obviously doesn’t fit this timeline and I’m sure he wants to get back to competing. Uh, so that kind of makes sense in my mind, too. Makes sense on why they just bought him out. Kind of free up some more money as well. And then the last guy notability that they lost this off seasonason was Malcolm Brogden. He currently is still sitting out in free agency. But with the guys they brought in as some vets and then also the other uh young guys that they have on this roster. I think again it kind of just makes sense Michael Brogden age-wise doesn’t really fit uh might as well allow him to sign somewhere where he can actually compete. Now it’s time to talk about the guys coming to Washington this off seasonason. I do think the Wizards did a pretty good job at adding talent to this roster. Uh the first guy I want to highlight is of course CJ McCullum. I mentioned he is their main guy from the Jordan Pool trade. Uh to read off just the entire trade, it was Jordan Pool and Sadique Bay going to New Orleans in exchange for CJ McCullum, Kelly Olen, and a second round pick. And I really like what CJ brings to this roster. Obviously, like I mentioned, he is an expiring contract. So I think that’s one of the reasons the Wizards wanted to bring him in. But also, I like him as a veteran presence on this roster. CJ’s been around the league for a while now. In Portland, he was winning a bunch with Dame. Then in New Orleans, he kind of took on more of a a ball handling and I don’t want to say star role, but more of a a bigger role in in New Orleans. Now, he comes to Washington and is able to just fully embrace that veteran role. And I think that he’s going to do a great job at that. him being able to coach up Bub Carrington on and off the court I think is going to be super important to his development as a player because I do think that that’s part of the reason why the Washington Wizards have been kind of just stuck in their rebuild. I think that they haven’t been doing the best job at bringing in young talent and then also once they get that young talent they need to develop them. Uh they really didn’t have any vets on their roster for the last few years. Like obviously the Jordan Pool and like Kyle Kosma, that’s probably their vets that they’ve had and those aren’t the best guys out there. CJ I think just in the locker room as a vet is much better than anyone they could have really had in the last few years. So I love that aspect of it. And then obviously just as a player CJ McCullum could still hoop. He’s going to be able to be a ball handler, shot creator, a little bit of a playmaker as well. just all-around offensive guard to kind of help run the offense as a whole. A lot of guy that’s getting a lot of buzz this off seasonason is Trey Johnson, the sixth overall pick that the Wizards took in this year’s draft. I really do like him as just a all-around offensive shot creator. I think that’s another thing that the uh the Wizards could be missing now that Jordan P is traded. Uh but Trey Johnson can be able to step up and just be one of their best shot creators. He is an incredible three-level scorer. uh the shooting, the ball handling in the pick and roll. He’s able to really operate and get to his spots incredibly well. Just when you think bucket getter, that’s what Trey Johnson is. Uh he’s got pretty good size, too, at 66. So, you know, I really am excited to see what he could bring. I know Cooper Flag is obviously getting a lot of the hype in this year’s draft, rightfully so. But, I do think that there’s a decent amount of people that see Trey Johnson as like the sleeper rookie of the year. The Wizards also made a few more trades, one of them being for Cam Whitmore. They traded away two second round picks to the Houston Rockets for Cam Whitmore. I feel like that’s pretty good value. Uh because Cam Whitmore obviously in Houston never really got a solidified role and chance to really grow as a player, but in Washington, they’re nowhere near the level of competitiveness the Rockets were. So, he has a little bit more room to grow, make mistakes, and become more of his own player. And kind of the same thing I was saying with Trey Johnson. Cam Whitmore is a bucket getter. He loves to score. Super athletic getting to the basket. Uh, you know, he’s a little bit bigger around that same size though as like a 6667 type of wing. Uh, those two guys together, I’m very excited to see what they can bring as just offensive creators. And then these moves are a little bit smaller, but they did go out and sign Marvin Bagley to a one-year veteran minimum deal. Uh, he got traded mid-season for Marcus Smart. now he’s just coming back to the Wizards signing to them for that minimum deal. And then also I mentioned Kelly Olen being included in that Jordan Pool trade. Uh the Wizards actually ended up including him in another trade with the San Antonio Spurs. They traded him and a second round pick in exchange for Malachi Brandom. And now that we recap the offseason, let’s take a look at a potential rotation we could be seeing out of Washington this year. In the starting lineup, we have Bub Carrington, CJ McCullum, Chris Middleton, Bala Kulibali, and Alex Sar. And then off the bench, we have Trey Johnson, Corey Kissper, Cam Whitmore, Keshan George, and Marvin Bagley. I will say if you look at last year’s roster compared to this year’s roster, I do think on paper the Wizards added a decent amount of talent. I do think that they should be able to take some steps and not win less than 20 games this year. In a little bit, we’ll get to the exact specifics on the ceiling floor, expectations, all of that stuff. But just on paper, this roster looks way better than they did last year. I mentioned the addition of CJ McCullum as a veteran presence. Last year, mid-season in the Kyle Koosma trade, they added Chris Middleton. Now, he’s going to be here for the full season, and he could be another great veteran locker room guy. Obviously, he’s an NBA champion. and he’s been a winner pretty much his whole career. So, he can also kind of just hopefully rub off some of those winning tendencies onto these young wings because as you guys just saw, there are loads of young wings on this roster. It is pretty cool to look at that besides like the guards of CJ and Bub, everyone on this rotation that I have right now is like 66 and above, majority of them are 66 to 68. But uh yeah, excluding those two small guards and then the two bigs of Alex Sar, Marvin Baggley, pretty much the whole rotation, 66 68, I expect a lot of switchability on defense. Having guys like Bal, Keshan, Trey Johnson, Ken Whitmore, like that’s a lot of length and athleticism just all across the board. Uh so I really could expect them to be out there in lineups where they’re just running super fast, causing turnovers, getting out in transition, and just running, running, running. I will say though, like there’s really no backup point guard on this roster. As you saw there, I kind of had Trey Johnson marked up as like the backup point guard, but he definitely is way more of a two guard. He definitely looks to get his own shot before looking to get others involved. He can do that. He is a solid passer, but definitely not a point guard. I do expect a lot of that point guard ability to come from Bub Carrington, obviously, and then CJ McCullum. He definitely is more of a two guard as well, but the last few years in New Orleans, we’ve seen him take on that point guard role and do pretty good at it. Uh, so I don’t know how much they’ll play together, if they stagger a bunch or or what it really will look like, but I do expect majority of the point guard minutes to come from those two guys. And then also, one of their biggest issues last year was three-point shooting. They were one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league. And I do think that they addressed it to an extent. I don’t think they’re going to come out here and be like top 10 in three-point shooting now this year, but adding guys like CJ, a full year of Chris Middleton, Trey Johnson can shoot the three ball incredibly well. Cory Kissper, you know, is also a decent three-point shooter. Hopefully, we’ll see some growth from guys like Bub Bal, Alex Sar maybe, too. I do think though that outside of just internal development, they did somewhat address the issue from three-point shooting. Uh hopefully that helps them to not have the absolute worst offense in the league this year. There are a few notable reserves that I do want to mention before we move on to for the Wizards. First being Malachi Brandham. I mentioned that they traded Kelly Oolen for him. He is definitely more of a true point guard if you really want to call it that. Uh, and I do think that if there is a super need for like playmaking and ball handling, I could see him getting inserted into the rotation to be more of a backup point guard and run some of those bench units. I do think that there are just other guys that are more talented and more deserving of like a a rotational spot. But just positionwise and the need for playmaking, I could see Malachi kind of slotting in there if they need that. Also, with the additions of Trey Johnson and Cam Whitmore, I feel like AJ Johnson could potentially be uh like just stuck on the outside looking in. He was included in the Kyle Koosma deal last year and he was pretty solid for the Wizards when he came here mid-season. Very athletic, very raw player, but when you look at Cam Whitmore and and Trey Johnson, both of those guys play similar positions, bring similar things to an extent. So, again, I could just see him on the outside looking in. And then I mentioned the real struggle for three-point efficiency. Uh, two guys that I think could help that out if they’re in the rotation are Justin Champeni and Tristan Busik. Last year it was relatively low volume for both those guys, but they shot it efficiently. And when you look at Tristan Busik, they signed him to another two-way contract. If they signed him to a regular standard NBA contract, I probably would have put him as the backup center instead of Marvin Bagley. I do like what he brings to the table. Uh but uh obviously the Wizards don’t fully trust him enough to give him a standard contract. I would say though, be on the lookout for him. Maybe he gets converted halfway through the season or something. I do think that he is a very solid backup big for them. Now it is time for my ceiling floor and expectation for the Washington Wizards. Starting off with their ceiling, I could see them being as high as the ninth seed in the playin tournament. Now, I know that would be a very big jump from the 15 seed all the way up to the ninth seed, but like I mentioned, I really do think that the Wizards added a lot of talent this off seasonason. I really do like the veteran presence now of CJ and Chris Middleton. I think that could really help. And then also last year, I really do like the rookie class they had of Bub, Alexar, and Keshan George. Now coming into year two, at least one of them, I would assume, is going to take a little bit of a leap. at least one of them, hopefully more. But all of that added together on top of the fact that the East is definitely weaker now with those injuries to Tatum, to Hallebertton. I could see the Wizards taking advantage of that and sneaking into the playing tournament. And although I do have them as the ninth seed, that means they would have to win two games in order to make the playoffs. I could see it happening. You know, you never really know what’s going to happen in the playing tournament. So, at their ceiling, I could see them making the playoffs. But of course being a first round exit because I don’t think this Wizards team could take down one of the top two seeds in the East. When you move on to their floor, I was really close to putting them a little bit higher. But at their floor, I could still see them being the 15th seed. I almost put their floor at the 14th seed because I do think that on paper they are much better than the Brooklyn Nets. Obviously, when you’re just one team behind you though, like things could happen. They could fall to the 15 seed. So that still is their floor. Obviously in this situation it would be a little bit less growth from these young players and maybe they still look just a little discombobulated. Um and in that case they would be in the lottery of course. But when you look at my expectations for this team, I expect them to be around that 11th seed, just barely missing out on the playing tournament. Uh I do think that they are really close to being a solidified playing team. Uh it’s just hard for me to fully commit to that just looking at some of the other teams out east because a lot of them are in similar situations where they’re very young, very talented, but it’s just kind of like where do I see them at? Even if the Wizards don’t make the postseason though, you know, don’t make the playoffs, don’t make the playing tournament. I still do think that it could be a successful season. We were just talking about it how they’re on back-to-back years of winning less than 20 games. if they finished the 11 seed, they definitely won more than 20 games. So, that’s growth still there, even though they didn’t make the postseason. Uh, and then also, I’ve mentioned it before, but with a lot of these young teams, it’s not really about wins and losses just yet. It’s more about the process of how those wins and losses happen. Uh, you know, if Bub Carrington looks more comfortable being the main ball handler of an offense, if Alex Sar looks as good as he does defensively offensively and kind of bringing it all together as a player, you know, if Bal Kulabali looks more comfortable on the offensive end, you know, it’s that’s what really what I’m looking for this year, this early in the rebuild for the Wizards, not necessarily wins and losses. What do you guys think though? Let me know in the comments below where you think the Wizards are going to end this season. Do you think they can make the postseason? You know, are they a playing tournament playoff or are they still a lottery team? Let me know in the comments below. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you did, make sure to leave it a like, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. In the description, there’s links to all my social medias, so make sure you follow me on all those to keep up to date with me. Catch you.

ROUNDBALL RENAISSANCE: https://www.youtube.com/@RoundballRenaissance

During my Preseason Preview series I will be covering all 30 NBA teams, recapping their offseason, assessing their roster, and predicting what to expect from them in this coming season. In this video, I cover the Washington Wizards.

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