{"id":479163,"date":"2025-12-17T17:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/479163\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T17:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:47:16","slug":"cj-mccollum-breaks-down-why-the-wizards-have-a-bright-future-ahead-of-them-and-highlights-three-players-on-the-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/479163\/","title":{"rendered":"CJ McCollum breaks down why the Wizards have a bright future ahead of them and highlights three players on the squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Wizards<\/a> are once again having a rough NBA campaign, but veteran guard CJ McCollum<\/a> believes it is just part of growing pains and that the team has a bright future ahead with a host of young players in its fold making solid progress.<\/p>\n

McCollum, who landed in The Capital in the offseason via trade with the New Orleans Pelicans, spoke about it on his appearance on the “Club 520 Podcast,” sharing that while it has been dismal for the Wizards record-wise so far, at 4-20, he has seen positives from their rising stars to build on.<\/p>\n

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He cited, among others, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Bub Carrington as progressing well in their NBA journey, which bodes well for the Wizards.<\/p>\n

“Like they are big on development, big on the work, big on progressing,”said<\/a> McCollum, who is now in his 14th year in the NBA and playing for his third team.<\/p>\n

Three to watch out for<\/p>\n

McCollum likes the development of 20-year-old French center Sarr<\/a>, the second overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. He mentioned how their young big man is not shy about asking questions from his veterans and showing willingness to learn.<\/p>\n

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“He’s a seven-footer. Yeah. Skilled obviously and he’s making a jump [this season]. He’s progressing back from an injury now, but like you can just see the tools, the footwork, you start to see, like, the levels of a two-way guy, right? Rim protector, can guard, can switch out one through five, good touch around the basket, can shoot the three,” he said of Sarr.<\/p>\n

Sarr is currently averaging 19.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and two blocks per game, all team-highs.<\/p>\n

Guard George, meanwhile, has McCollum taking notice of his size at 6’8″ playing at the backcourt. CJ believes the sky’s the limit for him. George leads the team in assists (4.9 dimes per game) and steals (1.1) while averaging 14.9 points and 5.8 rebounds.<\/p>\n

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Carrington (8.0 and 4.4 assists), for his part, has caught the attention of McCollum for his tirelessness in working on his game while making full use of his size and athleticism to impact games.<\/p>\n

Other players he is high on in their roster are Bilal Coulibaly, Cam Whitmore, Tre Johnson, AJ Johnson and Malaki Branham.<\/p>\n

Related: “At some point, this thing comes to an end” – Shaq believes LeBron should put his ego aside and embrace complementary role<\/a><\/p>\n

Veteran presence<\/p>\n

While the Wizards’ roster is teeming with players with solid potential, veterans like McCollum and one-time NBA champion Khris Middleton are trying to complement the play of their young players and facilitate their development.<\/p>\n

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McCollum is second in scoring with 18.9 points and has played in all of their games to date. He described his role with the rebuilding Wizards as providing guidance<\/a> and stability within the team, making sure that he steadily communicates with his younger teammates to further develop their skill sets.<\/p>\n

The same goes for Middleton, who has been averaging 10.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. His experience in playing in big games is something the team could use as it progresses with its development.<\/p>\n

This season is shaping up to be yet another long one in Washington, D.C., but Wizards fans seemingly have something to look forward to with the team’s young core, enough to continue meriting their support.<\/p>\n

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Related: CJ McCollum hilariously recalls Zion Williamson’s adult star affair rumor: “The group chat went crazy when this happened”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Dec 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards are once again having a rough NBA campaign, but veteran guard CJ McCollum believes it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[4008,979,7,1257,2644,4836,7046,2039,6333,6968,6,470,952,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-479163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-aj-johnson","9":"tag-alex-sarr","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bilal-coulibaly","12":"tag-bub-carrington","13":"tag-cam-whitmore","14":"tag-cj-mccollum","15":"tag-khris-middleton","16":"tag-kyshawn-george","17":"tag-malaki-branham","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","20":"tag-tre-johnson","21":"tag-washington","22":"tag-washington-wizards","23":"tag-washingtonwizards","24":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115736166869358471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}