{"id":561257,"date":"2026-01-26T04:57:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561257\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T04:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T04:57:30","slug":"would-washington-wizards-fans-embrace-a-rebuild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561257\/","title":{"rendered":"Would Washington Wizards fans embrace a rebuild?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebuilds have their place in the NBA<\/a>, but a team should not undertake one without first thinking the matter through.<\/p>\n

The Washington Wizards<\/a> have not indicated they intend to rebuild. Just the opposite is true, in fact. All signs still point to the team and Bradley Beal<\/a> agreeing to a long-term contract extension this summer that could be worth up to $245 million over five years.<\/p>\n

But if the Wizards were to consider changing course, how would the team\u2019s fans respond?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the questions I tackle in the newest edition of The Athletic\u2019s Wizards mailbag.<\/p>\n

(Editor\u2019s note: Questions have been lightly edited for clarity.)<\/p>\n

From your sense of interacting with the fan base, how receptive do you think Wizards fans would be to committing to a rebuild and having the patience to amass elite young talent and try and put an actual contender together? I am completely over the strategy of trying to sneak into the playoffs with a ceiling of advancing to the second round, and I can\u2019t understand why Ted Leonsis still insists on letting that be the guiding philosophy behind team building. Does he think that\u2019s what the fans want? (We don\u2019t!!) Is he unrealistic about the talent gap between his teams and actual contenders? Does he still not realize there is not nearly as much variance in underdogs winning in the NBA playoffs as in the NHL<\/a>? Is he just not engaged? Is there any hope this very smart and successful man, who has been neither smart nor successful at running the Wizards, will learn and evolve in his approach? \u2014@Christina C.<\/a><\/p>\n

The initial question you posed ranks as one of the most fascinating questions I\u2019ve ever received on this platform. Just the other day, before you posed your question, my editor, Joan Niesen, and I discussed this exact subject at length.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you exactly what I think of this fan base, so no one misinterprets my answer. The Wizards\u2019 fan base is a sleeping giant. If the Wizards ever give this area a sustainable winner again, the long-suffering fans here would pack the arena every night.<\/p>\n

I grew up here, and I remember a time, before anyone employed the letters \u201cDMV\u201d to describe the Washington region, when basketball stood near the top of this area\u2019s sports pecking order. It wasn\u2019t just the Bullets, who won a championship in 1978 and returned to the NBA Finals in 1979. John Thompson\u2019s Georgetown Hoyas captivated this area. The Maryland Terrapins and Virginia Cavaliers also garnered significant attention. The first rounds of the Big East and ACC tournaments were huge here. (A digression: No one could ever convince me that Maryland shifting to the Big Ten was good for this area\u2019s sports fans.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve covered games in D.C. as a professional journalist for 13 years \u2014 first covering the Orlando Magic<\/a>\u2019s road games here, then this past season as The Athletic\u2019s Wizards beat writer. Fans inside Capital One Arena always have been among the NBA\u2019s most knowledgeable, and I know that simply by hearing what they say during the run of play. Even in down years, they pick apart the game\u2019s intricacies as well as any fans in the league.<\/p>\n

When the Wizards started 2021-22 with a 10-3 record, the arena pulsated with an excitement I had not seen in many years, and that hunger for a sustained winner still simmers.<\/p>\n

These fans are loyal. They deserve more. Forty-three years have passed since the team reached the conference finals. That\u2019s almost unfathomable, especially for a large market like this one.<\/p>\n

What has surprised me over the past few months is how many Wizards fans want the franchise not to re-sign Beal to a five-year, $245 million contract. I see and hear it all the time in readers\u2019 comments on my stories here at The Athletic<\/a>, during our live room discussions<\/a> and on social media.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear: Fans are correct to worry about devoting such a large percentage of the team\u2019s salary-cap figure to a player who, conservatively, almost certainly, is not a top 10 or top-20 player leaguewide and would not be a No. 1 player on a championship-level team. Pay someone an average of $45 million per season, and it becomes more difficult to bring aboard difference-making players to support him. And with Beal on the roster and the team trying to win as many games as it can, the Wizards likely would continue to pick somewhere in the middle of the first round year after year, making it more difficult to draft a cornerstone-level player. That\u2019s what\u2019s meant by the phrase \u201chamster wheel of mediocrity.\u201d The hamster wheel is very real.<\/p>\n

Plus, fans here remember all too clearly how Washington\u2019s massive contracts for Gilbert Arenas and John Wall backfired in its face.<\/p>\n

But what percentage of Wizards fans want the team to move on from Beal and start a full-scale rebuild? That is difficult to answer precisely. It is possible, maybe even probable, that the fans who want the franchise to wipe the slate clean and start fresh comprise only a small fraction of the fan base. I could run an informal poll here or on Twitter, but those results would be unscientific and would not give us a definitive answer.<\/p>\n

My guess is that the percentage of the team\u2019s fans who want the franchise to rebuild is sizable.<\/p>\n

Again, the argument that it would be better for the team to begin a teardown and rebuild is not wrong. But where the argument loses steam is the notion that the Wizards\u2019 situation would be completely hopeless if the team re-signs Beal. It would not be hopeless.<\/p>\n

Teams have found superstar-level players in the late lottery and beyond. In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Warriors<\/a> picked Klay Thompson<\/a> 11th, the Pacers<\/a> snagged Kawhi Leonard<\/a> at No. 15 (and traded his draft rights to San Antonio<\/a>) and the Bulls<\/a> selected Jimmy Butler<\/a> 30th. In 2013, the Bucks<\/a> tapped Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> at No. 15, and Rudy Gobert<\/a> went 27th. In 2014, the Nuggets<\/a> found Nikola Joki\u0107 at No. 41.<\/p>\n

Is it difficult to find these so-called diamonds in the rough? Yes.<\/p>\n

Is it impossible? No.<\/p>\n

And if the Wizards and Beal wind up agreeing to a max deal \u2014 as it seems they will \u2014 the team will need to draft better than it has in the recent past. It also will have to develop the young players it already has, either to contribute on the court or to raise their values as trade pieces.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Raptors<\/a>\u2019 pathway to their championship should give Wizards fans some hope. For a 10-year stretch, from 2008 through 2017, the Raptors never selected higher than fifth. The best players they drafted were DeMar DeRozan<\/a> (ninth in 2009), Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas (fifth in 2011), Terrence Ross (eighth in 2012), Pascal Siakam<\/a> (27th in 2016) and OG Anunoby (23rd in 2017).<\/p>\n

Toronto came close to starting a full rebuild at one point but remained patient. The front office made shrewd moves along the way, most notably trading Gary Forbes and a 2013 first-round pick for Kyle Lowry<\/a>. And when it came time for the Raptors to push all of their chips into the center of the table, the front office did so, trading DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl<\/a> and a protected 2019 first-round draft pick for Leonard, Danny Green and cash.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the comparison with the Raptors is an imperfect one. It should be noted that Toronto did bottom out at one point, going 22-60 in 2010-11 and 23-43 in 2011-12. But the first-round picks the Raptors made as a result of those drafts, Valan\u010di\u016bnas and Ross, never became All-Stars; they did, however, become the centerpieces of key trades down the line, eventually netting Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka.<\/p>\n

I know rebuilds have their allure.<\/p>\n

The team everyone seems to have fallen in love with right now is the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, and for good reason. That team has been expertly constructed.<\/p>\n

But you should also remember that the Grizzlies got incredibly lucky along the way. In 2017-18, they went 22-60, received the fourth pick in the lottery and drafted Jaren Jackson Jr. Though Jackson has emerged as a stellar defensive player, that\u2019s not the lucky part.<\/p>\n

In 2018-19, they went 33-49 and then entered that year\u2019s draft lottery with a 6.0 percent chance of winning the top pick and 6.3 percent odds of winning the second pick. They won the second pick and used it to draft their franchise player, Ja Morant<\/a>. And lo and behold, the Grizzlies were off and running.<\/p>\n

Most rebuilds don\u2019t progress so neatly, and they\u2019ve become even more dicey ever since 2019, when the league reformed the lottery by flattening out the odds. It used to be that the worst and second-worst teams would enter the lottery with a 25.0 percent chance and a 19.9 percent chance, respectively, of winning the top pick. These days, the two worst teams have a 14.0 percent chance of winning the top pick.<\/p>\n

So if the Wizards one day tear everything down, they might need years and years to draft their next franchise player.<\/p>\n

Christina, you asked whether I think the fans would have \u201cthe patience to amass elite young talent and try and put an actual contender together.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine a fan base being much more patient than the Wizards\u2019 fan base has been over the past 43 years. But Washington entered many of those seasons at least attempting to win, and that, in turn, gave urgency to those seasons in the short term. To be sure, that urgency for, say, Game 35 in an otherwise mediocre season amounted in the long run to an ephemeral sugar high; in hindsight, the franchise would have been better off in the long run to try to bottom out.<\/p>\n

But I will also say this: If the Wizards\u2019 outlook felt dismal this past March and early April as they played out the string of their season, how badly would it feel for fans if the team were to go into Year 3 of a rebuild no closer to having a cornerstone-level talent? What if the team doesn\u2019t have a top-tier player by Year 4? Or Year 5? From a fan\u2019s perspective, that would be another kind of suffering, too. In other words: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it for longer than anyone expects.<\/p>\n

You also asked about Leonsis\u2019 views on team building. I probably could provide a sound educated guess on the subject. After all, in 2019 he said<\/a>, \u201cWe will never, ever tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

He deserves an opportunity to explain his point of view. I have asked to interview him, but team governors are not obligated to speak with journalists from independent news outlets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Ted Leonsis\u2019 Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018. Success for the Washington Wizards has been more difficult to come by. (Geoff Burke \/ USA Today)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read that Portland<\/a> is willing to trade the seventh pick. What do the Wizards have that might interest them? Any chance the Blazers would trade someone for an extra draft choice? \u2014@Johnaton M.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers have Damian Lillard<\/a>, and since Lillard will turn 32 in July, they don\u2019t have many seasons remaining to surround him with winning pieces.<\/p>\n

Portland generally lacks size in its frontcourt, and the problem is especially grave considering starting center Jusuf Nurki\u0107 will become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Portland finished the season next to last in defensive efficiency, and it would benefit from adding defensive-minded players.<\/p>\n

Washington would be permitted to retroactively trade the draft rights to whomever it selects at No. 10 this year. Perhaps that player plus either center Daniel Gafford<\/a> or forward Deni Avdija<\/a> could at least be the starting point for a conversation between the Wizards and Blazers.<\/p>\n

What can the Wizards do to breathe some energy, excitement and life into their team and their arena? \u2014@J P.<\/a><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the team lacks \u201clife\u201d or energy on most nights. I just don\u2019t think it was talented enough in 2021-22, particularly after Beal suffered his season-ending injury. In my experience, players saying they didn\u2019t play with enough \u201cenergy\u201d is an easy go-to clich\u00e9 when their opponent simply is flat-out better.<\/p>\n

As for breathing life into the arena, I could offer a few opinions on the game-night presentation.<\/p>\n

But the answer is simple: win.<\/p>\n

As I stated before, the fan base is desperate for a winner, and the fans\u2019 response to the team\u2019s 10-3 start proved it. Give the fans something to cheer for, and they\u2019ll infuse life into the arena.\n<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Bradley Beal: Stephen Gosling \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebuilds have their place in the NBA, but a team should not undertake one without first thinking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-561257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-washington","11":"tag-washington-wizards","12":"tag-washingtonwizards","13":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115959630676979101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561257","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=561257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}