Bilal Coulibaly of the Washington Wizards poses for a portrait at UNLV in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 12, 2023. /CFP
Most of the 30 teams in the NBA have a purpose, clear or not, when they begin a new season, but the Washington Wizards may not for the 2023-24 campaign. They were 35-47 and finished the Eastern Conference in 12th place last season, missing the playoffs for the second straight season. In fact, the team has only made one postseason appearance in the past five years.
Usually a team that keeps missing the playoffs receives premium draft picks that can help them accelerate a rebuild so they can return to the competitive zone. Unfortunately, the Wizards were disappointing in drafting prospects as well. The following are the team's selections with their first-round picks between 2018 and 2022:
2018: 15th pick, Troy Brown who averaged 7.1 points and 1.4 triples at 38.1 percent per game last season.
2019: ninth pick, Rui Hachimura who averaged 11.2 points per game last season.
2020: ninth pick, Deni Avdija who averaged 9.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game last season;
2021: 15th pick, Corey Kispert who averaged 11.1 points and 2.2 triples at 42.4 percent per game last season.
2022: 10th pick, Johnny Davis who averaged 5.8 points per game last season.
Rui Hachimura of the Washington Wizards looks on in the game against the Orlando Magic at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., January 21, 2023. /CFP
Hachimura has been the best player of the five so far but he only began to shine after the Wizards traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. The rest either are not good enough for regular rotation in a playoff team or are very imbalanced in their offense and defense.
Considering the tracks of the above players' development, it's hard to have much faith in the Wizards for helping Bilal Coulibaly grow. The team gave up two second-rounders to trade up for him in the seventh place. As a 2.03-meter-tall, 87-kilogram-heavy forward, the 19-year-old French prospect averaged 10 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and one triple at 45.2 percent per 36 minutes for the Metropolitans 92 in the LNB Pro A league in France last season. He may be talented, but so far, Coulibaly hasn't showed many signs of growing into a franchise player soon.
The Wizards currently have 17 guaranteed contracts on their roster and they don't seem in any need to keep Landry Shamet, Delon Wright or Danilo Gallinari, who combined to make over $25 million this season. The front office can put them together, perhaps with some of their rookie teammates, in a package or trade any of them individually with teams that actually need them.
Jordan Poole of the Washington Wizards poses for a portrait at Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2023. /CFP
Sending the above three players away won't affect the Wizards' rotations too much for the 2023-24 season. Four of their five starting positions have been basically confirmed: Tyus Jones, Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma and Daniel Gafford. Whoever joins them in the starting lineup, honestly, won't turn them into a solid playoff team.
Of course, if Poole plays like he did in the 2021-22 season instead of that of the 2022-23 campaign, the Wizards are not completely hopeless for the play-in tournament in the East. Nonetheless, is appearing in the postseason really so important to the team?
The first rounder the Wizards agreed to send to the New York Knicks is a top-12 protected pick for 2024. That means finishing the regular season in the 10th or higher place may cost the Wizards a good draft pick for summer 2024. However, on the other hand, if they manage to keep that pick for 2024, it becomes top-10 protected for 2025 and top-right-protected for 2026.
Kyle Kuzma of the Washington Wizards dribbles in the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, March 17, 2023. /CFP
The contracts of both Poole and Kuzma won't come due until summer 2027 with no player or team options. Neither of them looks like a leader that an ambitious team wants to build a competitive squad around. The Wizards' management may want to pick carefully the year they want to send their first rounder to the Knicks.
Everything has been unclear with the Wizards for years in their draft selections, season goals and franchise building. During the past decade, they have never been a game-changing force in the East, but neither have they been bent on tanking for a complete start-over.
That hasn't changed - at least in the 2023-24 campaign.