Is the Washington Wizards Path Forward Hopeless? | NBA Podcast

Is the Washington Wizards Path Forward Hopeless? | NBA Podcast

let’s talk about the Wizards a team that needs a lot of help is all I’m going to say needs a lot of building so can I can I just read you a contract someone on this roster Jordan P let G tell you what he’s making uh the next he’s got three more seasons under contract okay next year age 25 making $ 29.6 million 21% of the cap year after that age 26 $ 31.8 million that is 20.5% of the cap and age 27 $ 34.0 million 19.95% of the cap this team will not be good over those next three years would also be my guess I don’t really see a path here where this team is like like I don’t know what the path forward here is for a lot of reasons but I start with just like I understand like how they up with Jordan pool and all of this I just that is the contract I want least on my books I there’s no way to trade it there’s no way you can I don’t see a path to like reating re turning him into like a Reclamation project for another team at this point no and like there’s like like I look at this roster Brendon and it’s like even kozma kozma’s like the one guy in this roster maybe like a kissper you could tell me is like tradable to another team on like the fringes but this roster is like devoid of like much of anything and it it’s like to me pool is like emblematic of that because he is like your highest earning guy and he’s like a clear NE negative on a team that I don’t think has any Identity or any anything going for it in a real positive way right now yeah I think you’re uh first of all we’re in full agreement on pool he’s Far and Away without a doubt the single most uh the worst contract in the NBA and truly genuinely because of the level to which he’s involved has a case to be made as one of the most damaging players in the entire NBA so that is a pretty wild combination to be making enough money to count as one of the worst contracts and actually be one of the worst players cuz you and I had a debate about like Beal in towns and which one of those is more toxic and whatever else and I think it’s you know Beal because of the no trade clause and the injuries and everything else but be like be can go get you 30 efficiently and like defend a little and pass like he’s not great he’s overpaid but like he’s he is a good player in a vacuum pool is not even that so that’s going to be a little bit of an anchor weighing them down for sure I wouldn’t go so far as to say they can’t be good through the duration of that contract especially because by the last year you could just buy him out or some team will take him at that point because he’s expiring and they’ll just buy him out and so you’re talking about two years and maybe they’re not good for those two anyway but that was probably baked into the whole plan here and that’s where I come back to like I think you’re a little more down on their kind of overall uh Vision or future because I mean how would you have felt I guess to go back to a team we just talked about in that finals discussion like were the Mavs before they got Luca anything great well no but they then they got Luca so it just takes that they have the second overall pick this season they’ll probably be in position to get Cooper flag or whoever else uh next summer this time so that’s where they are they’re choosing to be in a position to tank to bottom out and to accumulate assets to both draft high and get player in the draft or maybe if somebody would ever stay in Washington DC trade for that player or trade for the co-pilot to that star that they get in the draft or whatever else I mean we’ve seen this before it all it’s the best way to kind of start over I I think there’s nothing that’s super problematic about it to me and I do think they have some assets that are desirable around the NBA Beyond uh how awful pool is and yeah the kozma part of it k kma on a great contract kma’s making significantly less than that pool contract you just read off and it goes down so a contender that is kind of you know one of those teams we just talked about looking for how to Tinker and how to change things up I could see kozma being very desirable and we’ve already see him in a seen him in a smaller role on a different team somehow 29 that that’s that’s pretty crazy but uh Denny AIA to me Chris is a somebody I would be looking really hard I think he’s last year in particular looked like a whole new player and really really is an offensive weapon in a way that he wasn’t before and uh just feels comfortable and confident feels like he’s kind of hitting his stride as a as an NBA guy and then tus Jones I don’t personally see a reason to keep tus Jones because he is theoretically this kind of floor raiser on offense and yet they had the worst offense in the league most of last season by a significant margin so why keep him around what’s the point of having a 28-year-old point guard if the offense is still going to suck because the rest of the talent is just so bad so I know he’s an unrestricted free agent he could just leave but could you get a you know sign and trade going or do you just resign him and then look to deal him at the deadline or something else I think they have some assets I think they’ll be able to make some some positive value trades and then it’s just how do you keep getting assets and what does that look like I think that’s all the Summers should be about it’s like I I don’t I frankly like don’t care what their record is next year at all I think to your point like win nine games that’s great maybe develop some habits maybe like I remember reading a qu I can’t remember who the quote was from um it might have been from Landrew shamut good for Landrew shamut making like yeah non-guaranteed 111 million next year but um I think he talked about like how the Vibes under their new head coach whose name I’m going to be honest I already forgot name their new head coach Brian Keefe um like The Vibes were better they’re excited about the future than like it was like better with him and like maybe that’s maybe that’s like enough for a year you know I I struggle for like you sometimes come when we talk about these things it’s like you know the point of every team season is not to go win games and then we talk about a team where that’s not the goal and then you you like look at it through that lens no one is sitting in Washington feeling like they if they don’t win 40 games they fail so here’s I guess what do think this is supposed to look like this is they chose this and everybody gave them big old pat on the back they got rid of Beal they moved off all these porzingis and they got kosma back on a reasonable salary and they took picks back to get pool and they hired smart people from the Clippers like but now it now it’s a failure cuz like we don’t think they’re going to win I mean of course they’re not going to win they don’t want to win no one thinks they’re going to win here’s my trepidation I think as I can I dive into it I can compared to some of the other teams and maybe this isn’t fair vcv like the Hornets who I don’t think are in a particularly great spot either right now I just like really need to the the next two years of talent acquisition is going to tell me what else are going to come because like I aside from like kabali who like showed some flashes last year it’s just like I think this like Johnny Davis is is not anyone that I’m caring about like I like the rest of this roster just just does not matter Kali is the only player on this team that I think has a chance to be on it beyond that pool contract that you mentioned yeah absolutely and like that that to me is like the scary part of this is like you have just so much work to do and it’s like how you approach that this summer it’s like is there can you is there like someone on even if it’s kuzma you know is it obia like whoever it is I would be if there’s a lottery ticket guy in another team you are mildly interested I I’d be trying to flip that for another young guy like that to try to do something like that I think the giddy right or whatever yeah like yeah even even if the giddy team means you have to exent him I don’t even think I care I think I would just do it and see what happens like what’s the risk no exactly I mean I think like okay they have the number two overall pick we talked a little bit about that with uh Zach to close out the show here in a moment and they’re probably in position to get somebody that they might like right he could be the next in addition to kabali okay these are our two guys I mean but you got to draft well right I mean I think like to me it’s the difference between you know a a very forgotten P part of NBA history that I’m not going to blame anybody for but a lot of other teams tried to hire their version of Sam hiny during that stretch like a decade ago and I saw it here in Phoenix the Suns swung and missed on everybody but Devin Booker and he basically rescued them because they got one pick right late in the uh middle of the first round and then but Orlando remember Rob henan anybody remember that guy’s name no because he sucked at what he was trying to do they failed they did not make the right draft picks they did not make the Right Moves to put themselves into position to get a Booker or embiid or whoever you want to point to you got to you have to nail that I’m not trying to like yada yada over like nailing the picks but I think most Wizards fans probably feel a little closer to building a great team than they did when their books were stuffed with John Wall and Marin Gort and now porzingis and be last year and Russell Westbrook for a minute like no one thought anything was that was just like Ted Leon is being a cheap ass this is at least something the other thing that I I think we will learn this year I I would say is with Brian Keefe what is he as a Player Development coach and like what does this actually look like with a full year because I think like the thing that other teams that frankly have more draft picks and maybe more intering young Talent as well that those teams did well I would say Will Hardy Mark dagal obviously but he maybe just had better talent to work with and obviously hasn’t worked with everyone there with you know dang hasn’t worked giddy hasn’t totally worked those guys accelerated those teams I think in part because of the coaching job they did that’s kind of part of his assignment here long term I think Kenny ainson did this really well in Brooklyn way back when like that is kind of the job as a steward of this kind of team is to help them accelerate over time I think as we get a rhythm for this team over the course of the year we’re going to learn if he’s that kind of guy for this team as well I think is the other part of this which will be kind of interesting just to see because I don’t think anyone really has a anyone like it’s hard to have a feel for a coach in general until you actually see them like do the head coaching job thing even if you’re like familiar with their name if they’re a big assistant well he was I me he was the interim last year but they were a weird mish mash of talent you know so I don’t even know if we’ll get a feel for that this year you know it’s hard yeah yeah but I think this year at least with a full like you might get a better feel this fulltime through than you might have last year when it was like yeah like by the time you took over it’s like why are you watching the Wizards I I’m not really sure why anyone was watching the Wizards I mean to me it’s they have 26 as well from the Clippers and 51 uh in the draft so I’m not saying like they traded up for kabali last year and I think that’s the other ingredient here that I think you know it’s part of what I criticized again kind of covering one of these tanking teams up close in Phoenix for a while that I always criticize not only the Suns but any team that kind of dipped their foot into that water is you have to really want you have to really go for it and part of that is being okay sacrificing roster spots to undrafted free agents second round picks th not not necessarily somebody with the pedigree of giddy but maybe even another teams like how the Thunder God Isaiah Joe from Philly guys like that where maybe they were second round picks who had a little bit of Promise somewhere but you don’t really know if they’re going to be good try that and maybe roster spots 9 through 15 are all those guys and maybe five of them suck but getting as many of those players in the building and giving them reps and giving them minutes and trying to develop them you’re going to hit on one or two over the course of two three four five years and that’s the difference between hitting like the Thunder have or again the magic the Suns whatever one you want to point to from that that stretch of time so I would be maybe trading back into the second round or buying a second round pick from some team or doing things like that just to get get some random Prospect in there that maybe ends up being like a bench guard for you out of nowhere and you know who cares if Johnny Davis leaves the team or they don’t have you know a spot for like Landry shamut like you said or Marvin Bagley I I have no reason for those guys to be on my team and and getting minutes 12 12 half million for Marvin Begley it’s incredible stuff I know that wasn’t their contract but it’s just like funny that like the cont are wild exactly in some like if tanking tank be all in do everything that it takes and actually take those bites at the Apple that’s what Sam Hy’s whole thing was once upon a time it wasn’t just be bad he was getting the how many guys in the league right now started on T.J McConnell who we all just you know Glo slobbered all over for mon apparently a Pacer wants it the Pacers wanted to be a Pacer for the rest of its career just like that’s the energy now amazing stuff for G great Dario charage had a nice season in Golden State he started there uh Robert Covington you know was injured but he started there like all these guys Jeremy Grant like be that be that team and find those guys that’s really going to be the difference so that that’d be my last kind of note uh take the gidy sure but also take the random guys we’ve never heard of and maybe they become something let me ask you one last hypothetical before we get to our our draft part of the show in full let’s just say a team loves a kinging loves like has a prospect they love would you if you if a team wanted to come up to two and was going to give you their pick in this draft that’s a little lower maybe in like the six to n range somewhere in there and future stuff would that would that interest you for where you’re at sure sure I mean I’m saying yes I’m considering everything if I’m them I think that’s the beauty of having kind of the full Freedom here then finally embracing a rebuild is you could trade up like they did for kabali if the value is right you could trade back and get somebody you like and get an extra pick if that makes sense so I’m not saying no to anything I don’t know who they like I don’t really think fit matters for their roster right now so take a player if you like him if they feel like somebody’s so great that they have to get him at twoo then so be it but um sure you know get get an extra first round pick get get unprotected pick or whatever it looks like absolutely yeah I’m intrigued to see what they do the more we talk about this I didn’t think I was going to excited about the wizard to have uh I got to get I got to hit the over ran hommes on the roster with a with a player option for $12 million $ 122.8 million to be exact but I think he’s picking that up I’m gonna I’m GNA go ahead and lock that in yeah we we’ll we’ll we’ll build that into our projections for their cap space 64 million could have been 76 but unfortunately last second decision ran has chosen to make $13 million rather than zero this season

Between Jordan Poole’s contract and a lack of talent, few teams are in a worse position than the Washington Wizards.

Chris Manning and Brendon Kleen look ahead to how the Wizards can pave a path forward this offseason.
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