What is up, fellow there moment we are a ffers. I am Damp
Valley coming at you with another two thousand, twenty two twenty twenty three NBA
look Ahead podcast. We are onto the Washington Wizards, and I am super
excited for the first time to get to speak with Matt Maderno. He is
a writer for Bullets Forever and he is also a host of the Believe In
Wizards podcast. Follow that podcast at Believe in Wizards spelled b L E A
v I N Wizards, and then follow him on Twitter at Matt Maderno.
His name at m A double T m O, double d e r n
Oh. The double D came across unlike I wanted it to come across there
as it came out of my mouth. But follow him on Twitter please.
I have many questions about this team, as I told him before we hopped
on. They are what the f WTF teams? I don't know what to
expect. The most important question I have though, Matt, how the heck
are you doing. I'm great a pleasure to be here. I told you
beforehand. I'm a fan of the show, so I'm excited to talk with
you. Not so much to talk about the Wizards, to be honest,
because, as we'll get into I have no idea what to expect this year,
so it should be fun. I appreciate that you listen to the show,
but it also immediately makes me question your taste in like basketball opinions.
So I like the Wizards, so I clearly have terrible taste. And yeah,
so look, there's so much to ask about this team, but I
do I'd be remiss And I don't want to turn this into the Bradley Beal
contract podcast because I feel like a lot of Wizards previews have harped a lot
on that. But where did you ultimately land on the terms of the deal?
And then versus were you leading Like before this it was all you had
to keep them. Once you got to this point, you had to keep
them. But were you on the side of, well, this team needs
like more of a purged rebuild, or you want you saw the vision for
them to continue retooling around feel I think you nailed it. They had to
do this. Once you've committed to a certain path and you get to a
certain point, you're kind of locked in. You know. There were some
rumblings about maybe a Golden State deal on the table a couple of years ago,
like, once you've turned down those things, you've got to re up
him. I think what really hurt was this sort of additional throw ins to
sweeten the pot here for his contract, Like they basically bid against themselves.
And from everything I've heard, this wasn't even something that Beale's camp really pushed
for. This was something that the Wizards went to him and like open open
arms and said, please not only take the max amount of money we can
give you, but please take all of these other things. If they had
said, hey, we'll give you a no trade clause, but we want
only a partial guarantee on the last year, or used that to sort of
negotiate a little bit, I would have been really okay with it. But
to me, they could have negotiated from a position of at least somewhat strength,
and they chose to just be like, no, please take everything,
and ted Leonsis is offering up like his firstborn grandchild and stuff in the process.
Yeah, it's like you know, the pacers like Herbside just giving teams
first round picks and signing trades rather than just signing players out right. It's
why I see that I'm with everything you said, and I don't even inherently
have a problem with the player option. I think that's just Bill is good
enough to have had that leverage if they really maybe they didn't want to go
through the and the trade kicker, I don't care about. They can get
waved and a lot of it depends on how much the cap rise is anyway
relative to his max salary. The no trade cause through me, I was
just like, I know he was one of the very few players who would
be eligible to sign like have one. But that was just like, you've
now dictated if this doesn't work out, he's now the one that dictates the
terms of how it happens. And I know stars do that a lot of
the time anyway, But now you've decided, like, oh, it's not
going to be a mutual understanding, like he can just have veto power.
And look, if I were him and it got to that point where they
were even looking to move him, which you know clearly they don't want to,
because why I sign him to this deal, I would absolutely look at
the stage time in my career like I'm yeah, I'm absolutely gonna use that
leverage. You're not. I'm not gonna let you send me to like a
team I don't want. I'm not gonn gonna insult them. I'm not gonna
let you send me to Sacramento. So it was just curious and so overall
though, were you fine with their decision though, to say, well,
we're just going to retool around build in general or did you? Were you
of the mind like, oh, this should have been more of a wholesale
reset. This is one of those things where like, as a fan base,
I think the majority would have like opted for that sort of rebuild kind
of approach. But I never really like let myself get to that point because
I know enough about how they think that that was like never really on the
table for them. So I just kind of never opened myself up fully to
the possibility that they would even consider that. Like you've got ted leonsis like
banging his fist on the table, you know, like Corbachow or something,
being like, hey, like we're never going to tank, Okay, well
maybe you could do a soft rebuild. You know, there are like other
other degrees here somewhere in the middle, but it's just this seems like what
they really really want to do for whatever reason, and they want to compete
for the play in and you know, more power to them. So I
think I've kind of resigned myself to that fate at least I will say,
while the ultimate endgame is to win a championship, and but you can wrap
it up here is that I do think organizations and players get judged too harshly
when they don't move on just because they're not at that Like Bill wanted to
stay. That's fine. And you look at the Dame extension too, Like
these deals by themselves, they're just going to be movable and teams will give
up a bunch of stuff for them, like you're never trapped in the Wizards,
which we'll get into later, like they're super flexible, like just moving
forward. It was just it was really honestly, the no train costs for
me, They just like pushed me over the edge. I was just like,
what are we what are we doing here? But there's actual basketball to
talk about with this team and Bill last season his efficiency just plunged everywhere,
basically away from the basket. He did get shut down with the injury to
end the season. Do you are you concerned about like this being something that
lingers or was it more the byproduct of this is a one off the team
that was around him, and you're just you would expect him to be right
back in that, oh, like one of the fifteen to twenty five best
players in the NBA territory. I think the efficiency may never like fully recovered
to the levels when like Wall was kind of setting up up and stuff like
that. But could he get back to you know, two or three years
ago when when he was like really scorching hot, you know as a score.
But the three point shooting has gone down almost each of the last five
years. I don't think we'll ever get back to like forty percent from three
Beal. But I think, you know, thirty percent is an aberration and
we should probably be in the mid thirty somewhere. The thing that did worry
me we had like a sports medicine doctor that handled like very similar injuries to
what Bill had on our show, and he said, like, this is
a very serious deal and it's very rare that that patients get back to a
one hundred percent functionality in a risk like that. So, you know,
eighty ninety percent, is that enough for Beal to do everything he needs to
do? Probably? So I would think, you know, I'm not an
actual doctor, but that's sort of the question. If he's one hundred percent
healthy, I think with better talent around him, I would be surprised if
he can't get back to, you know, the level of player he was
before. At least do you think that might have then factored into them making
the will Barton Monte Morris Mover was felt like they punted on some point of
attack defense. Maybe not because you signed them on right in favor of two
guys who give you some secondary creation and shot making. It probably factored in
there somewhat. I think there were so many nights where like one Celtics game
in particular, where Bill had to go for like almost sixty just to keep
them in the game. And now you've got a lot more help around him
too, So I think they think if they can kind of lighten the scoring
load around him, that potentially he can kind of do more facilitating. Maybe
he'll actually want to guard beyond like the fifth or sixth game of the season,
you might get a more well rounded bal than just like please go out
and get thirty points where we'll get blown now. So I'm thinking that's probably
the direction they were trying to go there a couple of months removed from it,
Like, how do you feel about that that actual move, the KCP
trade and the fit of Wilbarton and Monte Morris on this roster. Like,
to me, on paper, you can't really afford to give up like your
loan three and d wing on the team in KCP. But to be honest
with you, like watching him last year, it was one of those things
where I think it was like a little bit of fool scold because he kind
of skated on reputation and there were some nights where he just did not look
engaged defensively at all. So maybe it was slightly overrated defensively. And you
know, like that would be great to have all of these guys and KCP,
but if you've got to pick and choose, I think I'd rather have
two solid players than one solid player. And that's just sort of how I
looked at it. They needed some kind of upgrade at the point guard position.
I think Morris, while probably a bottom five starter in the NBA,
is still better than whoever else they were going to parade parade out there,
and Barton is a decent enough defender I think maybe he's tailed off a little
bit the last couple of years, but overall, I don't. I don't
think there's going to be a ton of defensive drop off that comes from this,
and you just have more flexibility offensively. And there's like there's always been
this high variance in kcp's performances at both ends of the floor, Like even
dating back to when he might have been the third best play around that twenty
twenty Lakers team, Like there's and this piston things like he was. There's
just always these high variants is caked into his performances. I am a big
I've always been iffy on what the stuff he can do offensively back I'm a
big, delon right guy on offense defense, and like that if there is
any drop off, like he can immediately come and plug like some of those
minutes and pitch in on a bunch of the same assignments. I also cringed
every time Caseyp tried to do like his Bradley Beal impression last year, especially
with Bell out, like him putting the ball on the floor and dribbling between
his legs is like always a wild, you know, adventure that I don't
think Wizards fans are gonna miss like all that much. So I think you've
just you got slightly more competent consistently with the guys that you brought in.
And I'm a big Right fan too, so I really think I might have
some spicier takes later about the role Right could play on this team. But
I think that was really big pick up for them. Were you seduced by
Christaps Porzingis after the trade deadline? He had like his postops were actually pretty
good, and historically those have been very bad, But just any real and
the real question is, like any overarching impressions of his game, his fit
with bal which we obviously haven't seen, we weren't able to seek to close
last season. And then he's dealing with what is it I never keep track
of with injuries with the ankle injury right now, So is that anything serious?
No, it doesn't seem to be. The team thinks that like he's
actually like questionable to play in the final preseason game of the year, So
I think there's a reasonable chance, like he'll just be fine and ready to
go on opening nights, So I wouldn't expect anything kind of lingering from that
that was just one of those fluky, you know things that happens. This
isn't you know, the start of some long term KCP is dealing with this
injury for the course of the year. I really liked the way he looked
the last I don't know, a dozen games or so, and to me,
I think the fit with Beal makes a lot of sense. Everything with
the Wizards comes down to like roll and fit, and that's really I think
been one of their biggest issues. You know, under the Scott Brooks regime,
there was this big thing like a third of the way into the year
during that Russell westbrook season, where the players finally got together to talk about
what they thought their role should be because the coaching staff had never defined that
for them. That's like a huge red flag to me that no one's had
the conversation with players about like what what's expected of them. And then honestly,
the same thing happened last year under west Unsel junior. So so maybe
I'm just sort of overestimating how much like discussion and communication happens between coaching staffs
and players. But for Christapps, it's like what do they want him to
be? So far in the preseason, he shot like a lot of long
jumpers. I don't know if that's sort of you know it is so you
know, but last year was, like you said, a more steady diet
of post ups. They were kind of midpost stuff. Like we saw more
versatility, I think, in such a limited sample size than we had seen
the last couple of years. So for me, I'd like to see him
do a steady diet of everything. And even if the post ups are kind
of like less efficient than they were in that small sample size last year,
I'm okay with it just because it at least makes a defense kind of have
to think, okay, he could do this, you know, like maybe
we have to kind of factor it into a game plan. I'm all for
given guys different looks. Yeah, if it's like a mismatch, I guess
I just don't trust him to make like a decision other than trying to shoot
in those situations. And he'll never be close enough to the basket for me
when he does. And just having watched him as a deadly disenchanted Knicks fan
just from those days like that can be mantly frustrating. I was, and
even some moments in like the when he was playing in Japan this preseason.
He does look Spryer on defense, which is big because like there was like
it wasn't just rim protection or verticality, was like there was pop to the
way that he was kind of playing, and that becomes really important for them
and has also been one of the huge things with him is that, oh
there's been like waxing and waning with the way he moves on defense. And
so if he's able to make those sorts of plays and handle the type of
movement he was like sort of swiveling around the basket, that really gives them
like a monster defensive weapon. I think makes him so much more valuable to
this team. And I am with you in the sense that I think they
could figure out something for him offensively. Even if he wants to be like
kind of that star, his game is always skewed, like his best fit
is plug and play, And if you have to give him some ceremony post
ups or face up touches, or you know, maybe you let the second
units or you're trying to let him capitalize on mismatches, that's fine. But
I really watched like a good harbage dry. I feel like for him to
wrap up this like ramble on what I'm throwing at you is in a way
he's moving on defense and performing on defense is like a very good harbinge over
how valuable that he winds up being to his team. Yeah, this team
is like terrible defending the paint last year, and honestly, they were really
bad in the Charlotte game the other night. They gave up like twenty points
in the paint and just the second quarter of the game, which is like
almost impossible to do. But he's looked more spry offensively too, Like the
play heat rolled the ankle on he was doing like a eurostep through traffic,
and you just don't see guys that big that are sort of coordinated and spry
enough to do that. So I think he's looked fresh. I think that
there's a lot of hope with this team that comes from his ability to play
fifty five ish plus games. I mean, if it's that's sort of like
the number for me. If it's more than that, I think this team
is probably a lot better than maybe people you know, expect. And if
he's playing forty games, then that you know that over under number is probably
right on the mark. You're clearly going into this with eyes wide open,
because you mentioned fifty five and I think a lot of people are like,
well, if Christops gives you like sixty five or seventy games, like,
no, that's not happening. But I was shocked. It was not something
I tracked, like after the deadline. He played four back to backs with
the like both ends of back to backs to the Wizards. That has to
be like a personal record for him. They were also like really really conservative
with injuries during this like you know, exhibition tour in Japan, because players
like had a slight twinge of something like they just weren't going to take the
risk and shut them down. So the fact that porzingis played both of those
games, I think already is like a pretty good sign that they're expecting him
to be healthy and trying to get as much mileage out of him as they
can. Kyle Kuzma had a fairly monster closed offensively, it was like,
I think it was twenty nine games. Bradley Beale's not there. His offensive
usage sort of changed in those situations. Do you buy into his fit like
as this complimentary weapon on offense where it's, yeah, he's kind of like
gives you some three, but it's always lower than you think it is,
and he was super efficient for the Wizards off cuts last year. Just how
do you view his fit like in this healthier version of the Wizards this year?
And then also specifically like he's going to be a free agent because he
has that player option, So just do you consider him like a potential long
term part of this core? I might be like the at least the vice
president of the Kyle Kuzma Wizards fan club at this point. I really enjoyed
what Kuzma did. A lot of that has to do with his sort of
off court presence with the team as well, which we can maybe touch on
here for a minute two. But on the court, he did tail off
a little bit once Porzingis kind of factored into that mix. So that last
thirty games overall was much more impressive than the first two thirds of the season,
but it was kind of a questionable fit like who would do what when
and kind of my turn his turn sort of thing. But overall, I
just really like Kuzma's feel for the game. I think he might actually like
have like a really long, really strong possibility of like leading this team in
like Hockey assists. He's actually a much better creator than I think he gets
credit for, and I think that's huge on a team that maybe doesn't have
like this sort of like pure pure point guard like Morris is fine. I
don't think he's like the best creator for others. He's kind of more of
like a complimentary guy, and same with Beal, So I think a lot
of that falls on Kuzma. I think with Porzingis and bill Back, maybe
you can rely on him to be a little bit more efficient and slightly lower
usage. So if the production goes down but the efficiency goes up, like
I'm all for that. I think he kind of like fell off defensively a
lot last year as the season went on. The effort was really there,
it didn't show up particularly well from a defensive metrics standpoint, But he's long,
he's pretty switchable. I think you could maybe even see some like small
ball five Kuzma action this year potentially, which I know we can talk about
like weird lineups here maybe too, but I think that's one I'd like to
see a little bit more of. But again, I think the biggest piece
for Kuzma and the pitch I would make for players and for fans at least
to kind of him as a long term play. Just this was the guy
that pulled Denny aside and said every day after practice, like we will go
one on one and we will work on stuff one by one. They asked
each of the young players, like who was the guy that was most impactful
for them during the season, and I don't remember a single player saying Beal,
and every single one of them mentioned Kuzma. And I think for a
long time the Wizards have sort of been like resigned to having just like a
like a locker room full of like knuckleheads, and and Kuzma has done like
everything in his power to not do that. So I think for me that
that like kind of really swayed, you know, me into the kuz camp.
To your point about expiring contract, that that's sort of the question,
right like at four years, eighty million dollars and some change, I think
he would be a beloved Wizard for the length of that contract. At four
years, one hundred and ten million dollars, this town would turn on him
pretty quickly if he didn't kind of live up to that money. I had
no idea about the stuff was like the young kids or his locker room present.
So you might have swayed me on the Kuzmo experience a little bit more.
His future is tough, and I think he can still be well.
One I want to ask you about that defense you mention the center. Is
that way you're more comfortable with. His role is not defending centers, but
like you prefer him against like those those bigger, barlier like I won't even
call them wings, like combo forwards versus actual wings or smaller players. Yeah,
I think so. I mean there was a lot of discussion about,
like, well, if we start Ruey and Kuzma together, like who's the
three and who's the four. I don't know if it matters. I think
the extra length that Kuzma gives you probably puts him more naturally into that role
like that we saw matchups against like Milwaukee last year, like Denny and Ruey
guarded Jannis more than Kuzma did. But I think that put like the onus
on him to play more health defense and try to like weak side shop block
and things that you know, maybe you don't really want him to have to
do, but he at least is more capable of doing than somebody like Ruey
is, so that that makes a little bit more sense to me personally.
But I don't think this team has like a lot of like really good defensive
wing options other than potentially Denny and even him. I see as more of
like a four three than a three four. So they have a lot of
non wing wings, is what it is exactly. Yeah, that's the whole
roster. It seems to be like you know, Tommy Shepherd's type, I
guess, and his just this doesn't factor too much. I mean, I
guess it could Technicedia in the trade deadline. His situation is so tough because
he's not going to sign an extension because giving him one hundred and twenty percent
rays off this number. It's just not going to happen. It's like you
need to know either what whether he wants to stay one, but like what
it's actually gonna cost to keep him so that you don't get burned and wind
up losing him for nothing or the offseason. Yeah, sign and trades could
happen, YadA, YadA, YadA, but like you just don't want to
put yourself in that type of risk for someone who, regardless of where you
fall on his defense, where you fall in like his compmentary offense, like
he's still he's still very valuable to the makeup of this team. I think
where they are at the trade deadline like totally determines what that decision will be.
If they're you know, in a play in spot or in the playoff
hunt. I think this team is more likely to be a buyer at the
deadline. And we saw this with Davis Burton's a couple of years ago.
They had an opportunity to trade him for two first round picks, and they
were like, Noah, we'll take our chances in the off season and throw
a boatload of money at him. And that didn't work out particularly well for
them, i'd say overall, although it did help get Porzingis. But that's
my expectation is that they'll try to keep him and ride it out unless this
team like totally creators or something like that, so I would I would expect
them to at least be negotiating with him next offseason. You mentioned Denny Avia
before. He is a favorite of mine. I liked and I went back
and watched some of it for this podcast, but also because it was fun
to watch in the first place, him getting just a little bit more offensive
agency when Beal was out towards the end of last year, seize the floor
just so well, can make like really good passes. There's some like I
wrote about this once, there's some fuck you to him on drives too,
or like guys will bounce off his shoulders. What type of role do you
expect to see him playing on this team specifically? And I think the broader
question is do you buy into him like ever nudging up that three point clip
enough as not even like he's hit some like kind of just dribbled into them.
But I think if he really wants to be like the optimized version of
himself, is they need him to shoot threes at a higher equip and I
think he hit like thirty six plus percent I'm wide open last year or whatever
it was. Like the volume certainly, if that's going to be the number
of the volume certainly needs to come up on that. I know this doesn't
make for a good audio, but can I just respond to you with like
my palms up while I shrug because I just I don't know what to expect
from Denny at this point, Like I want to like him so bad.
But there was also a stretch about a quarter of the way into the season
last year where it was almost more likely that he would airball a layup attempt
than he would like finish strong through traffic. And again, I think this
goes back to one like putting guys in positions to be successful and like a
role that fits them and suits them. Like right out of the gate,
this team didn't know what they drafted, and which is bizarre to me considering
how much international scouting Tommy Shepard and that front office likes to do. But
they were like, oh, yeah, this is our three and d Wing.
It's like, well, you know, he's better off like trying to
be lamar Odom than he is trying to be Michail Bridges. Like it just
that's sort of being ignorant to his skill set. I think if that's what
you want from one from him at the gate. So he got better as
the year went on. I'm hoping that this offseason, you know, really
like helped kind of get him some confidence back, because to your point,
like when it was good last year, it was really good. But Denny's
one of those guys where when it's bad, it's real ugly. So I
think as Wizards fans, some of us are more conditioned to remember like those
few really ugly moments, Like I remember one particular game where he literally airballed
two consecutive floaters, and it's like, how does an NBA player do that?
And that probably wasn't even like the lowest moment of that particular game,
but those things stick with you. And similarly with the defense is it's the
same thing, Like he was really good overall, but I like to like
call it auto porter syndrome, where like he would just like totally zone out
and get beat backdoor on a big play, and you're like, he's the
best defender on our team, but you can't kind of consistently trust him in
big situations either. So he's a mixed bag for sure. I think his
defensive activities why actually fell in love with him, because and I guess I
could see what you're saying where it feels like he's probably better sort of like
actually being involved in the action, where like if he has to navigate screens
and stuff, but if you, I guess you're stashing way off the ball,
like you watch the team way more than I do. I'm not noticing
him get beat nearly as often, So where do you sort of land on
his defenses? He become I viewed him as underrated because no one mentioned him.
When I'm looking at it from like a million feet away, I feel
like people don't really talk about him. But then like you're there, has
it become like idiots like me or like, oh, Denny obvious underrated on
defense? And it's well, he's actually become kind of become a little bit
overrated at this point. I'm pretty sure I wrote an article for Bullish Forever
at some point last year addressing whether or not Denny Avdia had any realistic shot
of making an All Defense team, because that's how high as a fan base
we were on his defense like a quarter of the way into the season.
And it doesn't happen for Wizards particularly often. You know, Larry Hugheses the
last one to make an All Defense or sorry, he's lasting to make a
first team, Wall made a second team. But for Denny, it's like
he's definitely probably the best defender that they have on whole as a team.
It just it kind of came and went with the offensive confidence too, and
they kind of weirdly like put him in the Doghouse a couple of times last
year, and nobody could really figure out why. Same with Gafford. Look
arguably arguably your two best defenders, and they would just like disappear from the
rotation for long stretches of time, and no one ever really fully articulated why
and what drove those decisions. So I think for Denny, the defense isn't
the question, it's you're probably original question to me that I don't think I
answered about the shooting. Yes, I think he'll get better that. The
problem with Denny, I think is this is like a work harder versus work
smartyr situation, Like, yes he gets the preps up, yes he works
hard, so I think there'll at least be marginal improvement. But if you
just have kind of like awkward form and you're really stiff, like no matter
how many reps you take, you're probably only gonna get so good. And
Denny's a guy that the form has sort of noticeably changed, like from right
before he got drafted, halfway through his Wizard to tenure so far, it's
just they've got to settle on something for him. And a lot of these
videos you see from him are him working out alone in the gym without team
officials and things like that, whereas like Ruey, they worked really hard to
like rep out his jumper with him and like work on the form and being
consistent, and it looks like markedly better to me. And I think the
results other than this preseason have kind of you know, bear that out well,
I have you. I have zero feel for Ruey, Hatchma, what
is what is he? That's that's just my question, even I thought you
a whole spiel. What is what is RUI? What is Ruey? Why
is Ruey? Who is rue I mean, it's like a very big existential
thing. I honestly still don't know. And that's the problem. Like there's
this guy that came in as sort of like a mismatch four and he was
like gonna like beat guys to the rim and shoot all these like mid range
shots, and then all of a sudden he was like this big wing defender
and you had all like the terrible draft comps to Kauai because they had both
have big hands. But there was like one game where he defended Kauai really
well and it was like, oh my god, like do we have something
here? And then the defense dropped off because he got bigger and slower,
like he maybe bulked up too much, but then the shooting really came around.
So again, he's another one like Denny. To me, they're sort
of different, but there's this roller coaster of like they do different things,
but they don't really do them at the same time, so you've seen flashes
of like all this different stuff, and I think the big question for both
of them is like what will they put together and what can they do consistently?
For really, I actually have like more hope for him than I do
for Denny personally, Like I think there's a there's a realistic world where like
I've seen really play really good defense, again limited sample sizes, but to
me it's more likely he does that consistent. He looks slimmer and leaner this
year. Maybe that helps him on the perimeter a little bit more, But
I haven't ever really seen like Denny be really effective offensively, So to me,
that's like there's like a further way to go for that. I might
be kind of on an island with that amongst the fan base here, but
I would lean slightly Ruey over Denny. The question too, is just again
contract year situation, like, do they do they have him in their long
term plans? Does it come down to what the contract is? I think
the most Wizards thing here would be for him to like really turn it on
late and put them in a lot of like an awkward position here of like
how big of a deal do we try to give him or do we let
him go somewhere else right as it looks like he's going to get good and
then we'll feel like we were burned if he's you know, the starting power
forward for the Knicks next year or something. You're not on an island with
Ruey. There are when we did. We were talking about the Wizards and
Donovan Mitchell on this podcast a couple of times, and there were there were
Wizards fans that responded on Twitter and YouTube that were like, well, like,
we wouldn't give up Ruey in that trade. And I was just shocked
to hear that. In general, I mean, is there something too when
when I've seen both of these guys on offense, Avia and Ruy, they're
both very different. I do struggle to see how they can be like connective
where it feels like they're both RUI feels like he's much better off operating kind
of outside the context of everybody else, and then Denny just feels like he
needs to not that he needs to be on ball, but like that's the
best way to keep him engage or to use him. And that's super tough
to have two guys like that on a team that has Brat, I mean
Bradley Beal. And then there are guys that can play off the ball in
Monte Morris, Will Barton and Chris Osporziniz, but like those are three players
who are much better offensively than the two players that we're talking about right now.
Yeah, I mean that's really the challenge, right Like, You've got
some of these guys where they're they're sort of limited in certain things they can
do, and they're not really like versatile guys. I think you'd want your
like six through eight guys to be slightly more plug and play. And both
of these guys need like very specific content to be like their best selves.
And to your point about Ruey like operating outside the offense, Like I think
there are definitely times where like other players standing around and watch him, and
that's really not what you want from like the seventh best guy on your team,
especially when your best couple guys are standing there. So Denny, I
think is best suited to be sort of that like secondary tertiary creator for somebody.
You know, if he can hit some spot up shots like that's great,
but yeah, you're not going to give him enough of those reps to
like really like figure out what you have there. And they still haven't figured
that out. So I think that's they're just about like a lot of open
questions with both of them, and that's not where you'd want to be with
lottery picks this many years into their career. I when I was thinking about
this podcast, like doing the Wizards a week ago, I'd realized that like
a very flimsy grasp of what Corey Kissbert was as a rookie. So I
went back and watched a lot of Corey Kissberg defensive possessions. There was like
he just understood what was happening away from the ball and he was built.
Is this What ikne about him coming out college was well, Kenny defend at
the NBA level, He's just gonna sling it his three point percent. It
did recover well, not didn't like it went up towards the end of the
year. What are you looking for with him in year two? Is it
just like, can we get this guy to like really juice up his three
point volume and hit it at the clip that he was to close the season?
And do you buy into what made him so effective on defense or you're
not effective if you want to say surprising on defense for this team. Yeah,
Like you always expect rogies to not be very good, but he was
like pretty good for a rookie that everybody had low expectations for, Like,
he really competed on that end. I think, you know, pre draft
he did really well and sort of like the mobility related drills like shuttle drill
and stuff like that. He's kind of underrated as a lateral athlete, but
he's smart enough to kind of put himself in those positions. I think multiple
years in a college system playing for a good coach, like those things seemed
to take hold with him. And I always think there's something to like,
if you understand offense at a high level, that can translate to understanding how
to defend offense at a high level. So I think there's some amount of
that with Corey too. But for me, the big thing I want to
see from him this year is just like arc on his jump shot, Like
if you go back and watch him shoot a lot at Gonzaga, like from
the college line, like it didn't seem to matter to him that he had
this kind of flat shot. And last year they worked a lot with him
on like just getting a little bit more shape on the jumper, and this
so far this preseason, I got can really limited sample size, Like it
looked really flat again. So I think they just need like one assistant coach
just like kind of like slap him on the palm every so often and be
like hey, or like in practices he's like shooting over a broomstick or something
to just like get a little a little additional arc there, because, like
you said, once that kind of change took hold, the percentage went up
like considerably over the course of the year. Daniel Gafford, will he be
setting Gore Todz screens this season? Based off what I'm reading? Isn't that
weird? Like as somebody who only like watches the Wizards, you know intently,
Like I don't even know what's really weird by their standards anymore, because
just like everything is, but you don't see other teams bring in First of
all, Court had it's like maybe the third best player of sort of the
wall slash biol Era, which is wild to think him out anyway, But
teams don't typically like trot in former players to just come in for two week
stints as assistant coaches and teach people how to set screens like that. That's
bizarre from like an NBA level perspective, right, Yeah, I mean you
see it with like Hakima LaJuan used to work up post games with guys a
lot, but it was like independent of the team. So yeah, that's
a I mean, I'm like, I'm not privy to the practices and we're
not getting the footage just coming out of Golden States practices unfortunately. So but
yeah, that is like I was just reading that. I was like,
oh, okay, and I've by the way, I've struggled to grap with
like I know why you make the trade anyway, but it's you have Daniel
Gafford and then you traded for Christops Porzingi. It's like, well, that's
not really like the biggest vote of confidence and what you want him to be.
And maybe they're just like, look, he might average like eight for
thirty six minutes and any games in season, so we have to plan around
this a little bit. I think for like any Wizards fans listening to this,
it might be like an opportunity to mute or skip or fast forward or
something because i'manna mentioned that Clippers game last year that was like the darkest day
for Wizards fans in a very long time. But they took Gafford out of
that game where they gave up that huge lead, and they kind of blamed
the defense on him after, but the game really went south after he came
out, So that's what I meant earlier, Like Gafford weirdly found himself in
the dog house a couple of times last year, like he'll like hunt blocks
and sort of overreach on stuff and do some stuff that you just kind of
expect from young players. I think maybe we kind of raised our expectations too
high for what Gafford is based on that short sample size when he first got
traded here. But he's somebody that, like I think, has a lot
of potential. It's still really young, you know, when you think about
him in the context of the rest of the team, like he's not that
much older than the Denny's and the Ruis and stuff like that. So it
was strange to me, but I thought that was a bad omen for him.
And just the way they've been talking about Toash Gipps in this offseason,
you know, you'd think that they just like went out and made this like
huge offsea an acquisition, Like I think it's for spacing five from the corners
Toash Gibson exactly exactly right. Yeah, I mean we've talked about Toash Gibson
the way the Cavaliers talked about adding Donovan Mitchell, and that says a lot
about what where the Wizards season has been. But you know, he's he's
the one helping them set screens and and he's in a blowing up cutters in
practice and stuff like that. So it would not shock me to see it's
like in the middle of December and somehow Taj Gibson has like stolen Daniel Gafford's
spot in the rotation because for whatever reason, he just doesn't seem to be
like a huge west Unseld favorite. That is wow, that would be that
would be very like Tom Thibodeau, and of I'm wrong, but I just
I have like a strange hunch just based on the way that both he and
Tommy Shepard have talked about Gibson. Do you have any early impressions of Johnny
Davis's game and fit with this team and whether, like, well they is
he just gonna be breaking case of emergency or kind of looking at their wing
depth of well, we have wing depth, but they're not actually wings.
They're like combo forwards, like how you're mentioning the fours who are three?
Sometimes just anything on him, Yeah, I mean it's not been pretty so
far. Like Summer League was really bad and I was like there in person
for it, and this guy looks a little smaller than I expected, and
you know, sometimes it's just, hey, this guy's drilling everything in warm
ups and then shots aren't falling because they've got sort of a weird like we
basically punt on Summer League and add a bunch of like twenty six year old
veterans that will never make an NBA roster. So he's not even like being
seen in like a very good context. So I'm willing to excuse all of
that kind of stuff. But it's not looked great in the preseason. It
looked slightly better around like other competent NBA players. I think this again just
goes back to what I mentioned earlier about this fundamental Wizard's problem about role and
what they see guys as On draft night, We're sitting in the media room
and Tommy Shepard gets up and it's like, man, look at you know,
future point guard Johnny Davis. And even the way WOA tweeted it out
was like the Wizard's draft their point guard of the future Johnny Davis did that
was how that was actually how it was phrase I did not even notice that.
I mean, I said point guard over the future, but it clearly
like referenced like this is a future point guard for them, and it's clear
that that came directly from Shepherd. And then they asked west Unseld like literally
five minutes later, Hey, what do you think about Johnny Davis's ability to
play point guard? And he's like, well, I don't think he's ever
done that before, so you know, we'll have to see if he's able
to do that or not. So they already like weren't on the same page
about exactly what that role would be. And then in the first preseason game
he looked like slightly more comfortable, he was kind of off ball. He
just had to cut and defend. And then later in the second half he
came in with some of the reserves and they were like, hey, you're
now facilitating offense. We want you to initiate for us, and it looked
bad again. So I think asking a guy to come in as a rookie
learn the league, learn how to defend people, but also learn a brand
new position. When Johnny Davis was a guy that, like in high school,
played more in the post than he did on the perimeter, so now
you've moved him from basically under the basket to like your lead backup point.
I don't know, it's just a very I read about him was swingman wing.
I didn't even like, like, this is not something I didn't even
know that like he was even being portrayed. Is this like floor general type
in Washington? I had no idea, right, And I think your expectation
is of like what was all of our expectations of, like, Okay,
he'll come in and he'll defend, and he'll score a little bit off the
bench, and we've needed a backup too for a long time. But maybe
they think Will Barton addresses that enough for them. So the Davis thing in
this second half of this one of the Warriors games, when they asked him
to facilitate, it looked bad and they said like, hey, west Unseld,
why did you do that? And he talked about like, well,
we really wanted to take him out of his comfort zone. Which is strange
to me that one your GM thinks he can be a point guard, but
your idea of taking him out of his comfort zone is to ask ask him
to facilitate. But also you should probably establish what someone's comfort zone is before
you try to then take them out of it. So it's just about like
setting guys up to be successful, and I don't think they're doing that with
Davis thus far. So as bad as it's looked, I think it's as
much of their fault as it is any byproduct of his level of play or
ability. I mean, some more of the stories like he just shouldn't be
fact like he then is not factored into the plans this year because if they
want him to be like a lead ball handler type, there's not room for
that, Like they don't need that on this team right now. I wouldn't
think so it wouldn't shock me if like a third of the way into the
season he started getting some amount of minutes here and there just to like see
how he looks. Or I don't know. This team's like always snake bitten
with injuries, so it wouldn't surprise me if they like suddenly needed him some
amount. If if Bill can't play as much as they expect with the risk
stuff, or Porzingis is out and they shift everybody down. You know,
if he averaged ten twelve minutes a game over the course of the season and
four or five points like that would really surprised me. But if anybody's like
looking at the Fandel odds and wants to bet on Johnny Davis for Rookie of
the Year, like I would caution them strongly not to do that. Keeping
in theme with this podcast, I have zero feel for what this defensive ceiling
is supposed to be for this team. I'm not as were like they were
they were first of all, they were like defensive darlings to start the year.
I'm not as concerned if you tell me that both gafferd and Perzoncuis will
be healthy, I'm not as concerned about the volume that they let up at
the rim because at least they'll have those two guys near there, near there
to make plays. The addition of Delon Wright helps. I like Monte Morris
defensively, I think a lot more than other people do. Maybe Beal plays
more defense than he has over the past three years, and I think I
like Avia there Ruey positionally gives you a lot of valuability did for Kuzma.
But at the same time, just like I look at this group, I'm
like, well, what are they supposed to be defensively? How like how
should they defend? What are their strengths Do you have any sort of feel
for that with this roster? I think top to bottom, the defensive personnel
with this group is better than it's been the last couple of years, like
you know, as a whole. But I don't know what they're going to
try to do. They've gone back and forth on like what they will and
won't switch. They were sort of inconsistent about when they'd play zone last year,
and it just became like I think accountability has like always been a thing
with this particular group, and every year you've got Bill saying some like variant
of like this is the year I try to make an all defensive team,
and then by ten games in it's like, well that didn't really last.
And then a third of the way into the year, he's talking about while
we can't guard a parked car or worst case scenario. There's a lot of
him saying all their guys need to start playing defense, and it's just like,
okay, I mean, are we really okay with Netto switching on to
Jason Tatum or whatever. This year's equivalent of Netto is like down the stretch
of a game, there were so many times where it was Bill, it
was Ish Schmidt, it was Netto, Like you've got to decide what you're
gonna do if you play those types of players. So for me, I
think just happening like right back up, you know, gives you a little
bit more size and switchability and things like that. So the best version of
this team is more switchable. You had Will Barton called Kuzma out the other
night because he missed a rotation like in real time, which I thought was
good from that accountability standpoint, and then at halftime you had Kuzma talking about
like it's all about communication with this team, like will be as good as
we can be based on how much you know, Like our level communication will
dictate how good we are. And if you sit really close to the court
in a Wizard's game, it's like being at a library. Like guys are
worried they're going to get scolded if they're too loud, and just you need
somebody like being the quarterback of the defense. I don't know that I see,
you know porzingis doing that. So who's the guy who steps up and
tries to do that for them? Honestly, I'd love to see it be
Denny because I don't think he kind of shrinks from a challenge, and I
don't think he's afraid to. You know, he was willing to call Burton's
out last year twice and getting the little scuffles with him, So maybe he'll
do that to other guys too. But somebody has to like be the defensive
leader. I think, do you think this team is built now to be
maybe more aggressive in the way that they'll defend And will they do that?
Because it's honestly impressive in how not okay it is that they were so like
they committed a ton of fouls. I think they were like bottom eight in
foul rate. And then dead last and forcing opponent turnovers, and so it's
like it's almost impressive that you could be so bad at both. As my
point, yeah, like if you were just I don't know if you fouled
a ton, but you forced a ton of turnovers, Like I could live
with that. But to your point that it's just sort of both extremes there,
and that's like a very wizards thing. I guess from sort of my
pessimistic viewpoint, like we seem to find ways to do the impossible and never
in a particularly good way. But it should be one of those situations where
like, you you have this team that you think you've built because they give
you a lot of positional versatility, Like how do you best use that and
maximize it? I don't know what they'll do. I think this is really
going to be a big year for West Unseld. I don't think anyone really
loved his coaching job last year, but rookie head coach is kind of tough
to do. Like, I think this year will really determine what their defensive
identity looks like. And I don't really care how they choose to play people,
but just like pick something and I'm not saying stick to it for the
whole year if it doesn't work, but like give it ten games and say
like this is the way we're going to play and see if you can kind
of make some some strides in that direction. So I don't know it's that
that's going to be the biggest thing. If this team is like slightly close
to middle of the pack defensively, I think they're going to have enough offensive
firepower that this is like a higher end play in team. If not,
maybe you're talking about ten eleven twelve kind of situation. So aside from the
health concerns with some of the players on this roster, or specifically one of
them, what is like the biggest concern or weakness that that you're thinking about
leading into the regular season. I would have loved to to see like a
more prototypical three and D wing somewhere on the roster, Like all the really
good teams stockpile them, and the Wizards seemingly have none, which is kind
of like almost impossible by today's NBA standards to not have anybody that's just like
here is a three. It's always this guy is a two and a half
or you know, three and a half. It's they're just loaded with three
and a half right now, is how it feels. Yeah, I mean
that that honestly, that just must have been like what they were really in
the market for when when drafting. So it's just that seems to be like
the trend. So I would have liked to see in something like that.
I think the real fundamental problem here is that there's not like one glaring hole
or position of need. It's just they're not particularly good anywhere across the board,
like they could use an upgrade almost everywhere. Like Monte Morris is probably
a bottom five starting point guard. If you start Will Bartonet small forward,
which seems to be the most likely scenario here, is he an upper half
starting small forward in the NBA? I would say at this point in his
career, probably not. He'd be an amazing kind of sixth man, you
know, two three kind of guy. Feel if he's not super healthy and
not shooting in a high percentage, not guarding anybody, you know like that,
that becomes okay, he is what he is. He's not maybe an
elite number one scoring option for you. If Porzingis isn't healthy, that's a
question mark. Can Gafford be consistent enough, Like Gafford's twenty four years old,
I think, And he can't seem to play more than twenty three minutes
a game yet for some reason, and conditioning is still a question. So
it's just what are these guys like Kuzma could be more efficient? He could
defend better, like any one position you could pick out and just say if
if they had someone just better at that position, it would make a big
difference for them. I think, do they have any underrated strengths that you
don't think you're receiving enough attention as we get into the regular season. I
think like secondary or tertiary like creation is pretty good for them, or playmaking.
They've talked a lot about, like can we use Porzingis as like a
poor Mansio kitchen and let him like create for people out of like the high
post or given them ball at the top of the key. And I don't.
I've never seen anything that indicate that he could do that. But if
you think there's something there, I don't unlock. And I mentioned I really
think Kuzma's underrated as a playmaker. This team has just been so bad from
that perspective. The last couple of years that it's like one or two guys
dribble around so much and then maybe they give somebody the ball at the end
of the shot lock but the end of the night, like Kuzma Drove kicked
it out to delan Wright who like you know, hot potato touch bastt to
Ruey who the ball hit him in the chest because his hands weren't up even
though he was wide open in the corner, and by the time he caught
it, he bricked a three. Like, these guys are just going to
have to Like I think they have better passing personnel than they've had previously,
and it's just like, can everybody kind of get used to that and expect
the ball more and be in positions and be ready to score. So if
they can do that, I think this actually could be like a really potent
offense. And the lot right will help with that, Like he will keep
them. This is not someone who like sort of you know, stumbles or
wanders into decisions like he's really he won't dribble if he doesn't have to dribble,
and so hopefully just playing with him probably will make people like Ruey a
little bit more better, more aware, with those incoming passes. And I
think the other thing with Right is just the point of attack. Defense I
think is going to be so much better with this team. Like you can
say what you want about Wall, but after getting the Supermax and once he
started to get dinged up, the defensive effort was really inconsistent, Like Westbrook
didn't really guard anybody, like for long stretches of that year, Dinwitty was
like a traffic cone for most of his time here. Netto and his Schmith
were really undersized. Like this is probably the best like two man defensive group
that they've had at point for I don't know for as long as I can
remember, So I think Morris is underrated. But but Right has already been
a guy that just finds a way to like get into passing lanes, get
his hands on balls, get deflections. So I think that that's like a
big boost for them. One of my favorite things to do is to try
and figure out, like what top ten rotations look like heading into the regular
season. They're obviously subjects. For Chains, I have eight or nine locks,
maybe even ten pencil Then for the Wizards, why I have Horris,
Bill Barton, Kuzma, KP Delawn right, Avia, Gafford, and Hachamura
were just my nine locks, and then I have kiss Burg Penzilan after that.
Is that what you would guess or would you see like someone else being
able to sneak into this? Yeah, I mean I think obviously. Yeah,
I mean honestly, if Tash Gibson, like I said, is a
major factor into this rotation, it wouldn't really surprise me, which is probably
not like a great sign for the year that Gafford's having if they're willing to
do that. But again, they've just been like too high on him for
them to not Like people thought that signing was like maybe them trying to get
like their Judonis Hazel, like this old er, tough veteran to come in
and teach these guys how to be a pro. But I don't think that's
really what they're thinking. So if he found his way into this group,
you know, that's that's something like we've had a joke in sort of the
fan base, and we even made t shirts for our podcast about it.
But like the Wizards are putting the mid in mid Atlantic, Like if you
listen, if you look at that real list, like there's a lot of
just sort of like average guys, and you know, guys five through eleven
are all kind of about the same, and I think that's kind of the
problem with them. They just need some upgrades somewhere. This is to some
extent matchup dependent, But what would be your go to crunch time unit for
this team? Is it just the starting five or the It seems like this
team has the potential to futs and fiddle with that. I think I would
probably go with the starting five for the most part. I think you need
to see really how Barton defends this year. I didn't watch a ton of
his play last year, but it did feel like the previous years to that,
like the defense was starting to slip a little bit. So maybe down
the stretch you see somebody a little bigger, like a Denny with that group
or Ruy or whichever one of them is kind of having the better overall year.
Can Denny play, Can Denny be enough of a threat offensively for them
to feel comfortable closing games with him, then it's probably him. If Rui's
like much better defensively or much more consistent defensively than maybe it's him. I
personally really like like Delan Wright closing games with this team because I actually buy
the shooting. I think the size defensively really helps. And again, like
a lot of games got lost for them really close down the stretch last year
when they ended up with these mismatches of like Tatum shooting over a guy that
was eight inches shorter than him. And that's how Tatum is winning games against
all these teams in the NBA. But I trust, you know, Right
or somebody like that to give him a little bit more of a challenge than
somebody like Morris would just from kind of a size perspective. Is there a
weirdo, bonkers, quirky, off the beaten path lineup that you'd like to
see Weisenfeld roll out this season? So Kuzma actually asked for this directly to
close out the year last year, and he said he wanted to play minutes
next to both Denny and Ruey. So to me, I'd love to see
some variation of like, right, Kuzma, Denny, Ruey Gafford and just
like be weird and run or even Kuzma at the five for some amount of
that, and you put kiss Burt out there with them and just sort of
be this like weird hopefully switchable five guys and just try to like put pressure
on people and you let maybe Denny push the pace and things like that in
transition and just try to play fast with that group I think would be you
said, weird, not good, weird. So I have no idea if
that would be like an effective group or not, but it's something I at
least like to see. Yeah, it's like though they could be morbidly curious.
That's what a lot of mine were, and minor along the similar lines.
Especially, I find it like, after you said you wanted to see
Kuzma with the five earlier in the podcast, give me like the all three
point five and two point five lineup, Let's just go with Kuzma, Hachimura,
Denny, Avya, kiss Bert's out there, and then look, fuck
it, let's throw Anthony Gil in there too. And I can't imagine that
would be great offensively, but there might be some like defensive potential there.
You mentioned Gil too, and that's kind of the one that I drew a
blank on. Gill is interesting, and the Wizards have this thing where like
you saw Anthony Gill start this preseason gave me of the night against Charlotte with
Beal out, and they made it very clear that like he was taking Beal's
spot in the starting five because they didn't want to men like mess up their
bench rotation. So they even reference, like, yo, you might see
Anthony Gill will get some starts this year, so they're not afraid to just
like take somebody like that who hasn't played in like four games and just make
him a starter randomly out of nowhere, which I will personally never understand.
But it's been like a very typical thing in Washington. So I don't know
if I would say he's consistently in the rotation, but it wouldn't surprise me
to see him get like seven or eight starts this year out of nowhere.
The Wizard's win total over under as we record this is thirty five point five
or would you take the over or the under on that I would take the
over. I always take the slight over with them every year, and I
think it's worked out a decent amount of the time. To me, I
think this is probably like a round a five hundred team, give or take.
I think the health kind of swings that a couple games here or there.
But if they're a thirty eight win team, Like I wouldn't be surprised
at the end of this year, just because you got relatively close to that
last year without Porzingis for most of the season and without Bill for a long
stretch of the season, and without really knowing what you had from Kuzma,
and really was a wall for the first third of the season. Like so,
I think if you have all those guys back in and just more like
competent guys around them, with Wright and Barton and Morris, it would I
would be very surprised if they're not, you know, kind of high thirties
at least. I went over when we and I was smashing every single over
on these podcasts where I had to force myself, you need to sit down
and start making cuts, and then we actually did myself my cost Grant here's
that we did our over underpod that he hasn't come out yet, but I
went over on the Wizard so they made the over cut. It feels a
touch too low, and I think part of that for me, Well,
I want to ask this question first, how many teams right now would you
be willing to say the Wizards in the East are definitely going to be better
than this season. I mean I would if we want to go through them
all, we can definitely think it, like it's Indie for sure, Indie
for sure, Orlando for sure. I think Troit for sure. I mean,
although I like Detroit, I just think they didn't have a ton of
incentive to try to make the playoffs this year. If it happens, it
happens. Charlotte I think, is the worst team in the East. Oh
that is I guess if you're thinking that Lamel is not going to play a
lot, then apps a fucking movie. Yeah, so I think you could
probably you could get to four where you could say, Okay, they'll be
better than them. I still feel something. There's something about Orlando. Man,
their guard plays not gonna be good, but I'm in love with Powell,
Bank, Caro and just their ultra big lineups. Then you mentioned Kade
in Detroit, so there's like, but I think four right now? Is
this a team though, where let's say they're eleventh around the trade deadline and
that they're closer to thirteenth than they are to tenth. Is this a team
that's gonna make a move to try and get into that plane or is there
still the potential for them decide, hey, like we need to pull back.
We have some expiring contracts, Like maybe we're gonna lean into I'm not
even saying trade Bradley Beel, but we're gonna lean into like a full on
retooling or a on retooling again, like or part of me going over This
is my justification. The Wizards to me are in sort of that same vein
of the Knicks, is that they're going to always unless unless someone gets injured,
basically Bradley Beal, They're just going to be going for it this year.
I would say that they're more likely than the Knicks to be like,
oh, if we're not as good as we want to be, fuck it
this season, Like, well, I love another gap year. But I
view them very much in that same vein, maybe even as the Bulls too,
where I don't know that those teams would have the gall or feel like
they have the incentive to, you know, pull back this season and just
punt on it. I don't know a ton of billionaires personally, so this
is sort of an uninformed take, but I just don't see a lot of
them like willing to like fully backtrack on things they've been adamant amount publicly,
and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has said like, we will not tank. So
they've unfortunately kind of done it unintentionally and not well enough to like really help
themselves from a draft position. But I don't think there's any world where they
just like cut bait and give it up. And I don't think that Tommy
Shephard will want to do that either, because he's probably not the guy to
lead a full rebuild if that happens, because it's admitting the last couple of
years haven't worked. So I think it's much much more likely that they would
double down and try to make a move and buy at the deadline, then
like sell off a bunch of stuff now that maybe you could say, like,
Okay, we've got to get something for Kuzma and try to recrup value
that we could make a trade in the off season to try to be good
next year if it's like really not working out or somebody goes down with that
injury. But I think if the health is good and they're they're in striking
distance, I think that's probably a pretty high likelihood that they're trading somebody in
a first round pick to try to get an upgrade somewhere. I agree,
and I made the case and I got absolutely annihilated for it on Twitter,
mostly by Knicks fans that Washington is a more I don't even know if the
words appealing, but they have more blockbuster equity than people are crediting when you
look at the types of contracts, they have a salary matching it just even
intriguing players, Like they're teams that would want Monte Morris. There are teams
that would Denny Avdia is sort of like not the blue chip prospect in the
deal, but him or kiss Bird or maybe in point guard Johnny Davis apparently,
And if you get into the season, this was the more of my
story, and it looks like the Wizards, if they make a material upgrade,
are going to convey this twenty twenty three pick. Why would you not,
historically, looking at this team, be like, oh, if they're
gonna give us distant first round picks, like, yes, we'll make that
deal. And you're still technically not guaranteed to get them their conditional contingent upon
that Knick's obligation. But if they're like in that mix and you're giving them
a good player, I think they are. I don't know, I don't
know how i'd recommend that they do this, But to me, they aren't
under the radar. Oh, they came out like where we kind of saw.
Did we all think one of Cleveland or Minnesota was gonna make a Blockwestern
trade? Maybe we definitely thought Atlanta was going to but like the Minnesota or
Cleveland's that just decided we're gonna go for it. They're a team that I
could see doing something similar and are equipped to do something similar more than most
people have talked about. Yeah, I mean, by all accounts, they
were kind of in the talks for Donovan Mitchell, they were in talks for
John Ta get a participation trophy. Yeah for sure. That's sort of like
Wizard's fandom in a nutshell is just like going for participation trophies, like we
were considered, and that's like really big for us. Like I think we're
still sort of like scorned by the Like we couldn't even get a meeting with
Kevin Durant, so they just like get our named mentioned on the jump or
something like that is big for us as a fan pace. So I think
that's all they were trying to do. Is like tell people like, hey,
we're open for business, and whether or not they do have like the
juice to pull that off, it is sort of we'll see. It depends
on really who the person is, because they don't have a lot of ability
to throw a lot of picks into these deals right now, so that that's
really what limits them, I think is how much people are willing to take
on Denny Ruey Kissper Johnny Davis, those kind of people. I'm just like,
if an O, G N and Obi becomes available and you have any
and like I just they feel like and I can't even name the players,
but there's always there's always a next player, even if it's only a freind
star not a star. We just saw that, like this offseason, there's
always just someone's gonnacome available. I would just keep my eye on them,
is all. Whether you agree with that's what they should be doing or not.
I think they have the acid equity to get involved in some of those
glitzier conversations. If Brandon Ingram decides he can't play next to Zion and that
just doesn't work for them, Like is that the guy you you throw a
bunch of guys at and maybe you have some shooting and stuff that they'd want
next to Zion. I don't know. I don't know that Dale Brown pists
that the Celtics tried to trade him for Kevin Durant a couple of weeks after
making the finals, Like, xactly is there anything or anyone with regards this
he might did not ask you about? You think we need to cover?
No, I mean, I think we've kind of hit all of the high
points here. It's just a question of, like the Wizards are our fan
bases at this point, We're like we're having really spirited debates about like should
we just give a contract out right to undrafted rookie Quinton Jackson because like there's
just not a ton of things that people are super full about, So like
we're really latching on to just like hear these guys that didn't get drafted,
can they be like marginal you know, like fringe rotation guys for us and
stuff like that. So that's kind of where we're at. I think we
hit the high knocks pretty much well from the million foot view. For me,
there at least are fascinating because I just don't have any idea what to
expect necessarily from them this season, Matt, this was great. In case
anyone skip the intro, are you able to tell them where they can find
you and all the great work that you put out. Sure if anybody goes
to Bolts Forever dot com, I do a good amount of writing there.
Also hosted the Belief in Wizards podcast b L e A v I n w
I z A r ds. I had hosted that with Larry Hughes for the
last couple of seasons. Larry's taking some time to work with family and stuff
like that. His son just enrolled at the University of Saint Louis where he
went or St. Louis University. Excuse me, so we're working on like
a replacement or more Blair co host So maybe you have something exciting to announce
their coming up. But oh yeah, if you want to talk more more
Wizards, we're here. Matt. Thank you so much for being so generous
with your thought. This is a blast and I will definitely be stamming your
dms to come back on in the future. Appreciate it, Dan, keep
up with the work, looking forward to it.