What is up, fellow thermonuclear afers. I am Dan Valley coming at you
with another twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four MBA look ahead, not preview,
not outlook, not whatever, fancy schmanshy look aheads. We are joined
by Matt Maderno, host of the Believing Wizards podcast, and he has also
does stuff at Bullets Forever. We're gonna talk about if you didn't catch it
yet, and he's been on the show a few times already, the Washington
Wizards. But first, remember to follow Matt on Twitter. I'm still gonna
call it Twitter at Matt Maderno. That's at m A double T m O,
double D E r n O. Great follow on Twitter. Does great
work covering the Wizards. And if you're not following them already, remedy that,
Matt. How the hell are you doing? I'm great, Dane.
I think for anybody who heard us do this last year, this will be
a totally different vibe. I think at least I'm going to try to keep
it that way. So yeah, I'm excited to actually talk about the Wizards,
which, despite doing it all the time, is not always the case.
I do not remember you saying that last year. So I feel like
we've already made progress. Agreed, it's been cathartic at least, So I
think we went we did like a home at home basically earlier this year,
after the Tommy Shepherd dismissial I believe, So we don't really need to get
into that. And then throwing out the actual execution of this churn roster turned
tear down. Whatever, were you surprised that they actually did it? Where
you relieved that they actually went distrusion? What are the what are your just
thoughts and feelings on it? And as well as just like the fan bases
general, you know, inklings towards what's happening in Washington right now. You
know, I think calling a dream come true would not be an exaggeration,
Like I actually feel that way because I I really didn't expect it. You
have an owner that like bang dis fist on the table and said we will
never ever tank and then they let him tear it like they let the new
front office tear down like right away essentially, And I just really didn't expect
that. I thought we would see this kind of like forced soft retooling kind
of thing, But this is as close to tearing it down to the studs
as you can get. Like, obviously we'll talk about Kuzma being back,
but you know that that doesn't really change much for you and your long term
out look. Like this, this is a drastically different roster with a drastically
you know, different ceiling and objective, and I think it's a more positive
one because at least you're not sort of that like lower middle and you know,
that's where nobody wants to be in sports, and that's where they've you
know, perpetually been. So I think no matter what, they're already just
doing better. And that always surprises me as a Wizards fan. It is,
you know, we're going from ten Leans is kind of you know,
really complimenting himself and the Wizards for giving out a no trade clause last year.
So now they've just ripped it down to like the bare bones. Basically,
that's just like a really big organizational one eighty And I'm almost fascinated by,
like what took ted the Aces to get to this point to Okay,
it like I just don't like, how do you go from that? Is
it just because Bradley Beale decided he didn't want to be there anymore, so
they were kind of forcing this. It's just from Ted the ances his perspective,
because that's the constant here. Yeah, you bring in a new front
office, they want to leave their mark. I'm sure any new front office
would have wanted to have torn this down, Like how do you go from
that to this? Be honest with you, I'm gonna give a lot of
credit to just like one single person, which isn't probably fair, but like
David Aldridge is just sort of my avatar for this, because it took like
some amount of like negative media, national media for him to like seem to
recognize this. He said, like I heard fans, I heard, you
know, the way people were talking about the team. And if you're a
billionaire, you probably have some kind of an ego. You typically don't get
that rich by not being you know, somewhat self import and things like that.
And when you've only been talked about nationally because you're a laughing stock,
I think at some point you have to say, like, all right,
this isn't working, and you know that's been the change. Like the Wizards
fan base was. I've always been kind of snarky, but I think they're
like the collective outrage at the end of last season was pretty extreme. And
you have Bill Simmons going on his podcast and things like that and just like
openly laughing about where the Wizards are and talking about how they're not even worth
talking about it. Just at some point that has to get to you and
you have to say, look, Okay, maybe we need to do something
different. That That's what I'm attributing it to. But I don't know,
could could have nothing to do with any of those things. Shout out David
Aldrige said, I like that. I like taking that slay. So what
did you make of the actual execution of it all? Because there are many
steps involved here, and I think when you look at when you zoom out
and kind of look at who and what they ended up with, a lot
of people are going to be underwhelmed. And I personally we did grades on
this. I think that's the wrong way to look at it. I'm just
curious how you view the actual execution of this tear down at the moment so
far. Yeah, when you talked about it, I think I was like
sort of on the same boat, right. It was just when you see,
like, oh Bradley, Bill got this return, it doesn't sound that
great, or christap Sports and just got this return, it doesn't sound that
great. But you can't really look at those things in a vacuum. You
have to look at the context of the situation. You know, their exact
circumstances, their contract, just where they are as assets in the league right
now, And I honestly think it was probably about the best they could have
done. Like you could maybe nitpick that, maybe another second round pick or
another pick swap or twenty five protected first round pick in there would have been
nice. Like it doesn't really matter. I chose to get salty about Jordan
Goodwin being thrown in the Bradley Beal trade because I really like Jordan Goodwin and
we could use a good young guard. But at the end of the day,
like that's not a deal breaker, and it gets him off your books
and you get to start fresh. And I think that's really what the most
important thing that came out of that is just like the clean slate, like
you're not tied to these anchor contracts, like Tommy Shephard would have resigned Chris
app Sporzingis to a huge deal and we'd be hearing about the planner for schitis,
and you know, he like it would have been an immediate thing where
we'd be saddled with his contract, whereas like Kuzma keeping him up the three,
he's probably the one that has the most immediate flippability, if you want
to go into that. So I think that's it's kind of inspired thinking.
In my opinion. I think they've like hit it out of the park so
far. And granted's the tear down is sometimes always easier than the build up.
So we'll see where they go from here, but so far, so
good. In my opinion, I love flippability. I feel like that all
the time. Now that's a new it's a new verb that I'm gonna want
to use. Yeah, and I'm with you on it. And I think
to kind of compare it to a different situation, it's when people took issue
of the other side of Bradley Beal trade. Whereas, man, how could
the Suns do this and give up all their depth the value they gave up
for Bradley Beal in a vacuum. You do that eleven times out of ten.
If your issue is the depth that they're left with or the assets they're
left with, your original, your issue is the original trade for Kevin Durant.
It's not the Bradley Beal trade. And so when the Wizards circumstances,
your issue is not what you got for Bradley Beals, that bradleybal had a
no trade clause the contract. Your issue is not when you got for Porzingis.
It's that you traded him when he could have just become a free agent
and left anyway, that's what were you supposed to get. Also, but
the Porzingis deal, This is probably unpopular or minority take. I think they
did the best out of that three team scenario. I didn't like it for
Memphis or Boston all that much. So like I can quibble over things like
I've like, oh, I know how you felt about Monte Morris. I
was like that felt like they selled a little low when it's my callous perspective
is but I'd rather have the flexibility or Jordan Pool is something I still sort
of grapple over. But like, free agency is dead. We've seen it,
like, and you're in Washington rebuilding at the moment anyway, so cast
phase is only going to get you more bad contracts. So it could would
have been nice they would have gotten more than a fake first round pick whatever,
So I thought they did. You use the word inspired, and I
think that's the right way to frame it. I also think it's the benefit
of having fresh perspective in here where Michael Winger Will Dawkins are not attached or
viewing these players this organization the same way that Tommy Shepard is, who's responsible
for so many of these moves. And there's the two elements of Okay,
well, your internal valuation of these players might just be higher because you put
them together, then it's two. Even if it's not, you kind of
have to make it so it's higher because you need to win the press conference
and you're now undoing things that you've already done. So I think that's the
benefit in any case of sort of changing regimes at least, like if you
squint hard enough, now you can see like sort of the makings of a
modern basketball team, Like we won't be putting two drop coverage centers into the
starting lineup. We could use probably another center on this roster, but like,
yeah, you go from playing two of them, like uh yeah,
exactly, Like we might need to bring Tash Gibson back if we had the
roster spot to do it, which is wild, but yeah, like it's
it's at least looking toward where like the teams that you've seen seen Winger and
Dawkins and Schlank like want to build. I think Shlank is the one that
gets mentioned the least, but that Hawks team like it obviously didn't work out
with him as well as they probably would have liked, but he tried to
build a modern basketball team, and building around Trey Young is like, you
know, maybe you could argue with whether that's the guy to do that around,
but the pieces around that, they drafted the right blueprint of guys,
and not all of them worked out, but I think you're starting to see
like the makings of that team around, you know, where this Washington group
is already starting to go. So I'm cool with that. At least we're
going to be in the year twenty twenty three and not the year two thousand
and three, and that's even a big step forward. I think my favorite
thing he might have done this offseason was just trading up one spot to get
Cool Vali because it was just it felt like such a Sam Presty thing.
And then Sam Presty basically did the same thing, but I think leez yeah,
way too much a caps face to move up two spots. What are
your first general impressions of balla Coolabali so far. I don't even actually care
if he works out. I mean, I care if he works out,
but like, just the pick is such a big change over the last several
draft picks. And the first thing Tommy Sheppard said when he got, you
know, promoted to that job, was we're going to draft like athletic,
switchable wings that can shoot. And then they didn't. Like I mean,
if you want to call Ruby a wing and say he's like pretty athletic and
switchable who could shoot, not didn't really shoot it that well at the time,
Like Danny doesn't really shoot it. He's brought here to be an offensive
player, doesn't really provide much on that end. So they've gotten kind of
lucky that he's been as good defensibly as he has. I wouldn't say Johnny
Davis is an athletic wing who could shoot like it just they didn't do what
they said. And now whether Coolabally ultimately ends up being able to shoot it
or not at the end of the day, like that's what a modern wing
looks like he's long, he's athletic, he's got a ton of up side.
The form looks good on the jump shot, like you can see a
world where Coolbally does like a Trey Murphy impression in two years, like that
kind of thing, or Mikhail Bridges like that mold of player that everybody in
the league seems to value. They finally went after that kind of guy,
and I'm sure Jar's Walker ended up being a great player. I'm sure Taylor
Hendricks wind up being a really good player, but those would have been like
the Tommy Shephard kind of picks. I feel like of just like limited,
Like the cap for them is probably like the fourth best player on a good
team. If Coolbally pops, I mean, I think the ceiling is higher
than that. It's risk gear, But I'm okay with a bigger swing,
especially when you're jump starting a rebuild, because you've got to hit on those
kinds of guys, and if you're trying to hit singles, like that's a
common Wizards fan exception or expression, as they always try to hit singles,
like at least you went for the triple here, and it could screw you
in the long run, but at least like the effort and the attempt and
he's just it was interesting to watch him kind of develop quickly on the fly
last year for Metropolitan. Metropolitan signed too, like he meant from not playing
at all, not even being on the big club, being brought up and
not playing slowly in the rotation. Then he's the fifth starter, just kind
of a switchable wing and by the end of the year he's like running pick
and roll with Victor wemen Yama in the French League Championship. Like that learning
curve is incredible and it's going to be a huge jump up into the NBA,
but you've already seen him kind of like learn and evolve on the fly,
and like that's the kind of player that's exciting as a fan. So
at the very least if he just brings some excitement, you know, we'll
take that around here. And I'm with you that you swing in that spot
more, I should say, you swing in the spot that you're in right
now, which is sort of just starting from this blank slad even though that's
not would necessarily roster suggests, and there's no other player that really would have
fit that bill, like maybe Cam Whitmore, but the medicals must have been
I would assume abysmal on him since he slid so far, and I will
say just based off like his defensive package in Summer League's great. I'm sold,
and then they're just I mean, like he hit a couple escape dribble
jumpers and it's like, okay, like I'm told, I'm like, this
is the pick, Like I'm excited to see what he can do, and
I am curious though in that regard, what do you kind of expect his
year run year one excuse me role to be? Is he gonna be given
a lot of runway or just kind of given I guess there's not a glut
there, but just all these other maybe on ball options on offense. Is
he gonna get lost a little bit in the shuffle? They're like, what
do you expect his year one role to be? I think that really comes
down to like where the front office is at with West Unsell Junior these days,
like he was kind of like forced upon them to some extent. It
feels like like ted leonsas said like West will be back before they even hired
the Soul front office. So I don't know how in sync they're going to
be, and I think we're going to see that a lot early. I
think he'd been really reluctant to play some of these younger guys and let them
play through mistakes now given maybe that was the mandate of the team, like
we're trying to win now like okay, fine. So I think we'll see
a lot about like what his mindset is, because there were times last year
we're like Daniel gaffer would like make a mistake and he'd be benched for Tash
Gibson, the ghost of Tash Gibson for like three quarters, and you're like,
hey, I wasn't Gafford still on this team. So if Cool Bali
comes out and just gets like beat backdoor on the first play, is he
gonna sit for the next half? So I think that'll be really kind of
the interesting thing here is if he just like lets him stretch his wing,
you know, stretch his legs a little bit, and Cool Bali I think
can come in day one and be like an energy defender, a transition weapon,
and that's like probably it. I don't think you'll see him doing like
the ball handling he was doing in Summer League right away, but could you
see that by the end of the season. I think if last year's trajectory
or a progression is any indicator, like, he's probably somebody that will like
scale up as the season goes on. And I'm okay with that. Like
there's some Wizards fans that want to start him day one. I wouldn't do
that to him personally, Like, let's just let him build slowly. And
there was a reason nobody talked about him in the top ten of this draft.
It's everybody thought he'd be a twenty twenty four guy. He made a
huge leap really quickly. Like let's not throw too much at him at once.
That's at least how I would approach it. Yeah, And it's also
if you're coming off the bench in theory like he, then should I know,
there's a lot of guards on this team push you should have more of
an opportunity to do things on offense then, And so there's value not starting
right away in that regard too. You brought this up is west On South
Junior like sort of coaching for his job here and looking at the context of
this roster and where it's headed, what does coaching for your job even actually
look like? I think, like I don't know the man, Like I've
posted podcasts with players that have played for him and stuff, and they all
speak highly about West, like the person and the relationship builder. But last
year's team seemed to struggle with like motivation and buy in and things like that.
And you'd see some guys like kind of chirping at him, you know,
in the huddle and things like that. And not that that doesn't happen
on other NBA teams, but when Scott Brooks was about to get fired,
you heard multiple people like Westbrook and feel especially go to bat for him.
At the end of the last season, I think a lot of the Wizards
seemed to throw a West under the bus to some extent, Like you had
Monte Morris and Corey kiss Berts specifically talking about, like we need to play
faster next year and the coaching staff was reluctant to do that, or hey,
you know, finally they started to listen to us later in the season,
like Monte threw a little shade, which was surprising that West was kind
of his guy, and I don't think he did it like disrespectfully or anything,
but it was clear that like they weren't kind of bought in and it'll
be interesting to see, like if that happens. And I think if you
see this team like come out and play hard shit like from day one and
like guys are into it, maybe that's what coaching for your job looks like.
It's just consistent buy in and that when they only have like fifteen wins
and march like, are they are they still playing hard and that kind of
thing. If you can get that from West un selled and he can keep
these guys like into it and engaged, I think that to win and enough
that they'll probably bring him back for another year. I would think if these
guys are out and Pool and Kuzma are fighting over who gets more touches and
things like that, I don't know if Wes Unselda is the guy that you
know kind of falls on the sword there a little bit, but you've got
a staff right now that he's gonna have to be. He's gonna have to
bring it. Like David Vanderpool will be an NBA head coach soon. He
could be the next one here if West doesn't work out. Brian Keith got
interviewed for multiple head coach jobs, and you know he's the next guy down
the bench, whereas like last year's staff, when West had picked his own
guys, there was no one that was really going to push him. Like
they brought in people to be around him and support him, but they're also
there as like break in case of emergency, like if he's not getting the
job done, bring in these player development guys that get people to buy in
right away and you know, maybe you see what you look like with them
the last twenty games of the year or something like that. I think his
contract runs through twenty four twenty five, right, So it's just like I
don't know the timing of that. And it's always there's it's not a red
flag, but you always get the sense that there's going to be a change
in the sidelines coming when you switch front office regimes, Like I feel like
it's very rare that when a front officers inherits a coach that it works out
for more than like a year, year and a half or something. Yeah,
I'm totally with you, Denny Avia. Big season for my guy coming
up? Is he going to be given and I'll use the word again,
the agency to really get to work on offense, and I think we saw
a little bit of it after the Bradley Beale's trade last year, But is
he gonna get that type of control or is he in danger sort of getting
lost in the shuffle of Okay, well, we have Blah Kolabali here,
we have Kyle Kuzma, we have Corey Kissber, we have a bunch of
other guards and Delon Wright and Jordan Poole and Tyas Jones who can handle the
ball. Like, what is what is the immediate future hold for Denny Avia
on this team? There was like an eight game stretch last year, I
want to say, post trade deadline where like we got to see Turbo Denny
and that like half the Wizards in base like erupted about, like, yes,
finally we've seen the guy we wanted to see. And he looked confident
and he was just like kind of like balling out there right like there was
flow and he just seemed to have really taken a step forward. And it
just kind of fizzled out over the course of the year. And then when
they shut Bradley Beal down and Borzingis finally sat a little bit, you started
to see a little bit more of that again of just like here have the
ball, try to do good things. And I think that's what he would
have most benefited from the last couple of years, to be on this kind
of team and be given the opportunity to just like feel his way out.
Like Denny needs the ball to provide some value on offense, but he's not
good enough with it that you're going to take the ball away from some of
the other guys that they've had the last couple of years on this team,
Like you probably want that. Like I don't think Pool wants to be a
point guard. I don't think Kuzma wants to have to be a point guard.
Not that they can't create some for themselves and others, but other than
like Taias Jones, like, they probably need other guys in this rotation that
like can make other things happen, and I think Denny can do that.
To me, this roster being kind of undersized is actually probably better for him.
I think he's best as like a small ball four, maybe even some
small ball five from til. He's a strong enough dude, but he's not
like crazy quick, so he's not beating threes off the dribble a lot.
He can't really dribble with his left hand still, but you could beat a
slower four or five. Like could he take Isaiah Stewart off the dribble,
Yeah, sure, like something like that. So I'd like to see that
more. It still comes down to the shooting, Like if he can't shoot
it, you can't see enough of the other things he does well. If
no one closes out on him, he can't attack a close out, you
know, like so you can't use the ball handling and the reasonable speed that
he has. So I think that's still the swing skills, a swing skill
for a lot of NBA guys, But for him to provide offensive value,
he just has to shoot it at a reasonable enough clip that people can't guard
him like he's Draymond or Russell Westbrook. And that happened at times last year.
So if he's thirty five percent, is that enough to like be respectable
that he can you know, put the ball on the floor a little bit
more. Sure, he started to finish around the rim a little bit better.
That was great to see. That had been like kind of the biggest
problem I'd had with him offensively. The defense is really good. So if
you want him to be on the court and like Tyas Jones isn't. He
tries on defense, but he's not a great defender just given the size and
athleticism. Jordan Poole hasn't guarded anybody since middle school, probably like they need
somebody else that's gonna want to do that. Like Kisspert will try, but
he's not ever going to be a stopper. So some of these guys on
the perimeter like they have to bring a little bit of intensity, and I
think you'll see Denny do that. Also think he guards bigs better than he
does quick guards. So maybe if you're playing him more at the four or
five, you can actually best utilize him. And so I don't know.
I think he'll be better this year. It's will he shoot it well enough
to unlock these things that I think this for offices are gonna want to invest
in longer term is the question. Yeah. His And if people who are
not wizards trans listening to his podcast, I feel like, and everyone knows
them a Denny Aftia like fanatic basically, And are you impressed? I waited
like what like four questions? It was nice. Yeah, you buried the
lead here a little bit. It was restraint. But he's a capslock defender.
Now you said he's not like great against quick guards, but like he
can guard, he can't nobody guards drama rant that well, So that's kind
of a nit pick, you know. It's more so just like if you
had to, I'm not saying build the ideal defender for these guys, Like
almost the ideal matchup for him is like you see him on James Harden or
a Luca where it's like those guys are really tough, but they're not operating
at blazing fast speeds and yeah I am, you know, and shooting.
When we mentioned shooting, it becomes a cliche for him. It's really a
big deal because like if there's not really the in between game, You're right,
he was finishing around the rim better, and I think he knows how
to use his shoulders and be physical with the ball. Actually don't really have
a problem with his ball handling, except he doesn't. You already mentioned that
he's not gonna be able to use his left hand, and then it feels
like when he's going into traffic, like there aren't enough counters for him.
And now I'm a little bit concerned, where is he gonna You know,
you can still throw Mike Muscal on the floor. Danielle Gallanari's on this roster
for anyone who who cares, is there gonna be like enough spacing around him?
Because losing Chris Stops is like kind of a big loss there, and
so like that would be my concern. I still just I believe. But
it's gonna come down to the shooting. Is there anything else though, aside
specifically from the shooting that you're gonna be watching when it comes to him?
I think you mentioned the spacing there right like that. That's really interesting and
that's probably why he won't start. I would have said, the only open
competition for one of the starting positions, and I'm sure we'll get this is
between him and Corey Kissbert at the three, And I think Kissberg gets it
just because it's so hard to have two non shooters and Gafford's not going to
stretch the floor. So if you're already playing him, I think Kuzma,
like whether he shoots a great percentage or not, teams guard him like he's
a good shooter. I think the same thing is kind of true for George
Pool, like the percentage may not always be as good as you want and
he can be a little streaky, but teams guard him like he can shoot.
So can you put Gafford and Denny out there together for long stretches of
a game and not have things to clog up is really going to be the
question. But yeah, you put him next to kiss Bird and some of
these other guys. I think that'll help a little bit there. I mentioned
the defense just on the guard thing, like there were a lot of times
last year where they had to put Kuzma on some of these like quicker guards,
like he would guard Trey Young when they played the Hawks, or he
would guard Dame when they guarded Portland. I'd like to see Denny do that
a little bit more. You know, there's not a ton of other options,
Like I don't know how much Delon Wright plays on this roster just given
where they're trying to go. I hope he plays a decent amount. But
he's probably the only other really good perimeter defender. So just just seeing Denny
be able to be that guy for them would unlock a lot. And then
you can then you can be switchable one through four at the very least,
if if you can do those kinds of things and have him take on those
primary matchups with really anyone they need him to. I think that versatility would
be would be the best problem. Is there like any chance that he would
sign an extension or is it just sort of off the table just because the
new front office is in here? And I'll even frame it this way,
like what would be the And I've thrown this in the outline, like what
would be the like if you had to rank these in terms of most likely
outcomes, There's signed extension, get traded by the deadline, resigns as a
restricted free agent, or just leaves in free agency next year. Yeah,
I think traded at the deadline is probably the most realistic. And I get
classified as like a Denny hater. I actually think he's like not far from
being like a really really productive player, which is like why I want more
for him, Like if he actually shoots hit. He's the kind of guy
that every roster in the NBA wants to have. So that's why the like
I've changed my form for the fifth time since I've been here. Stuff is
a little frustrating, like just wrap it out at some point, But I
don't know, I can't imagine that, like he's going to be there kind
of guy, and they're going to offer the kind of extension that is going
to make him and his team happy, unless he struggles enough this year that
I don't know. I just think there's always some team out there that's going
to take a chance on a six foot seven, six foot eight guy that
defends and is still young enough that if he figures the other stuff out,
like he's still twenty two, If three years from now he's a shooter,
that wouldn't shock me. So somebody will probably continue to take a bet on
that. It's I think this next contract will probably be for a reasonable number.
It's if this next contract doesn't go well, he might be a vet
minimum kind of guy by then, Like he might be Derek Jones Jr.
Or somebody that's like a switchable wing and does nothing else for you offensively,
So it's gonna be tough. Like I think he probably either gets traded or
walks. If I were them, like what kind of deal would make sense
to me? Like a three for mid to low thirties as probably as like
much as I'd be willing to do. I'm kind of terrible at the cap
contract stuff, so I don't even know if that's like insanely low or insanely
high or whatever. But I think it'll really depend on the team, because
I think there are some teams that are probably all the way out and some
teams that are still willing to take a shot. Yeah that I mean,
like that's mid level money, which I guess would seem fair. I'd be
curious what he was saying here what he would get on the open market.
But if he could get if you could get him for like three and fourteen
per year, it's like three and fifty was at fifty or forty two,
I think I would probably do it. I don't expect that the Wizards would
do it. So I'm excited to grade whatever team gives Denny Abbia an offer
sheheet or trace him at the deadline very very highly when they do, so
I'll look forward to that. If you're him and like you have an okay
year, maybe it's worth coming back here because you would get more opportunity here
to prove it. I don't know. I guess maybe it depends on what
your role is, and if they trust you enough to do things and they
see a fit for you longer term, maybe you see a shorter prove it
deal to come back. It's probably like the only situation where I could see
that. But yeah, I don't know. I think he's probably not a
wizard next year. I've had to guess, what did you make of the
Jordan Pool flyer. I think that's the kind of guy you take a flyer
on, Like, I don't necessarily love Jordan Pool, the player, you
know, in a vacuum. I think he'll come in. He'll imediately score
it from day one. Worst case scenario, he's the player we saw for
large stretches last year, and that's probably not worth the money over the life
of the contract, but he still becomes tradeable probably on the back end of
that. And he also, you know, you have to have a certain
amount of salary to hit the floor anyway. So that's that's okay, Like
I'd rather it be for a guy like that that has some higher upside.
If he can be even like close to the guy we saw when he played
and Steph Curry didn't now all of a sudden like that's an exciting player.
If he can scale up and be even more of a facilitator. Can he
defend even a little bit like that? That all of a sudden becomes this
intriguing guy that he either is your long term piece that you've that you've gotten
on like for almost nothing essentially, or he's a flippable guy that you turn
into other longer term pieces for you. So this is like a win win
win for me. Like the worst case isn't that bad? And the best
case, like, I think it's pretty high upside. Do you expect him
to run a lot of point here? Are they going to try and sort
of dissuade him from that type of stuff? The Wizard's offense in the final
five minutes of games last year was here Brad do things. So letting Jordan
Poole be the guy to do that or fill that role maybe wouldn't surprise me.
I don't know, do you need Tis Jones out there to run offense
for you if they're both gonna get hunted down the stretch of games? Ah,
you know that that becomes a little dicey to me. I think maybe
you can get enough like playmaking from Kuzma and Pool out there that you don't
need like a pure point guard kind of guy down the stretch of a game,
And especially if like Denny's playing well enough that he can be in there
as a kind of your third creator. That might be enough for you.
And then like it's a little easier for me to envision Pool like guarding you
know, the worst offensive player on the other team down the stretch than it
is like now he's got a guard, like somebody's somebody's decent offensive, you
know guard. So I don't think he'll like run the offense for large stretches
just because there are so many other guards that they're going to have to give
minutes to and figure out what to do with them. But to close games,
it wouldn't surprise me. I'm almost wondering if his like a partnership with
Denny Avy would beneficial to him, because I feel like even when Steph was
out, a lot of his best moments where hey we can it came alongside
Draymond Green to where someone who had like the basketball IQ and like the passing
and Denny Avy is not Draymond Green, clearly, Like, is that sort
of a marriage that could help because I don't think Jordan Pool is your primary
shot creator for both himself and others. I actually think is a pretty like
big whiff and I've disagreed with Warriors fans on that for years, and it's
I think that he's always been at his best insulated in some level, And
so I'm just curious how they'll like what. I'm curious what the best lineups
that include Jordan Pool will end up looking like on this team, a dribble
hand off with Denny, like, I think, is a really interesting thing
that I hope we see a good amount of. Like, I don't know
how it'll actually work, but like maybe Pool has the ability to scale up
more as like a self creator, Like he has the handle and things like
that to do it, you know, can he do it consistently enough?
I don't know. So if you have a few of those guys that take
some pressure off him, Like is there a big enough discrepancy in who guards
Jordan Pool and Kyle Kuzma that you can run a pickle, like a pick
and roll between those two guys, Like, if you're switching the same kind
of defender, it doesn't really do you any good, But especially if they're
playing small and a bigger guys on Kuzma and you can run some pick and
roll between those two guys. Now, I think that's really interesting but you
know it's just gonna be it's all on Jordan Pool, right like this is
this is what does he do kind of like determines how the rest of the
roster and the people around him really fit. Like there are certain guys I
think he'll make sense playing with, Like I think Thyas Jones is really good
for him offensively for the majority of these games, because he'll he'll go out
of his way to try to spoon feed some easy baskets for some of these
guys like as maybe more talented as some of the guys the Wizards lost were,
you know from last season, Like Kyle Kuzma never had anybody create like
an easy shot for him on last year's roster, Like it was always him
like breaking the play and trying to do something for himself. They didn't run
plays for him. Tyas Jones, I think is a guy that can like
get a few easy baskets for Pool and Kuzma and then in turn maybe they
can get it for others. So I'm actually excited about Jones on that front.
At least. Were you surprised that they ended up keeping Kyle Kuzma and
would you expect him to still be on the roster past the trade deadline,
because the contract is four for ninety on a declining scale, is basically just
like the cliff notes of it. That's like a team like a very fair
deal. And it made me sort of wonder, like, oh, I
guess Kuzma didn't really have that strong of an open market, but where did
you sort of land on one him coming back? And what do you how
do you actually expect this to play out? The way you feel about Denny
is the way I feel about Kyle Kuzma, Like I'm not I'm an irrational
Kyle Kuzma guy. So I think he might be like one of the most
easily tradable people in the NBA this upcoming year, and almost any team that's
trying to win something could convince themselves that this guy on a declining contract can
come in and fit with almost any team. Like he's six four, six
four, you can play one through four at six ten depending on what you
need, or guard one through four at the very least. That's huge.
I think no matter who has somebody go down with an injury that's trying to
win a championship, like he could come and plug some hole for you.
So that's intriguing, and he probably wouldn't take like a ton to get back,
Like I can't imagine the Wizards are expecting like a king's ransom for Kuzma
if they ever decided to trade him. I do think they probably just given
the types of guys that these three front office guys have all seemed to prioritize.
I do think he fits with the kind of mold of player that they
look for, like this positional versatility in size and things like that, and
playmaking for a big So I don't think they're going to be in a hurry
to trade him. I think if there is a situation where they can get
a ton for him, they're not going to be afraid to do it.
He's probably not like a long term piece for you, so why hold on
to him longer than you needed to? That was one thing the front office
previously was always afraid to do, is like, Okay, we flipped Davis
Burton's from you know, we traded him for Aaron White, not to the
Spurs, and nobody knows who Aaron White was unless they're a Big ten basketball
fan, like and then they wouldn't trade him for two first round picks.
And then resign him to a terrible deal. Like I don't think these guys
are going to be afraid to flip him at peak value. So if he
comes out and he like lighting the league on fire because he's got this insane
usage or something, I think they would be willing to pull the trigger for
any deal that makes sense, but also not be in a rush to do
it. He's like the best leader and mentor on the team by all accounts,
Like you always hear about he and Denny playing one on one and after
games and things like that, Like this is the guy that kind of took
on that, like I want to help everybody else on this team be better,
and that seems something that honestly, like Beal and maybe to some extent
Porzingis were reluctant to do. And I can't imagine that that's an inconsequential thing
in the fact that he's the guy that's still here. Yeah, I would
say even if you said I think the people would normally set the over under
of point five seasons left in Washington based off this deal, actually take the
over would because I just feel everything that you just sort of outlaid here,
and there's a chance that contract only becomes more valuable as it goes on.
I think in the final year it's projected to be less than twelve percent of
the cat It's like that'll be his age. It was a thirty one season
that takes him through, So like that's just perfect timing. And I think
that he might be heatly seemed content in Washington with his role. And you
know that would be my other questions. Do you see his role changing from
last season if at all, with the makeup of this roster, But even
if it moves, if it doesn't, there's like a level of prominence in
Washington right now where if he got traded to a contender, he's probably not
gonna have it. So maybe he's okay being sort of the not the old
head, but the mentor here. And then maybe a go to guy on
a roster that's not that great. Maybe they hit lightning in a bottle with
Bala Kulavali in their next pick and they're just fun and they're a little bit
better than expected. And so this is almost one of those contracts where it's
not mandatory. Like you said, if an offer comes and you have to
take it, you take it. You pull the trigger, but where it's
I look at Tyas Jones expiring deal, Delon Wright expiring deal, even Denny
Avia going into his contract here, like those all feel like guys. Maybe
even Daniel Gafford like that could just be traded before Kyle Kuzma because of what
he brings both on and off the court to this roster. It seems like
everybody that's been good for the Wizards the last couple of years was when they
were good, there was always this ticking clock of like what the next contract
look like and do you flip them now? Like there was always this immediate
decision that had to be made, And I think the nice thing about what
this front office is doing is like now with somebody like Kuzma or even with
Pool, these aren't guys you have to decide on right away, and given
where you are, you can just afford to see where you're at in two
years. The other thing that you could do here is if you do want
to flip this for like, let's say you're better quickly than you think,
and Coolabali by year two is like, you know, insane or something like
that. Like Kuzma also becomes like a really intriguing piece to throw into a
trade to help you hit a large portion of the salary, you need to
match with somebody too, So like that's intriguing. Like you mentioned, the
cap probably goes up. I think from that perspective, his deal like is
going to look really good to somebody two years down the line. So maybe
you even get more for him in two years than you could get now.
So why rush to do it? So I just don't think they have to
hurry. And that kind of like ability is a luxury that the Wizards haven't
had in a really long time, and I'm excited to see what these guys
can actually do with it. They're they're not going to have to act desperate
like the Wizards. All the contracts they've given out have been desperation moves for
the most part that their hands were forced into doing them. Now, probably
the two most impactful players on the roster, you're not in any hurry to
decide things with. I can't see Kuzma being the guy that like immediately rocks
the boat if they're only going to be a twenty four win team, Like,
I don't think he's going to be the dude there's like I demand out
of here, he doesn't. He got a ring already. I think he
likes being in a reasonably decent market. He's close to New York, like,
he can do the things he seems to like to do off the court
reasonably well from Washington. I think he likes having national relevance. So being
the second, first or second best player in the Wizards, isn't that better
than being the fourth best player on the Bucks? Like, you know,
I think this might fit where he wants to be, at least for the
next year or two. Will his role do you see it changing at all
based on the current makeup of the roster? I totally just ignored that part
of the question. Sorry about that. No, no, don't don't apologize
that was that was like more of like throwing it aside. I'm just curious
because of all the type of control he had over the offense out of really
necessity a lot of the times last year. I'm just wondering if we sort
of specifically on offense, like if we see his usage change at all.
They talked a lot about how most of their offense was geared toward running things
through bal or person gifts, and they didn't actually ever run plays like straight
up plays to feature Kyle Kuzma. I think you'll see more in that this
year. I think maybe he gets easier looks next to somebody like Attias Jones.
That'll be interesting. Could you even see a situation where like he had
Daniel Gafford run some pick and roll like I don't know if that makes any
sense. Like, I think they'll experiment a little bit more with him.
I think you'll see him in these different lineups. And that was kind of
the thing he brought to this team in the last couple of years, was
just that positional versatility that like a lot of these guys that they couldn't go
up or down, like Monte Morris is a one before that, you know,
like every other small point guard that had Ish and Howel Netto and all
these other guys, like they were locked into one position. Although we did
somehow play Netto at small forward in the playoffs one year, which is another
amazing fat But there are other people now that are switchable with him, and
I think that's interesting. So you could do a lot of really intriguing things.
At the end of the day, he's going to be pretty high usage.
He's probably gonna be fairly ball dominant, I would imagine, but he's
a willing passer and things like that, so maybe you see him wanting to
get some of these younger guys more involved and then picking his spots a little
bit better on offense. So I don't know, like one hundred and ten
percent version of the guy we saw last year would probably be my guests of
players we have not mentioned yet Corey Kisspers floating around or at least haven't gone
into detailed Corey Kissers floating around out there, your guy, Johnny Davis,
your your favorite who intrigues you the most long term on this roster is?
And it's a tough question, right, because that's why I asked it.
It was just like getting it because there's in such the infancy of their rebuild
and they're not working from a point where they had a lot of players that
you bill as, oh, we have to attain them that once you throw
we went through ballab Clabali and Denny Avdya, it's like, well, like
this question gets super tough. It's it's both super tough in like a negative
way because there's like no immediate stand out, but also not in the worst
way because there's like a few guys that kind of could be potentially I think
kiss Words one of those guys where like he's just young enough and just good
enough that you could see him being here longer term and you could help fit
him into the makeup of your team and where you want to go with it.
But he's also old enough and productive enough that like a veteran team trying
to win something now might be intrigued to buy a guy like him to come
in and you know, provide some spacing. And I don't know, I
think he's more than just a shooter, at least offensively. He tries defensively.
I don't think he's partic really good, but he's not like a total
like Turnstile, So that's that's a win. I think any team in the
league could be intrigued by somebody like Corey Kissbert, the Wizards included, So
it's nice for from that perspective of you could go either way with him.
I think Johnny Davis, I really think there's a world where like he's like
a really serviceable rotation wing defender. And we know what position Donnie Davis is
now. I know that was up for debate last year. Where the front
office didn't even seem to know who he was, quite frankly, but definitely
what he was. The GM and the coach and the player themselves weren't on
the same page about what he was and what he can do and what he
can be. So we saw him be kind of more of a focal point
offensively on summer league team. That's really our first look at him with any
of these other guys. He wasn't particularly efficient in Summer League, but he
was a lot more aggressive and confident. I think you probably throw him in
there to be like a less athletic Gary Peyton, the second kind of guy
like he's Can he guard other people's best perimeter players or something like that.
I really have liked the defense from John Davis day one. Can he shoot
it well enough? He's already not like his knees aren't touching when he shoots
now, So that's probably a step in the right direction for building a longer
term shot. There's just like a lot of guys like that that could make
some sense. Could Ryan Rollins turn into something? Could Patrick Baldwin Junior turn
into something? Warrior fans believe the answer to the ladder is hell yea,
oh hell, yes, okay, I didn't are they they were in on
PBJA. Yeah, I didn't see it personally, Like I don't, I
didn't see it, but they were the way you felt about different type of
player. But the way you felt about Jordan Goodwin is how I feel like
Warrior fans reacted to PBJA being thrown into the Chris Paul trade. I see,
like I never really got it with him personally. I never watched him
play in high school where that's imagined like apparently where all this stuff popped and
playmaking. And you know, my co host Johadie White has sons that are
in the AU circuit, and he said when they'd see Patrick Baldwin Junior on
that like he looked like lamar Odom with a jump shot and he was like
doing all this creating and playmaking and things like that. So maybe if you
can unlock some of those things in this situation, like that's great. It's
another kind of guy. It's the right kind of guy to take a flyer
on. Whether I see it or not, and you gave up the fifty
seventh pick to do it. That seems worthwhile to me. Whether it I
don't know if he were any good, would someone like the Warriors give up
on him for the second to last pick in the draft. Probably not.
That would be a bad sign in my opinion. But I'm rambling, but
like, there's a few guys here that could be intriguing enough that you want
to see if they could be anything for you longer term. At least I
forgot that the PBJ trade was separate from the Chris Paul Washington did too much
stuff this offseason. They still sort of they like, I don't know if
it got like lumped in there after the fact, but it is essentially him
for Trace Jackson Davis is how it worked out. And I have in my
note it's saying Trace Jackson Davis for cash. I'm assuming that's just a mistake
though, because now that you're mentioning it, I was like, I think
that might have been separate. But he's wet. I got the team right,
that's all. It's on the Wizards. You're good. As we're recording
this, this leads into sort of a nice segue with it. They have
sixteen players under contract. Do you've any would you guess or having preferences on
Okay, well, who are they going to get rid of from here?
Do you look at Xavier Cook, Do you look at Ryan Rollins, Patrick
Paulwin Jr. Anthony gill Is players that you actually want on the roster moving
forward, like just sort of that jumble towards the bottom. Do you expect
that they could go the route of, well, it doesn't see Mike Daniel
Gallinari wants to buy out. He just doesn't want to be a minimum guy.
Like, do they go that route? Ultimately? Just what are short
of your thoughts or feelings there? I think we've seen enough to know at
this point that Anthony gill is probably never anything more than like the last guy
or two on the bench of an NBA team. They're probably projecting him to
be like their third center this year, which is insane to me personally.
I don't no, I'm just not a big fan of him and his ability
to provide any real value for them as like an un athletic six foot eight
small ball center who doesn't actually shoot if he were, like, I don't
know. They got intrigued by him shooting forty percent on two three pointers a
game overseas when they brought him over and he was going to be their next.
Davis Burton's as this like six foot eight stretch four and I don't have
it in front of me, but if I had to guess, he was
well below thirty percent from three last year. So if you don't shoot it,
you're not like a great defender. He's not particularly athletic. He's just
like a guy essentially. To me, there's a world where at least Baldwin
Jr. Or Ryan Rollins are more than just the last man on the bench.
So I would absolutely get rid of Gill before I get rid of them.
They all love Gil in the locker room and what a great duty is
and how he tries to help the young guys. That's valuable. But you've
got Mascala, You've got you've got Gallinari, Like, how many you've got
Dalan right, Like, how many these older veteran mentor leader guys do we
really need? And Gil can't help you on the court. I don't really
know what Cooks does for you. Despite him playing really well in FIBA.
I know everybody's like convinced themselves that that means he'll like magically be an impact
player for the Wizards, But how many guys play well for their country and
then don't do shit in the NBA. So that's kind of what I expect
from Cooks. I'd love to be proven wrong. But he's another guy.
I think he's twenty seven already. Like, is there some world where he
morphs into a drastically better player. I doubt it. So if you're going
to fill the bench out with these kind of if he contributors, I'd rather
than be young. If he contributors, I don't. I guess I don't
mind the idea of having an Anthony Gill as a small ball five, just
based off like the physicality that's packed into a sort of miniature package. But
you're right, like not having the athleticism and not being a proven shooter definitely
hurts if you're playing the five. I'm wonder if it doesn't hurt as much.
But that's not the way to evaluate. Oh, it's like he's not
as damaging as I thought he was exact. I think we could do better.
There's probably some young guy in the G League right now that I'd rather
give that last third big spot too. I'd rather take Michael Foster Junior or
John tay Porter or one of these kind of guys. That are like twenty
three years old and big and potentially have some skills. Then someone like Gil
where we've kind of seen what he is and there's just not a lot of
ceiling left there is there for me anyway, when I look at this roster,
a struggle to see, not in a bad way, but just the
identifying principles of how they will play. Is there anything stylistically that you want
to see them door that you're looking forward to seeing them do with the current
core that is in place. If they're not one of the five fastest teams
in terms of pace in the league this year, like I'll be actively pissed
because I think that's kind of the one thread I'm starting to see here.
Little bit like Gafford is probably a bottom five starting center in the NBA,
but he runs the floor pretty hard and he's athletic and he's not going to
like beat you up in the post or anything like that, But could he
beat some guys down the floor, that'd be interesting. Kuzma can grab and
go, and it's been a pretty good defensive rebounder for the Wizards. Then
he can grab and go like Corey can put the ball on the floor a
little bit. Jordan Pool, I think can grab and go like that's kind
of the throughput I think for the team. Coolabali will be good in transition.
I think that's where Xavier Cooks probably provides his most value if you play
someone like that. So that's what I'd try to do personally, is just
be really active and aggressive and switchable defensively as much as humanly possible and just
run everything. And when you're a younger team and you've got fresh legs,
like this is the team I think other teams wouldn't want to play in like
December, you know, like when they're all kind of banged up a little
bit already, or you know, it's like the third game of of a
four game stretch or a couple of days like I don't know. I think
you get to the dull drums of the NBA season and you're like, shit,
I gotta play these young dudes that are going to run on everything,
Like I'd like to see them be that kind of team. When they made
West until Junior the head coach, the first thing he said was like,
we're gonna play like we're gonna slow it down because you can't play fast and
play defense, which it's crazy to think that anybody thinks in two thousand and
twenty three, but you know, that's that's fine. But that's what I
would do with this team, and I think that's maybe what this personnel is
shooted for. Like you've got a lot of guys in the same kind of
like height range. So if you if you put a lineup out there where
like Jordan Poole is your smallest guy and Daniel Gaffard is your biggest guy,
there's a lot of like cool things you can do to switch that. And
I would just be as annoying to play as you could possibly be with this
particular group. Yeah, and they were not a vast team last year.
They were just when you look at all like the metrics of like, oh,
they're average possession to time after a made shot, after a turn they
were even after a turnover, they're like, let's just slow it down,
just kind of And that's just I think with this roster, your right,
you should definitely play that way. I'm also wondering this has also not really
been like a hallmark under west On South. It's like, can they be
ultra aggressive on the defensive end? They were, They were twenty ninth in
opponent turnover rate last year. And I'm just looking at Blah Kolabali. You
have Daniel Gaffer there, Delon Wright, It's like he's a good player.
I just I can't believe what they get him from Atlanta. He signed from
Atlanta steal. I think I didn't understand. I know they got to John
Day Murray that some one, but I didn't understand that's a good player.
Uh. You have Denny Avda like there. I don't expect this to be
a good defensive team, but it feels like they have enough, maybe like
chaos creators on the even Kyle Kuzma. Yeah, so I would love to
see them, like, I don't care if you foul too much. If
your defense ends up being bad, who cares, Like, let's just j
the transition offense that way. That just want to stay with that for one
second day because I think one of my generation of Wizards fans favorite teams was
the first couple year Gilbert Arenas Larry Hughes Wizards team, and they weren't good
defensively, but Eddie Jordan just told them, like, gamble on everything and
steal everything you can, and you know, Larry led the league and steals,
and Gill was third in the league and steals that year. I think
so like they weren't good defensively, but they created opportunities for themselves just by
being, like you said, insanely aggressive. And I think that's like maybe
like Jordan Pool is never going to lock in on somebody defensively, but he
might get excited about playing some defense if he gets to shoot the gap every
time and try to get a run out. So that's the kind of stuff
I would be trying to position them to do. You're now veteran of this
podcast, so you're ready for the cookie cutter portion. I love it.
Look Ahead, what is the ten man rotation look like for this team?
And I think it's even probably even beginning with the starting five. Normally feel
like a lot of teams have an edgeton stone, but you even kind of
mentioned it feels like there's four locks there for sure. But so we're getting
with the starting five. What's the ten man rotation look like? For this
team? If I were a betting man, I think the guaranteed starting to
five is probably Tis Jones, Jordan Pool, Corey Kissbert, Kyle Kuzma,
Daniel Gafford. The only one I think that maybe is potentially up for debate.
There is the Denny Corey one, and that's maybe just to like try
to make the lineup fit a certain way based on what they want to do.
But it's probably Corey at this point. But then Denny comes off the
bench. I think you got to get Dlan right in there somehow. It
would be a disservice to not play Coolabali at least some going into the year.
We haven't talked about Mike Mscala really at all, but Sham it's on
this team too. Yeah, like that, I think what this, like
the ten man rotation looks like to start the year is probably really different than
what it looks like by the middle of the season. Do you play Sham
at some now and see if you can flip him for something? Do you
have to feature Gallinari now some to see if you can flip him for anything?
Does Delon Wright play more now to see if you can turn him into
something like? There are a lot of those kinds of guys that would be
nice to get something for. I don't know if you can do it,
but I would at least try, And I think that makes predicting the ten
main rotation like really tough. Like Johnny Davis, you can afford to wait
on a little bit here, So maybe if he doesn't play until the back
half of the year a little bit more, that's fine. But at some
point you have to see him in NBA minutes and see if he can give
you anything. So like, he probably needs to be in the rotation if
you're gonna keep Xavier Cooks, does he have to get some minutes? And
because you're so small, he or Gil probably have to play. Where's Gallinari
your bat? Like your third big Like I don't know how this works.
So it's just there's so many of those kind of question mark guys of like
peripherally peripheral people. I personally don't give a shit about Landry Shamitt. I
don't think you're going to turn him into a lot. If you trade him,
it's maybe you get a second round pick for him, and he doesn't
really help you much in the long term because he's basically an expire deal because
the money's not guaranteed I think beyond this year. So to me, he's
a guy I wouldn't put in the rotation at the expense of seeing if Johnny
Davis can give you anything. So like those are kind of the ones,
like that's what I would do, but I don't know if they'll do it.
So it feels like there are eight locks. The starting lineup you outlaid,
plus Denny, Blog Kolabali, and the long right would be like the
sort of locked out. Their playoff rotation will probably locked too, like you
have. I wouldn't say their lack of bigs probably needs to make it with
goal unless they're really invested in Xavier Cooks. Maybe play that bottle a little
bit. Yeah, So this is to some extent matchup dependent and how much
of the Wizard's going to be trying to win close games? But what's their
best crunch time unit? To you? Is it just they're starting five or
would you fuss and fiddle with it a little bit? Yeah, I think
it's that's one of the situations where you could maybe shuffle between Denny and Corey
given the situation. And I don't know, like, if you've got playmaking
on the court with Pool and Kuzma and Denny, do you need tie us
out there to close games too? Like would that be where you put a
Delaan right in, Like he's I think a better catch and shoot guy than
we've seen. He's not going to create a ton of offense for you,
but to lock somebody down and help you as a team defender. So he's
not gonna get hunted at the very least. So I think it'll really depend
on, you know, just kind of what the other teams do. Like,
I think the nice thing about this rosters they could be somewhat reactive.
It's not like a here's our group and this is the only thing we can
roll with or were screwed. It's a little bit like the kind of football
analogy where like, if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any quarterbacks.
That's kind of how I feel about this team to some extent, where
like you could play any of these guys, but it's probably not a good
thing that you don't have like a bunch of no brainers to fill out the
rest of the rotation. Here is there a quirky, weirdo unconventional lineup you
want to see this team try. I would like to see some combination of
Delan pool kissper Denny Kuzma and just going small and switching everything that would be
interesting to me, I think, or maybe you go pool kissper Danny Kuzma,
Mascala and try to play fast and spread the floor Lon, and again
if you're just going to run on people, like do you really need a
pure point guard in those situations? The way NBA basketball is played right now
anyway, So I would just try to have as many switchable guys on the
court as you can and whoever allows you play the fastest, and especially to
close these games, like just make everybody be guardable. There are so many
situations last year where the Wizards would have two guys out there that teams didn't
have to guard, and it's like, hmm, I wonder why Bradley Beale
can't trouble through three people without turning the ball over. So it just I
would try to avoid those things. But we'll see the lineup I have,
And I still don't have the fifth thought finalized. I want to make it
like defensive anarchy basically, and so give me balla Coolabali, give me Denny
Avia, give me the Lon right, and I have Xavier Cooks in there
just as like I don't really know what to do with the five, Like
I think he's probably the best if you're to look at trying to switch right
now, and then it's you could throw like do you want Taia's Jones for
his game management? Do you want Jordan Poole for his offensive chaos? I
might even just settle on Kyle Kuzma and say, like, we're just not
gonna go with any We'll just have Kuzma and deny Afa Blah Kolabali runs some
stuff. I just want to see what that lineup would look like at both
ends of the fork. I don't know if they'd be particularly good, but
I feel like they'd be entertaining. It'd be fun. And again, like
I said, I've been kind of like the Kuzma truther, but the defensive
metrics are kind of sketchy on him, Like some favor him, some don't.
It really kind of depends on what you look at. But I listened
to a lot of these postgame press conferences when other teams come in and play
the Wizards, and there were a lot of times last year where like really
good NBA players, like star NBA players singled out like, man, it
is tough a shit to shoot over Kyle Kuzma, Like I remember Dame specifically
saying that after a game of just like that is just a long dude who
can keep his feet in front of you. So whether like he gets graded
out as a great defender or not, I think you know, he still
makes life tough enough for you that if you're going to do this like chaos
defensive lineup, he's somebody I would want out there, because again, at
least you could switch him through a lot of different guys. All right,
book it, We'll go Cooks, Kuzma, Avdia right and black Coolabali.
I don't think that all. I feel like they're probably better on defense than
offense. Right, Yeah, it seems like a reasonably safe bet at this
point. The Wizards over under as we currently record this is set at twenty
four and a half. Yeah, are you taking me over under on that?
And where do you see them? I don't even I can't even frame
it this way? Are they the worst team in the Eastern Conference? I
would hammer the over like, okay, I really would. I don't think
by a lot. But if this team won twenty eight games, it wouldn't
really shock me. Like, are they drastically worse than last year's team that
won thirty five games, Like, yes, they're less talented, but like
the give a shit level might be a lot higher with this year's group.
And there's a world where it's like just total chaos and Jordan Poole doesn't get
along with anybody and someone wants to punch him by the third day of training
camp, or Kuzma wants out of town right away, or some of these
older veteran guys are cooked and Kolabali is three years away, Like it could
be bad. I just think there's enough here where, like I kind of
have like that weird good feeling and I'm like the eternal like pessimist with this
team. So this is not a mean thing, Like I do typically take
the over, but barely, and I don't expect them to do anything the
playoffs this year. There's no way there's a playoff team. But I think
the league is like really scrunched together a lot more now and you're going to
see a lot less six do you win teams, but a lot less below
twenty win team, so twenty six twenty something like that. Like I would
take the over but by a very little and I don't know if they'll be
the worst team in the East, Like there could be somebody else that where
they get banged up. If if Kaid Cunningham suddenly not better for Detroit this
year, Like could they be just as bad if they have an injury or
two? Like could somebody decide to blow it up midway through the year?
You know, does Atlanta get like KG and decide like this isn't gonna work,
Let's tear it all down, Like I'm saying Atlanta is going to do
that. But you know what I mean, Like, to me, they're
better than Charlotte. I don't. I have no love for that Charlotte roster
whatsoever. That's like the island of misfit toys to me. I don't think
they are going to have good vibes and good chemistry and things like that.
You need Lamello to stay healthy. That's been a little tougher to do.
Terror Ors you're going to be there long term. Maybe his contractor shitty enough
that he is. I don't know that Miles Bridges is enough of a needle
mover to me that that really helps. So I don't want to turn that
into your hornet's preview, But it's they're worse to me. That's but but
I could be a biased homer. I guess my twenty four it's so low.
So there are three teams that won fewer than twenty five games last year,
so it's so low, and I get that. I'm also just based
off what they've already done. If they're like winning at a pace that's better
than bottom of the East, yeah, I'm like, oh, like tis
Jones gone on right, gone right, and so that would be like,
I don't know where I would settle on that just yet. We haven't done
me over Underpod. Yeah, but I'm struggling to identify which teams I would
say they could definitely be better than in the East. I think there is
I'm very high on Detroit, but if they're married to playing the wrong front
court lineups, they're very combustible. Charlotte's interesting because I don't believe in them,
but they're very well coached. They won twenty seven last year with Lamello
being injured. And is Brandon Miller good? Does Miles Bridges help you?
So it's just I guess my belief is that Michael Winger wants this to be
the worst team in the East, and so they will be the worst team
in the East is just where I sort of land on that. I really
hope that that's the case, and I think I'm a little bit scarred by
like they will never tank under ted leonsis thing, even though last year they
finally shut it down, they just waited too late to do it. I
hope this front office is empowered to be like, Okay, it's February and
we're actually like competitive. Everyone over twenty seven has to go. But that's
what I would like to see happen. I don't know that they'll actually do
it. I do think that they'll be empowered enough to shut it down at
some point to keep them from like being better. If that even is possible,
I could just be being crazy here and it wouldn't be the first time.
But yeah, I don't know. It just it's just twenty four and
a half is too low to me. If you said twenty six was the
number, I'd be like, no, okay, that I can do.
Like they're as good as last year's Charlotte team in my opinion. And then
you said there's a twenty seven win team, like they wouldn't shock me if
this Wizard's team did that. There's in the East specifically, the West is
going to be I think more of a bear than the East. There's some
teams that have the implosive potential to just Chicago. I don't know what the
fuck is going on in Toronto. I don't even want to do their look
ahead because they're confusing to shit out of me. It's like there are those
sort of teams right there, and then there's just like I don't even know
what to do about the nets where it's like Michael Bridges is a stud but
kind of lost in the shuffle of Michael Bridges breaking out. Plus they did
play like I thought they defended Jowell and bead Well for how small they were,
but lost in that shuffle was oh like they kind of sucked after the
like they got rid of all their stars, like they weren't a good team.
So yeah, I could I could talk myself into this team hitting me
over and the numbers so low that I might eventually pick it. I just
kind of if they're like better than fourteen in the East, I'll be floored
because I just don't think the front office is gonna let it happen. Bottom
three is like guaranteed, like guaranteed. Bottom two probably pretty darn likely.
If someone was worse than them, it wouldn't shock me, That's all I'm
saying. And I think like to really just believe in me under. Again,
it could be under like injuries have, but you really have to believe
that they're getting rid of guys or shutting them down and they're not doing what
like Utah did last season. I'm not saying they'd be as good out of
the gate, but it's everyone I think picked the under with Utah because Okay,
the roster was better than I don't even remember what they're over under was,
but it was better than let's say the twenty seven wins or whatever they
added at. But you just believe that Danny Angels gonna make those moves early,
and he didn't. He made them later. So to really believe in
this under, you have to believe that Michael Winger Will Dawkins are gonna make
the moves early, like Kyle Kuzma is traded like way before the deadline or
even the lawn right and Tias Jones didn't really talk about him. He's like
kind of sneaky important if you want to run your half court offense. He
doesn't turn the ball over. He's great at making those pocket passes. He
showed some better shooting last year in Memphis, especially when Jah was out.
Like, you really have to believe that these guys will not be playing by
like January, like to think that, oh yeah, they're not going to
reach twenty five for sure, And why would you do that? Like their
value a month into the season isn't gonna be any different than it is right
now. Even if they start out like a supernova. People are gonna want
to see Tis Jones starting point guard for longer to believe he's worth trading for
more than he would have gotten you just this offseason. So that's why I
think they're the That's just someone who doesn't infringe upon the development anybody. If
you're the Wizards, yours burd right, which want to keep? I agree,
I wouldn't be in any hurry to do it. I also don't know
that you can have him in Pool as your backcourt together long term and ever
guard anybody, But on Jordan Pool, I would keep Ties Jones over him
and just saw like I just can't I get it of what the aesthetics of
Jordan Pool's games sometimes look amazing. He's an underrated finisher at the basket.
For the most part, I think he's gotten better as a passer. I
just don't see it. I think he was so insulated in Golden State,
but maybe I'll be wrong. I don't even really care which one looks better
or longer term. I just think that even if they both look good longer
term, that's probably just like not a good fitting backcourt. You're right,
but for that reason, so you can make the decision either way. I
think Jones is really intriguing. He could be a longer term guy, or
he could be a short term sell high guy if you need to. That's
another decent way for them to go about it with somebody like that. So,
yeah, he gives you some options. But yeah, to buy into
the under of that number, you also have to believe that the Jordan Pool
we saw last year is Jordan Pool, if not even maybe like worse.
I do believe that, really, Okay, I just think that there's just
I don't want to get caught because I picked the under for Utah. So
I'm trying to be more cognizant this year. And it's there's talent on this
roster. It's not they've torn it down, but like there's real like and
if Gallo is healthy and plays like that's a useful guy as well. So
yeah, I don't. I don't have a feel for it. Even if
you think, and I do believe Michael Winger will make sure they're bad,
it's when did those moves happen? Because even if you want to move these
guys, I think you get caught in the thinking of, well, like
we might be able to get more around the deadline when more teams are willing
to move around their players, because certain teams are just ready to make moves
before others are. So I don't like, and I would be shocked if
they made any sort of notable trade before January. I don't think there anything,
Matt, this was great as always. There any one or anything about
this team. I didn't ask you that you think we need to discuss.
No, I mean I think hopefully anybody listened to last year's pod versus this
year notices that I'm somewhat more upbeat as a Wizards fan, which is kind
of hard to do, but I guess Dan. My question for you is,
like, do you feel better about their long term future now versus the
last time we talked, sorry as I plug in my light going out at
the buzzer of the podcast. Yeah, I think, look, there's value
in making the decision, and I know that they're not left with a ton
of these just a plus assets to go and turn around and trade for a
star or blow coolbal. He's not your typical all right, Well, they
just had this really high draft pick. They were starting from a very restrictive
baseline, beginning with that Bradley Beal, no trade clause, the timing of
moving Christops Fors it like you might have been able to get more than Tias
Jones, the headliner if you move porzingis at the deadline. I mean,
I'm not even sure that you would have just given his you know, he
was so healthy last year. That was just an nonvious best case and there's
just there's nothing now encumbering you. And it's yeah, you owe the I
know Knicks fans will be obsessed with where the Wizards are because that pick is
protected through at this point. Yeah, but like it's protected enough to where
it's well, we decide our destiny and like, yeah, maybe they're good
by twenty twenty six and it's top eight protected and it conveys that's fine.
There is I know a lot of fans like to point out, especially to
people who cover the league, like the entire league, that there's more than
just about winning a title. And I totally get that the Wizards have been
stuck in this submittal shit hole for so long that to say, hey,
we're gonna take this step back deliberately and we're gonna angle for something better than
a first round exit essentially, like it's just I find that you use it
at the top of this podcast. I find it inspiring as a fan to
say, finally, even if it doesn't work out, like, finally,
we're trying something different, and I think that matters. Yea, No,
I think that that perfectly sums up where the vast majority of us probably are
with this team. It's just if best case scenario, you were capped out
with old guys and you could maybe make the play in like that was the
ceiling. That's just not an intriguing place to be, Whereas like, if
this team was on pace to make the play in halfway through the year,
we would be ecstatic and you might get more butts and seats if you're this
ownership group, like so that's great. The only the guy we didn't mention
their second round pick Tristan Vuksovic this year, so he's probably not going to
come over. And I think that's a mistake to make. If I've got
a seven foot stretch big and I needed a big, I would want him
to learn under Gallinari and Mascala and other they're not all the same player,
but like stretch of year bigs, and he's going to play for partisan and
that's like a loaded EuroLeague team that he barely played fourteen minutes a game on
last year and doesn't look primed for a ton of minutes on this year,
even if he just came over and played on the G League team all year.
To me, that's better because at least you control that and he learns
your system and he can be in the same practice jim as all your NBA
guys. So that is one move I haven't liked that You can't clear like
I would get rid of Landry sham At now if it meant I could bring
books of which over keep forgetting? Why is it Landry shamm At the guy
I'm forgetting is on this roster? Him and Gallow like snuck up on me
too, is like, that's right, gallows here. It's so random.
It just doesn't seem to make any sense for them to be here very long.
If anyone gets traded early, it should be one of those two guys.
Matt, this was great as always. Are you able to tell our
listeners where they can find you and all the great work that you do?
Yeah? Sure. If anybody is interested in more Wizards content or just sort
of player perspective, I coast my show of the Believing Wizards podcast with former
Wizard Jehadi White. Johatti's like a great dude, and we'll answer any question
anybody has about playing in the NBA. And I just ask him random shit,
some questions some weeks about just like hey, what's it like to take
an elbow from shack? Like? Things like that are always interesting to me
as a fan. So we just had Chris Whitney, a former Wizard,
on and talked a lot about playing high low and playing out of the post
and things like that more a little bit. So just if you want to
hear just kind of a different perspective on how to play basketball and today's NBA,
check us out. It's b L E A v and Wizards. We're
part of the Belief podcast network and then over it Bolts Forever. Check us
out and yeah, see the twitter handle if you're watching this online at Mamadurno.
I'm happy to engage with anybody about anything, so just hit me up.
He will. I'll speak whenever I went on your podcast once and the
engagement that you get on your tweets and you respond to pretty much everybody.
So the links to all that stuff will be in our podcast on YouTube description
as well. So we'll go subscribe to Believe In whether it's follow that.
Thank you so much as you know by now, I will be fusturing you
get in. If you ditto, I'm playing on doing another home at home
and they'll come back absolutely