For better or for worse, the talk of the NBA season was tanking. With a potentially historic draft class on the horizon, teams used this season to bottom out for a top selection. The Washington Wizards were the main culprit of this strategy.
Granted, the Wizards were not expected to compete this season in the East, as they wanted to further develop their young core. However, they did make a couple win-now moves, like acquiring Trae Young and Anthony Davis. Only Young suited up for Washington this year.
Now, the Wizards are set for an important offseason, as they continue to get geared up for next year. They have one critical asset though that will help them immensely.
Washington officially completed a successful tank and has the first overall pick in the draft
Which is a huge slap in the face of Commissioner Adam Silver, who has spent all season berating tanking and vowing to change it.
Outside of landing the second pick in the 2024 draft, the Wizards have not had a lot of lottery luck throughout the course of this rebuild. Now, they have the top selection and will have to choose between AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson most likely.
There have also been rumblings about Washington potentially trading down from the pick and acquiring more draft capital, which also wouldn’t be a bad move if they have multiple players they like at the top of the lottery.
Either way, the Wizards are early offseason winners. They already made win-now trades for Young and Davis that cost them next to nothing in terms of important assets. They have a budding young core that features Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, Kyshawn George, and Bilal Coulibaly.
Now, they can add a blue-chip prospect to the fold, that could also be their franchise player in the near future. So, for all the talk about tanking hurting the league and the product, the Wizards are the ones with the last laugh.
These last two seasons were always going to be brutal with the amount of teams tanking for top talent. That is bound to happen when young stars come into the fold and onto the radar. We likely won’t see it be as bad next season, although the new lottery rules will help with that. Even then though, there isn’t as much blue-chip talent in next year’s class.
Washington is reaping the rewards of tanking and will now start competing next season. The arrow in DC is pointing up for the first time in a very long time.
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