In the 2024 draft, the Wizards selected three first-round rookies at one time, Sarr, Carrington with the 14th pick, and Cashawn George with the 24th pick; Although 2024 is a recognized draft year, the Wizards' aggressive introduction of rookie players shows that management is desperate to completely rebuild the team.
According to the conventional rebuilding idea, the Wizards will naturally continue to sell the team's assets in exchange for future chips. However, after the opening of the free market, the operation of the Wizards is unusual, they have introduced a lot of Mesozoic players and experienced veterans, this choice is actually more debatable, in the case of enough young forces in the team to continue to bring in reinforcements, whether these foreign veterans will become mentors to the rookie players, or will hinder their development in the future, this is what we can focus on for the Wizards in the new season, in addition to the team's record.
Long before the start of free agency, the Wizards had already started to operate, and Holmes, who was traded in the Gafford trade, signed a two-year, $25.9 million contract with the Wizards after jumping out of the contract, which means that Holmes cannot be traded until the trade protection period. While re-signing Holmes isn't a good option from a power upgrade perspective, it's worth it to use him as a rotation for a rebuilding team.
Valanciunas
And the first shot after the opening of the free market, the Wizards brought in center Valanciunas from the Pelicans for three years and 30 million. For this deal, most people find it more difficult to understand, some people think that the average annual contract of 10 million is lower than the full middle class, and signing this contract is undoubtedly quite cheap, but at the same time, some people think that the Wizards have renewed Holmes earlier, and there is also a second-round center Tristan Vukcevic who has signed a long-term contract in the lineup at that time, and Marvin Bagley is also in the center rotation, and the Wizards' No. 5 rotation is obviously saturated, and they are not a team that rushes to record in the short term. The option to sign Valanciunas is indeed doubtful.
As a rebuilding team, although too many newcomers will lead to uneven distribution of playing time, at least enough players must be reserved to run in the lineup, but the Wizards gave up the official contract of newcomer Vukevic and signed a cheaper two-way contract again, just to free up the position of the lineup, the original No. 4 Sarr and No. 5 Vukevic are still very much worth looking forward to, but under the Wizards' series of bizarre operations, this new combination seems to have seen the end before the run-in.
Of course, it is not difficult to understand from another perspective, the Wizards may have made this choice after communicating with Sarr, in order to meet Sarr's idea of a full-time No. 4 position in the future, Valanciunas and Holmes are both experienced interior fighters in the game. In particular, Wallan's low-post destructive power on the offensive end is quite good, the use rate of low-post singles is among the top in the league, and his average position scoring ability per game is even at the same level as Embiid, Adebayo, Jokic and others.
And Varan is not only the ability to open the box, he has also developed the ability to open up space to the three-point line in recent seasons, although the form is inconsistent, but last season was still at a three-percent level; More importantly, he also has certain ball-handling skills, and in terms of offensive ability alone, Wallan can be said to be the best and most comprehensive offensive interior line of the Wizards in recent years.
Of course, his decline is also what we are watching. Despite still being in the prime of his 30s, he played the least 23.5 minutes of his Pelicans last season. The difference mainly comes from defense, at this stage, Wallan's defensive state has not met the requirements of the Pelicans, although one-on-one defense is good, the basket deterrent can still affect most players in the league, but the opponent can not always have one-on-one heads-up, a large number of use of speed advantage of the dislocation breakthrough is Wallan's shortcoming, and his lateral speed has not been able to meet a large number of defensive needs. Perhaps this is also the reason why he recognized his shortcomings and the current competitive situation in the free market, and chose to sign with the Wizards in advance.
In short, for the Wizards' interior line, we talked about it in the previous signing discussion of Valan, the team's restricted area rotation is quite sufficient, and even obviously saturated, but it is a pity that Vukcevic's official contract cannot be retained.
Alexander Saar
In four games, he shot 9-of-47 from the field, with a shooting rate of 19.1%, and 2-of-17 from three-point range. The projection feel is quite sluggish, and the outside world's criticism of him is also one-sided, which does not mean that it is a fact that he played poorly, and his identity as a leader will inevitably be magnified and examined.
But he is still a newcomer after all, we don't need to be too strict at this stage, there is not much deviation from the shooting posture, and the shooting gestures are also quite flexible, and there is still a chance to adjust the projection in the future. But there is one point, the offensive ability to hold the ball is something to focus on, we are not saying that he is not good with the ball, on the contrary, Sarr has an excellent ball control in the same position, coupled with the game reading judgment, his back frame attack in the low post area, and even the ability to play is his unique offensive weapon point; Combined with his athleticism, we can already see Sarr on the counter-attack with the ball in hand. But the premise is that he can improve his confrontation ability, which is the biggest shortcoming of his thin body at this stage.
Just referring to the results of the summer league, Sarr is really not suitable for the development of the No. 5 position at this stage, and the team has made full preparations to protect him in the off-season, the original Bagley, renewed the contract of Holmes, and introduced Valanciunas, even if Sarr takes a long time to develop slowly, these different and similar players have been able to share his offensive pressure, and Sarr can immediately contribute behind these seniors is to make up for the defensive disadvantage of the No. 5 position.
In addition to defense, Sarr has another important lesson in the new season: improving shooting consistency. Especially if he wants to sit in the No. 4 position in the future, it is difficult to become the tactical core of the team without stable offensive ability; Especially considering that it is not practical to gain weight and increase confrontation in the short term, if you rush to cause injury but the gain outweighs the loss, instead of challenging the high difficulty, it is better to work hard to practice the shooting first, at least to ensure the most basic offensive stability.
Outside the restricted area
Originally, we expected that Kuzma would have a hard time staying with the Wizards, but it turned out to be the opposite, as puzzling as signing Wallan, since the Wizards chose to play badly, there was no need to keep Kuzma at all. Of course, there is no certainty that Kuzma will not be traded at this stage, and the trade rumors surrounding him have not diminished since the contract extension with the team. It's just that these news have stayed at the level of scandals, and when you open the trading container of wizards, it is still empty.
The main reason for the stagnation of Kuzma's trade is that the Wizards have overquoted Kuzma's trade, and according to various rumors, if you want to pry Kuzma's trade, the three first-round rounds are the most basic matching package. But looking at the teams in the market that are interested in Kuzma, they basically don't have the confidence to send away three first-round picks in a single trade. And until now, we don't seem to see the slightest sign that the Wizards are willing to cut prices, and considering that 2025 is a big year for the draft with more deep talent than this year, it is likely that the Wizards will trade Kuzma for three first-round trades, which is likely to be more difficult.
If Kuzma stays with the Wizards this season, the roster may be a bit of a problem. If Sarr enters the team as the starting No. 4, then the No. 5 position is likely to be Varan, so Kuzma can only move from the original No. 4 position to the No. 3 position, and last year's newcomer Koulibaly, the first round of the rookie, the opportunity to enter the starting line in the new season is still difficult; Even assuming that Jordan Poole also maintains his original starter, what about Clinton, the point guard that the Wizards just drafted this year, and Brogordon, who is also between starter and bench. At that time, the Wizards will return to the same predicament as last season, with a bunch of Mesozoic players on the team, blocking the opportunity for rookie players to develop and hone, which is an absolutely wrong rotation choice for a rebuilding team like the Wizards.
According to another voice, the team hopes that the old players will be sold after playing their value, which seems reasonable, but combined with last season, these veterans have not necessarily increased their value much after playing for most of the season, and they have not sold much value chips in the end, but also delayed the progress of the newcomers. But now in the same situation, we still can't see the help of the Wizards for the rookie players, and it's hard to imagine what choice they will make in the future.
The current situation of the team is very chaotic, three new rookies were selected in the draft, in addition to Sarr stable and able to stand in the rotation, what about Clinton on the guard line and Kaisean George on the wing; With the starting No. 1 to No. 3 spots already full, and Johnny Davis, Koulibaly, Gared Butler, Corey Kispert and others on the bench competing for the second team rotation, the new season is indeed enough for the head coach to be nerve-wracking.
We were positive about the team's handling in the draft, but the reality is that the team is still in a dilemma, and they still face the same tangled problems last season, oscillating between rookie development and team strength, and until these issues are resolved, it is really difficult to see where the future of the Wizards lies.