Bilal Coulibaly is running out of time, and the Wizards are running out of runway.
Washington opens the regular season in eight days, which means the clock on rookie extension talks is almost out. Teams have until Monday, the day before the season begins, to lock in long-term deals for their 2023 draft picks. Coulibaly is still waiting, even after a preseason that has started to swing in his favor.
The number that keeps circling this negotiation is still in that neighborhood of roughly $15 million per year over four years. Recent extensions around the league are helping set the market, including Brandin Podziemski’s five-year, $110 million deal with the Warriors, a contract that works out to a $22 million average annual value.
Coulibaly is nowhere near the top-end money reserved for names like Victor Wembanyama or Amen Thompson, but he has done enough on defense to keep himself in the conversation. What holds him back is the same thing that has been true all along: his shooting and halfcourt scoring still lag well behind the rest of his game.
That is why his third preseason outing mattered. After two quiet appearances off the Wizards bench, Coulibaly finally flashed the kind of production Washington has been waiting for, scoring 19 points while hitting 3 of 3 from deep. He also added three steals in 24 minutes.
The performance showed up in the right ways. Once he started hitting from outside, he could attack with more force, cutting hard and slashing with purpose as defenders had to respect him higher on the floor. For a player fighting for minutes in a crowded rotation, that kind of offensive growth matters.
Coulibaly has never been a polished creator, and he is not putting the ball in the basket with the same ease as Washington’s more established starters. But if the Wizards are looking for reasons to commit on a cheaper extension, progress like this is exactly what they want to see.
The broader question is how Washington handles its first real rookie-extension test. These deals can turn awkward fast, and the source of that tension is easy to spot in the league’s recent history, including the messy summer that preceded Jalen Duren’s eventual restricted free agency resolution with the Pistons. If the Wizards and Coulibaly’s camp stay apart over the next few days, that uncertainty could hang over him all season.
For his part, Coulibaly isn’t sounding like someone consumed by the business side. Asked about how he’s handling the trust Washington has shown in his development while the rotation gets tighter, he kept it simple: “I’m just focusing on basketball… not focused on all the talking”
That may be the right approach, because the next few days could end up shaping more than just his own future. However this plays out, it may also serve as a template for the other recent first-rounders Washington has collected since bringing in the French wing.
There’s reason to think a deal still gets done. The projected price is manageable, and the Wizards have shown patience with a player whose development has not come in a straight line. But until something is announced, the deadline keeps getting closer and Coulibaly’s window keeps shrinking.
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Keefe has made it clear the competition is still very much alive, with no starting group locked in as the staff keeps experimenting with combinations. Kyshawn George is part of that conversation, but so are Bilal Coulibaly, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, Bub Carrington and Tre Mann, and the depth is turning even simple rotation calls into meaningful evaluations. For a team trying to build something with so many young pieces, the challenge now is not finding enough options, but deciding which ones deserve the most runway. [Read more 🡒]