The Washington Wizards are still paying for years of being easy to dismiss, and that old reputation is hanging around longer than the roster should allow.
A few national outlets have the Wizards buried in their preseason thinking, but the gap between perception and reality looks wider than it should. Bleacher Report slotted Washington 20th in the NBA after LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, one place behind the Dallas Mavericks.
That’s a curious call considering Dallas finished 26-56 last season and is set to bring back Kyrie Irving from injury to team with franchise cornerstone Cooper Flagg. Washington, meanwhile, is headed into its first full season with Trae Young, plus the debuts of Anthony Davis and number one overall pick AJ Dybantsa.
ESPN wasn’t much kinder, ranking the Wizards 22nd and putting them five spots behind the Utah Jazz. The Jazz finished five games better than Washington at 22-60 last season and have some momentum of their own after landing a top-two pick in the draft and trading for an All-Star at the deadline in February.
Even so, dropping the Wizards that far behind them undersells what the roster could look like on paper. A group built around Young, Dybantsa, Davis, and Alex Sarr stacks up well against a rotation featuring Keyonte George, number two overall pick Darryn Peterson, Lauri Markkanen, and Jackson Jr.
NBA.com’s East forecast tells a similar story. It placed Washington 12th in the conference, two spots outside the final Play-In position.
But that ranking also had the Miami Heat eighth despite what the source described as little backcourt talent to support Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, while the Charlotte Hornets came in 11th even after trading LaMelo Ball for Naz Reid. Kon Kneuppel and Brandon Miller could still carry Charlotte into the Play-In, but putting the Hornets ahead of Washington could look shaky if the Wizards’ veteran pairing clicks.
The basic case for skepticism is easy enough to understand. Washington has spent three straight seasons at the bottom, so the league won’t hand out respect just because the roster looks better now. Still, if the young core takes a real step forward, the pundits who have them penciled in near the basement could end up looking foolish.
That’s what makes this team so tricky to pin down. Young, Davis, and Dybantsa are all entering their first full seasons in the nation’s capital, and the returning rookie-contract players are finally getting a real point guard to organize things.
Sarr, wing Kyshawn George, guard Tre Johnson, guard Bilal Coulibaly, and the rest haven’t spent much time with a veteran who bends defenses the way Young does. Dybantsa brings enough talent to command attention right away, and Davis has to be respected inside as well.
At the same time, Washington’s young players have only known tanking seasons, so there will be a learning curve once the games start mattering. And the Eastern Conference doesn’t leave much room for easy climbs; every team outside the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets, and Chicago Bulls has the talent to finish .500 or better.
That’s why the Wizards still have plenty to prove. But they also deserve to be measured against last season’s Hornets, who finished ninth in the East at 44-38 after going 19-63 the year before. Matching that kind of jump won’t be simple for Washington, though the source says it’s possible if the team stays healthy.
In Other News...
Anthony Davis Enters A Pivotal Season With Pressure On Early
Anthony Davis is heading into a season that already feels like a referendum on what comes next in Washington. The Wizards are counting on him to get healthy, settle in after a stretch of injuries and look like the top-end player they need if they are going to push back into playoff contention, especially with additions like Trae Young and AJ Dybantsa giving the roster more structure around him.
The timing matters because this is the last guaranteed year left on Daviss deal, which puts a real spotlight on how he opens the season and how quickly he can reestablish himself. Washington has built enough around him to make the picture intriguing, but Davis still has to be the player who tilts it, and the early months may go a long way toward determining how the rest of his future takes shape. [Read more 🡒]
AJ Dybantsa May Need A Different Path To Matter For Wizards
AJ Dybantsa arrives in Washington with a rsum that would normally make him the center of attention. The No. 1 pick in the most recent NBA Draft followed a strong run at BYU, where he led the Big 12 in scoring and collected Rookie of the Year honors, giving the Wizards plenty to like about his scoring polish and long-term upside.
The early read inside the organization, though, is that his best path to making an impact may not look anything like the one he took in college. Washington wants him to adjust to life as more of a secondary or tertiary offensive piece while also becoming a more disruptive defender, with full-court pressure part of the equation. For a player who has been used to carrying a heavy scoring load, that shift could end up being the biggest test of his rookie season. [Read more 🡒]
Wizards Still Have One Roster Spot And One Trade Debate Left
With one roster spot still open, the Wizards are left weighing a familiar late-summer question: whether to stay patient or use what flexibility they have to chase a more useful piece. The discussion around possible targets has settled on a handful of names from around the league, with each option pointing to a different kind of need, from backcourt help to frontcourt depth, and each carrying the usual trade-off between upside and cost.
Among the possibilities, the conversation is less about a sure thing than about fit and timing, which is why the decision feels unfinished even as the list narrows. Washington can keep shopping the idea of a move, but the real intrigue is which direction it chooses when the market and the price tags stop lining up neatly. [Read more 🡒]