The Wizards’ NBA Cup path comes with no shortage of storylines, and Washington’s group looks built to give its new era an early test.
This is still a franchise that has barely made a dent in the tournament. Washington finally picked up its first-ever Cup win last year, but the bigger picture is hard to ignore: the Wizards are 1-11 in all-time seeding games. That ugly mark has tracked with a rebuild that has kept them on the outside of the Cup’s brighter moments, even as the event has taken root around the league.
That may change this season. Washington’s schedule is loaded with recognizable names and plenty of angles, and the arrival of No.
1 NBA Draft pick AJ Dybantsa gives the whole thing a different feel. Trae Young is in the fold on a big deal through the rest of the decade, and the roster around him gives the Wizards more reason to believe these games matter.
The opener against Charlotte jumps off the page first. The Wizards and Hornets have had a little extra juice in their meetings, and that only grew after the brief online back-and-forth they leaned into last season. Both teams have spent years near the bottom of the East, but each is trying to climb out of that lane.
Charlotte came close to breaking through just a few months ago, finishing with 44 wins and still falling short of the Play-In Tournament. Now the Hornets are dealing with a major shift after losing LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves for spare parts. That leaves Brandon Miller and Rookie of the Year runner-up Kon Knueppel to lead the charge against a Washington group that now features Young, Dybantsa and Anthony Davis.
If there’s a game in this group that can tell Washington how real this season might be, that one is probably it.
The Atlanta matchup carries a different kind of edge. Young has not faced the Hawks since the January trade, so this could be his first shot at going at his old team.
Atlanta, meanwhile, arrives with a much stronger résumé than Charlotte after making the playoffs last spring and taking a few games from the eventual champion New York Knicks. The Hawks also spent the summer adding more defensive-minded pieces to their rotation.
There’s a layer of history here too. Atlanta is the only team in Washington’s group that the Wizards played last year, and the Wizards handled that meeting with a 132-113 win behind CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, who combined for 65 points. Those two were part of the package that brought Young to Washington, which only adds to the tension.
The Bulls are another interesting stop, even if they sit in a different spot in the league hierarchy. Chicago is now led by No. 4 draft pick Caleb Wilson, and his Summer League debut turned plenty of heads.
Wilson scored 35 points against the Grizzlies, going 12-of-21 from the field and 7-of-11 from three, while adding six rebounds, three blocks and two steals. He and Dybantsa were two of the draft’s most explosive above-the-rim players, and this matchup has the makings of a loud one.
Chicago may not have the same kind of proven help surrounding Wilson that Dybantsa has in Washington, but that also means Wilson should have room to go straight at him. That makes the Bulls game one of the cleanest Rookie of the Year showdowns in the group.
Then comes the toughest assignment: Boston. The Celtics are the one team in Washington’s group that looks like a true championship-level obstacle, and their regular-season system has been producing wins for a while now. Paul George and Jayson Tatum have had plenty of strong nights in D.C., and the Celtics’ depth makes them a problem even before the game tips.
If the Wizards want to move beyond simply winning a few Cup games and actually reach the knockout stage, they’ll have to prove they can hang with a team like Boston. Dybantsa, who is from Brockton, MA, may have extra motivation in that matchup. Either way, it gives Washington another chance to see how far its new core can push.
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