#SoWizards

The Washington Wizards have launched into a busy and somewhat perplexing offseason. Joining me to help make sense of the team's roster moves and long-term plan is my former cohost and longtime friend, Ben Becker. Ben is a stalwart member of the Wizards' online community from message boards to Bullets Forever to Twitter, X and podcasts. In this episode we discuss: The Wizards' 2024 draft, and the team's overall draft strategy The art of building a competitive roster that's designed to help young players grow while continuing to lose Roster moves, including signing Jonas Valanciunas and re-signing Richaun Holmes Predicted trade values for the team's veterans, and Notable or surprising moves around the NBA so far this summer.

The Washington Wizards made one deal at the trade deadline, sending starting center Daniel Gafford to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a first round pick and center Richaun Holmes. Holmes is on the wrong side of 30 and hasn't been much good in a few years now. Gafford is pretty good and just 25 years old, so what gives? Ben Becker and I break down what the Wizards front office is likely thinking and discuss what the lack of trades involving Kyle Kuzma, Tyus Jones, Delon Wright, Landry Shamet, and Corey Kispert says about the state of the Wizards.

The Washington Wizards replaced Wes Unseld Jr. as head coach, moving Unseld into a front office advisory role, and promoting lead assistant Brian Keefe to be interim head coach. When the team makes a big move, there's no one better to discuss it with than old friend and podcast partner Ben Becker. Ben and I have been talking and analyzing the Wizards for 20+ years now. This conversation is the latest edition of what a listener once described as what it might sound like if NPR had a show about the Washington Wizards. In this episode, we talk about Unseld, the challenge of rebuilding a franchise as decayed as the Wizards had become, and the long-term strategy the team's new leadership — Michael Winger, Will Dawkins, and Travis Schlenk — are pursuing as they attempt to resuscitate a long moribund franchise.

Just past the midway point, the Wizards are bumbling through what's likely to be the worst season in franchise history. To discuss the biggest issues the team faces as they attempt to rebuild, I invited on veteran Wizards observer and reporter, Troy Haliburton. We began with a couple big NBA stories — the Milwaukee Bucks firing newly hired head coach Adrian Griffin, and the Miami Heat trading for Terry Rozier. Then we talked Wizards, touching on: Jordan Poole Wes Unseld Jr. and the coaching staff Michael Winger, Will Dawkins and the front office Bilal Coulibaly what the Wizards will do at the trade deadline This was a fun conversation between a couple long-time Wizards analysts and reporters who don't agree on everything. Make sure to check out Troy's excellent Substack.

With the Washington Wizards set to face the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night, it seemed like a great time to catch up with current Pacers journalist and Bullets Forever alum Tony East. In this episode, we talked about what makes Tyrese Haliburton special, Haliburton's hamstring injury, and what the Pacers do well and not so well before diving into the Wizards. Tony's attention is primarily on the Pacers, but he watches a lot of Wizards basketball, which leads to some great insights into how Washington's rebuild is going. We hit on a number of Wizards topics, including: the struggles of Jordan Poole who the Wizards are likely to trade whether "showcasing" players makes a difference the improvement of Deni Avdija the puzzling approach to developing Bilal Coulibaly into a future NBA star. This was a fun conversation about two teams going in different directions.

In this episode, I'm joined by Bullets Forever's Osman Baig to discuss the state of the Wizards. As I wrote in my big picture check-up on January 3, they're still bad. Oz and I drilled into concerns about how the Wizards are managing the development of French rookie Bilal Coulibaly. Suffice to say, we have concerns, specifically about his lack of involvement in the team's offense. As we discussed during the podcast, of the team's 11 rotation players, Coulibaly is 11th in per minute touches. In other words, he gets the ball less frequently than any other player in the rotation. We also delved into the team's odd focus on forcing turnovers defensively. Reportedly, this is because the front office, coaches, and analytics staff believe this is because it emphasizes being in the right place defensively. I tried — and failed — to recreate their work on this. Last, we talked about Corey Kispert and driving to the basket.

Why has the Wizards defense been so bad this season? I put the question to Coach Nick from BBALLBREAKDOWN, and the answer leapt off the screen: they're helping from one pass away. That's the team's scheme this season, and it's the root cause of giving up open threes, and the mad scramble that gives opposing teams easy scores and domination on the offensive glass. This is an in-depth discussion of head coach Wes Unseld Jr.'s defensive scheme, the theory behind implementing it, and what's going wrong. We also touch on "soft switches," and what the team can do to be better this season...even as they strategically lose to increase chances for a high draft pick. We touch on their offense a bit, as well as what's going wrong with Jordan Poole, and the development of Bilal Coulibaly. My favorite part is our discussion of Coach Nick's "Chase Defense." This is a new defensive system he's invented to address modern offenses that are built on three-point shooting and pick-and-roll actions. Coaches are experimenting with it at lower levels, and the results are promising. We talk about the concepts and theories underpinning Nick's defense, as well as what it will take for an NBA team to give it a shot.

Brian McCormick has coached at an array of levels in leagues around the world and has written books about basketball fundamentals, skills development, how to become a great shooter, running practices, and building an effective offensive system. I invited him on to discuss the unique challenges faced by Wes Unseld Jr. and his staff as they attempt to lead a team at step one of a total rebuild. We delved into the problems Jordan Poole is having as he tries to make the Washington Wizards "his" team, how Unseld and the assistant coaches can help him, and the delicate line they have to tread between correcting mistakes and expanding possibilities. We also talked about how coaches approach a rebuilding situation like the Wizards where the players know they're going to lose and that most of them won't be around in a few years when the team is ready to compete. Last, we touched on some ways outsiders can assess how good a job a coach is doing. This conversation expanded how I think about coaching and player development. Coaches have to balance an array of competing forces as they try to help their players improve and guide their team to wins. McCormick helped unpack what some of those competing forces are and what coaches to do to manage them.

The Wizards are off to a 1-5 start, which is to be expected from a team that lacked talent in recent years and traded away its two best players. In this episode, I'm joined by Osman Baig from Bullets Forever to discuss the team's start, what we're seeing on the floor and from the coaching staff, and what the team needs to build a future winner. Along the way, we hit topics like: how non-competitive the team has been through their first six games the profound lack of talent on the roster what the coaching staff is doing well and could do better. We also analyze the development of Bilal Coulibaly and Deni Avdija, and dig into the play of the team's veterans. This one gets nerdy at times (the whole time?), especially when we get into pick-and-roll coverages, X closeouts, and offensive system design.

For this episode, Kevin cracked open the mailbag and answered some questions, including: Thoughts on the NBA's Player Impact Estimate metric and how it compares to Kevin's Player Production Average (PPA) How Jordan Poole compares to James Harden and Gilbert Arenas, each of whom changed teams early in their careers, and Additional thoughts on teen rookies and Bilal Coulibaly. Next episode: forecasting the upcoming season with Osman Baig.

In this episode, Kevin takes a deeper dive into a couple somewhat related articles he published recently on Bullets Forever, including Is Tyus Jones a major upgrade at guard? and Will the Wizards' offense be any good this season? In the articles, Kevin wrote that the Wizards offense figures to be among the NBA's five worst because of its expected heavy reliance on Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole. In this episode, he examines some of the key reasons given for optimism: the commitment to playing faster, Poole being freed from Stephen Curry, and the "upgrade" from Morris to Jones. What are the most likely pathways to a better offense?

After a discussion of the relative merits of Dallas and Houston, we got down to talking hoops. We kicked around our impressions of the Wizards' summer league performance, whether Corey Kispert can be more than a specialist, and our divergent thoughts on how the team will perform relative to the Vegas over/under of 24.5 wins. Along the way, here's a partial list of basketball names mentioned: Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Gilbert Arenas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Russell. We got into some history in this one.

In this episode, Ron and Kevin analyze the Wizards draft, including trading up a pick to select 18-year old French wing Bilal Coulibaly, and moving back in round two to land Serbian big man Tristan Vukcevic. They also talk summer league, the state of the roster, how good/bad the team will be next season, and the vision of new executives Michael Winger, Travis Schlenk and Will Dawkins.

In a move that was only a minimum of three years overdue, the Washington Wizards traded guard Bradley Beal. Because of the preposterous no-trade clause team president Tommy Sheppard gave to the team's "franchise player," Beal had the power to dictate his destination AND the compensation package the Wizards would receive. The result? Beal goes to the Phoenix Suns where he'll team up with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton, and Washington gets back the salaries of Chris Paul and Landry Shamet, as well as first round pick swaps in 2024 and 2026, as well as up to six second round picks. In this episode are two conversations: the first between Kevin and former podcast partner Ben Becker. Ben is a big picture thinker, and the discussion focuses on strategic considerations, the potential for future moves, and what the trade signals about the new executive team. The second conversation is a look at what the trade means for the teams on the court next season, and looks ahead to the types of players the Wizards should prioritize as they seek to build a championship contender.

With the numbers crunching in Ye Olde Draft Analyzer (YODA for short) nearly complete, Kevin and fellow draft nerd Matt Modderno got together to discuss the prospects giving them the most heartburn during the evaluation and ranking process. The two come at the draft from different perspectives — Kevin through the lens of stats and combine measurements with adjustments for age and level of competition, and Matt through watching loads of college games every season. We will be joining forces for additional predraft podcasts, as well as a live-streamed show during the draft (along with Osman Baig). This episode focused on players we have questions about or where we differ most from the consensus view, including: Zach Edey, C, Purdue Olivier-Maxence Prosper, F, Marquette G.G. Jackson II, F, South Carolina Jett Howard, W, Michigan Bilal Coulibaly, W, French LNB Pro A Kris Murray, F, Iowa Brandin Podziemski, G, Santa Clara Rayan Rupert, W, AUS NBL We'll probably record a similar episode in the days ahead — we both had other guys on our lists to discuss.