The Wizards will have several options available to them to improve their roster this offseason. In the second installment of a two-part chat, David Aldridge and Fred Katz of The Athletic discuss the many paths towards improvement the team could take.
Aldridge posits that some teams may be looking to sell off late first-round picks for cash considerations, and suggests Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard look into procuring one, while Katz discusses the possibility of using the team’s mid-level exception to add a veteran big man. The Wizards, who finished with the ninth seed during the NBA’s summer restart in Orlando, will have the Nos. 9 and 37 picks in this year’s draft at their disposal.
There’s more out of the NBA’s Southeast Division:
- The Magic departed the league’s Disney campus after a 4-1 first round defeat to the Bucks. Now, Josh Robbins of The Athletic assesses the rise or fall of Orlando players’ “stocks” around the league. Potential free agents Gary Clark and James Ennis are both assessed to be on the ascent.
- Hornets guard Joe Chealey will not partake in the team’s training camp this month after suffering a lower leg injury, the team tweeted.
- Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has taken just 14, 11 and 13 field goal attempts in the first three games of Miami’s Eastern Conference Finals series with the Celtics. Despite the Heat’s 2-1 lead, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald wonders if Butler needs to correct his relative passivity on offense. “No matter how many shots I take, no matter how many points I score, our job is to win,” Butler said after a Heat practice Tuesday. Butler’s signing as a free agent in 2019 and the improvement of Bam Adebayo have helped push the Heat to the brink of their first NBA Finals appearance since 2014.
Agree Butler should shoot the ball more… having said that, this is Bam’s team, he is the best player, Butler clearly can see that & recognizes that this is the way to success/win!
I said it from beginning. Bam will be the difference. Heat are a young team who are learning and growing up. Right in front of our eyes. Jimmy is just helping to push them. He knows it’s a team thing to win. And he’s all about winning. Still he does need to score more. I think he will. But he makes a bigger impact on D. He’s absolutely locked in on winning. But yeah I’d like to see him at 20 a gm.
Jimmy always steps up when he has to…so far, it has not been really necessary, and there is an advantage in spreading the scoring around a bit – harder to game plan for the Celtics.