The Wizards had an extremely busy offseason, headlined by the massive five-team trade that saw the team send Russell Westbrook to the Lakers and second-round picks all over the place, with the Wizards acquiring Spencer Dinwiddie, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Aaron Holiday, and 31st overall pick Isaiah Todd.
The team is undeniably deeper now, but is it better? Zach Harper of The Athletic isn’t sure, but in his offseason report, he says Washington’s newfound depth ultimately wins out, assigning the team a B grade for its work this summer.
We have more on the Wizards:
- Harper asked Fred Katz of The Athletic, the Wizards’ beat writer, the same question. Katz thinks the team is about on par with where it was at the end of last season, in the range of the play-in tournament for the East.
- In Katz’ own Q&A mailbag, he speculates that Daniel Gafford will be the Wizards’ opening night starting center, partly because Thomas Bryant is still recovering from the torn ACL he suffered last season. Katz notes that Gafford needs to improve his conditioning to play more minutes, and is reported to be a hard worker. It remains to be seen how Harrell will fit into the rotation once Bryant recovers, as Katz views Bryant as a better defender and a much better shooter.
- Harper and Katz both believe Caldwell-Pope and Kuzma will help the team on defense, but the Wizards will likely miss Robin Lopez on both ends of the floor. The two Athletic writers are also curious to see how new coach Wes Unseld Jr. handles the rotations, because one drawback of having so much depth is the limited amount of minutes available for several talented players.
- In a lengthy article on the team’s G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, Jackson Flynn of WashingtonWizards.com spoke to several members of the organization about how they utilize the Go-Go to develop not just their young players, but young coaches and front-office personnel as well. New Go-Go head coach Mike Williams is just 25 years old.
WAS are clearly worst this season… I mean I will always take a star over depth, any day of the week & twice on Sundays!!!
But even worst is that they traded away their best player last season, the man that single handedly will them to the playoffs… & replaced him with just bodies, that is always a recipe to go backwards not forwards!
Also I never thought I would read somewhere that “Kuzma will help the team on defense”… Seriously?!?!?
No they didn’t trade their best player,Beal is still there
They basically traded Russ for 6 guys including Diwiddie.. not sure you saw a wiz game last year but depth and having good vets hurt them constantly. Very improved over the off-season.. oh and Beal is the best player on the team.
Now with Russ in the LAL you are right, Beal is their best player… last season clearly was Russ!!!