What do you hope for when March rolls around and your favorite NBA team doesn’t have a chance to make the playoffs? You hope that David Stern’s draft lottery is kind to your team and said team ends up drafting a franchise changer in the top five. Last year the Wizards nailed their top pick in Bradley Beal and the fan base has been re-energized with his exceptional play. That’s what every franchise hopes for come draft time.
Let’s rewind the calendar back a month to February 19th. The Wizards just lost their 37th game of the year to the Raptors and were sitting at 15-37. The entire fan base, including myself, were expecting a top five draft pick and many outlets wanted the Wiz to draft Otto Porter, Nerlens Noel, Shabazz Muhammad, or Anthony Bennett. Articles were flying around the Wizernet about who to draft with this top five pick. Fast forward to present day and Washington now boasts a 24-43 record and currently hold the 8th worst record in the NBA. My what a month does to a lottery bound team who is starting to find their groove!
If the season ended today and the draft lottery played out how it should, the Wizards would be drafting eighth overall. Which means Washington will probably miss on Otto Porter and Nerlens Noel and quite possibly Anthony Bennett and Shabazz Muhammad. But maybe this is the blessing in disguise that the franchise needs.
Martell Webster has been playing lights out lately and is currently on the best stretch of his career. John Wall has made it publicly known that he wants Martell back with this team next season. But even after Webster’s stellar play, many around the Wizards circle have stated that the starting position to upgrade is at SF because Wall, Beal, Nene, and Emeka Okafor have strong grasps on their starting spots. So let’s say hypothetically the Wiz draft Otto Porter. I’m sure he would be thrown into a starting position with the Wizards that would in turn regulate Martell to a bench role. Washington would be starting a rookie again and would have a player that John loves to play with, playing a majority of his minutes with the second unit instead of with The Great Wall himself. Webster has played stellar this year, but he’s been at his best with Wall on the court and the numbers reflect just that. In December, sans John Wall, Webster averaged 31.3 MPG and 9.4 PPG. Enter John Wall and a month to run together and Webster’s March numbers are 34.5 MPG and 15.9 PPG. Would Webster put those numbers up coming off the bench next year? His minutes and points would probably take a dip, but I don’t think his efficiency would remain the same playing a majority of his minutes with whoever the Wiz have at backup PG next year. Our friends at WizardsXtra go into more detail on that very point in their latest podcast.
So drafting later might not be the worst thing to happen to this Wizards squad. Drafting in the 8-12 range could open the doors for a player like Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, or Alex Len or possibly even Shabazz or Bennett if they drop. Players that might take a season to develop but could be valuable role players coming off the bench next year. Drafting later might give the Wiz the option to draft their big man of the future and groom him behind Mek and Nene or draft their SF of the future and take shooting lessons from Martell for a year or two. The Wizards could do this grooming while leaving the starting line-up intact and the continuity together that has produced some quality basketball as of late. It also would help financially when it comes to the re-signing of Webster as the difference in salary between the 3rd overall pick and the 8th overall pick is a hair over a million dollars per season.
The next date to keep an eye out for is May 21st. That is the date of the infamous closed door, no cameras allowed draft lottery. After the magical ping pong balls bounce in the favor or whoever pleases David Stern the most, we will see what position the Wizards will be drafting in this June’s NBA draft.
Stayed tuned as we will examine some draft prospects that the Washington should have their eyes on and how those prospects would fit with this Wizards team. Until next time, Stay Steezy my friends!
19 Comments
Love the optimism, however I don’t want to see them fall further than 6. I think in the first 6, they still have the chance to draft a very good player who can make an impact right away. Obviously who knows how the lottery will play out, and I am not saying good players won’t fall or we won’t find a solid guy at 8-12, but I don’t want the man in charge having to figure out who to take there. In the top 5-6, I feel like we just take who is there.
Also, I don’t think it is necessarily a lock that if we took Otto or Shabazz that they would be inserted into the starting lineup. I could easily see a scenario where we take a SF who starts behind Webster and comes off the bench….at least at first.
Draft best player available
as in not for position
Yeah, I am saying that the top of the draft, that is easier for a bad GM to do. You let the draft dictate who you have to take. Take the best player available, outside of a PG. Dropping down to 8-12 makes that “who is the best” thing all the more cloudy.
Best case scenario is we draft in the top 5 and land Otto. Yea I see where your coming from Trevor but if we draft Otto Porter, I don’t think they bring him off the bench. There’s going to be pressure on him and the franchise for Otto to do great things and he can’t do those on the bench. I could see Shabazz coming off the bench though. It will interesting for sure and I can’t wait to see how in all unfolds
I love it an agree dropping could be a blessing in disguise because Martell will still start because we could go in another direction than SF. We could go Pg, SG, PF or C.
Webster’s great play has given this franchise options in the draft. Options none of us thought they would have before Wall came back as cory said.
If you asked me early January what I wanted in the draft it was a SF and I wasn’t budging. Now I’m totally open to any position if we don’t have that top 5 pick, it’s possible we won’t but like Trevor said, I still want the top 5 selection because we can just go bpa there also. Meka and Nene can only play so much longer, we need younger guys. As much as I like Seraphin, Singleton and Booker right now I don’t consider them answers to be starters. I consider them good reserves off the bench.
We’re finally starting to see how this team can play together. Might have even gotten to the 30 day Antonio Daniels corollary if not for Mek & Beal’s absence. My vote is for continuity next season and let this thing play out. Tricky part seems to be how to keep everyone healthy at the same time.
Dropping in the draft would absolutely be a blessing. We could actually fly under the radar and develop some chemistry and talent here. We have to get rid of Ernie to see the change actually take hold here.
Jammal…Key number one is defiantly fire Ernie
[...] must find the third amigo for John and Bradley. My colleague Cory believes that it could be a blessing in disguise if the Wizards drop to say the 8th pick in the draft, and hopefully it won’t be too much [...]
Just throwing this out there for discussion, but what happens if the Wizards were to win the lotto? Who would you take #1? What about if they got second, who would you take #2?
Damn, good point Jimmy B. That’s a tough one. I think the pick is Otto Porter, Nerlens, or Bennett. It sucks that the NBA draft is before the free agency period because come draft time we won’t know if Martell is re-signing or not. I think any one of those three though would be a solid pick though
I concur with Cory. It really, really bowls a big fatty that the nba draft is before free agency. I wish they had it like the NFL. Free agency before draft
Oh and it would suck so hard if we lost Webster because we drafted Bennet, Porter or Muhammad and either Webster didn’t want to return or the franchise is content with the rookie, Ariza and a player like Singleton who can play Both forward positions. If it happens, it happens though. What ya gonna do. :-/
You know, I hate playing the Warriors, knowing two of their best young players should be ours. Seth Curry and Clay Thompson! Ughh
I’m not sure what happened I was watching NCAA basketball last night but all our starters didn’t seem to get many minutes.
Martin had a good game with 23 pts, Ariza and Beal didn’t play. Booker played well (12 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl). Temple played 42 minutes(9 PTs, 6 ast, 3 reb, 2 Stl)!
I’d love to see Shabazz fall to us his stock has dropped with the age issue and im keeping my fingers crossed
At this point, I think I am on board with that. I would be happy if we ended up with Shabazz with the 8-12th pick for sure. He can still eventually be a 20 ppg scorer. I just can’t wait for the lottery to get here.
Right now its looking like that’s a real possibility. Let’s hope that happens Webber