The Official 2023 Draft Thread

[payitforward]

Are we entirely sure we didn't? Like loosing KP hurt but Kuz was a stat filler and not much else. Beal for as much as we all loved him I mean he didn't ever move the needle on his own.

Well, of course "we got better tonight!"
Before the draft started we didn't have Coulabily, & we didn't have Vutkevic, & we didn't have Patrick Baldwin, Jr.

Now we have all 3 of those guys, which is -- obviously, I'd say -- better than not having them.

As far as "complete dismantling" -- by which I take you to mean a) trading Brad & b) trading KP -- those moves too made us better.

The team we had was capable of winning 35 games (the conclusive evidence for that claim being the fact that we won 35 games).

Does anyone have the idea that Bradley Beal was going to get better as a player over the next year or so (let alone the 4 years of his idiotic, no-trade-clause-protected contract)?

Does anyone have the notion that KP, entering his 9th season in the NBA, was on the verge of a breakout?

Moving Brad & KP, heading in a new direction, finally starting to build an entirely new generation of the Washington Wizard is "getting better" by definition. How many 35-win seasons in a row does anyone want to endure.

Right now, today, the Washington Wizards are a team with a future -- oh man, you bet, that's "better," a ton "better," than the world we were all living in a few weeks ago.

You want to go back, do you?
Not me. No thanks.

Good for you. You can like the direction. You can like the strategy. But we did not "get better." Nearly everyone seems to agree we'll probably lose more games next year. To suggest that's better is spin.
Maybe we will win more games next year. Then I will be wrong.

-- nothing to dispute here! It would be a huge surprise to win more games next year than in '22-23.

But we still got better in the draft -- better after than before. I.e. what Dawkins said was, in effect, "our picks & trades tonight made us a better team than we were before we made our picks & trades tonight."

You know what they say -- pick your poison. I'm hard-pressed to believe you wanted to stay on the previous 30-plus win merry go round. Am I wrong?

[Jay81]

We need to lose. Period. There is no one on the team right now that projects as an all star anytime time soon

[doclinkin]

Better in outlook. Better in shares of the future. Better in perspective. It would be amazing to see this team win 35 games this year. Last year 35 games was a dismal disappointment. We got better in that we are not stuck with a future of interminable mediocrity. Got better in that we have cap space and picks. Better that we are not dancing with the lux tax just to hold on to something that never worked. Better that fans have a fresh start. But yeah, not better in talent on the floor. This year.

[payitforward]

Way to nail it, doc!

& how could we possibly be "better in talent on the floor" ten minutes into year one of a rebuild, if we are actually trying to build sustainable excellence?

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[9 and 20]

When we starting up the 2024 draft thread?

https://nbadraftroom.com/p/2024-nba-mock-draft/
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2024-nba-mock-draft-bronny-james-not-a-lottery-pick-another-french-star-at-no-1-in-early-look-at-next-year/

[NatP4]

I already know I’m gonna be locked in on USC. That backcourt of Isaiah Collier and Bronny James is going to be awesome. Both guys are high BBIQ winners that can shoot and make the right play. USC is loaded in the front court as well. Championship contender.

Collier is stud. Quick first step, NBA level strength, elite floor vision. Good defender too.

3 top 10 ranked players going to Kentucky, 2 top 5 ranked players going to the Ignite.

[mhd]

When we starting up the 2024 draft thread?

https://nbadraftroom.com/p/2024-nba-mock-draft/
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2024-nba-mock-draft-bronny-james-not-a-lottery-pick-another-french-star-at-no-1-in-early-look-at-next-year/

How the heck are we 8th in projected win totals on that list?

[doclinkin]

When we starting up the 2024 draft thread?

https://nbadraftroom.com/p/2024-nba-mock-draft/
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2024-nba-mock-draft-bronny-james-not-a-lottery-pick-another-french-star-at-no-1-in-early-look-at-next-year/

Boom. Done.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2302131

[payitforward]

Nope, I believe we traded him to Chicago for two future seconds.

Why did we trade 35, but kept 42?!?!

I would assume they had a list of guys they liked, and at 35, there were still a number of those guys available; they knew they could get a good prospect at 42.

Phillips is a decent prospect, but Vukcevic is a significantly better prospect if you ask me. Was a quality role player at 18/19 years old for Real Madrid. Numbers just keep getting better. Very few 7 footers that can create their own shot and shoot 40% from 3.

trading 57 for Baldwin Jr is a brilliant move. The love affair with TJD and his angsty tweets is ridiculous. Baldwin was a 1st round pick just last year, a consensus 5 star and top 10 ranked prospect coming out of high school a year before that, and is 3 full years younger than TJD.

TJD has great numbers, but he's also one of the oldest players in the draft, rocking one of the highest usage rates in the draft, especially for a big. He played in one of the most unique situations in college basketball with a team that spaced the floor out and gave him the ball over and over and let him do whatever the hell he wanted at all times. He has serious motor and attitude problems IMO.

Absolutely a high-value trade. But, Nat, there's no reason to ding another kid: doesn't enhance the trade; it's just bad karma. How about we wish Trayce Jackson-Davis & PBJ a lot of success, both of them!

[NatP4]

Karma isn’t real. I’m glad we didn’t pick TJD

[DCZards]

Karma isn’t real. I’m glad we didn’t pick TJD

It’s real for those who believe in it.

[payitforward]

"Karma" isn't a thing. It's the result in your experience, in who you become, of cultivating negativity.

Whether we should have taken/kept TJ-D instead of trading the pick for PBJ is not under discussion -- for us, PBJ is a far far better choice!

There's just no reason to wish failure on anybody. I hope TJ-D knocks it out of the par!

But, you're not going to change your attitude, because I think you should.
Take something more significant than that.

[NatP4]

"Karma" isn't a thing. It's the result in your experience, in who you become, of cultivating negativity.

Whether we should have taken/kept TJ-D instead of trading the pick for PBJ is not under discussion -- for us, PBJ is a far far better choice!

There's just no reason to wish failure on anybody. I hope TJ-D knocks it out of the par!

But, you're not going to change your attitude, because I think you should.
Take something more significant than that.

You don’t get to decide what’s up for discussion and what’s not.

I’m certain you won’t stop the condescending virtue signaling whenever people disagree with you, just because I think you should.

Out of curiosity, how many Santa Cruz warrior games did you watch this year? How about Indiana Hoosier games? Just curious. I’m sure you watched a handful and that is the reasoning behind the condescending bit.

[Zonkerbl]

Before the Beal / KP trades the Zards were a team that was not going to win more than 35 games a year for the next five years.

Now they *might* improve to a 50 win team. The Cavs are a 50 win team and they had to accumulate a lot of good players, players that are absolutely not on the Zards' roster right now.

I think on average they are the same team in terms of expected wins right now - we have no reason to expect, given what we know now, that they will win more than 35 games in any of the next five seasons. We'll have to see how it plays out.

[gambitx777]

Karma is a bitch I heard !

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