2025 Draft Thread - Part 4

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

TRULY MORONIC FRONT OFFICE?

I doubt it. Nobody believed me when I said Millsap is a lottery talent.

Queen and Zion will dominate. The last time Weaver recruited a Baltimore guy, Carmelo soon won a natty.

The problem is that Queen is a rookie, Zion has missed over half the games he could have theoretically played (missed 52/80 games last year, and has been credibly accused of rape), and don't have a great team outside them (and what if Poole goes back to bad Poole while eating up a ton of minutes for them?). If Queen ends up as Jokic 2.0 or even Sabonis 2.0, none of this will matter, that's better than what they'd likely get with next year's pick (they're more like a play-in team than a lottery team despite their record this year) and clearly that's what they're banking on, but it's a *huge* gamble. A much bigger one than tearing the team down to the studs and resetting for when the Clippers fall apart, Randle and Gobert really start their decline phase without being able to retool around Ant and Jaden, when Jokic finally walks (I don't think he'll be a Nugget for life), etc etc.

If they are credible, are they criminal charges or civil?

I had no idea that Zion routinely misses THAT MANY GAMES. Wow.

They better pray for All-Star Zion to at least give them 60-70 games.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Yeah I hate that trade for Queen and he’s my guy. You’re basically trading a top 5 pick next year for him. Makes zero sense unless NO believes they’re a playoff team next year. I think their front office is off that same ganja lil Wayne is smoking down there.

When they get disillusioned, they can trade DQ to DC in 2028. He can be a Bobby Portis/Derik Queen/Naz Reid for th Wizards 2029 championship finalists.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

#1: It's reflected in the scouting reports, so yeah, I do know, and even if you don't believe me, our own F.O. has alluded SPECIFICALLY TO IT, so yeah, I do know what I'm talking about.

#2: You could read our boards, or you could read every single thing written about this class for the last 2 years. The view going into the college season was this draft at the top was:

Tier 1:
#1 Flagg-A tier unto himself.

Tier 2:
#2 Bailey-A tier just below flag and above the other two.

Tier 3:
3. VJ Edgcombe
3B. Dylan Harper

This was the consensus literally everywhere, just like next year has been a consensus Dybantas or Peterson #1 and #1B (it was Dybantsa, but Peterson passed him for now), followed by Boozer, and then followed by Ament who raced from a separate tier into the big 3 as a 4th top end prospect. For now, the '26 class has a big 4 too, college will decide how that evolves.....

Now the college season of generally 30ish games of sample size data reorganized the big 4:
Harper flew up from basically tied with Edgecomb to #2 overall on just about every board.
Bailey's erratic season caused him to fall behind Harper and Edge.
Edge held firm at #3, and passed Bailey to boot due to Bailey's fall.

That's how this class was viewed from '23-'24 in high school, through the new data that came from the '24-'25 season. The draft process, from the lottery which dramatically changed what the teams at the top would prioritize, to the meetings/tape scouting, to the combine, to the interview and workout process, caused Bailey to fall even further, seemingly by design (probably would have landed at 6 if Utah hadn't brought in Ainge as their GM.

Personally, I don’t pay a lot of attention to what a bball player did in high school or where they were ranked in h.s., especially since there is so much variance in the level of competition at the h.s. level.

I focus more on what a one-and-done player did in college. In Tre Johnson I see someone who led the top conference in college bball in scoring as a 18 yr old freshman. I also see a versatile scorer who shot almost 40% on 3s and 87% from the FT line.

I also see a young man with great size (6-6 in shoes) for a SG, and a 6-10 wingspan.

There are no doubt holes in Tre’s game, including his defense, ability to get to the rim, and him taking plays off…and it’s perfectly fine to point those thing out.

But the kid’s upside is immense and, if his work ethic is as legit as has been reported, we got ourselves a good—if not a great—one, imo.

I only started paying attention to high school status with this draft and part of the reason was the unusually high hit rate of highly rated recruits, and them being legit mega prospects for the NBA too. I mean, they were like for like, all of the top 5, ended up being the top 6 in the draft. I don't think that's typical. If you get into a top 30, there are a bizillion either misses, or players that were gonna take time to develop or just went to the wrong schools etc, but one of the reasons I just decided after 37 years of watching this, to actually research recruiting status was the fact that our new FO is so fixated on 18-19-20 year olds with top draft picks, and young prospects acquired through trades. The FSU guy is really the first old guy they've drafted or traded for in 3 offseasons.

So I figured, finding out what they looked like to recruiters based on their high school recruit rankings would provide additional sample size.
Flagg was 1 and 1
Harper 3 and 2
VJ was 4 and 3
Bailey was 2 and 5
Tre Johnson was 5 and 6 etc.

The fact that Tre didn't miss a beat between high school and college is both consoling, and a little more worrisome, but I like some of the posts above me looking into why some issues were present at Texas, I find them if not 100% persuasive, at bare minimum, fascinating to look into and consider. It's going to be really interesting watching how this team evolves. I'm a bit worried because we solved a couple of our major issues if Riley and Tre hit like so many think they will (Riley was 12th for high school and 21st for the draft, a fast climber example would be Carter Bryant, who flew up boards from the 20's-30's as a high schooler to a top 10ish expectation going into the draft). I do wonder a little if they put big man on the back burner because solving that like they potentially did shooting with this class, might make us jump like Portland did with Deni. Hopefully we see a lot of improvement from our kiddos and draftees, but slow improvement if any in win total, next year's draft is the linchpin, if we don't get a grand slam/home run with that class, it will take until '28 or longer to turn this ship around and avoid becoming a 30-40 win team like we have been most of the time since 1980 when we aren't even worse.

They may have traded for him to be a practice player and a high character guy.

Dillon Jones will be an elderly 24 years old when the season starts.

[Frichuela]

Analyst Sam Vecenie at the Athletic showing praise of our FO draft moves and trades so far:

“The Wizards had one of my favorite drafts. Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, the lead voices in the team’s front office decision-making, continue to prove that they’re extremely sharp and have the Wizards on the right track. The biggest decision here was selecting Johnson at No. 6. I had Johnson as my No. 3 player in the class. I believe in him as a worker and someone who is singularly driven toward being the absolute best player he can be. Whatever his ceiling is, I feel confident he’s going to reach it. His skill set is also exactly what this Wizards roster needs on the wing: a player who can be a primary scoring option next to dynamic defender Bilal Coulibaly. The fit is perfect, even if Johnson still has to continue filling out his frame and work on his defense.

It’s also worth shouting out what the Wizards did earlier in the week. They got off the Poole contract, a deal that is viewed leaguewide as being at least $20 million underwater over the next two years, and they received positive value. McCollum is a good, veteran replacement for Poole who will have trade value this winter as an expiring contract. Olynyk is a terrific big who’ll help some of their young players develop. He will also have trade value. And even if they don’t move McCollum, the team now profiles to have an immense amount of cap space and flexibility in the summer of 2026.

Then, to finish out draft night, the Wizards traded the 18th pick for the 21st pick while picking up two future second-rounders. They selected another skinny playmaker in Riley. He’s a project, but one worth investing in. I worry he might end up being better for his second team than his first, but he can play both with or without the ball and is a sharp slasher. I had him ranked at No. 23 on my board, so the value here is right.

All told, the Wizards accomplished both talent-acquisition and long-term strategic goals. This is as good a week as Wizards fans could have asked for.

Grade: A”

[Dat2U]

Still on cloud #9. I think outside of Dylan, Tre may be the 2nd best offensive player in this class when its all said and done. I can't remember the last time we drafted a pure bucket getter. Beal took years to become a high level shot creator and Wall was more of a playmaker.

Will Riley is a homerun swing. Guys that can chain together advanced dribbling moves and shoot at 6-8 aren't typically available at 21. He really needs to get stronger though. Like Bub, he may really struggle at first before settling in... and that's ok.

[Frichuela]

Still on cloud #9. I think outside of Dylan, Tre may be the 2nd best offensive player in this class when its all said and done. I can't remember the last time we drafted a pure bucket getter. Beal took years to become a high level shot creator and Wall was more of a playmaker.

Will Riley is a homerun swing. Guys that can chain together advanced dribbling moves and shoot at 6-8 aren't typically available at 21. He really needs to get stronger though. Like Bub, he may really struggle at first before settling in... and that's ok.

Indeed. All part of the (tank) plan!

[penbeast0]

I trust Tre Jones as an NBA bucket getter more than Dylan Harper. I just hope Tre can learn to play the rest of the game; Harper's scouting report claims playmaking and defensive skills that Tre hasn't shown.

[The Consiglieri]

Analyst Sam Vecenie at the Athletic showing praise of our FO draft moves and trades so far:

“The Wizards had one of my favorite drafts. Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, the lead voices in the team’s front office decision-making, continue to prove that they’re extremely sharp and have the Wizards on the right track. The biggest decision here was selecting Johnson at No. 6. I had Johnson as my No. 3 player in the class. I believe in him as a worker and someone who is singularly driven toward being the absolute best player he can be. Whatever his ceiling is, I feel confident he’s going to reach it. His skill set is also exactly what this Wizards roster needs on the wing: a player who can be a primary scoring option next to dynamic defender Bilal Coulibaly. The fit is perfect, even if Johnson still has to continue filling out his frame and work on his defense.

It’s also worth shouting out what the Wizards did earlier in the week. They got off the Poole contract, a deal that is viewed leaguewide as being at least $20 million underwater over the next two years, and they received positive value. McCollum is a good, veteran replacement for Poole who will have trade value this winter as an expiring contract. Olynyk is a terrific big who’ll help some of their young players develop. He will also have trade value. And even if they don’t move McCollum, the team now profiles to have an immense amount of cap space and flexibility in the summer of 2026.

Then, to finish out draft night, the Wizards traded the 18th pick for the 21st pick while picking up two future second-rounders. They selected another skinny playmaker in Riley. He’s a project, but one worth investing in. I worry he might end up being better for his second team than his first, but he can play both with or without the ball and is a sharp slasher. I had him ranked at No. 23 on my board, so the value here is right.

All told, the Wizards accomplished both talent-acquisition and long-term strategic goals. This is as good a week as Wizards fans could have asked for.

Grade: A”

No Question, sounds like the consensus is that the scouting press really, really like/love what we did.


Really wish we could have found a way to be the ones that swindled the hell out of New Orleans. Good Lord, they just need to fold that franchise and disperse the talent to us lottery teams lol, they are utterly hopeless, really a contender to challenge Wizards management of the last several decades, EG in particular.

[dobrojim]

NO including an unprotected pick seems like a
move they will come to regret. I had forgotten that
Zion was facing a presumably serious legal challenge.
For a guy that began his pro career with such high
hopes...wow. And I've been aware that his availability
hasn't been his best ability.

[tontoz]

NO including an unprotected pick seems like a
move they will come to regret.

That was horrible, the worst move of the draft imo. That relegated the Demin pick to the 2nd worst move.