2026 Pre-Draft Thread Part V

[Paris41]

Boozer or Peterson should be the pick.

[gesa2]

Dybantsa
Boozer
Peterson
Wilson

Is my final ranking. But I humbly hope that if I’m wrong the Wiz draft room is still right

[Tyrone Messby]

Hope it’s a kings ransom for 1 from that prick Danny Ainge or AJ. And hopefully we ship AD out to Golden State.

[prime1time]

Boozer or Peterson should be the pick.

Peterson maybe, Boozer with his defensive deficiencies is a non starter imo.

[WallToWall]

Glad for this day as a Wizards fan. For me, this day marks the bottom point of the “parabola of success”. From here, we go upward. There will be more rocky times, more aches and pains, but we are moving upward now. There will be more good times, more successes. It starts today.

[AFM]

LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I missed (have not read) the last 17 pages of the (locked) Pre-Draft Thread Part III.
I have yet to read the 17 previous pages of this Pre-Draft Thread Part IV.
The Draft Day Thread is on post #17
Time stamp: 0351 hours HST. 0951 hours EST

[dobrojim]

All 4 of the top guys will be very good. My own admittedly naive position or order of preference:

AJ
Caleb
DP
Booz

that order is probably more by determined by things that will not be important when they start actually playing.

But in spite of yesterday's IMO ill advised resigning of TY, for the moment, I still trust Dawkins/Winger.

Is it possible that the best player in 5 years won't even be one of these 4? I doubt it, but as PiF will tell you,
it happens a lot. But this is not likely to be one of those years.

[dobrojim]

Watch on YouTube

Dat is famous well beyond RealGM! AJ wants to talk smack to him after he read Dat likes DP.

I'm kidding!

[dobrojim]

Definitely think we see one of our wings shipped out for another first rounder before tomorrow’s draft. Going to suck losing one of Riley, George, or Bilal. Hope it’s George just because I think Riley and Bilal’s ceilings are still higher, but George seems like the team glue guy..what to do, what to do?

Why??

Anything can happen of course, but I don't anticipate a move of this kind.

Agreed.

A move like this may eventually be needed but for the moment, having the depth of young talent
gives us the chance to see the cream rise. We'll know more in another 1-2 years.

[dobrojim]

Nate, you're fine with Kyshawn playing 20 minutes at the 4 a game. I'm not.

Here are the starting PFs in the Eastern Conference. Which ones are so massive that they will be putting Kyshawn George in the basket?

Ausar Thompson
Jason Tatum
OG Anunoby
Evan Mobley
Scottie Barnes
Jalen Johnson
Paul George
Banchero
Miles Bridges
Giannis
Caleb Wilson
Brooklyn
Siakam

I see 2 that are a problem: Giannis and Barnes. And Bilal has actually guarded Giannis better than most.

As you have pointed out often enough, nate, the days of the traditional PF are behind us. &, in any case, we really want Alex on the court with another guy at Center.

What I would say, however, is that if we can get a high quality prospect in the draft, sure, let's do what we have to do to acquire the pick.

OTOH, it's not just Kyshawn who's available -- Justin has been extremely productive as well.

I see two others that might be a physical (size) challenge for Ky: Banchero and Mobley. Could even throw in OG.

But I think Ky, in limited minutes at the 4, would be fine.

[dobrojim]

FTR, I get that Salt Lake isn't exactly NYC, LA, or Miami etc but it is stunningly beautiful, and has some of the best snow on the planet, if an NBA player is going to be cranky about being draft by them, just take up snow boarding, so many absolutely unbelievable resorts there, and I will add that the city has definitely become more and more cosmopolitan over the past 25, 35 years.

But yeah, I get why it isn't exactly a draw for a 19 year old kid from a big city on the East Coast or even the Midwest. It's just pretty underrated, it's much more of a destination than say, Indianapolis, or Milwaukee for instance.

Yeah, a 6-10 guy snowboarding. What could go wrong? I'm sure there isn't a clause in their contracts about sports like that.

Go for it, they took you to Salt Lake, they didn't think you were gonna check out Park City or Snow Bird?

I think they have clauses prohibiting that. But year, the SLC area has awesome skiing.

[prime1time]

I think AD should go and AJ should start at the 4. He's 6'10 220. Why not start him at the 4?

[Zonkerbl]

Wasn't George our starting PF for several games last season? Didn't we get crushed on the defensive rebounds during those games? George needs to generate misses on defense from the 3, Sarr needs to swat away shots from the center position, and the zards *DESPERATELY* need someone to secure the defensive rebounds from the 4. Putting George at the 4 is not going to solve this problem.

With Trae on the roster for the rest of eternity, there is no other viable starting five than Trae, Bilal, George, AD or Plug n play PF, Sarr, otherwise the defense will be ATROCIOUS. And that PF better fricking rebound like his career depends on it because it does. Sucks for Tre and Bub. Riley might actually end up starting at the 4 depending on how his game develops as his body matures. But Dybantsa needs to play a grown a$$ PF game if he's drafted today. If Peterson is drafted you can plug him in at the 2 and the front office will have to find someone for the 4.

I guess Sarr and AD could switch positions.

[prime1time]

Wasn't George our starting PF for several games last season? Didn't we get crushed on the defensive rebounds during those games? George needs to generate misses on defense from the 3, Sarr needs to swat away shots from the center position, and the zards *DESPERATELY* need someone to secure the defensive rebounds from the 4. Putting George at the 4 is not going to solve this problem.

With Trae on the roster for the rest of eternity, there is no other viable starting five than Trae, Bilal, George, AD or Plug n play PF, Sarr, otherwise the defense will be ATROCIOUS. And that PF better fricking rebound like his career depends on it because it does. Sucks for Tre and Bub. Riley might actually end up starting at the 4 depending on how his game develops as his body matures. But Dybantsa needs to play a grown a$$ PF game if he's drafted today. If Peterson is drafted you can plug him in at the 2 and the front office will have to find someone for the 4.

I guess Sarr and AD could switch positions.

You can't really take anything of deep importance from last year other than we are not good. We tried to lose on purpose.

[The Consiglieri]

AJ is the pick, I think it's pretty obvious, I don't think there's a chance we give Trae a payday of that scale if we're taking a combo guard, that just doesn't make sense to me. It's AJ, and I'm good with it, I'd prefer a trade down for a huge pay off, but one thing we all need to keep in our back pocket is that we all feared that the 48% chance would play out and we'd be the Clippers right now and we're not, we're picking between 3 mega studs and the highest floorpan type imaginable, a Kevin Love + according to Hollinger the other day on Cowherd (who I absolutely don't want)....we lucked the ---- out after getting royally screwed a year ago, it's a huge, huge, huge win. Our biggest in decades.

[badinage]

This is exactly right. Today is … monumental.

[Paris41]

I think AD should go and AJ should start at the 4. He's 6'10 220. Why not start him at the 4?

They would get destroyed in the paint and on the glass. Team defense would be a disaster.

AJ is a big guard. Gotta fill out the lineup with 3&D low usage guys. Dosunmu/McDaniels/Reid types.

[Zonkerbl]

Wasn't George our starting PF for several games last season? Didn't we get crushed on the defensive rebounds during those games? George needs to generate misses on defense from the 3, Sarr needs to swat away shots from the center position, and the zards *DESPERATELY* need someone to secure the defensive rebounds from the 4. Putting George at the 4 is not going to solve this problem.

With Trae on the roster for the rest of eternity, there is no other viable starting five than Trae, Bilal, George, AD or Plug n play PF, Sarr, otherwise the defense will be ATROCIOUS. And that PF better fricking rebound like his career depends on it because it does. Sucks for Tre and Bub. Riley might actually end up starting at the 4 depending on how his game develops as his body matures. But Dybantsa needs to play a grown a$$ PF game if he's drafted today. If Peterson is drafted you can plug him in at the 2 and the front office will have to find someone for the 4.

I guess Sarr and AD could switch positions.

You can't really take anything of deep importance from last year other than we are not good. We tried to lose on purpose.

I don't want to be disparaging or anything but that's a... peculiar attitude to take. First of all, the players weren't trying to lose, the coaches weren't trying to lose. We discussed this. The management was trying to lose, and they did that by pulling players who were doing well off the floor. The players were all trying to prove to management that they deserved to earn MILLIONS OF DOLLARS while they were on the court. To assume/assert anything else is... ok, insane. If you watched the games you could tell that all the scrubs were grateful for the opportunity and were playing their blessed little hearts out, and players like Keyshawn George were all trying to perform at the highest level they could. George did so well that management forced him to sit the last two months of the season. George was playing well. But also showed he is not a great defensive rebounder during those minutes.

So it's irrational to discount George's lack of defensive rebounding prowess. He is not the long term answer at the 4. Full stop.

[Zonkerbl]

I think AD should go and AJ should start at the 4. He's 6'10 220. Why not start him at the 4?

They would get destroyed in the paint and on the glass. Team defense would be a disaster.

AJ is a big guard. Gotta fill out the lineup with 3&D low usage guys. Dosunmu/McDaniels/Reid types.

I agree AJ would get destroyed by Dale Davis. But that's not who he'll be going up against. He'll be fine. He may have to get stronger, like every single other rookie in the league.

Why would you get rid of AD though? I get if he wants to leave, but otherwise he is exactly the player the Wizards need right now, if he's healthy.