Watching this year’s Washington Wizards team can be a little like watching some of the lamer movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). They’re bad. You know they’re bad. However, there are some entertaining moments. There are also some things you know will matter further down the road.
This season, Washington is off to a 2-11 start and looks very much like the team that Vegas stamped with a regular-season win total of 21.5 games. The Wizards are 28th in the league in points per 100 possessions (106.9) and 30th in points allowed per 100 possessions (123.9), according to Cleaning The Glass. This team is genuinely terrible. But Washington has had its exciting moments, like back-to-back wins over an Atlanta Hawks team that is currently in the Eastern Conference postseason picture. Then, there’s the things that will matter later, like the flashes we have seen from Bilal Coulibaly, Alexandre Sarr, Carlton “Bub” Carrington and Kyshawn George. That’s what we’re focusing on here.
It’s hard not to start with Coulibaly. After averaging 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals per game in 27.2 minutes per game last year, the 20-year-old has gotten all of those numbers up in 2024-25. In 34.6 minutes per game, Coulibaly is averaging 14.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game. On top of that, his TS% is up from 54.3% to 63.9%.
Coulibaly has looked like a different player on the offensive end of the floor this season. His three-point shooting percentage isn’t much higher. He was a 34.6% three-point shooter in 2023-24, and he’s up to 37.4% from deep this season. But he definitely looks a little more confident as a shooter. And the real difference is in Coulibaly’s aggressiveness in attacking the rim. Last year, it felt like Coulibaly was settling for bad shots. After all, in less minutes per game, he attempted 1.1 more threes per game. But he was also tentative when attacking the basket. That’s not the case this year. Coulibaly is realizing that at 6-foot-8, with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, he can get anything he wants when going to the rim. And when he does meet some resistance, there’s always the option of passing the rock. You see that with the rise in both assists per game and assist percentage (8.2% last year vs. 10.9% this year).
Coulibaly has also flashed All-Defense potential. Everybody projected that he would one day rock on that end of the floor. But actually seeing it has been fun. Unfortunately, the advanced stats don’t look great for the Frenchman. However, that’s largely because he’s playing for a team that is embarrassing defensively. The eye test tells a whole different story.
Coulibaly looks the part of an awesome wing defender, capable of defending on an island and also disrupting the game off the ball. He genuinely has great defensive instincts. His 1.8 “stocks” per game help display that. And really, the two-game set earlier in the year against the Hawks showed how special Coulibaly can be. He defended Trae Young quite a bit, and he completely smothered him at the point of attack. That’s difficult for a guy his size. Young is very quick and can usually get wherever he wants on the floor. But that’s Coulibaly’s defensive versatility, where BBall-Index has him as an A-graded player.
Honestly, Coulibaly is the type of two-way wing that teams dream of finding in the draft. He can handle the ball, his jumper is coming along, he applies rim pressure and he defends his tail off.
Speaking of defense, that’s where Sarr, the second pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, has already impressed. Sarr is averaging 9.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.1 blocks per game this season. But it’s really all about the blocks. He’s absolutely swallowing up shots around the basket, and his block rate of 7.3% is actually good for fourth in the entire NBA. He just has great timing as a shot blocker, and he’s good at getting vertical. As he adds strength, and overall seasoning, he’ll only get better.
Sarr’s offense isn’t a lost cause either. Social media might tell you otherwise, but he likely will develop as a shooter. He has decent-looking mechanics, he shoots 70.0% from the line and his overall willingness to shoot — he takes 4.75rees per game — shows confidence. Having confidence is half the battle. If he ever does start knocking jumpers down consistently, he’ll be a high-level starter in this league. He also has sneaky passing chops.
Then there’s a guy that’s flat-out special offensively: Carrington. In our pre-draft scouting report on Carrington, we spoke of his elite ability to create offense for himself — along with his assist production when getting a chance to run some offense. Well, Carrington is averaging 10.4 points and 5.0 assists per game this season. He’s also shooting 38.9% from deep. Carrington is a big on-ball creator, capable of getting to his pull-up jumper whenever he wants. And early in the year, he has looked awesome as a pick-and-roll operator. Carrington is good at snaking off his defender and rising up into his mid-range jumper. But he has also shown really good timing when looking for his bigs with pocket passes. In due time, he and Sarr could make for a lethal combination. Carrington just has to continue to get stronger, work diligently on his handle and do everything he can to make sure his size isn’t wasted on the other end of the floor. There’s no reason he can’t be a positive on the defensive end.
George is the worst of the bunch, but he has quickly shown that he has a shot at developing into a key rotation piece for a winning team one day. The 20-year-old is averaging 8.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game this year, and he hasn’t even gotten going yet. George, who shot 40.8% from deep at Miami last year, is shooting just 27.0% from deep this year. He’s due for some serious positive regression, as he’s a good shooter and it’s only a matter of time before he shows it. George also has a decent amount of on-ball ability for a 6-foot-8 wing, and he’s another player with good positional versatility on the defensive end of the floor.
George wasn’t viewed as an instant contributor for Washington, but the team is so bad that there’s no reason not to play the kids a lot of minutes. And George hasn’t looked out of place as at this level, which is all you can ask for out of a late first-round pick. There’s a little Utah Jazz Joe Ingles to him, and that’s meant to be a huge compliment.
The overall theme here is that the Wizards have a lot of positives in a season that is extremely negative. And if you squint extremely hard, to the point that your eyes look closed, the Wizards quietly have an Oklahoma City Thunder-like thing going on. Washington has a young core of big, versatile players, and if everything breaks right then the team should be a factor in short order. It’s about time for a franchise that recently peaked as a non-threat in the Eastern Conference Playoffs and spent years actively trying to maintain that status while never looking to dream of something bigger.