2025 Offseason

[AFM]

It’s lovely in Greece. I’m avoiding news from home.

Where you at? I was in Athens and Paros a few years back.

[closg00]

It’s lovely in Greece. I’m avoiding news from home.

Where you at? I was in Athens and Paros a few years back.

Same, + Santorini and Mykonos, I would love to go back and explore more islands.

[doclinkin]

It’s lovely in Greece. I’m avoiding news from home.

Where you at? I was in Athens and Paros a few years back.

Same, + Santorini and Mykonos, I would love to go back and explore more islands.

Athens, now Santorini.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

New simulation video Wizards vs Nets!

Watch on YouTube

[nate33]

New simulation video Wizards vs Nets!

Watch on YouTube

Man! We are just starving for content here!

[AFM]

Being a Wizards fan in 2025 means watching a 1 hour 40 minute video game

[payitforward]

It’s lovely in Greece. I’m avoiding news from home.

Where you at? I was in Athens and Paros a few years back.

Same, + Santorini and Mykonos, I would love to go back and explore more islands.

Both beautiful places...

I haven't been on Paros but was on its neighboring island, Naxos, which I loved. & Crete -- a completely extraordinary adventure, that place....

[payitforward]

Does anyone have anything resembling an idea? Good. Bad. Indifferent. Brilliant. Foolish. Whatever....

[payitforward]

Will is hanging out w/ Doc on Mykonos; that must be it!

[AFM]

Watch on YouTube

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Craig Hoffman joins the front office.

Read on Twitter

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Read on Twitter

[DCZards]

This article appeared today in The Athletic. It addresses some of the questions/issues raised by a lot of Zards fans.

These are excerpts

The Washington Wizards are stockpiling wings — but what’s the plan?

By Josh Robbins, The Athletic

It’s a question about the 2025-26 Washington Wizards that comes up again and again: Why does the team have so many wings?

The answer is interesting — and it cuts to the heart of the Wizards’ roster-construction strategy but also to roster construction in the modern NBA.

QUESTION FROM FAN: While we understand that they can’t/shouldn’t try to win this year, you also can’t develop all these wings at the same time. They already had to ship out Colby Jones for pure roster-spot availability reasons, but how in the heck can these guys all develop at the same time if they all play the same position? They certainly can’t all develop on the defensive end, where some of them will be playing out of position just to get minutes. And we all know that five minutes into the season, we will all be complaining about a lack of defense and rebounding. –Malcolm H.

I agree that, against the backdrop of traditional NBA roster construction, the Wizards are super-heavy on wings, light on traditional bigs and thin on traditional point guards.

But at this stage, positional roster imbalance is not the Wizards’ primary concern, or perhaps even their secondary concern. They are attempting to bring as many high-upside players as possible onto their roster — through the draft, through trades, through signings — and do their best to develop those players into upper-level NBA players. Think of it as casting a wide net in an effort to see who, eventually, will stand out.

The questions you’ve posed here are more about development, specifically whether the seeming overabundance of wings will inhibit those wings’ long-term improvement. The point about the difficulty of the wings developing on defense is well-taken if we assume that some of the Wizards’ wings will defend opponents who are either much faster and more agile or much larger and stronger.

My conclusion is that all of us — me included — need to acknowledge that the NBA game has changed, and continues to change. Our traditional notions of positional roles don’t apply as much as they once did. Because of the prevalence of the 3-point shot and because so many teams play fast on offense, defenders now have to cover more ground than ever before. It’s now common for players we don’t consider “point guards” to initiate offenses, and it’s now rare for centers on offense to play with their backs to the basket.

It’s a league increasingly populated by versatile players in the 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-9 range. The distinctions among what shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards are expected to do are murkier than ever before, particularly within switch-oriented defensive schemes.

“The game of basketball is so fluid, and positionally things are changing,” Dawkins told me a few days after this year’s draft.

“And unlike football, where you’re drafting for one position on one side of the field, you have to play both ends of the floor in basketball. So sometimes you’re playing one position on offense but you’re playing a different type of position on defense, and there’s cross-matches and mismatches. So the way the game is going, with the flexibility, the type of players we’re drafting gives Coach (Brian) Keefe options. So we’re just going to continue to find people who fit our attributes and bring them into our building.”

Coulibaly and George are quintessential examples of this. With Coulibaly listed as 6-8 and George listed as 6-7, we’d traditionally consider them as threes. But last season, the Wizards often deployed Coulibaly and George defensively to guard opponents’ top offensive initiators — a critical defensive role that, years ago, probably wouldn’t have gone to 6-foot-8 or 6-foot-7 players.

I think Wizards officials would portray having so many wings as an advantage for the players’ development, citing how those players will have to compete against each other for playing time. There’s some truth to that. Even with three-wing lineups, there will be only a finite number of minutes to go around.

There’s no question in my mind that, when healthy, and as long as they remain bought-in to the team concept, the highest-upside young players — Coulibaly, George, Tre Johnson and Whitmore — will get their minutes.

[payitforward]

Thanks, Zards -- interesting stuff!

[AFM]

Our schedule dropped today...

[LyricalRico]

Our schedule dropped today...

Let's goooooooo!

[WallToWall]

Has there been any word on what Kispert has been doing this off-season? Looking for a bounce back season, so was wondering if he was already working out with Wizard coaches, or working on his shot, his D, etc.

[nate33]

Has there been any word on what Kispert has been doing this off-season? Looking for a bounce back season, so was wondering if he was already working out with Wizard coaches, or working on his shot, his D, etc.

Don't you worry. Kispert has been grinding all offseason to improve... his pickleball game:

Read on Twitter

Seriously, there's a little video of him working out with his trainer here:

Read on Twitter

And he has apparently been working out at Gonzaga:

Read on Twitter

[payitforward]

I was shocked when Ayayi didn't make it in the league. Thought he was a lock. His senior numbers were unbelievably good.

Still can't understand it to tell the truth....

[pcbothwel]

I was shocked when Ayayi didn't make it in the league. Thought he was a lock. His senior numbers were unbelievably good.

Still can't understand it to tell the truth....

Im still convinced and make it back. However, there may be something about a Jack of all trades issue. In college, these guys light up the stat sheet and the advanced stats love them. But they dont have a single elite skill set to rely on, which makes carving out a role tough.
6'4-6'6 guys who can pass, shoot, rebound, etc. look great. But if they cant create enough for themselves or others, then they cant be an on ball creator.
Shooting open C&S 3's and being an average defender just isnt enough these days.