All Wizards Talk
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All Wizards Talk
The Wizards Own the Summer
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Bryson Akins and Henry Brown hop back on the pod to discuss the countless rumors and reports about the Washington Wizards this summer.
Welcome back to another episode of All Wizards Talk. I'm one of your co-hosts, Bryce Nakens, shown alongside as always by Henry J. Brown. It's been a little bit. If you guys have not been keeping up with us on Twitter, we've been in a what I'm calling a custody battle with Spotify, trying to get our RSS feed uh so I can get us uploaded on there. For the time being, we're still on Apple and um Amazon. We're still on those two. Um, but if you noticed, we got video content now. We are, we're moving up in the world. We're moving.
SPEAKER_01I had to put on a shirt for this.
SPEAKER_00He had to put on a shirt. He likes to eat without a shirt for some reason, which I think is very weird. Um, but that's not the topic of today's video. But just thank you guys for sticking with us through this. All right, it's been a lot. You guys can catch us up on YouTube now. Uh Buzzer, we're gonna be on there as well. Growing platform, really excited to see where that's gonna take us as well. And so if you guys want to watch us on video format, you can see us there. Or if you just want to keep on chilling with the audio format, catch us there as well. All right. But there has been a lot of stuff happening with the Wizards the past, what, we say three days now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, been a super active this last week, entering draft week. Everyone's accepted that no one knows what's happening and they're working with what they have, and it helps that the trailing extension talks have begun at this exact time. So there's just the Wizards are the protagonists of the offseason, like just a few days into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's weird seeing the Wizards be like the team headlining all the news heading into, you know, at the end of the finals, mind you, as well. Like they have the championship parade is going on as we speak, or it might have just ended. That sounds right. It started at like 6 a.m. Yeah, it's just weird seeing this team actually be the topic of conversation um for once, and all good stuff as well. Nothing bad. It's not bad news, it's all good news about them. Where um, of course, we know first overall draft pick, and it looks like it's down to two guys between AJ DeBonsa and Darren Peterson. I'm personally still AJ. I'm I know you're Darren Peterson still. We're not gonna change our minds on that whatsoever. So there's no point in arguing about it.
SPEAKER_01But these conversations, though. Like I he and he and DP, I really went back and forth on them for a while. Yeah, it seems like he's not even gonna get a workout, though. It's so strange. Like he's like, maybe it's because the AJ, the AJ media tour has been so masterful and he's just been everywhere. Maybe there's been all these reports about him. And DP and Booze have just been completely behind the scenes. We don't know what they're doing, what they want to do. Yeah, and yeah, it just seems like he's sort of been whittled out of the frame.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so it's not like we have much update on the number one overall pick. We just know it's Darren Peterson, AJ Abansa. Peterson canceled his workout with the Jazz. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, though. It doesn't mean, oh my goodness, the Wizards are 100% taking him because AJ canceled his workouts with all the other teams as well. Um, and both of their camps are very confident they're going first overall. So one of them is going to be wrong with their confidence. We just don't know which one that is. Um they're both that confident, which means that must like that must be a sign that the organization loved both those guys so much. Like the interviews either went really well, the workouts went really well, whatever it may be. I still think from everything that we've seen and heard that it's AJ being the first overall pick, like that still seems like the lightly out likely outcome that AJ Devonza's pick going first overall.
SPEAKER_01He's still the odds-on favorite. And like, if at the Wizards draft party they're gonna have on Tuesday or whatever, if he's not the pick, it's gonna be really loud auditorium in there. And that's that's I think what we're all expecting. He spent way more of this cycle as as the number one guy. And it was really only until the last couple days when when DP sort of really the the the DP number one overall party really stuck stuck in there because this this one-upsmanship has really hit a new level. I can't remember last time there was this kind of arms race for the first overall pick like this. Usually the guys are I don't know, like they're these guys both are really gunning for this one spot. And maybe it's because it's as up in the air as it's been in years, but you just don't see this very often. I think I'm just trying to appreciate how rare the situation is, and also how lucky the wizards are to have to choose between all these guys and not really any wrong answers being given.
SPEAKER_00Let's just be glad we're having debates of Edgie DeBonser, Darren Peterson, and not Keaton Waggler or Darius Acuff. Let's let's be glad those are not the debates going on right now. So I could I don't think I could handle it. I don't I don't think I can handle that. But with other draft news, it did come out like 30 minutes before we decided to start recording today that uh this came from Kevin O'Connor, uh, that the Wizards are trying to get another lottery pick this year, which is really interesting, especially when you look at some of the players that you could get at the back end of the lottery, because it would probably be that 10 through 14, 11 through 14 range is where they would most likely be able to trade uh into to get another lottery pick, come away with potentially one and eleven from Golden State or one and 12 from OKC. That would be nice. But I'm just do you think there's actually like real smoke going on here where it's like, man, they like they actually want another lottery pick. And what like I'm the only thing I'm curious about is what exactly are they going to trade to get another lottery pick?
SPEAKER_01I believe anything with this team, and I think this is also partially a result of their their history as this team who has done pretty well in the draft and also has really tight lips combined with their pretty quietly savvy trading resume of the last couple years. So I think everyone's just sort of prepping for the wildest. And they've also done these trades in every year. Just last year they traded Jordan Poole like a day before the draft and then did these maneuvering to get back into the second round, did the Will Riley trade, all this stuff, and that no one saw coming. Um, so I definitely see it. And it also, to me, you can't rule out the idea that they'll trade number one, maybe for like two or three or something like that. Just keep moving around.
SPEAKER_00You can't rule it out, although I think yeah, you can't rule it out, although I do think they're not trading one. I think they are stuck on, yeah, we're gonna take you know first overall.
SPEAKER_01Like I think it's such a luxury.
SPEAKER_00It's a luxury to have that. Yes, you're fine with having any of the top three guys, of course. I just don't think you're gonna get enough that you are at least what you want in return, trading down to two or three. Because I mean, like Memphis, you're gonna want at least three future firsts from them. And Memphis, I don't think they're gonna do that just to potentially get Darren Peterson or AJ DeBonsa or just stick with Boozer at one. They're not gonna do that. No, Memphis has it great right now. Yeah, Memphis has it great right now. All three of those guys fit in perfectly for them, so they just take whoever's left of the litter there. Utah, you're like it, you know, it's not been reported that Ace Bailey would be on the table, but you know the Wizards would want Ace Bailey if they could get him. And if not, they would want two to three future first, and Utah's just not doing that. And so there's just like no real avenue for a trade to, you know, trade first overall to get two or three and be fine with anyone else while also still getting a ton of assets. And so I think one's not on the table. It's just it's really interesting to see them target another lottery pick because we've talked about in the past, we've, you know, both have articles talking about it as well, where okay, we could see them trying to trade that 15 through 20 range, get one of those into lottery guys where it's like they fell out of the lottery, but you could still get like a you know, a Kresenac, Hans Steinback, Kareem Lopez, Alan Gray's, a ton of those guys available in that range. Now they're trying to get into that 11 through 14 range, but it's like, okay, that could give them a real shot at getting like, you know, Yaxel on this team, which would be huge for them next season.
SPEAKER_01It makes you wonder, like, what are like the top you you asked me like what I think would have to go in that kind of trade. And it begs the question of like what are the best outgoing assets on the Wizards? Because I think we're all thinking in terms of when we think of asset value, we're not exactly putting it in like the trade machine. We're thinking of like who the valuable prospects are and the picks that they're looking forward to. But if you're talking about the best assets on the team, besides the obvious being the AD contract, um, you're looking at in a potential trade, you're looking at probably at one of the main guys in the young core going out, whether it's Bilal, maybe it's Bub, maybe it's maybe it's Champagne, maybe one of your trade rumors finally comes through. Maybe it's that, maybe it's one of their future firsts, maybe it's the Phoenix swaps. There's a lot of pieces to work with that none of us have seriously considered maybe this will be traded.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's there's two picks that I'm looking at, or not two picks, there's two assets that I would look at being traded. That would be Champagne. Although I know a lot of guys love him, he proved me wrong a ton last season. I, you know, he's a great role player. It's just going to get to that point where you don't want a situation where he's coming up for his extension. You extend him for, let's say, 14 million a year, then all of a sudden you have to make the decision. It's like, ooh, like, is this really like now he's only getting 10 minutes a game, but he's making 14 million on a roster, similar to like what's going on with Aaron Wiggins, where the Thunder will have to trade him now. Just kind of wasted a year of that and you know, diminish his value a little bit. This is the highest his value is going to be. So it doesn't hurt to try and see if you could get one of those draft picks this year for him. And then I'm looking at the Wizards 2029 first-round draft pick. They own the rights to Portland's pick that year as well. So it's not like they're trading all their first round draft picks. That's kind of a betting on yourself being like, hey, we think we're going to be one of the best teams in the league. It's not like we need the 27th overall pick. We have Portland's pick, which is going to be like 15th overall. We're fine with this. So what? Here's here it is, top eight protected for you.
SPEAKER_01I want to give a bit of a because we could have Portland's pick, but just for for any listeners, it's not quite that simple. It's like they get the second best of Boston, Milwaukee, or Portland's pick. So I guess we're just assuming it's not going to be Boston. Is that what we're doing?
SPEAKER_00Uh, I mean, it could be Boston. I just I that's one of those things where you have faith in yourself where like, look, our team is going to be better than all three of those teams at that year. And they should be. That is when Alex Sarr is off his rookie contract. That's his fifth year in the league, I think, fifth or fourth year. You have whoever you take first overall, finally like used to the NBA level of play, their third year in the league, where they should be one of the top players in the NBA at that point, where you're looking at that team in 2029 and you should be a championship contender by then. And so that's why that pick isn't really. Yeah. And so that's why I would trade that pick and you know have it up for sale because it's like, look, we we expect to be a contender by this year. We expect to be like 27th overall. Okay. We already have this team's you know rights to this pick whatsoever. We think we're gonna be better than all three of those, so no matter no matter what, we get the better draft pick, uh, except from ours. So go ahead. This is on the table. You can do it unprotected as well if you're that confident in as well. I would just throw a top eight protection because you never know with injuries. You just never know.
SPEAKER_01If you can, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if you can.
SPEAKER_01I gotta ask, who are your favorite guys in that range that we're talking about? And like if that's the right thing.
SPEAKER_0011 through 14 range?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh of course, Mara. He's, you know, like he could either go like eighth overall, he could go sixth overall, but there's also a good chance he falls at that 10 through 14 range. I really like him uh for the Wizards. Of course, Yaxel for the Wizards. I think he'd be a good backup big for this team coming off the bench because uh, you know, we were texting about it yesterday. Can you really trust Tristan Vuksevich and his defense to be your backup center in the playoffs?
SPEAKER_01This is where I really I mean, the answer is no, but this is where you really made me think about Steinbach after that, just because that is a guy who isn't leaps and bounds better on defense, but I I like him more as an offball weak side, yeah, help side, shot blocker. Um, he has some of that same jump shot, jump shot upside. He's a more voracious rebounder. There's there's more to like to him as this third string center.
SPEAKER_00He averaged second 12 rebounds per 36 minutes. You know, and so like yeah, it's nice. And then it's the same thing with uh you know Yaxel. He's just a little bit better all around, you know, all around he really excels. Um, and then Mara, he averaged 10 rebounds per 36 minutes, but he averaged four blocks per 36 minutes. He was a good defender, and so it I think no matter what the wizard, since they are trying to get that another first uh round pick, I think they're looking at some size. I don't think they're looking at a guard. I don't think they're looking at a ball handler. I don't think they're necessarily worried about that because despite Will Riley being 6'10, he can handle the rock. He can act as a very big point guard for you. Um, if you still want to run Bub as a backup point, that'd be interesting to see how he does in a backup role instead of as the starter. That'll be interesting to see how it works out. You can also sign a backup guard in free agency uh as well because they're gonna have a decent amount of money. Um and so it's just it's really interesting to see how it's going to work out for them. I just think no matter what, you're going to see them try to go for some size and not really a backup ball handler if they do acquire another first round pick.
SPEAKER_01The team I'm looking at right now is actually Miami. I think they're at 13 right now. Because if they miss out on Giannis, which it sounds like they're one of the favorites for, you do wonder if they just pivot to just taking on the AD money because they know this is a huge team. That's the thing.
SPEAKER_00I just just being honest, I don't think you're seeing a signing trade with him. If he picked up his player option, that'd then be one of your situations where it's like, okay, he might be traded. Since he did decline his player option like it's been reported on for the past month, I think he's staying in Washington and it sounding like he wants to be there for the next few years. He really likes what's going on there, and that's nice to hear. And we'll talk about Trey in a second as well, as soon as we're done with the draft stuff, because that's the other news that's been going around. Um but I mean, it's just the the weird thing about all this is it's hard to trade with all those teams except for Charlotte, I think, because of money. That's that's why it's hard to trade with all those teams like the Thunder, for example. All right, they're in the second apron. The um the Heat, I think, are in the first apron right now, and so you gotta make sure the money matches up. It's you know perfectly. Um, I think it's the same with the Bucks, they're in the first apron. Money's gotta match up perfectly. So it's like it's one of those weird things where it's just extremely hard to actually make that deal happen if you want to include a player. And so it might be where Charlotte's your only option to get pick 14, and it might work out because they also um they also have pick 18. They might be like, okay, like we think our guy at 14 is gonna be available at 18. We'll take that chance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just just a quick little recap, because you are right, the the Wizards are antsy and they do love trading around because it's it's more than just last year's crazy pool, CJ, uh, Will Riley, Watkins, Walter Clayton Jr. trades. Like, there was way more than that. Because in the year before, they traded uh the rights to Pacoma Daddy with the Knicks for their pick, like directly after Keyshawn George got him instead. That's aged pretty well. Uh, there was the bub pick, they traded that like an hour before the draft and the Denny trade, didn't have that going in. And even the year before that, people forget about this. Um, they actually technically picked Jarrus Walker in the 2023 draft, and he was traded for Bilal immediately, 7-8 trade. So there's there's there's a lot more wheeling and dealing going on there than I don't I think everyone's just terrified of what they're gonna do right now. Usually people have some indication, but the fact that this isn't a Cooper Flag draft, there's no obvious number one guy, and they've just they've gone over a month. The lottery's over a month ago, and not one thing has come out, it's just got everyone just scared right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and the draft is five days away. Like we are we're coming up on it. There's not a lot of information. I I and I think we can agree on this. I would expect the Wizards to make some sort of draft night trade, whether that be getting another first round pick, whether that be hey, trading this guy for a future pick, um, whatever it may be. I I would expect them to be a part in some form of trade on draft night. I think I think that's almost a guarantee that we can expect to happen from them. Yeah. And so moving on to some other news. Uh, as we mentioned, Trey Young, he declined his player option. This is at no surprise. This was expected. If you've been following along with the Wizards, this was expected because he wanted to sign a you know more a long-term deal that has more guaranteed money instead of just picking up this player option and have that situation of like, oh, um, you like he played really well uh this season, now he's making more, or take that risk of, oh man, have an even worse season. And now instead of getting this three-year $120 million deal, which is what it's you know expected to be, now all of a sudden it's just a three-year, $80 million deal because he dropped off that much. And so this has been widely expected. Um, it's just interesting to see what the deal is exactly gonna look like because Windhorse today said it was going to be a long-term and large deal, which I don't know what he's trying to say by large. That's what has me a little bit kind of, you know, up in the air. What does he mean by a large deal?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because we're sort of penciling in December between 30 and 40 mil. Um, and you don't imagine it'll be more annually than he was making on that player option, which came out to around 49 million in change for that last year. So I'm assuming it's gonna be in the low 40s because now I'm thinking it's gonna be higher than we were projecting, but it just can't be higher annually than what he was making before. His PR is in a bad spot right now. He came to DC for a few reasons. You know, he's impressed with the players here, he wants the fresh start. Atlanta wasn't really, you know, jiving with him after a while. But also, this definitely, I'm sure there was some sort of promise in some form that, you know, you're gonna be more compensated here, more appreciated. You know, that probably means more money. But I just don't imagine. I mean, he signed that contract when he was just a bigger deal. Like he came in at that um that ranking from the ringer had him at like 61 in the league. Like that's like that's like unheard of for early 2020s, Trey Young. So I I don't imagine, even with the cap rising, that it'll be higher annually than it was when he was taking his team to the playoffs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I see the most being like 45 million would be the most. At the absolute most. Even that just seems like too much. And so it's just yeah, it it is very interesting to see what it's going to be when you look at it. And so, like 45 million would put him at like 25% of the cap, which is you know the same as rookie max extensions right now, which honestly, you know, it's not bad. I'll take it because it would be a three-year deal. And by the time his contract is over, that frees up the cap that you need for your 2025 draft class extensions. And at the moment, it doesn't look like we have any max contract guys coming from that class on the team. They still got plenty of years to prove that wrong. But you know, with how the team is looking right now, they may not get the opportunity to prove their max player, which would help out the Wizards as well going forward. Um, and so just let's say he signs 40, you know, for 45 million a year. That would that is the same amount that Scotty Barnes is making right now. And so I mean, but let's say, let's say he's making 40 million, that's the same amount that Kyrie Irving, Jalen Brunson, Tyree Maxie are making right now. And so like it's one of those things, and that would put him as the 40th highest paid player in the NBA, which I think honestly is kind of where he deserves to be. You know, somewhere in that 50 to the 40th highest paid player range. And so it's not like he's gonna be making a ton of money now. Let's say he goes down and it's a he really takes a pay cut to help out this team and goes to 37 million. That's the same amount that uh Alprin Singoon and Mikhail Bridges are making. That would put him at 50. So it's like it's one of those things where like no matter what you see, 35 to 45 mil, like A, it's not gonna hurt the team long term. You're gonna be fine for your extensions coming up because your 2024 draft class extensions, that money is gonna come from Anthony Davis and his contract expiring of 60 million dollars.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm looking at right now. Because whatever happens, I think everyone's gonna use it as a template for the AD saga that's gonna carry on through this season into the next. Because the number one storyline for the Cap Nerds this season for the Wizards is going to be what's going on with that guy. Because he's gonna be on this massive 60 odd million dollar player option that now that Trey Young has waived his, everyone's gonna be like, Are you up next? What's gonna happen? And that's gonna say a lot about the long-term commitment here. And of course, whoever they pick in the draft is also gonna tell a lot about the A story to come.
SPEAKER_00And so, like, let's say they do trade for a big in the draft, like we were discussing. Maybe that's a sign of like, okay, we want this dude to kind of learn under you for a little bit, and then we're gonna shop you at the trade deadline, see if we can get a first-round pick or two in return for trading you to see what we, you know, what we can't get for you. Maybe there's also a player on the free agency market coming up, you know, next summer that we don't know about yet that would be really interesting for the wizards to go after and get. Be like, okay, now all of a sudden we have 60 million in cap space to go get this guy. Let's try to see if we can make that happen. Or it's like, okay, there's this guy that we really like for $20 million. We want this for sure money here, and we'll overpay a little bit if we want. Let's do that instead. So it's gonna be really interesting to see what they do with Davis. I think the Trey Young thing will serve as a basis of like, okay, if Trey Young does take a little bit of a pay cut instead of the projected 40 million annually, and he goes down to like 37, for example, maybe that's a good sign that Anthony Davis will take a pay cut just to get another ring and stay with the Wizards for a little bit. Maybe.
SPEAKER_01That'll be cool. It will be an interesting time for him to do that, though, given, as you mentioned, extension season is gonna start arriving annually for the Wizards Young guys after a few years of them just getting one notable rookie, or sometimes none that actually get any extensions. It's they're they're gonna start arriving several times this summer. And that's gonna be the after the Trey Young thing is done, which I'm assuming the next news we're gonna hear is going to be whatever he's signing for when it's extension eligible. It's gonna be Bilal. And that's gonna be our other first indicator of how they're gonna attack the rookie extensions that are that are all. He's the first in line of many.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And we we have a s like we've s heard about it a little bit where it'll probably be like a Denny like deal, which if you can do that for ball, I think is great. I think that's great money for what he brings to the table. He's shown improvement with his three-point shot as well and his offensive ability. I think Trey Young helps him out a ton on offense as well. I think that's helped him out so much. And we just saw it in a few games. Um, and so I think if you can get him for like 17.5 million a year over four years, that I'd I'd take that. That's pretty good money. That's that's a pretty good deal. That's 35, that's 70 over four years. I'd take that. I'd also take 80 over four years.
SPEAKER_01That'll be that'll be a lot. That'll be a lot because he he really did play for a guy who was hurt and inconsistent for his first two seasons. He played his third season masterfully from a from his I'm sure his agent like threw him a party after that early season ended, just because like he he was actually played like his first April ball uh since since joining the NBA, and he was knocking down threes and being more aggressive and doing all these things that we'd have been sort of hoping he developed the instincts for, and that's with only like what five games with Trey Young. So 70 or 80, I'm sure would not be super popular online. Um, he may go down go on to earn that, but he's he's such a mystery for what he's gonna actually produce, even though he is, in theory, like a model fit in a Trey Young offensive system.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I've been saying this a little bit as well when you look at contracts. You can't look at it as at the pure dollar amount. And we we know this, but I think fans often forget that they base contracts based off of percentage of the salary cap. All right. That 70 or 80 million would be around nine to ten percent of the salary cap. Like that's yeah, it's not like it's a huge chunk, it's also a very tradable contract if he's not panning out for you, or if he becomes the one guy that's left behind that can't really find his way into the lineup with all these young guys. And so it it's a good contract for what he brings to the table when you look at how much of the salary cap he'd be making. And there's only really one guy that I think so far has proven to be a max contract player, and that's Alex Sarr. As much as I love Keyshawn George, next season's gonna be a real test for him because he might like, you know, if they draft AJ Dubansa, he might not start. They might start Trey at the two and have Keyshawn off the bench.
SPEAKER_01Maybe he and Keyshawn and Bilal are the two guys I'm looking at the most in terms of how do you manage with getting bumped down in the pecking order? Because those are two guys who don't have the guaranteed starting spots that they've mostly enjoyed over their time in the league. And there's there's a lot of wings on this team. And if they draft AJ, there's like the leading man in the headline of that position group.
SPEAKER_00AJ becomes your guide that you put focus on, and so uh they they'll still get starts. They're still gonna start get starts because even though they have Anthony Davis, we know Anthony Davis is going to miss games. We you're like anytime you bring Anthony Davis onto your team, you got to expect he's at least missing 40 at this rate. And so it's it's just one of those things where he'll still get starts to kind of prove it and everything. It's just a matter of is he gonna be able to do enough in those starts to prove that he is a rookie max player or not? And I just just because of how much time he'd be getting, I just don't think he'd be able to prove that. I do think he'd be a guy that you spend 15% of your salary cap on. I I do think that.
SPEAKER_01And it's funny, we haven't actually mentioned this any anything star-related yet, but should we talk about that injury that he had?
SPEAKER_00That injury, I mean, it it sucks it happen. The good thing is this is the time you want him to have an injury. You don't you don't want him having an injury in the offseason like right before the season starts? He he wasn't gonna play in summer league, he was too good for summer league, anyways. Like, what were you gonna learn from him in summer league?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Usually if you're like in your third season in summer league, it's like this is like last chance you. Yeah, like he was never gonna do that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00He was never gonna go there, so it's not like you're missing out on summer league coups from SAR.
SPEAKER_01Okay, like it's so so what better have made the most of his offseason at this point, though, because he left this season showing he needs to make real adjustments, even though he's gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_00Well, the thing is the thing is it just kind of depends on what the injury is in his foot. Because I I wrote about it the other day and I'll bring up like what is like a stress fracture? Uh yeah, but there's different kinds of stress fractures that you know matter. Like it depends where exactly in the foot uh the injury happened. I can pull it up here and I'll tell you exactly. So um, like I said, the the timeline is unknown. We don't know when he's gonna be back, all right? Uh and the season it starts in roughly four months. That is, if we do the math, 16 weeks of healing that he gets. All right. That's that's plenty of time to usually heal from an injury. If it's a minor stretch stress facture, such as, you know, in like a toe or a metatarsal fracture, you know, it's only like six to ten weeks of recovery. All right. So that's that's good where like if it's if it's you know low in six weeks, all right, he's back on the court uh end of July. Not not bad, you take that. If it's a major one, uh like uh navicular uh stress fracture, which I don't even know where that is in the foot, but I looked it up, I wanted to make sure I was getting all my information right. Um, it can take six months. And so it's one of those things where it's like we don't know what kind of fracture it is. The fact that the team came out and said though, like their PR team said that they fully on expect him to be healthy for the season and potentially training camp tells me it's more of a minor slash average one that you usually see, which means you're I think you're for sure seeing him before the season starts. And I do think, you know, at the worst case scenario, he's back beginning of September, and he's gonna get plenty of time to still work on some stuff that he needs to. Because that's still gives him handy. That still gives him roughly two months to work on stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he had a really, really good bounce back second season, but there's definitely still aspects where it's like, I really hope that he at least had a plan for how to work on these things, and he can try to get back to it, even though it's gonna be much warped, much more warped off season than he was looking forward to.
SPEAKER_00At least at least it's at least he did it on the court and it wasn't injury that he suffered getting out of the shower. At least at least we can say that. At least we could say that with Sar, where at least he was doing something basketball related.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was contact uh created. I think that probably made some people feel a little better than if they saw the non in front of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so, but I mean it's you know, like I mentioned, they expect him to make a full recovery. Like it's you know, they'd um yeah, Sar expected to make a full recovery ahead of the 2026-2027 season. Updates will be provided as appropriate. Like it's everything is pointing that he's gonna be fine for the their first game of the season. So it's it I it you know, I think it's gonna be fine. I don't think it's anything to necessarily worry about. It always sucks to see your player get injured. It's just good they that it happened now and not like in September when the injury could have happened. Yes, and it's still pre-draft.
SPEAKER_01And here's another reminder as if 80 playing zero games as a wizard wasn't enough. Like another center would really help. Like, you know, Vuk has his nights on our offense and and Reese can get some boards, but if you're talking about getting like a functional third center, like you probably want someone who you trust if you had to, playing 20 odd minutes a night. And those guys, I just don't know if you can really do if you want to win games on a consistent nightly basis. So here's your reminder now is the now's a great time to cash in your chips and get one more big guy, especially considering for as wing-heavy as this team is, a lot of those wings lean more towards guard wings than forward wings instead of being able to play a bigger role. Yeah, like Will Riley. He's like a true small forward, and like Keyshawn is like a clear forward, he has like the shoulders and the size. Outside of that, it's a lot of wings who are just tall and on the skinny side. Again, we'd love to see how the workout program comes through. We'd love to see how they actually go on in building muscle over the offseason. But as it stands right now, more strength and more size could not hurt at all.
SPEAKER_00No, could not hurt. There's definitely some centers that could they can go out and get, like I mentioned, Mara, Jaxel, Morris Johnson would be a good pickup as well if they can get him. Uh Hans Steinbach wouldn't be bad either for his rebounding and offensive ability. I'm still in on Quaintance, but man, those injury stories are really. The injury stories are scary with him, and he's one of those guys where I don't think you trade up in the lottery to get. He might fall past 20, and then you can get a draft pick there to get him.
SPEAKER_01That would be crazy, but it's definitely possible because people seem genuinely spooked by him. Like he's definitely like the injury story of this just post- lottery range.
SPEAKER_00So it'll be interesting to see what happens with it. But are we missing anything?
SPEAKER_01Are we I think extension, trades, first overall pick, mystery. We got we got we got a pretty vast roundup of Wizards News, which is something that we're just not really used to. Like it's not like we're the kind of team that has like LeBron's storylines on first take every day. This is this is sort of unusual, but you know, we you roll with it. They won the lottery, and this is this is the bright side of that is people are wondering, what are you gonna do? And it's not in the same sense of like in the last couple years, it was like people saying, Oh, the wizards are probably gonna mess this up. And it's like now they have a a bit a bit more buy-in every year. It won't be full buy-in until they actually start winning and showing people they aren't just clowning around. There's there's one more thing.
SPEAKER_00There's belief. There's one more thing. This happened while we were uh as soon as we started recording. Um it's something with AD, yeah, it's something with AD um that he's communicated to uh Michael Winger that he has a strong interest of being a part of what the team's building. So it's it's sounding like he's starting to get bought in. I I believe that.
SPEAKER_01Like he's he's been like in all the social media videos, he he's like been seen wearing like wizards apparel, but he doesn't have to. And that's enough for me. We don't have so much.
SPEAKER_00He's been out golfing and he doesn't have to wear wizard's apparel, but he has been.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like it's yeah, it's it's it's noticed and it's appreciated.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is very appreciated, and that's why I kind of have confidence that Trey Young stays because he changed, he you know, he made OU change his photo of him in the Hawks jersey to a wizard's jersey. And so like it's like it's stuff like that that you're noticing, like, okay, they at least have some sort of interest of being here. I still think Anthony Davis is someone that gets traded next year, that you should try to re you know, uh rehabilitate his value a little bit. Maybe if not next that year, he picks up his option. You still have money to extend Bilal, and then you try to trade him while he's on the last year of his deal to a team that's really trying to contend and like last ditch effort. Um, and so I still I still don't see him as long-term peace because he's 33.
SPEAKER_01No, but for the time being, now they're both settling in, they are sort of like joint sweeteners where having them makes the other guy probably happy because they're not the only vet, nor are they the only exact well-known star guy in the team. Like I've at the games, like in person, like you know, you see them together sometimes, and they're sort of these two guys who are in a similar spot, undervalued on this team as the only real made men. And uh, there's value in that, even though the AD thing isn't as guaranteed over the long term as the traying story seems to be heading toward.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so like it'll it'll be nice to see him, you know, bought in. I think that's the biggest thing was actually having him buy in to play for the Wizards. I think that was the biggest thing trying to get for him. It sounds like it is, it seems like he is, and so it'll it'll be interesting to see what the actual plan is for him. I think, like we mentioned, Trey Young is gonna be a lot of indicators for that. Bryson and I will be trying to hunt AD and Trey down at Summer League. Yes, we were not very hard to do. Are we going? Yeah, we're going. I didn't know if we were confirmed yet or not. I didn't know. I mean, we haven't gotten the thing yet, but like we're going. We're going. Okay, well, if that's the case, I can go ahead and book my flights and I'll use my miles. Because your bullet doesn't have a lot to his name at the moment. He's waiting for that payday. He's waiting for that payday, and you better know we get in a cheap hotel. I know, we're sleeping with the roaches tonight. It's fine. It's fine. Marriott right by the um airport. You've got us covered.
SPEAKER_01I'm so sure. We have we'll have 80 seconds of hot water. Um, I'm using all of it. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00I can I can take a cold shower. It's not a big deal for me. Not a big deal for me. That's all I have for Wizards News. Yeah, that's all I got. All right. Well, we did it. Thank you guys for bearing with us while we're in this custody battle with Spotify getting our RSS feed. We're going through it. It's gonna work. Don't worry. Uh, we appreciate each and every single one of you guys, and we'll catch you in the next one. Peace.