The Washington Wizards will not be contending for much of anything this season other than a potential No. 1 overall pick. Everyone knows this.
However, that does not mean the Wizards are exempt from improving or having a clear direction.
Washington has many questions to answer entering the 2024-25 NBA campaign, and Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes has revealed what the team’s biggest question is: how it will position rookie big man Alex Sarr for success.
“Washington doesn’t have the personnel to surround Sarr with quality support, and it actively diminished its defense when it traded Deni Avdija to the Portland Trail Blazers,” Hughes wrote. “That move highlighted a conundrum for the Wizards, in that it made sense for their overall plan to hoard rebuild-worthy assets while also adding weight to the burden on Sarr’s shoulders.”
The Wizards selected Sarr with the No. 2 overall pick, which has been met with a rather lukewarm response by fans and pundits thus far.
There is no denying his talent, and with the NBA heavily trending toward versatile big men who can do a little bit of everything, the seven-foot tall Sarr could end up being a cornerstone in Washington’s rebuild.
But, the problem is that he doesn’t have a whole lot of backing in the nation’s capital as far as supplementary pieces around him are concerned.
“Sarr’s development is absolutely critical in Washington, but it’ll be difficult to build him up with so little support around him,” Hughes concluded.
Sarr is part of a young Wizards nucleus that also includes Bilal Coulibaly, Corey Kispert, Saadiq Bey (who is recovering from a torn ACL) and fellow rookie Bub Carrington.
Washington does have a few decent veterans, but chances are the Wizards will end up trading at least one or two of them during the regular season.
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