How Wizards Can Resist Temptation to Draft for Need

The secret code to mastering the NBA Draft remains as uncrackable as it's ever been for the Washington Wizards and the rest of the league.

Technological strides, more wide-spread scouting and the overall advancement of basketball have revealed a wider assortment of prospects worthy of making their way to the league, but there remains no consistently foolproof method to accurately determining how good of a player, or man, a prospect will pan out to be.

Still, a few core tenets and cautionary tales still reverberate through draft rooms every year. The Wizards only recently learned how to attack rebuilds by repeatedly targeting players with similarly-promising values, but even before new management moved in, they knew better than to commit recurring draft day sins such as burning premier draft positioning on older, more weathered draftees or pure-fit pieces.

That second category is where teams really get in trouble, because those missteps are usually less-obvious in the moment. Some organizations, particularly those who luck up in the lottery process and end up picking higher than they'd have expected, convince themselves to pass up options with higher overall ceilings in favor of a player who fits their current roster and timeline, a strategy that occasionally helps the current iteration of the squad and rarely nets the amount of value that teams usually squeeze out of a top-10 pick.

The Wizards will have to resist the temptation to fall into such a trap come the following summer's draft cycle, but not for reasons usually seen in teams who prioritize short-term fit in their decision-making.

Addressing an Increasingly-Desperate Need

Unlike the 2020 Golden State Warriors or, in a more recent example, the 2024 Atlanta Hawks, this Wizards team has zero expectations of seriously competing anytime soon. In fact, there's a chance that three years into their extensive rebuild, they could be nearing a bottom-out, with their most recent loss to the Brooklyn Nets dropping them to a 1-12 record that goes beyond standard tanking practices.

A few of their hand-picked prospects have started coming along nicely, with Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George particularly enjoying the leaps they've taken to start their sophomore seasons, but even those selfless passing scorers can't patch up the squad's biggest hole.

This is a team that needs a point guard about as badly as they have since commencing the rebuild. Bub Carrington is more of a tertiary playmaking shooter than a full-time lead guard, having yet to demonstrate any penetrative scoring upside or the impactful advantage-creation needed out of a table-setter even before his ugly second season took a sledgehammer to his perceived potential.

Washington Wizards Guard Bub Carrington — Nov 10, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bub Carrington (7) reacts after the game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Their most recently-picked top prospect, Tre Johnson, actually has starting upside, but his passing chops are secondary to his jump shot.

Avoiding Reaches and Fantasies

No one on this present roster is presently capable of getting all of the pieces on the same page on the court. It's a need they'd have liked to settle in the draft, with a prospect like Dylan Harper looking like the ideal player to come in and guide the Wizards' offense in the right direction. Unfortunately for them, he was just out of the team's reach, going second-overall in the 2025 Draft to the San Antonio Spurs, and Washington picked up Johnson instead.

This draft class looks to be even more talented than this past summer's top-heavy crop, led by one intriguing creator floating towards the top of many draft boards. Kansas' Darryn Peterson seems like just the sort of back court alpha they've been looking for, a dynamic scorer to open up opportunities for his teammates.

The Wizards mustn't fall in love with Peterson this far ahead of time, though, as there's no guarantee he'll be available for a team that has recently struggled with lottery luck as much as they have. The fact, though, is that they're going to need someone to calm the troops down soon to keep the rebuild in the right direction, and with that desire only growing with the years, this upcoming summer will feature more outside temptation to find that "Guy" to build around than ever before.

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