Wizards Rising Star Disrespected in NBA Re-Draft

It is the worst time of the year for content, August. Players are going on podcasts to fill the void, and the only basketball to watch is international games that are hard to watch because of time zone differences. This leaves people to instead fill the time by doing redrafts and mock drafts.

The Athletic recently did a redraft of the 2024 NBA Draft, and they left an All-Rookie first team member with the Washington Wizards.

It’s time to re-draft the 2024 NBA Draft.

Would Reed Sheppard remain a top-five pick? How far does Rob Dillingham tumble?@Sam_Vecenie weighs in: pic.twitter.com/i6PxGAjY3o
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 14, 2025

Alex Sarr received a few votes for Rookie of the Year last season and made it on the All-Rookie first team. Usually, this means that the media will start respecting you more as a player, but not to people at The Athletic. Instead, they did not have the Wizards center in the top 10 of a redraft. This is a blasphemous take to have, as all the voters agreed he was at a minimum a top-five rookie last season.

In his first season in the NBA, Sarr would average 13 points on 39.4 percent shooting, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game. These are solid numbers for a rookie center. The only downsides to his first season were his shooting percentage and rebound numbers. To Sarr's defense, a rookie is rarely called upon to be the third or fourth option at times, as he took the third-most shot attempts per game last season.

Alex Sarr 34-6-5 in a win at Denver

Bumping this kid down from #2 to out of the top 10 in a redraft after he made 1st Team All-Rookie and showed the flashes that he did at 19 and 7’0 can be nothing other than egregious clickbait from the Athletic pic.twitter.com/gDOyJB9bW0
— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) August 15, 2025

Once Kyle Kuzma was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, Sarr quickly became the second option. This is a ton of pressure for any rookie in any situation. The voters did not hold this poor shooting percentage against Sarr when deciding All-Rookie teams. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic does not believe so, having Sarr go 11th overall in a redraft because of his low rebound numbers and inefficiency.

While those are concerns the center has to improve upon next season, the players above him make absolutely no sense. Reed Sheppard, who barely played, went fourth overall in his redraft. Sheppard only played 12.3 minutes a night and averaged a measly 4.4 points on 35.1 percent shooting from the field.

While Sheppard is the most egregious player that was taken above Sarr in this redraft, another center went above him that had a worse season. Donovan Clingan went fifth overall in this redraft, while he only averaged 6.5 points per game on 19.8 minutes a night. The only area Clingan was drastically better in was field goal percentage, but Clingan was not asked to be a main scoring option like Sarr was.

Alex Sarr contesting the layup by Donovan Clingan — Mar 17, 2025; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan (23) shoots over Washington Wizards power forward Alex Sarr (20) during the first half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images | Soobum Im-Imagn Images

Overall, too much bias was put into the guards in this draft and the field goal percentage. The field goal percentage makes no sense, though, when Vecenie had players like Sheppard taken top five in a redraft. This redraft, though, shows how little faith the media and fans have in the Wizards to turn some heads this season and in the future. Sarr looks to prove all the doubters wrong as the sure-fire second option on opening night.

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