WASHINGTON — If trading Bradley Beal last June remains the most consequential, franchise-altering decision of the Wizards’ Michael Winger-Will Dawkins era so far, then what happened Wednesday night before and during the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft ranks second.
In a four-hour span, Winger and Dawkins drafted 19-year-old big man Alex Sarr, who may have the highest ceiling in this year’s rookie class, and a pair of promising perimeter players, combo guard Bub Carrington and wing Kyshawn George. Winger and Dawkins also engineered a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers that netted a larger haul of future draft picks than their trades of Beal and Kristaps Porziņģis combined.
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And now, something that should have been clear before Wednesday has come into even more unmistakable focus: The Wizards are attempting to build for four or five years down the line and, without explicitly saying so, are pushing their chips in on the crucial 2025 and 2026 draft lotteries. If Sarr, Carrington and George play significant minutes as rookies, it could have the two-pronged effect of accelerating their development and, because of their inevitable mistakes and growing pains, help Washington in its race to the bottom of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 standings.
Sarr, a 7-foot Frenchman who played professionally in Australia last season, has the size and agility to become a difference-maker on defense but needs to add strength and fill out his offensive skills to meet his potential.
“When we talk, he knows that he’s probably going to be a defensive player first, and that’s the approach I think you see when you go watch him … playing the center spot in a physical league over there in Australia,” said Dawkins, the Wizards’ general manager.
“If you watched those playoff games, he had meaningful minutes off the bench. And it was energy. It was talking, something that young players don’t do, defensively calling things out. So, you go watch him in practice, you go watch him in shootaround, and the professionalism sticks out. Defensively, I think he can guard, he can switch, he can protect the rim. He’s got to get better on the glass. When you ask about things that he can improve upon, I think it’s the physicality but also a mindset as he gets older. Then, offensively, he’s got a lot of upside on that end, too.”
When NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Washington had picked Sarr second, most of the fans attending the Wizards’ draft party inside Capital One Arena roared their approval, with many of them rising to their feet.
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Acting on the advice of his agent, Sarr declined to work out for the Atlanta Hawks, who held the No. 1 pick. Speaking to Washington-based media on a conference call Wednesday night, Sarr said he worked out for only the Wizards during the pre-draft process, a morsel of information that long-suffering Wizards fans, sick of their team being the butt of jokes, devoured on social media. Asked why he preferred the Wizards over the Hawks, Sarr answered, “I think the Wizards are a really exciting team. They’re trending in the right direction, and being a part of it is really special.”
📲 @alexandresarr_ checkin’ in with a message for D.C. fam 🫶
🤝 pres. by @RobinhoodApp pic.twitter.com/uUl1Nj17EQ
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) June 27, 2024
What Sarr did not say is that there are questions about the Hawks’ direction, and that the Hawks’ established rotation of bigs — highlighted by centers Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu and combo forward Jalen Johnson — could have impeded Sarr’s path to early playing time. In Washington, on the other hand, Sarr almost certainly will play extensively from the get-go while team officials give him the freedom to play through mistakes.
As Wednesday approached, the vast majority of mock drafts predicted that the Hawks would pass on Sarr and that the Wizards would snag him.
What was unexpected, however, was Washington’s decision to trade 23-year-old forward Deni Avdija to Portland for the 14th pick, a 2029 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, a 2030 second-round pick and 31-year-old point guard Malcolm Brogdon.
But trading Avdija is exactly what Winger, the president of Monumental Basketball, and Dawkins did, despite Avdija making significant gains last season with his 3-point shooting, finishing at the rim and foul-drawing. Avdija is on track to become the kind of player whom teams covet: a wing with great positional size who enjoys playing defense and can initiate offense. Avdija also was well-liked in the Wizards’ locker room.
Avdija is close to entering his prime years, but the truth of the matter is, Wizards officials are trying to collect a group of players who will be on the cusp of their primes four or five years from now. Avdija doesn’t fit that timeline, and he also is on schedule to hit unrestricted free agency in 2028.
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Kyle Kuzma, who will turn 29 in July, and Jordan Poole, 25, don’t fit the timeline either. But Kuzma’s trade value arguably isn’t as high as Avdija’s was, and Kuzma’s offense should help Washington’s corps of youngsters function more effectively. Poole’s trade value is far below Avdija’s because of Poole’s subpar 2023-24 season and much larger contract; to be able to trade Poole now, the Wizards almost certainly would have to include draft capital, which they are unwilling to do.
Because the Avdija deal will not become official until July, Dawkins would not comment about it on Wednesday.
But Dawkins and Winger no doubt value the incoming draft picks, and they used the 14th pick to select Carrington, a 6-foot-4 guard from Baltimore who played one season at Pittsburgh.
“He found ways to get people involved but also learned how to play off the ball,” Dawkins said. “Like we said, we want multiple decision-makers. We want the game to be random within a system, to where you’re making reads, anybody can drive the ball, anybody can make a decision, and we added three guys who can do that tonight and three guys who also want to compete on the defensive end.”
Carrington will turn 19 in July, and he acknowledged he will encounter a challenging learning curve in the year ahead. “No matter how physical you think the players are in college,” he said, “these are grown men now, real grown men. So, it’s something that you really can’t prepare for unless you play against it.”
Later on Wednesday, Washington sent the 26th and 51st picks to the New York Knicks in exchange for the 24th pick. The Wizards then selected George, a 6-foot-7 wing who made 41 percent of his 3-point tries last season at Miami.
“I’m just super happy — just super happy and excited,” George said.
(Top photo of Alex Sarr and Adam Silver: Lev Radin / Anadolu via Getty Images)