2018-19 Finish: 19-63

Season Highlight:

Drafting Ja Morant.  There was very little that could be described as a highlight last season with the team finishing with its second worst record ever of only 19 wins, (yes they only won 17 games in 2011/12).  But scoring pick 2 in the draft and selecting prized rookie Ja Morant is one bright spot which gm darko can look upon as the team tries to build a new winning identity.

Season Lowlight:

The Wiz have pretty much stunk for close on a decade.  Apart from eeking into the playoffs in 16/17 season with a grubby 38 win total they have been on the outside looking in since 10/11 season.  During this time they have won the wooden spoon out East twice and just seem to be perennial cellar dwellers.  So its kinda hard to say that winning only 19 games was a lowlight given this has kind of been the standard expected by Washington fans in recent times.  So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the season lowpoint came when gm darko decided to deal for the corpse of Chandler Parsons.  This guy is an absolute cancer and let alone the fact that he will likely cause all sorts of locker room tension, he is still owed $25M+ this upcoming season.

 Best Trade: 

I struggled to find a trade I liked for the Wizards.  Most of them seemed to be sideways type moves with Washington often adding a pick into the mix for the privilege.  Perhaps the move that looks the best on paper especially at the time would be:

The San Antonio Spurs send Justin Holiday to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Dragan Bender to the San Antonio Spurs.

Here the Wiz get a solid wing player for a guy who looks like he may never meet the promise he showed on draft day.  Although notably Bender does appear to look better this current pre-season since he has grown a beard.

Worst Trade:

We have already talked about Parsons so here I will choose another deal.

The Utah Jazz send Dario Saric to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Dillon Brooks to the Utah Jazz. The Washington Wizards send a 1st-Rounder (Utah) to the Utah Jazz.

As an aside if I’m not mistaken this was the deal that turned the green light on for the infamous spate of tanking trades subsequently made in quick succession by Utah.  But for Washington I really don’t like this deal as I’ve never really been a fan of Saric and can’t see him moving the needle, so why give up a likely lottery pick for him when you’re a bottom feeder?

 Other Notable Trades:

The Boston Celtics send Danny Green to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Jeremy Lin to the Boston Celtics.
The Washington Wizards send a 2nd-Rounder (Orl) to the Boston Celtics.

The Dallas Mavericks send Evan Fournier and Abdel Nader to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Rajon Rondo and Danny Green to the Dallas Mavericks.
The Washington Wizards send a 2nd-Rounder (Sac) to the Dallas Mavericks.

In these two deals the Wiz essentially end up with Evan Fournier and Abdel Nader in exchange for Jeremy Lin, Rajon Rondo and 2 second round picks.  When you distill it down Fournier is probably the best player so it’s Fournier for what’s left of Rondo, Lin and 2 second picks.  Not bad but not great either.

The Philadelphia 76ers send Willie Cauley-Stein to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards send Julius Randle to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Philadelphia 76ers use their trade exception over $ 8,641,000. The Philadelphia 76ers receive 30 GM points. The Washington Wizards trade -30 GM points.

Here the Wiz send Randle for WCS + 30 gm points.  Not sure why they needed to add the 30gm’s since Randle is by far the best player in this deal?  Another case of gm darko being cajoled into adding the little bit of extra spice in the deal?

Free Agency:

We all know how much gm darko hates free agency.  I mean this guy loses sleep at night at the thought of a player walking for no return.  He loves multi-year contracts for this reason.  Notably he has achieved this goal again with no UFA’s and only two RFA’s in WCS and Frank Mason both of which will return as Wizards.

Star:

Buddy Hield – Hield was acquired in the Klay Thompson deal in 2017 and has since blossomed in Washington.  Last season he was the team’s best player scoring 17.8 points at a 0.58 TS%.

Goat:

Miles Plumlee – This dude was signed for $12.5M and went on to play 12 games and score 4 points and 5 rebounds per game.  By my calculations that’s 48 points, (24 touches) and 60 rebounds.  Making a total of 84 useful touches.  So basically this guy earned about $150,000 per touch.  I guess he is one the one looking at gm darko and saying who is the goat now for paying me so much?!

Draft Grades:

The Wiz had 3 first round picks this past draft.  These included a 1^st from Chicago, (Klay Thompson deal) and a 1^st from a deal made in 2017 when the Magic sent over a future Minnesota 1^st in exchange for Danny Green.  So not a bad little haul.  These picks along with their own netted the aforementioned Ja Morant, PJ Washington and Grant Williams.  All look like solid young players who should be in this league quite some time with especially Morant having the potential to be an Allstar.

Overall Grade A

The Future-

The Wiz have been rebuilding for it seems like forever now.  They are the 8^th youngest team in the league.  They have the fruits of the infamous Klay Thompson deal in place with Hield-Chandler Hutchison-Grant Williams(R)-Justin Holiday (from Bender deal).  They also have Ja Morant, WCS, Fournier, Saric, (not that I’m a fan) with rook Washington and sophomore Robert Williams.  So on paper things look on the up and this season the Wizards could trot out a starting lineup of Morant-Hield-Fournier-Washington-WCS.  Not bad.  Fans should be getting excited in the hope of at least 30 wins this season with the ceiling being the potential for the team to push for an 8^th seed if Morant and Hield really blow up.