Mar 27, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma (33) speaks with Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis before the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

Wizards' Owner Downplays Tanking Accusations, Draft Misfortune

Originally posted on Washington Wizards on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated May 16, 2025 2:51 PM ET

Tanking is a regularly-used strategies in today's NBA. Gone is the agreed-upon notion that it's better to continue aiming for mediocrity, with front offices often loading up on young potential while bolstering their odds at a high pick in each year's draft.

This angle to team-building isn't yet universally accepted, though. Plenty of pundits take issue with the concept of "purposely losing," even if it's for long-term gain.

Accusations of tanking have clearly gotten to Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, who recently sat down with Front Office Sports to reiterate the team's strategy to return to contention while owning up to their receiving a much lower pick than they likely expected entering the lottery.

"We weren’t tanking. We were developing players," Leonsis said. "It’s a little different than maybe what some of the other teams’ strategy was.”

"We weren’t tanking, we were developing players."

The Wizards went 18-64 and had the highest odds to get the first overall draft pick—and ended up falling to the No. 6 pick.

Owner @TedLeonsis is defending his franchise, which had one of the NBA's youngest rosters.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) May 16, 2025

There's some legitimacy to what he's trying to say, rationalizing with Washington's approach to give their recently drafted prospects as much run as they can handle down the stretch of this past regular season. The team took careful notes of how the young talent's close to the spring will influence next year's rotation, but they knew what they were doing in strengthening their odds at who to add to the team.

General Manager Will Dawkins has said as much, repeatedly emphasizing the front office's draft-oriented approach while they conduct their thorough rebuild.

They went out and lost 64 games, the most of anyone outside of the 65-loss Utah Jazz. They entered the lottery process tied with Utah and the Charlotte Hornets for the best chance at nabbing the #1 pick, eventually falling all the way to #6 while the Dallas Mavericks rode an all-time unlikely 1.8% chance to the best spot on the board.

Leonsis, again trying to deflect from looking like the team is living and dying with where they ended up in the draft order, doesn't have nearly as much of an issue with where they ended up as the fans did. The road back to relevancy is long, and he seems

“We can’t internally, culturally, think, we lost because we’re picking sixth,” he said in siding with Dawkins' excitement to get to scouting.

This article first appeared on Washington Wizards on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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