Wizards Rebuild Ranked Among League's Best

They're still far from being a good NBA team, but the Washington Wizards have started earning credit as one of the better-conducted rebuilds in the league.

Three offseasons of promising asset management and multiple regular season campaigns in between full of positives to take away from their variety of recent draft picks have revealed the Wizards to be true to their word.

The new front office said they'd tear the pre-existing regime down in building a hopeful-contender built on winning values like defense, ball-sharing, athletic tools and versatility, and they're well positioned to continue adding young talent with one of the more development-friendly environments that any association has to offer.

ESPN recently conducted a ranking of how close the 14 teams who missed last season's playoffs are to putting themselves in title contention talks, and the Wizards nabbed a spot in the top half of the order. They rang in at No. 5, behind some of the teams with obvious future A-list stars like the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs, but still barely beat out their newest rival in the Charlotte Hornets.

The Wizards' strategy is clear: "they have a team featuring seven players taken in the first round of the past three drafts and one that could have the most cap space in the 2026 offseason," Tim Bontemps wrote.

The team knows that it's still missing the franchise player capable of guiding the team back into championship conversations, but the top-eight protected pick awaiting them following a third consecutive season of tanking gives them another chance to add to their growing bed of prospects.

They've accumulated a young core that includes hand-drafted pieces like Tre Johnson, Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George and Will Riley and they've added some intriguing role player bets in AJ Johnson, Cam Whitmore and Jamir Watkins to supplement that talent. That work's been done without any real draft fortune since the new guys took over, which they'll need in locating that final difference-maker.

"The Wizards need lottery luck. They got none this spring, falling from second to sixth on lottery night," Bontemps recalled. "They also need their lottery picks to hit. So far, there have been flashes from their recent picks -- Bilal Coulibaly two years ago, and Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington this past season -- but there isn't an obvious franchise centerpiece in place."

Even in the mushier Eastern Conference, the Wizards are still a few years out from scaring anyone, but they've patiently laid the groundwork for something big to enter the 2030s with, and outside analysts are starting to take real note of some of Washington's patterns.