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The Athletic's David Aldridge breaks down the Wizards' lottery implications ahead of Sunday.
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00:21After 13 years, still no chemistry.
00:23I'm doing great.
00:25We'll figure each other out.
00:27Yeah, one of these days, I'll know when it's my turn.
00:29And golly, so embarrassing.
00:31Can we call David Aldridge back and just pretend that didn't happen and start over?
00:36He's a Hall of Famer for God's sake.
00:37He had to hear that.
00:38I like to put on a good front when David Aldridge joins us.
00:43You okay?
00:43I did step on you there.
00:44It's like company coming over.
00:46I want to clean the house a little bit.
00:48What about throwing a pile of garbage in the living room?
00:50You want to do that?
00:50Put on a nice shirt for the DA.
00:52And here we are.
00:53We're just answering the door with no pants on.
00:55Sorry you had to hear that, David.
00:57That was tough.
00:57David, wow.
00:58It's all good.
00:59It's all good.
01:00A Hall of Famer like yourself deserves more.
01:05All good, gentlemen.
01:06All good.
01:07Great to chat with you.
01:08The story David wrote today in The Athletic, you should check out with Josh Robbins, the
01:12two of them together.
01:13Wizards hope their luck changes for better in this year's NBA draft lottery.
01:18So, DA, why don't we start right there?
01:20We began our show with this conversation.
01:23What is at stake for them?
01:24How big of a deal would winning this thing be as opposed to the worst-case scenario and
01:30what would lie ahead in that situation?
01:33Well, I would say that it's, you know, it's pretty important, right?
01:38I mean, they have, frankly, tanked the last three years with an eye towards the 2025 draft and the 2026
01:48draft.
01:48Those were the two drafts that they said, hey, that's where we can really get our young star player to
01:56build around, right?
01:57You look at the playoffs.
01:58You look all in the Eastern Conference, Western Conference.
02:00Because, you know, almost every team, not every team, but almost every team has a young guy that they drafted
02:07high because they tanked, you know, the year before.
02:11And they got the lottery balls to go the right way.
02:13And they got it.
02:14And Cade Cunningham went to Detroit.
02:16And their whole thing turned around, right?
02:19They literally lost 28 games in a row two years ago.
02:23They set an NBA record.
02:24They lost 28 straight games two years ago.
02:27And now they're a 60-win team in the number one seed in the East.
02:30Because of Cade Cunningham.
02:32And now they've got other guys who have helped them a lot, who are parts of it.
02:36But they're a playoff team and a contending team because Cade Cunningham was worth taking number one in the draft
02:43a few years ago.
02:44He was that good.
02:45And he's proven that he's that good.
02:47And you need one of those guys.
02:48Now, there are different ways to build teams.
02:50I'm not saying this is the only way.
02:52But right now in the NBA, when nobody of consequence ever hits free agency anymore because everybody just keeps signing
02:59extended.
03:00With the team that they're at.
03:03Or a guy like Giannis makes a trade demand and says, I only want to go to three teams, which
03:10cuts out 27 other teams from having any chance of getting a guy that good.
03:15But the best way to get a great young player to build around is in the draft.
03:23And the best way to get one of those young guys is to be at the top of the lottery.
03:28It doesn't mean that nobody good ever gets drafted after three or four.
03:32Of course, we all know Jokic went in the second round.
03:37Oh, got it.
03:38If teams thought, hey, we can just wait until the 41st pick in the draft and we'll get a franchise
03:42player there.
03:43That's what they would do.
03:44That is such a one in a billion shot.
03:48The best player in the world was taken with the 41st pick in the draft.
03:52That just doesn't happen.
03:54Right?
03:54So, it's important for the Wizards to get some lottery luck.
03:59They didn't get any last year, obviously.
04:01And so, next year's draft is, oh, there'll be somebody good coming out of the draft.
04:06There'll be always somebody good comes out of every draft.
04:08But it's not viewed as a draft that's nearly as good with talent at the top as this year's draft
04:16is and as last year's draft was.
04:19From a fan base, from an organizational, take us seriously kind of perspective, what would the number one overall pick
04:26do?
04:27I mean, because we're on life support now.
04:29There's like 11 of us that are invested in Wizards Outcomes on a nightly basis.
04:33What would that do for this fan base in terms of energy, the organization, to kind of have this plan
04:37come to fruition?
04:38And then, conversely, what would the number five pick do?
04:42Well, let's start with five.
04:44I mean, I think, well, obviously, I think people would be disappointed and go, wow, this is terrible.
04:48They never get the first pick.
04:50I will just say this.
04:51In this year's draft, and this is why they tanked so hard this year and made sure they had the
04:56worst record in the league, they can only fall to five.
04:59They can't fall further than five.
05:01That's the lowest pick that they can get.
05:03Even if the worst thing happens and they pick five, there's still a chance that the person they pick at
05:09five is going to be a really good player.
05:12Right?
05:13Like a really, really good player for a long time.
05:16Now, will they be a superstar?
05:18You know, I don't know.
05:20But the chances of them being a bust are not very high, I don't think, in this year's draft.
05:25That's how good the first six or seven picks should be in this draft.
05:29They should all hit.
05:30I mean, I just don't know how they don't all hit and, at the very least, be very good players.
05:36Now, if you get one, look, I mean, it's no different.
05:40Again, Detroit, terrible team.
05:43Drafted Kay Cunningham.
05:44Now they're a good team.
05:45You know, like Orlando.
05:48I know Orlando just fired their coach, but they were terrible.
05:51They were terrible.
05:53And they tanked and they got Paolo Bencaro first, and now they're a playoff team.
05:58Like, that changes everything when you get a guy that good.
06:02But in this draft, again, we don't know for sure, but whether it's DeBanser or Peterson,
06:07who are generally considered the top two guys in this draft, Minnesota.
06:13Minnesota's a joke of a franchise.
06:15They were horrendous.
06:17They drafted Anthony Edwards first overall, and they've been to two straight conference finals
06:22and have a real good chance of going to another one.
06:25Like, you've got to have that guy.
06:26It just changes everything.
06:28You get on national TV.
06:30You win games.
06:31You beat good teams.
06:33And then players on other teams go, hey, wait, that guy's pretty good.
06:36That DeBanser kid's pretty good.
06:38That Peterson kid's pretty good.
06:39I might want to go play with them in two years when my contract's up.
06:42And now you're the team that gets to trade for the superstar player instead of the three
06:47teams that Giannis wants to go to that never, ever, ever include the Wizards, right?
06:55By merit, because they haven't earned it.
06:56But when you start winning games, then people around the league start taking it a little more
07:00seriously.
07:03David, I'm going to ask you a dumb question here because I think I know how you see this
07:07and I probably see it the same way you do, but I just want to hear your response to it.
07:13The Wizards fans who talk a lot about the history of the lottery and that they always get got.
07:21We never mentioned the John Wall year for whatever reason.
07:24Those people just say that it never works out for us, right?
07:26And the idea of the NBA and who wins and the years they do and they don't, what's your
07:31larger take just on, I don't even mean the conspiracies, but just the thoughts on the
07:36lottery and teams like the Wizards seemingly not having their number come up?
07:43Well, you know, I know what you're saying and I agree with you.
07:47I think it's partly it is kind of, I don't know, theater, right?
07:52The theater of we never get a break and we never, our team never gets a guy and that's
07:56what fans think all the time.
07:58Um, I do think though, Grant, that I, I mean, I don't, I've written this.
08:04I don't think the league understands how, how really upset people were that Dallas got
08:12Cooper flag.
08:13I don't think they understand it.
08:15They just go, well, that's how the ball bounces and it just bounced their way.
08:18That's true.
08:18I'm not in any way suggesting it was rigged last year.
08:21I'm not.
08:21I just think that's insane to accuse people of felonies with no evidence.
08:26But the fact that Dallas, which was in the finals a year ago, a year ago, and trade and
08:35engage in one of the most incomprehensible trades in recent history, right?
08:41Like they just traded one of the best players in the world and, and didn't get a whole lot
08:45back.
08:45I'll do respect to Andy Davis.
08:47If he, again, if they thought he was worth it, they wouldn't have traded him to the
08:51Wizards.
08:51Right.
08:51And so, um, and then they're just handed the next great young player, Cooper flag.
09:00And, and people who have, whose teams lose on purpose that they can get in the lottery
09:04go, well, wait a minute.
09:06How come my team never gets a great young player?
09:09You know, and it's not just Washington, it's Utah, it's Indiana, it's Brooklyn.
09:12You know, I didn't realize this.
09:14Utah has never moved up.
09:17Never.
09:18It's never moved up in the lottery.
09:21They've been in the lottery 11 times and they've never moved up.
09:27I, if I was a jazz man, I would go, what is going on here?
09:30Right.
09:31And so that to me, I get that people think tanking is corrosive and it's terrible for
09:37the league and it's a bad look.
09:38The teams are trying to lose.
09:40I think it's just as damaging when entire fan bases go, well, we'll never get, we're
09:44never going to get a good player.
09:45They just, they're never going to let us have a good player.
09:47Yep.
09:47You know, I think that's something you got to look at if you're the league and go, well,
09:51wait a minute.
09:52And this is why I'm advocating.
09:53Like, maybe we need to look at the lottery in the draft again, because it's not doing what
09:57it's supposed to do.
09:59Like you look at the NFL, the Raiders take their hearts out there.
10:04I would say other things, but it's a family radio show.
10:07They tank.
10:09And they got Fernando Mendoza for tanking.
10:12And nobody says a word.
10:14Nobody says the league NFL's rigged and this is awful.
10:17Everybody goes, yeah, that's what's supposed to happen.
10:18The worst team gets the chance of the best player coming out of draft.
10:21What's wrong with that?
10:23Nothing's wrong with it.
10:25You know, if the lottery, if the NBA went, the NFL went back to the style that the NFL
10:31still uses, which is the worst team gets the first pick, then Utah would have gotten Cooper
10:35flag and the Wizards would have gotten Dylan Harper.
10:38And guess what?
10:39Neither of those teams would be tanking now.
10:41They'd be like, oh, we got our young superstar to build around, which is the whole point.
10:45Yeah.
10:45It's almost like it's what drafts were invented, right?
10:48Exactly.
10:50So I don't think the league understands that this is a problem, you know, and it has to
10:57take a serious look at how it allocates young players through a process that nobody begrudges
11:06San Antonio.
11:07They're a great franchise.
11:09They've been a model franchise.
11:11They've won five championships.
11:12They've done everything right to keep that team viable and relevant in the NBA.
11:19They got Victor Wembenyama, Stefan Castle, and Dylan Harper in three years.
11:25Yep.
11:26They went one, two, one, four, two.
11:29Like, and people go, well, wait a minute.
11:31They got Wembeny.
11:32Do they have to have Dylan Harper too?
11:33Like, you know, so that's where people are like, there's a, there's a kind of pooling of
11:38talent in one or two or three places where when there's five or six other franchises, they're
11:45going, we got nothing.
11:46What about, what about us?
11:48You know, and so I think they got to look at that.
11:51Great.
11:51David Aldridge with us here on G and D.
11:53Yeah.
11:53You said it, DA, that's 50 years or, you know, 46 years of my, that's only I've been alive.
11:58No 50 win seasons.
11:59You know, like when is my three consecutive years with Wembeny when we have seven of the
12:0310 ping pong balls, but just to this, back to this wizard's org kind of specifically here.
12:09If going back to that, if they don't get that number one, number two, number three, even if
12:13it's four or five, you know, what the naysayers are going to say, right?
12:17Like who, you know, who they didn't, they don't remember all the, the losing for no purpose,
12:21the losing for this purpose, it won't come to fruition.
12:24They won't bear the same kind of fruit.
12:26Will that kind of toxicity be, you know, much, much louder and kind of what do you anticipate
12:30there in terms of whether it's the fan base, different reactions, you know, kind of get
12:34into the org.
12:35What do you think about that part?
12:36I know.
12:36I know.
12:37I'll say this.
12:37I know this, Danny.
12:38These guys are not going to be, they're not going to make decisions based off of fan
12:44anger or disappointment or anything.
12:46These guys are locked in.
12:48This is how they're going to build this team.
12:49And they're clear eyed about it.
12:51And they're sober as a judge about it.
12:52They are not going to, they're not going to go, wow, we should do, we got to do this.
12:56They're going to do something now.
12:56Like, no, that's not how these guys are old.
12:59You can disagree with that or not like it, but I'm telling you, they're not going to flinch.
13:04They're going to build through the draft until they hit on a star player.
13:08And that's just, and that's why it matters.
13:11This year matters.
13:12You know, at four or five, you're talking about a cuff.
13:17You're talking about Vogler.
13:18You're talking about Caleb Wilson from North Carolina.
13:21And again, I do not think those are bad picks.
13:23Okay.
13:24Those are not bad picks.
13:26Those guys can play.
13:27Okay.
13:28Now there's some, there's some roster kind of overlap, but I, when you're drafting top
13:34five, I do not care about roster overlap.
13:36You take the talent.
13:38The whole point of being that bad is to take the most talented guys that you can get your
13:43hands on.
13:43Right.
13:44And so I think I, you know, some people will be disappointed to be sure, but just look,
13:50just don't take my word for it.
13:52Just look at Darius Acuff highlights.
13:54Look at Keaton Vogler highlights.
13:55Those guys are good.
13:56Okay.
13:57And they, and Keaton Vogler took, was a nobody on the board.
14:02Nobody knew who this kid was.
14:04And he took Illinois, which has not been a powerhouse team to the final four.
14:09Okay.
14:10Like, like he scored 46 at Purdue.
14:13Okay.
14:13Like, like that's not easy to do.
14:15Um, he can play a cuff first team, all American.
14:19He can play.
14:20And again, I wrote in the story, John Calipari has been pretty successful in college at developing
14:28guards who play in the NBA.
14:30We develop a guy named Shea Gilgis Alexander.
14:33That's, that's pretty good.
14:34As long, uh, last time I checked, he's pretty good player.
14:36And John Wall is a pretty good player.
14:38And Derek Rose is a pretty good player.
14:39And, and Tyrese Maxey was a pretty good player.
14:43And Devin Booker was a pretty good player.
14:45And Jamal Murray is a pretty good player.
14:46He develops NBA guards, not good ones, great ones.
14:49Okay.
14:50And he says Darius Acuff is as good as any of those guys.
14:53Then guess what?
14:54I'm going to take a real hard look at drafting Darius Acuff if I'm sitting there at five.
14:58So I don't think it's, I don't think people should be a little more discerning.
15:04I get it though.
15:05I get it.
15:06Cause you're like, it shouldn't, you know, but, but to Grant's point, they did get one twice.
15:12They got John Wall, who was great until he got hurt.
15:15And they got Kwame Brown, who wasn't great, but wasn't as bad as people make him out to be
15:21and played 12 years in the NBA.
15:23They weren't all here, but his, he was good enough that they got Karam Butler for him in a trade.
15:28And Karam Butler was pretty damn good when he was here.
15:30So I, you know, come on, right.
15:33You get drafting a guy.
15:35One does have a benefit.
15:36And sometimes it's for you.
15:38And sometimes it's for somebody else that you get in return for him.
15:41The piece is terrific.
15:43It's on the upcoming draft lottery and the draft.
15:46It's worth reading in the athletic real quick.
15:49If I could pivot to the future with the veterans and what they've done in the last year.
15:55So coach me up on this.
15:56I'm kind of out on this Anthony Davis thing.
16:00Like I get it.
16:02He, his timeline and their timeline might not be the same.
16:05They might've been a perfect fit in another, uh, multiverse, but he's, you know, ready
16:11to get married and they want to keep going out to the club or, or whatever.
16:13Right.
16:14So he's saying, I'd love to be on a contender, but by the way, this team can't contend next
16:18year.
16:18He's saying it as bluntly as he can while trying to be really nice and complimenting
16:22the GM and how fun everybody is.
16:24And he loves the kids.
16:25Right.
16:25But he clearly does not want to play here next year.
16:28Why not just trade him?
16:30Like, why are we going to keep doing this?
16:33Um, a couple of reasons.
16:34Number one, I, I, I w I don't think Anthony Davis is the only player in the NBA who isn't
16:41thrilled where he is, but you know, there's a couple of those guys.
16:45Very unique distinction.
16:46Yeah.
16:47Yeah.
16:48At the, at their, their kind of end of season availability for media, I, he, he was there
16:53and I said, do you want to be here next year?
16:55He said, well, I'm under contract, you know, and that was not, yes, I want to be here, but
17:01it was, I, I don't have any choice.
17:03I can't hold out.
17:04So here's what I think happens with Anthony Davis.
17:07I think the wizards have already had multiple conversations with him.
17:11And I think what they say is two things.
17:13Number one, you want an extension.
17:14Okay.
17:16You want an extension.
17:18The only team that can give you an extension is us.
17:22Nobody else can give you an extension.
17:24Nobody else will have the cap room or the, or the inclination, even if they create the
17:29cap room to give you an extension, we're the only team that can give it to you.
17:35So if you ball out next season and play like Anthony Davis again, we can talk about an extension.
17:43And if you go to come to us after next season and say, you know what?
17:46I really just want to be somewhere else.
17:48We can trade you, but you have to play well for us for a year to make that happen.
17:54So whatever, whatever it is that you want, Anthony Davis, it requires you to play well
17:59for the Washington wizards next season.
18:02And if you do that, then we can talk about getting you out of here after a year, but you
18:06have to play well for us next year and give us a chance to get to the playoffs and take,
18:13just give us a year.
18:14And if, if you don't like playing with AJ DeBansa or Darren Peterson or Cameron Boozer
18:22or Caleb Wilson or Keaton Vogler or Darius Acuff, you just don't want to play with them.
18:26Okay.
18:26We'll get you out of here.
18:27Why don't you play with them for a year and see how you feel after a year.
18:30And I think that's what adults do.
18:32Like you have adult conversations about hard things and you, and you say, look, work with
18:37us here, you know, just work with us.
18:40Be a, be a good leader for the young guys.
18:42Show them how to be a pro, give them all the tips that you've learned over 10 years
18:46and play well for us.
18:48And then we will see about, we'll see about what happens afterwards, but we can't do anything.
18:53We can't, we're not going to trade you now for, for nothing just because you're not happy
18:59here.
18:59Just give us a year and then we'll, we'll figure something out, but you got to play good.
19:05So play good next year and then we'll talk.
19:07And I think that's, I think that's where they are.
19:09I don't have any evidence, but knowing these guys, the way I do.
19:12I think that's the conversation they've had.
19:15Dan, you're the best buddy.
19:16I always appreciate the time, man.
19:18Okay, guys.
19:19Thanks very much.
19:20Appreciate it.
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