- 22 hours ago
Josh Robbins joins The Sports Junkies to break down the latest Washington Wizards news.
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00:00welcome in josh robbins who covers the wizards for the athletic josh good morning thanks for
00:06joining us man we appreciate it hey my pleasure hey before we get into the draft i've i remember
00:13distinctly a couple months ago when my show co-host john paul flame brought up the idea that
00:19anthony davis might never suit up for the washington wizards and i scoffed at him i was
00:23like what are you talking about they got anthony davis to pair up with trey young and this young
00:27core to be like a competitive team in the east and maybe maybe fight for a playoff spot next season
00:34and the more i hear anthony davis talk and the more jp talks about it and our producer drab talks
00:40about
00:40it i'm getting less and less optimistic that he's ever going to play for the washington wizards what
00:46is your vibe on that situation do you see him being a wizard come training camp this upcoming fall do
00:53you think he ever wears a wizard's uniform i do think he wears a wizard's uniform but i i'm with
01:00you but the vibe is not a is not a good one and it's it's interesting to me that he
01:06is as vocal as
01:08he is i i give him credit for being honest if that's how he truly feels about his concerns about
01:13going to a team that is trying to make this 180 degree turn i give him props for that
01:21uh if that's how he truly feels uh but but the vibe there is not good it is strange that
01:28this
01:28is something that he echoes every time he's asked about it it's that so that's not a good sign
01:36at the same time i do wonder if a contract extension would ease his concerns right right that's what i
01:44wonder and i think that's a part of it here i there's very little doubt in my mind that that's
01:49a part of
01:50it um but you're right the vibe is not a does not sound like a good one i mean right
01:57now right but
01:58you're alluding to this could be sort of almost classic this is a guy pushing for an extension this
02:03is kind of is negotiating through the media perhaps it's it's yeah and certainly he would like another
02:11two years tacked on to his current deal right that that's that's not a secret in the league
02:17awfully risky awfully risky with his injury issues and that's the problem yep yep so you don't so
02:25if you had to put money on it he wouldn't be traded pre-season he would be traded maybe at
02:31the deadline
02:32that's my guess that's my guess but um i just wonder how hard are they really pushing how hard
02:40is ad and really rich paul pushing behind the scenes if at all and and i would think that they
02:48continue to have a dialogue with wizards officials about this right hmm well all right so we have no
02:56idea where they're going to draft or who they're going to draft yet but you know they've got some
02:59young players that they were trying to develop likely to draft fifth yeah i know that's the most
03:03what the math says but maybe they get lucky and they get a top two or a top three and
03:08they get a
03:08legit player that they can kind of build around but they've got some young guys already if they did
03:13have let's just say they got a top three pick all right and they get the bons or peterson or
03:18or
03:19whoever wilson um with what with what they are building from the young crop with a couple of seasoned
03:25veterans and maybe they go out and add a couple veterans too i mean who knows what they're going to
03:30do in free agency um if they keep those guys do you kind of like the direction the team's going
03:37yes and that's the that's the intel that i hear when i'm out on the road and and speak to
03:43people
03:43from other teams that they really like the direction the wizards are in and having said all that
03:49what da and i wrote yesterday in the athletic is they still need a foundational star they have
03:56foundational players alexar is a foundational player he i think he showed that last year
04:01keishon george foundational player maybe others on the team as well but they need you need a star
04:09and for now trey young and ad are those stars at least they think ad is um but you need
04:17someone
04:18who's coming up through the pipeline who you can point to and say this person is going to be a
04:24perennial all nba candidate you just have to have someone along those lines to really be
04:32moving in a hundred percent the right direction right now they're in like 90 the right direction
04:37but they there's just no replacing someone like a kate cunningham or an anthony edwards uh you just have
04:45to have someone like that yeah um is debonsa the clear cut number one if they did get the topic
04:53in your opinion no i don't think he's clear cut i think it would come down to him and and
05:00darren
05:01peterson i'm not breaking any news there i mean these are the two people who have been right talked
05:05about as the number one guy all year long and even beyond that and first it was debonsa and then
05:12it
05:12was peterson and then peterson had this cramping episode um during during the season and there
05:20games where he didn't play big minutes right and so these the medicals if hallelujah for the wizards
05:29they get the number one pick they're going to pour over those medicals like you wouldn't believe
05:34they would have to interview after interview with the players themselves uh it's not a done deal i think
05:41people would say in the industry that peterson probably is the better long-range two-way guy
05:47two-way player but you can't go wrong with either person unless there's some sort of medical issue
05:54there with peterson which they're going to have to suss out and figure out what what about yeah at
06:00five though because that's when it really becomes a little a wider obviously um is there a guy there
06:07that you think might be the perfect fit
06:13i think they would lean to darius acup jr
06:18which you know some people are going to be upset at me for saying that because he's only 6-3
06:23and lord lord knows i wish i was 6-3 but i'm not but apparently but he i think that's
06:30generous by
06:31the way 6-3 i know he might be a little smaller but yeah that's the problem and that's the
06:36concern
06:36and yet at the same time that was one of the the knocks on tyrese maxi coming out of college
06:43and why he was drafted outside of the lottery and by the way tyrese maxi played for calipari
06:50acup plays for calipari uh or played for calipari so my guess is that he would be the the presumptive
07:00likely pick with the with the caveat being that they would look at kingston fleming they would look
07:05at keaton wagler um and they would do exactly what a thorough front office does they would bring
07:11in everyone who might possibly be under consideration there and try to learn as much as they possibly
07:19can and then make their decision but i think at the moment i would think that they would go with
07:25acup
07:25but they are as secretive of the team as it gets and i have to admit that's guesswork on my
07:32part
07:33at this time yeah joined by josh robbins covers the wizards for the athletic give me your rookie
07:39grade on trey johnson who was taken sixth last year he only appeared in 60 games part of that was
07:45due
07:45to injury i'm sure part of it also due to tank how do you grade him as a rookie what
07:49does his team
07:50expect out of him heading into year two i give him a b minus uh he he didn't partly because
07:58of those
07:59injuries and because of the the tanking uh he did lose momentum as the season went on but he's shown
08:07i think conclusively that he's got an elite skill right away and he can hit a shot from distance and
08:15so many young guys come into the league and they can't do that and you're wondering well where where
08:19is the elite skill not necessarily the elite athleticism and he's got that so b minus i think
08:27defensively he was better than i expected and and as the season went on he diversified some of his
08:34shot profile he added a floater uh he did start to attack a little bit more off the dribble and
08:41that's one of the areas where he's going to have to improve in year two and as we've just been
08:47talking about it's possible that they draft a wing or you know a combo guard and in that case
08:55does he come off the bench again next year i think that's a great that would be a great problem
09:00for the wizards to have but b minus i feel like i'm sounding like such a downer no no it's
09:07okay
09:07well being realistic i mean the wizards are let's be honest for 40 years they've been a downer so it's
09:13okay it's all good i mean they're coming off a 17 17 wins so it's okay yeah it's okay now
09:19but
09:19they're gonna get better the guy that got a lot of i'm old enough to remember when jeff ruling's
09:24career went oh yeah we are too we are too so the the guy that kind of uh got a
09:29lot of attention and
09:30excited a lot of people especially the second half of the season was will riley right so i that that
09:35guy i'm really intrigued by but give me five or six guys that you think are i'm not going to
09:44say
09:44untradeable but there's a core they're not going anywhere um because i'm not sure like bub
09:50carrington's in that i think you know he you could very well find him somewhere else and move on from
09:54him i don't know where balal fits in and all of that but give me five or six core that
09:59they've been
09:59developing the last three or four years and i guess you could throw in trey younger uh you know
10:04keep trey and anthony davis out of it just the young guys the young guys the core that's not going
10:10anywhere now that's one heck of a question thank you because there might not be five or six guys
10:16you got at least three or four right and it's not through any fault of their own i i think
10:21if
10:21this new front office and really even the way the thunder have done things
10:26is that they never really stand pat and if they see an opportunity to make a move to make a
10:33trade
10:33to give them a better long-term opportunity they're going to do it
10:37uh so that's i think that's a large part of their mo yes draft and develop for sure
10:46but if they they one of the components of their plan is to evaluate their own players better than
10:55the rest of the league earlier than the rest of the league and so if they feel like say balal
11:01and i'm
11:02just picking him out because he's the longest tenured person who whom they've drafted and developed
11:07they figure that balal is going to be this a one-way player only a defender um if they figure
11:16that out
11:17before the rest of the league well then they would probably they would have to consider moving him
11:22while his value is high uh so to get back to your question i think maybe that's it's three people
11:33perhaps maybe four so in order alexar keishon george trey johnson will riley yeah there you go
11:44i bought a little all in hey real quick you you were talking to josh robbins covers the wizards for
11:49the athletic you were part of a piece where players in the league were asked who's the most overrated
11:57player who's the most underrated player who's the least impressive coach a couple of wizards jumped out
12:02it to me when i was looking at that uh number one trey young was i believe the third most
12:07overrated
12:08player and i wonder why you think that might be and then least impressive coach was brian keith
12:14which i think is kind of unfair because mission accomplished they were tanking and he was able to
12:19do that why do you think trey young gets a rap as being an overrated player and it wasn't just
12:26this
12:26year either with trey i know it's like it wasn't just this year with rudy gobert who's always at
12:32the top of this list as well with guarding trey it's the old knock on him that he plays only
12:39one
12:39end of the ball one end of the floor that as good as he is on offense he's a liability
12:46on defense and
12:47there's a strong element of truth to that which he even brought up at the exit interviews with the
12:53media this season that he knows that that's what the his reputation is and he's intending to combat
13:02that in the year ahead so that that's part of it and then his time in atlanta didn't end well
13:10the
13:11team did play better more cohesively particularly on defense without him so that that's the knock on
13:20him and this is part of the opportunity he has here in washington to kind of put all those naysayers
13:27kind of kick him in the stomach and prove to the world that they're wrong and then for brian keith
13:35well this is the downstream effect of tanking that if you're going to if you're going to go into a
13:41game
13:42and they're going to be certain rotations you use and you don't make certain adjustments and the team
13:48is not looking particularly well organized on the defensive end well then that is going to reflect
13:53back on the coach and one of the players who we quoted uh was he basically the player said and
14:01i'm
14:01roughly paraphrasing yeah i don't even know the name of the coach of the wizards i'm picking him
14:08oh really that's what he said that's funny that is well josh we appreciate the time are you traveling
14:13out to chicago for the nba draft lottery i am oh hopefully hopefully you're the good luck charm
14:19hopefully you bring them the number one pick overall do we know who's representing the wizards
14:26yes and i think that's going to be published in approximately eight minutes oh it's coming soon
14:31all right can you give us a hint male or female male
14:39current player or former player or either i think i'm going to leave that to what gets
14:47published here in about a few minutes okay but i think it's going to be someone who
14:51wizards fans love to see up there all right that's a good nugget all right good tease all right josh
14:56thanks for the time i didn't mean to be like that that's all good man thanks for the time
15:01josh robbins we look forward to it covers the wizards for the athletic thanks man thank you bud
15:06no thank you guys
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