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NBA Summer League is coming to an end so now the focus will shift to improving this offseason. Ben Standig explains why Washington paid Trae Young and the impact he will have on the Wizards rebuild.
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00:00to ben standing nfl and commanders reporter you can subscribe to his last man standing
00:06sub stack ben good morning how are you hey buddy fellas i'm doing great thanks for having me on
00:12you are doing great and you're also proving especially on x and on your sub stack that
00:17you're not a one-trick pony you don't just do nfl and commanders your latest offering is about
00:22the wizards and basically saying they know they paid a premium for trey young and basically you
00:29got to talk to will dawkins and some league execs about the deal what were some of the takeaways
00:34from signing trey young to that massive four-year 212 million dollar deal to stay here in dc
00:42yeah i mean look i was like i think most people when i first saw the the years and the
00:47money i
00:48was like oh no what happened that they go backwards in time is this uh you know the the kronfell
00:54shepherd regime all over again uh trey young's obviously a really good player but that money
00:58seemed to be you know a bit much or a lot much considering you know his perceived value and
01:06things along those lines but you know so and i still think some of that is still a valid
01:11question but the the difference is that i think too many people have judged it based on like the
01:17standard notion of what that contract means for some team whereas if you look at it specifically for
01:22the wizards it isn't the guy they're trying to get to be the piece the piece that leads them to
01:28the
01:28promise land that money typically might suggest that in their case it's more of hey we've got
01:33seven first round picks none of them are really a point guard uh we need these guys to you know
01:39be
01:39helpful bit to get to that next step we need some vets around them and somebody on offense who can
01:44run
01:44uh run the show trey young brings a lot of that to the table and if you didn't have trey
01:51young you
01:51know we saw here to go to the other team primarily cover the commander's a quarterback you know we saw
01:56sort of
01:56the random joes that they had at that position before jayden daniels and that's what the wizards
02:02were looking at at point guard if they didn't get a guy like trey young so basically it seems like
02:06they decided the calculus was worth it to spent to spend and overspend on a guy who is very good
02:12but
02:12that's not necessarily as good as that money would indicate rather than not having a viable option
02:19and going through the with the equivalent of the cars and went to the sam howls and that's the
02:24calculation that they've made i think it is an important distinction versus just saying hey
02:28here's a team that's like a you know middling team they added trey young and now they think
02:32they're contending that's not where the wizards are at but you know it's a little bit of a of a
02:37calculation they're trying to make here i think it's interesting that they've kind of they keep
02:41making the point that he's not necessarily going to be the primary ball handler all the time right
02:47that that's why they're developing will riley uh they want aj to bring it up you know at times
02:52and work on that skill that sort of thing they want trey to play off the ball some
02:57so his role could be different here in washington than it's been so far in the league right
03:04yeah it's conceivable i mean look he's um the limitations are you know his outside shooting
03:10surprisingly has not been as good as you know we all probably thought considering what we saw him do
03:15at oklahoma and then the first few years in the league um we know he's not he's undersized doesn't
03:20play a ton of defense etc but offensively you know he's obviously a pretty gifted player you know
03:25he's averaging over 25 points and nine assists for his career only one player in the last 50 years
03:31has finished their career right with those numbers as oscar robertson you know forever ago so you know
03:36there's a lot there to to to work with but at the same time like they're not going to stunt
03:41the growth
03:42of um you know aj debonsa or we mentioned will riley or uh keishon george or whomever like they want
03:50these guys to continue to develop we saw sar alex sar and george make big strides last year there's a
03:56reason to think that trey johnson might be the next guy up and obviously debonsa we don't look very good
04:02i was out there in vegas for that and he looked very good doing all the things that he does
04:06and
04:07including sorry a little bit a little bit of uh running the offense so trey young will be used in
04:15different ways he'll still be the main guy but they're not going to slow the progress of the other
04:18guys just for him get some water don't worry take a swim it's okay man it's all good i will
04:24where
04:24where does ad fit in all this because when they signed trey to that deal and i'm kind of with
04:31you i
04:31mean we all were kind of alarmed it was about 10 million more per year than what we had been
04:34anticipating what had been thrown out there um i'm okay with it i love the way trey's embraced
04:40the city he's he does some things that not many guys have done in this league uh i just i
04:45don't
04:45know get really excited to watch him play i think he's an exciting player i think he could bring a
04:48lot to this team but when they brought in ad also people just immediately just scoffed at it because
04:55of the injury history etc and i'm telling people here they keep saying that ad wants to play here and
05:01they want him be prepared because i'm not saying they're going to give them a max deal i think
05:06they're going to overpay they're going to give them some sort of extension and they're going to
05:09give them a deal that are going to that's going to freak everyone out this is where i think the
05:18like the the argument i just made for why they did what they did with trey young i think it's
05:23valid
05:23but it starts to lose steam if you give anthony davis a big deal i think the big difference is
05:30between the two is that again say whatever you want about trey young but he is currently 27
05:34right still a very good player we're just saying he wasn't for atlanta's purposes just wasn't the
05:40guy with what they're with what they needed anymore because of their overall roster so he's at least
05:44at minimum still in his prime if not ascending whereas anthony davis was he's 33 obviously he's
05:50constantly injured when he is healthy he is still one of the best i would argue 15 best players in
05:55the
05:55league but he's not healthy almost ever which is why you can't make that claim that he is one of
06:00those one of those guys i i don't think they're going to give him a max deal at all like
06:05you said
06:06in fact if anything the wizards may have been um helped out by the marketplace because when you see
06:11what jaylon brown's trade value was right as a guy who's making a ton of money i mean even trey
06:16young
06:16right i mean part of the reason why people were confused about the money he got was because the draft
06:22the trade uh hall that atlanta got back was pretty paltry but i think that's a reflection of
06:28the money that they were that was believed he was going to get etc but i don't think davis is
06:34going
06:34to get crazy when i mean look it is nuts we're talking i think i get needing the extension is
06:39going to make roughly 115 million dollars over the next two years uh if he if he picks up his
06:44player
06:44option in uh 27 28 so he'll be fine we don't have to have all the bake sale for anthony
06:50davis
06:50but there is a question of what is else is out there i don't think there's a max deal for
06:56anthony
06:56davis out there i know but i think it's going to be a lot it's going to be enough that
06:59it's going
07:00to make people crazy that's all i'm saying right well so i also think the key is for the trey
07:05young
07:05thing is that the next two years i understand it's money and i understand people want to feel
07:10like they're got their team made a great deal honestly who really gives a crap the money was there
07:15they had to spend to the floor anyway right and they're not paying anybody else but by two years
07:20from now that's when they will have to start paying alex r and keishon george and maybe you'll
07:25you'll already recognize that other guys are going to have to get extended sooner than later so
07:29you don't want to clog up the cap sheet at that point and that's where the anthony davis part
07:33comes in that could they give him another year at crazy money sure probably that that probably
07:38works maybe but like beyond that it starts getting a bit rough so i don't know if i would
07:43how much they're going to do i think they're going to play it out as best they can but it
07:47will
07:47come august is when he's eligible for the extension and no doubt his agent rich paul is not going to
07:53be just sitting there going well you know cool you guys don't want to do it no big deal all
07:58right ben
07:58let's shift over to the commanders here training camp is looming in your best estimation will the
08:04commander sign any of these following wideouts prior to week one iuk digs or keenan allen are any
08:13of them wearing a commander's uniform before the opener against the eagles um i guess my odds my
08:19answer would probably be no i mean the iuk thing i'm sure you guys have talked about it to the
08:25point
08:25of you're just beyond over it uh you know i just don't understand how that's possibly going to work
08:30anymore after everything that's gone down with him so you would think that that's a no stefan digs
08:35therefore being the more sane of the two choices is nuts considering his uh off season or off the
08:42field baggage i should say and you know i know he was you know not found guilty in certain in
08:47certain
08:47cases but regardless there's a lot going on there he's also a guy who's very productive a thousand
08:51yards every year and so on keenan allen um also consistently very productive but i think there's
08:58probably a feel that he's going to go back to the chargers would be my best guess even though i
09:02do
09:02think there's some intrigue here with him so digs would be my best guess but honestly i just you
09:09know that may just be us wish casting as opposed to actual um investment so i'm going to guess
09:15no that they don't sign any of those guys but obviously we all understand that there's a big
09:20hole at number two or at least there's a perception as a whole number two there's no obvious guy they
09:25may
09:25feel different than we do but there's yeah it's it's clearly the reason why you're asking we've had
09:29three receivers because that other spot opposite terry mcclorn is definitely uh uncertain to say
09:34the least well i mean clearly in the off season it was a priority right they tried to make a
09:38big play
09:38for pierce and some of these other guys didn't work out then they draft antonio williams and then
09:43they signed guys it i mean the first receiver dq talked about was van jefferson um i who would be
09:51the odd man out i mean they have quite a few guys they brought back diami i think for a
09:55reason they
09:56still have good feelings about diami for what he did late here in his tenure here didn't do anything
10:01with jacksonville but he has a rapport with jayden i actually think you know in drafting antonio i
10:08actually think they might be okay with this unit and not feel super stressed about it yeah i'm with
10:15you i mean look obviously it would be cool to have a guy in there who's just an obvious you
10:19know
10:20every down it's terry mcclorn and their version of t higgins or something like that right or george
10:25pickings that would be amazing right but what i think is important is that last year it wasn't
10:31just that they had you know terry mcclorn and noah brown had the injuries it set the depth behind them
10:36both from a talent perspective and maybe more importantly from a skill set perspective was
10:40just not good enough they didn't have guys who could come in specifically um do certain things
10:46what's key this year is that yeah okay dionby brown we've seen his most of his career here
10:51not been that exciting but we know he can get deep we saw what he and jayden could do
10:55um in 2024 um we've got uh trailing burks i i don't i think people are maybe a bit over
11:03hyping him
11:04because they want to believe that the athletic skills translate to being a steady receiver
11:08that said he's got the vertical game he's got the crazy athleticism that he can give you that you know
11:15when you need somebody to go target target up higher maybe in the red zone he could be that guy
11:20you mentioned van jefferson like he may be the long shot of the group to make the roster but at
11:25same point he's been highly productive for a team that won the super bowl a few years ago in the
11:30rams
11:30and he has not dropped the pass since 2023 not that he's had a huge volume of catches of targets
11:36but
11:37he's very reliable and i my point is like between those guys antonio williams and you know like they
11:42have guys who can do certain things and david blau knows how to deploy them and when to use them
11:47and
11:47and jayden does his his stuff i think they probably think they do have enough and they actually might
11:52also i think shika conku is going to play i don't know about a fair amount but i think somewhat
11:58out
11:58on the outside they're going to use more two tight end yes offense which means only having to have two
12:02receivers on the field so it's not going to be as reliant as they were the last couple of years
12:07where it's three receivers and now you're going wait a minute three of these guys out there when
12:12there was only one you feel good about so i think that's another component here that's got to be
12:16uh recognized ben good to hear from you thanks as always for the time we'll have to have you on
12:20again throughout training camp obviously it's right around the corner we'll talk to you again soon
12:24thanks buddy thanks guys that's ben standing nfl and commanders reporter be sure to subscribe to his
12:30last man standing sub stack coming up at 9 40 a guy that you haven't heard on the show for
12:36a while
12:36will return kevin mccarthy the movie reviewer he will review christopher nolan's the odyssey that's
12:42coming up at 9 40 here on the junks
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