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https://tinyurl.com/bdzme9tn

Keith Smith 2026.4.15

Add reinforcements for a push up the standings

招兵買馬 逐鹿中原

Actual Cap Space： -$74.8M
Practical Cap Space： -$71.5M
Projected Luxury Tax Space： $60.6M

現有合約 (13)
Leaky Black (雙向合約)
Bub Carrington
Justin Champagnie (非保障合約)
Bilal Coulibaly
Anthony Davis
Kyshawn George
Jaden Hardy
Tre Johnson
Julian Reese (雙向合約)
Will Riley
Alex Sarr
Tristan Vukcevic
Cam Whitmore

潛在自由球員 (5)
Sharife Cooper (受限雙向)
Anthony Gill (非受限)
D'Angelo Russell (非受限PO)
Jamir Watkins (受限TO)
Trae Young (非受限PO)

死錢 (0)：無

特例： MLE ($15M)
(本球季已使用BAE)
交易特例： Kelly Olynyk ($13.4M)

預計首輪選秀權： 第 1 順位

續約候選人
Bilal Coulibaly (新秀續約)
Anthony Davis (老將續約，自 8 月 6 日起)
Jaden Hardy (老將續約，自 10 月 22 日起)
Cam Whitmore (新秀續約)
Trae Young (老將續約)

The Washington Wizards are in an absolutely fascinating spot. They enter the
lottery in the top overall spot. That comes after spending the entire season
tanking to make sure that they wouldn't convey a top-eight protected
first-round pick to the New York Knicks. Mission accomplished. However,
unlike most teams that find themselves in position to have a high lottery
pick, the Wizards are no longer deep in the rebuilding woods. Washington is
positioned to move up the standings in rapid fashion next season.



The Wizards front office has completed the tear-down phase of the roster.
They've added considerable young talent over the last few drafts. Then, this
season, Washington exercised some “pre-agency” by trading for Trae Young
first, then Anthony Davis. The veteran combo of Davis and Young is expected
to lead a young, but improving roster into playoff contention next season. As
it stands today, this roster is a little shy of the talent that will take,
but they've got plenty to work with to build a team that can make at least
the Play-In Tournament.



Let's start on the sidelines. Brian Keefe took over midway through the
2023-24 season, and has shepherded an extremely young team through
two-and-a-half seasons full of losses. In a lot of ways, we still don't
really know what Keefe’s calling card is as a coach. No one has said that
these recent Wizards teams have been extremely well-prepared, play extremely
hard, run great stuff on offense, have great schemes on defense, or…well…
really anything positive. That's all somewhat of a reflection on Keefe. But
it's important to note that he followed the organization directives to
develop the young players, while also staying at the bottom of the standings.
Not exactly a great environment to evaluate a coach, but that's where the
Wizards are.



With Davis and Young in the fold, the Wizards are going to try to win games.
Has Keefe shown enough to convince the front office, and those two veteran
players, that he’s the guy to get the team into playoff contention? It’s
hard to say that he has. If the Washington front office has doubts, they’re
better off moving on and getting an experienced head coach to run things from
the jump. It’s better than making that decision after the season starts, and
the team may have lost ground in what should be a much-improved Eastern
Conference. Is that rough on Keefe? Absolutely. But the situation has changed
in Washington. It’s winning time, and they need a coach who the team feels
can take them there.



As for the roster, the bones of a good team are here. Davis will team with
Alex Sarr in a very big, athletic, versatile frontcourt. Sarr took real steps
forward in his second year, as he improved in just about every phase of the
game. Behind those two are unproven options like Tristan Vukcevic and Julian
Reese. Both have flashed potential, but may not be ready for bigger roles
just yet. After that, Washington played with a bunch of wings masquerading as
bigs at times. More depth is needed here, especially given Davis’ injury
history.


Reese。兩人都展現過潛力，但可能還沒準備好承擔更重要的角色。此外，巫師有時會用
一堆側翼球員來扛禁區，這裡需要更多深度，特別是考慮到 Davis 的傷病史。

Speaking of those wings, this is a pretty deep group of mostly younger
options. Kyshawn George looks like a long-term starter. Bilal Coulibaly is
still full of mostly unrealized potential. That’s kind of scary, considering
he’s extension-eligible this summer. (More on that later!) Will Riley and
Jamir Watkins (who should have his team option picked up, unless the Wizards
can work out a team-friendly deal), had good rookie seasons. And Justin
Champagnie is helpful vet to have around the backend of the rotation.



In the backcourt, Young was acquired to lead a young, but exciting group. Tre
Johnson’s rookie season went about as expected. He showed a ton of offensive
potential, including being completely fearless as a shooter/scorer. Bub
Carrington has played every game over his first two seasons. Year 2 for
Carrington saw him take a leap as a shooter, while he continued to figure out
being a lead playmaker on the fly, with everchanging personnel around him. At
the very least, this is a nice backcourt trio, as Carrington can play both
spots next to either Young or Johnson. Jaden Hardy gives Washington another
interesting player for guard depth. In addition, most of the wings can slide
down and play in the backcourt.

後場方面，引進 Young 是為了帶領這群年輕且令人興奮的球員。Tre Johnson 的新秀球
季表現符合預期，展現了強大的進攻潛力，作為射手和得分手毫無畏懼。Bub
Carrington 在前兩個球季全勤，第二年他在投籃上有了成長，同時在身邊人員不斷變動
的情況下，持續摸索如何成為一名場上指揮官。至少這是一個不錯的後場三人組，
Carrington 能在 Young 或 Johnson 身邊分擔兩個後衛位置。Jaden Hardy 則為後衛深
度提供了另一個有趣的選擇。此外，多數側翼也能打到後場。

All of the above means Washington can focus on taking the best player
available in the draft, no matter where they land. A.J. Dybantsa would give
them another wing with size and skills. Darryn Peterson would be another
combo guard for the backcourt. Cam Boozer would give the team a legit power
forward, who can also play the three in big lineups. If the Wizards slide in
the lottery, they’ll be plenty of opportunities to add to the backcourt or
to pick up an additional frontcourt player.　Another option, but not a
recommended one, is to trade the pick for a win-now veteran. That’s
extremely risky, as we haven’t seen how the Wizards will look with Davis and
Young leading the way. But Washington should expect some calls, given they
are looking to win next season and this draft is deep with top-end talent.

以上種種意味著巫師可以專注於在選秀中挑選最優秀的球員，無論最終落在第幾順位。

Davis 與 Young 的帶領下會是什麼樣子。但考慮到球隊尋求下季開始贏球且本屆選秀頂
端天賦深厚，他們應該會接到一些電話。

In free agency, there are decisions to be made. Washington was once in range
of having $100 million in cap space. That was vaporized when the team traded
for Davis and Young. Even though the Wizards didn’t pay a massive price for
either All-Star, they do need to get them locked up on long-term deals to
make the trades worth it. Young is the more pressing situation. The veteran
point guard has a $48.9 million player option for next season that he’s
widely expected to decline. Washington could ink Young to an extension before
he even gets to free agency (if he declines the option), or they could
re-sign him this offseason. It doesn’t seem overly likely that Young is
going to test free agency by meeting with other teams, as the cap space teams
aren’t great fits for his skillset and/or aren’t ready to spend that kind
of money on a veteran.

在自由市場則要做出抉擇。巫師曾一度有望擁有 1 億美元的薪資空間，但在交易得到


However, and this is crucial, that doesn’t mean Washington should just hand
Young a max deal and move onto the next decision. Right now, the Wizards have
some cap and luxury tax flexibility, because they have players on rookie
scale deals. But the clock is ticking on some of those players and they’ll
be on new contracts before you know it. Giving Young a max, along with Davis
(more in a moment!), makes for a very expensive team when players like Sarr,
George, Carrington and Coulibaly are on new deals. The negotiations will
probably start with Young looking for a max, because he’s coming off a max
deal. Washington doesn’t want to mess around too much, because they did
trade for the All-Star point guard to have him long-term. A max contract isn’
t the smart play, but re-signing Young to something like five years, $200
million would be a smart play. The Wizards could even frontload that deal, so
it becomes less expensive as the other deals kick in. A deal starting at
$47.5 million next season would finish at $32.3 million, which should be
plenty large enough for Young to extend off of in the future.



As for Davis, he’s extension-eligible this summer. That deal would start
with the 2027-28 season, when Davis turns 35 years old. Moreso than with
Young, age and injury history are factors here. If Davis and his reps are
insistent than an extension gets done, and that was the buzz around the trade
deadline, Washington should look to do something similar to what we suggested
with Young. Start the deal high and have it decline year-to-year. $221
million over four years, starting at the $62.8 million player option Davis
would decline, makes sense. If the All-Star big man insists on a straight max
extension, the Wizards should hold firm and see how things look into next
season. They can always go back to Davis in-season and re-open extension
talks then.



Bilal Coulibaly and Cam Whitmore are both eligible to sign rookie scale
extensions. Whitmore isn’t going to get extended, after he missed most of
the season with a venous condition. Whitmore also wasn’t fitting in great
prior to having to be shutdown for the season. With a lot of other forwards
on the roster, Washington won’t lock into long-term money for Whitmore.
Coulibaly is in a far trickier situation. There’s a ton of raw talent there,
but his improvement has come very slowly over his first three NBA seasons.
Coulibaly is also being pressed by the presence of other young wings on the
roster. Unless Washington can get him on a fairly team-friendly extension,
they should hold off. At that point, Coulibaly may be best to bet on himself
and then to look to get paid the following summer.



Of the Wizards actual free agents this summer, they only have a couple. We
covered Trae Young above. Jamir Watkins can either do a long-term,
team-friendly deal this summer or Washington can keep him for $2.1 million
then make Watkins a restricted free agent in 2027. D’Angelo Russell is
highly likely to opt in for the $5.9 million he’s owed. That’ll make his
contract a nice chunk of salary-matching in trade for Washington. Anthony
Gill is an unrestricted free agent, and he’s well-liked by the Wizards. If
there’s a roster spot, don’t be surprised if Gill is back on a veteran
minimum deal. He’s not a free agent, but Washington will bring back Justin
Champagnie on his non-guaranteed contract.

今年夏天，球隊名單中即將成為自由球員的人並不多。Trae Young 如上所述。Jamir


If Young is back on something that’s even above $45 million, that should
still leave Washington in range of being able to use the full Non-Taxpayer
MLE. That’s $15 million in spending power to add another veteran or two to
aid in the playoff push. Adding frontcourt and backcourt depth are the
priorities. Using the NTMLE would hard-cap the Wizards at the first apron,
but that’s not an issue, as they probably aren’t going to exceed the luxury
tax next season.



The Washington Wizards front office was refreshingly candid when they took
over. They knew this was going to take some time, considering the roster they
inherited was bloated with bad contracts and didn’t have much young talent.
Three years in, the Wizards are ready to start moving back up. They’ve got
the ability to lock in a solid roster this offseason, but Washington has to
be careful with how they do so. Otherwise, in a few years, we could end up
right back where we were when this current rebuild started.




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※ 作者: YesBros 2026-04-16 11:57:54
※ 文章代碼(AID): #1fu5v52x (NBA)
※ 文章網址: https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/NBA/M.1776311877.A.0BB.html