After trading Bradley Beal to the hapless Phoenix Suns two years ago, the Washington Wizards still find themselves in the early stages of a rebuild. However, team president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins have taken a few low-risk, high-reward swings this offseason on recent first-round picks who could help accelerate the Wizards' path back toward contention.
These so-called "second-draft candidates"—players who got buried on the depth chart of the teams that drafted them but could break out elsewhere—now have a golden opportunity in Washington.
The Wizards have a handful of veterans in Khris Middleton, CJ McCollum, Marcus Smart and Richaun Holmes, but all four are on expiring contracts and presumably don't factor into the team's long-term plans. Washington does have a pair of potential franchise cornerstones in 2024 No. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr and 2025 No. 6 overall pick Tre Johnson, but other than that, minutes and roles should be largely up for grabs in training camp.
Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma led the Wizards in both points and shot attempts last season, but both are no longer in Washington. That only further opens the door for the Wizards' young players, including the newcomers this offseason.
A new lease on NBA life
In early July, the Wizards traded a 2026 second-round pick from the Chicago Bulls and a 2029 second-round pick from the Sacramento Kings to the Houston Rockets in exchange for rising third-year forward Cam Whitmore. They proceeded to trade veteran big man Kelly Olynyk to the San Antonio Spurs for Malaki Branham, Blake Wesley and what figures to be a late 2026 second-round pick via Dallas, Philadelphia or Oklahoma City.
After the trade, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone explained why he was willing to part ways with Whitmore, the No. 20 overall pick from the 2023 NBA draft, for such a meager price.
"We're not a developmental team anymore," Stone told reporters. “We want to provide Cam with the opportunity to do in his career what we still believe he very much can do. I think Cam is an insanely talented, really nice young man, and wanted to provide him an opportunity to go home and be in a situation where he could really play through mistakes in a way that we never could afford him... just in the iteration of the Rockets that he joined."
Whitmore played only 16.2 minutes per game across 51 appearances for the Rockets last season, and he wasn't in their playoff rotation during their first-round loss to the Golden State Warriors. Their acquisitions of Kevin Durant and Dorian Finney-Smith this offseason all but ensured that Whitmore would remain buried on the bench if he stayed in Houston.
Instead, he'll get a new lease on his NBA life in Washington, where the Wizards could sorely use more help on the wing.
Bilal Coulibaly, whom the Wizards selected seventh overall in the 2023 draft, seemed to hit his groove whenever Kuzma wasn't on the floor last season. He averaged a well-rounded 12.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.3 steals in 33.0 minutes per game, although he shot only 42.1 percent overall and 28.1 percent from deep. There's zero downside in adding Whitmore, whose unexpected draft-day tumble was one of the biggest surprises of that year's draft, to that mix.
Whitmore was born and raised in the area between Baltimore and Washington, so this trade is a homecoming of sorts for him. He'll be competing with Coulibaly, Middleton and Corey Kispert for minutes, but he'll have far more of a chance to make an impact with the Wizards than he would have with the Rockets this season.
The same goes for Branham and Wesley, whom the Spurs selected with the Nos. 20 and 25 picks in the 2022 NBA draft. Like Whitmore, they found themselves on a team that rapidly accelerated from rebuilding to playoff contention, leaving them buried in the rotation. Branham played a career-low 9.1 minutes per game last season, while Wesley wasn't much higher at 11.8 minutes per game.
There's a non-zero chance that neither Branham nor Wesley will amount to anything meaningful in Washington, although they're both basically risk-free fliers. They're each extension-eligible this offseason, but unless they're willing to sign extremely team-friendly deals, the Wizards figure to see how this year plays out before deciding what to do with them in restricted free agency next offseason. Even if neither one pops, Olynyk was on an expiring contract anyway. Getting a single second-round pick for him is fine; whatever Branham and Wesley provide will be icing on the cake.
The Wizards were creative in how they acquired those two as well. According to Spotrac's Keith Smith, they absorbed Branham via the Johnny Davis trade exception that they had, while they took Wesley into their bi-annual exception. (They currently project to enter next offseason well below the salary cap, so there's no harm in using the bi-annual now.) In doing so, they preserved the $9.9 million trade exception they have from the Jonas Valančiūnas deal, which gives them additional flexibility to make more moves later this offseason or in-season.
None of this will ultimately matter if the Wizards can't find a franchise cornerstone or two in the next few years. That's the foundation upon which they need to build the next great version of their team. Still, the Oklahoma City Thunder are living proof of how a rebuilding team hitting small moves on the margins can have a major payoff down the line.
If Whitmore, Branham and/or Wesley thrive in Washington with more opportunities than they had on their previous teams, they could help expedite the Wizards' rebuild.