Anyone who stumbles upon tickets to a Washington Wizards game should be forewarned — the team is in the infancy stage of a sorely needed rebuild. Gone are the days of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Now, any hope of sustained success for one of the NBA’s most frustrating franchises rests at the feet of a new dynamic duo, Michael Winger and Will Dawkins.
Moving on from a well-established backcourt pairing to a front office tag team makes for a difficult transition and certainly necessitates a step back in the short term, but the franchise hasn’t won consistently in more than 40 years. There’s no shame in utilizing a long-term vision while attempting to build the Wizards into a legitimate contender, even if there will be obvious growing pains along the way.
Maybe, if the new regime is fortunate enough, Washington will eventually land a player as impactful as Victor Wembanyama, who instantly changed the outlook of the San Antonio Spurs. Until then, the Wizards need to stockpile young assets, like 19-year-old rookie Bilal Coulibaly, and hope some of them pan out.
Wembanyama was excited to visit the nation’s capital, where he could reunite with Coulibaly, his close friend and former Metropolitans 92 teammate. Starting as 13-year-olds, Wembanyama and Coulibaly played together on various French pro teams before both were ultimately selected in the top seven picks of the 2023 NBA Draft. That explains why this matchup was circled on both players’ calendars when the schedule was released.
Less than three weeks after his 20th birthday, Wembanyama had nine of his game-high 24 points and two of his six blocked shots in the fourth quarter as the Spurs rallied from 12 down for a 131-127 win. Coulibaly finished the game with an efficient 14 points on six of nine shooting in 23 minutes.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich continues to exercise extreme caution with his franchise cornerstone, sitting him out regularly to limit wear and tear. The approach seems to be working, as the 7-foot-4 Frenchman leads the Spurs in scoring (19.8 points per game), rebounding (10.1) and blocked shots (a league-leading 3.1). If Coulibaly eventually posts half of those stats, it would be a welcome boost to Washington’s future outlook.
