Washington Wizards draft targets, how many wins could a new player add?

The Washington Wizards stand to have a top 10 pick in the upcoming NBA draft if the season ended today. How many wins could each rookie add?

If the season ended today, odds are that the Washington Wizards would have the ninth pick in the upcoming NBA draft. They still have a chance at increasing their odds at a top pick, however, and an argument can be made that they should tank to do just that.

But either way, they’re looking at some solid incoming talent to place beside Bradley Beal and a returning John Wall. Picks one through ten would be fine to be honest as this year’s draft is known to not have a generational type talent at the top.

It should make for an interesting draft night with draft boards kind of all over the place at the moment, but there’s a general consensus that is beginning to take shape. So if the Washington Wizards maintain their top 10 pick (and they probably should, given their schedule), they’ll most likely get one of the top three guys they’re looking at.

And we’d have to assume they are targeting a shooting guard or a small forward. While there may be weak spots on this roster in other areas, those two needs are the most urgent: someone to be a starter at the small forward position and someone to back up Bradley Beal at the shooting guard position.

In the 2020-21 season, Shabbaz Napier and Jerome Robinson should be serviceable backups at the point guard position and spell Beal for a few minutes here and there, but most of the guard minutes will go to the aforementioned Beal and Wall.

Troy Brown has yet to show he can be a starter at this level, and Isaac Bonga hasn’t exactly shown that either despite his massive upside. Rui Hachimura is clearly going to be the starter at the power forward position for years to come, maybe even beyond Wall’s retirement.

At center, we’ll have a thin rotation somewhat of Thomas Bryant, Moritz Wagner, and maybe Anžejs Pasečņiks or even Ian Mahinmi on a veteran’s minimum salary. But a short center rotation in today’s NBA is certainly not a deal breaker as the league goes further and further away from the low post and more towards analytics and the three-ball plus dunks.

So, which wing player could the Washington Wizards draft that would provide the most estimated wins added? Let’s take a look at the top five guys from least estimated wins added to most.

I took the NBA comparison of each guy and used their rookie numbers to estimate their impact for the Wizards. It’s important to note that the projections here are a consensus of all the different mock drafts out there, gathered from NBADraft.net.