The Wizards need to pick best player available rather than best fit
By Cem Yolbulan
The Washington Wizards finally introduced their new front office yesterday. It was an occasion full of hope. It also made one thing clear: it is not clear what direction the Wizards are going in the short run. A decision regarding an immediate tear-down versus keeping the same core has not been made yet. That makes the looming draft day and free agency decisions hard to predict.
About the draft, however, one thing is obvious: the Washington Wizards need to have a best-player-available mindset rather than worrying about the fit.
Teams often opt for the strategy of drafting according to their roster needs. Although this seems like a decent strategy on paper, it doesn’t make much sense for a rebuilding team, which the Wizards surely will be at some point in the next few seasons.
For a championship contender, drafting the player that fits the best to your roster is a logical move. The idea of drafting a prospect to be the missing piece to your already successful core is a logical one. At that stage of roster building, teams can be more worried about the immediate contribution of draft picks rather than the high upside.
The Wizards are not in the same situation. There is significant uncertainty about who actually is going to be on the roster in a few years when the Wizards are ready to contend. When the draftee is in his prime, he is likely going to have a completely different roster around him. And most draftees are not ready to contribute immediately anyways, so expecting a player you select with the no.8 pick to fill a massive hole on your team in his rookie year is unreasonable.
That is why the Wizards need to not worry about the best positional and stylistic fit, and draft the best player available with the no. 8 pick.
The most commonly identified need for the Wizards is a point guard. Even though drafting a point guard would be nice, it should not be the primary goal for the Wizards. Sure if Anthony Black or Amen Thompson falls to no. 8 and they are the best player the Wizards have on their big board, great, happily draft them!
Yet, they should not make the mistake of reaching for a point guard just because that’s their most pressing need. Going for a Cason Wallace or a Jalen Hood-Schifino just because they fill a need on the roster would be a mistake, regardless of their eventual potential.
Despite the current roster uncertainty with the Wizards, their desperate need for high-upside talent is certain. Regardless of what the roster looks like on the first game of the season, the more blue-chip prospects they have, the better it will be, regardless of their positions and fits. And the way to do this is to draft the best player available on your board.
