5 Underrated talents the Wizards should try to acquire this season

The Washington Wizards are clearly in a rebuild mode. They wheeled-and-dealed on draft night and ended up with three first-round picks to add to a slowly growing young core.

If Washington elects to make any roster moves in-season, they will likely be moving off of one of the team’s remaining veterans — Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Poole, Malcolm Brogdon, and Jonas Valanciunas chief among them — in exchange for more picks or young talent. 

None of these players are likely to bring in a huge haul, and most of the teams that may be interested in making a win-now move won’t have much young talent to give up. Here are five underrated young talents who may be available if their respective teams decide to make a move for a veteran this season. 

5) Jalen Hood-Schifino, Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers’s ability to make big moves in the trade market has been hamstrung ever since they gave up a haul of players and future picks to get Anthony Davis in 2019. This summer, they were finally allowed to package together multiple picks in a trade.

Though they ended up holding on to their 2024 selection and selected Dalton Knecht, LA can still deal their 2029 and 2031 picks to solidify their rotation. Hood-Schifino, the number 17 pick in the 2023 draft, is a candidate to be included in any move the Lakers make in 2024-25.

The Indiana product played only 109 minutes across 21 games as a rookie, and the Lakers’s veteran-led roster has little patience for bringing along a raw guard prospect. 

The 6-foot-4 guard was seen by some experts as a potential lottery pick last year, and Washington does not have many viable young guard prospects. He has solid positional size and was a shrewd pick-and-roll operator in college.

Hood-Schifino has shown very little in his limited NBA career, but he’s exactly the type of “second-draft” player Washington should take a flier on if the Lakers want to bring Kuzma back to LA or are looking to move off of the Indiana product in a different trade.  

4) Jericho Sims, New York Knicks

The Knicks center rotation was looking thin after Isaiah Hartenstein’s departure to the Thunder and the announcement that Mitchell Robinson’s ankle injury would keep him out for a decent chunk of the season. It seemed possible that Sims, a fourth-year big out of  Texas, might win the starting job by default.

But after flipping Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks’ front-court rotation seems more set, and Sims could be the odd man out. Sims, like many of the other names on this list has had a very productive NBA career to date.

And while Washington’s front-court rotation is currently fairly full, they don’t have the kind of athleticism and rim protection that Sims could theoretically provide, and both Richaun Holmes and Marvin Bagley will be off the Wizards’ books next season. Sims could be a cheap option with little risk and decent upside.

3) Jae’Sean Tate, Houston Rockets  

At 28, Tate is older and a little more proven than other players on the list. But the Rockets have a loaded depth chart and may be looking to make a consolidation move this season. Houston could also be interested in Malcolm Brogdon as a backup point guard who could play both on and off the ball alongside youngsters Amen Thompson and Reed Shephard. 

Tate was a good contributor for bad Rockets teams in his first two years in the league, but his minutes have steadily declined each year since, as the Rockets have built a deep young core and added some useful veterans. Tate played almost 30 minutes a night as a rookie in 2020-21, down to a career-low of 16 last season.

The veteran would be a nice fit on the wing on this Wizards team as a good team defender who can produce some on offense without needing the ball in his hand.

Tari Eason is a younger, versatile, and more explosive version of Tate that would be an ideal target for Washington. However, Houston probably won’t be inclined to move him unless they take a big swing for a superstar, and no one on the Wizards’s roster fits that description. 

2) Jarace Walker, Indiana Pacers

The Wizards were rumored to be interested in Walker at No. 8 overall in 2023, but they ended up swapping spots with Indiana and taking Bilal Coulibaly instead.

While Coulibaly had a promising rookie year, Walker got buried on the surprisingly competitive Pacers’ bench, playing only 340 minutes in 33 games in 2023-24. If Walker ever fulfills his draft promise, he would be an ideal frontcourt fit next to the lanky and versatile Alex Sarr.

Walker is a burly power forward who can defend both in the post and on the perimeter. Offensively, he is a solid pick-and-roll player who is best in the short-roll as both a scorer and playmaker.

If Sarr develops as the three-point shooter and rim protector the Wizards hope, he and Walker would be a nice inside-outside combination, similar to how the Pacers likely envisioned a Myles Turner-Walker frontline.

The Pacers spent big money on the power forward spot this summer, signing Pascal Siakam to a four-year, $189 million contract and extending his backup Obi Toppin for four years, $60 million.

Meanwhile, Indiana remains thin on the wing and is likely to try to make a move to bolster that position group. If Walker becomes expendable as a result, Washington should be first in line to try to bring him aboard.

Moses Moody, Golden State Warriors

Any rebuilding NBA team should have Moody at the top of their trade wishlist. Through three NBA seasons, Moody has been a consistent performer whenever he gets the opportunity.

The guard is a good defender who has shot roughly 36% from downtown in all three of his seasons, and he has more ball skills than he has been able to showcase in the Warriors’s regimented offensive system.

Moody does not appear to be a Steve Kerr favorite, getting a number of DNPs during his career and never playing more than 17.5 minutes per game. Golden State is deeper now than they were in either of the past two years, so Moody may find playing time even harder to come by in 2024-25.

Moody and the organization have not yet been able to agree to terms on a rookie-scale contract extension, suggesting that he may be gettable in a trade. It’s hard to predict which of Washington’s players the Warriors would be interested in, but if the opportunity arises, the Wizards should move to acquire him.

Nonetheless, Moody has the potential to be a good two-way option to pair alongside Bub Carrington, Coulibaly, and Sarr.