The Washington Wizards are in the starting phases of the long-awaited and much-needed rebuild towards the future.
Washington continues to add young talent to the teams roster as they hope to find the puzzle pieces to put together a championship contender in the coming years.
Heading into the offseason, the Wizards are poised to get a major boost in the upcoming NBA Draft with the potential to earn the No. 1 overall pick, as well as selecting No. 18 overall in the first-round courtesy of their in-season trade with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Fortunately, the team may already have one building block already on the roster in Alex Sarr who they selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. And while the French product already has plenty of motivation to improve over the offseason, he gained even more with the latest Rookie of the Year news.
Alex Sarr finishes in 4th place in ROTY voting
Sarr had plenty ups-and-downs throughout this long and trying season for the Wizards, but one thing the seven-footer never did was shy away from his confidence. Even when the big man's shot wasn't falling, he stayed to course and realized that the only way to improve was work through it.
The versatile forward prided himself on impacting the game and he did that in more ways than scoring by being a willing passer in the Wizards offense, even in the post. However, agruably the biggest impact he made on the game was with his ability to defend at a high-level thanks to his giant wing span, agility as a 7-footer and instincts on the defensive side of the court.
Despite that, Sarr was never considered a realistic candidate to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, especially not with Stephon Castle in the picture who did nothing but impress during his rookie season with the San Antonio Spurs.
Nonetheless, it's not the fact that Sarr wasn't named Rookie of the Year, it's the fact that he didn't even finish top 3 in voting, even with his impressive play down the stretch.
With Sarr not even being considered a top three rookie of last year's NBA Draft class as the No. 2 overall selection, that alone should give him plenty of motivation to put the work in during the offseason and prove to the entire league and the Wizards that they made the correct choice when they turned the draft card in that had his name on it.