Bilal Coulibaly has all the potential in the world, and his flashes of two-way dominance has been the exacty type of skillset that the Washington Wizards hoped he could bring to the league when they selected him with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Obviously, flashes for a young prospect are encouraging, especially for international products like Coulibaly, who's experience playing against pro-level competiton and raw skillsets could allow for him to develop into a big time player for Washington.
However, it's hard to find optimism in those flashes when they come at such an inconsistent rate, and for Coulibaly up to this point of his career, that's been one of the biggest problems.
Bilal Coulibaly's inconsistency is frustrating
As mentioned above, the French product has the tools to be one of the best two-way players in the league.
Coulibaly's calling card comes on defense, where he's shown plenty of stretches as tenacious defender using his size and instincts to his favor, and he's also put together several performances that have the Wizards' coaching staff believing that there's more to his game than just being a defensive ace.
In Thursday's loss to the Orlando Magic, the oversized guard finished with 29 points, five assists and five rebounds, while shooting 9-for-21 from field goal range and 5-for-11 from beyond the arc.
The final stat got some aid from the matchup extending to overtime, but considering Coulibaly was the go-to player on offense for the Wizards in this matchup, it added to yet another list of performances that make the team wonder how much further he could take his game.
Until he does it on a consistent level though, every big performance will have to be taken with a grain of salt.
Coulibaly has to find some consistency to make a leap
Across the league, you can see players who've shown potential throughout their careers, but were never quite able to put it together.
With the likes of Killian Hayes, former Wizard Marvin Bagley III and even Deandre Ayton coming to mind, it's tough to not see Coulibaly heading down the same path.
The tools are there for him to succeed, both offensively and defensively, but if he doesn't find a way to put it all together consistently, it'll be hard for the Wizards to trust he can make the leap, especially as they exit the reconstruction phase of their rebuild heading into next season.