Entering the offseason, it was clear the Washington Wizards needed to find a game-changing talent in the 2025 NBA Draft.
After their top odds to earn the No. 1 overall pick ended in nightmare fashion with the team falling out of the top five as a whole, Washington's offseason seemingly took a turn for the worse with the No, 6 overall pick being the team's fate from their disastrous regular season.
With the No. 6 pick, the Wizards seem poised to wait and see what talent fell to them outside the top five and just hope that it was a player they could use in their rebuild.
That is, until rumors began to swirl that Ace Bailey, a projected top 3 pick, was doing everything in his power to dictate where he landed in the draft.
With Bailey and his camp searching for a way to navigate his landing spot, there was a growing sense that the Wizards could be the preferred landing spot.
Now, NBA Insider Marc Stein has confirmed the speculation that Bailey's preferred spot was indeed the Washington Wizards at No. 6 overall.
From @TheSteinLine: “Ace Bailey refused pre-draft workouts from all interested teams to try to force his way to the Washington Wizards at No. 6”
— SleeperWizards (@SleeperWizards) September 22, 2025
The next generation knows the future of the NBA goes through Washington 😤 pic.twitter.com/p8vcBIDIFC
We all know how the draft played out, with Washington landing an explosive scoring guard in Tre Johnson. And while it's still unknown how everything will play out, the confirmation that the Wizards missed out on Bailey only re-opens the wound that was slowly healing with time.
With Washington already missing out on Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper, the idea that Bailey could force his way to D.C. seemed to good to be true.
If the Wizards managed to land a top three talent even after falling out of the top five, their offseason could be saved.
Through the first four picks, it seemed like there was a real chance that Rutgers star would be granted his wish and be available when Washington was on the clock.
However, in typical Danny Ainge fashion, the Utah Jazz stepped in and made a business decision selecting Bailey at No. 5 overall sending him to Salt Lake City.
Washington was then forced to quickly pivot drafting Johnson, which in all fairness didn't seem like too bad of a selection considering the addition of CJ McCollum's shortly before was the perfect veteran addition to mentor the guard.
Still, the confirmation that Bailey was locked in on becoming a Wizard is exactly what the fanbase could have moved forward without knowing.