Could the Wizards turn to precedent after historic losing season?

The 2023-24 Washington Wizards have made franchise history.

Their 15-win season is marked as the worst win total in their franchise. The Wizards have notched less than 20 wins just five times in the franchise’s history, dating back to the 1961-62 Chicago Packers. 

The team currently is in a rebuild mode, trying to acquire draft picks in hopes of finally righting the ship. In each of the last two drafts, they were able to land a top-10 pick. The 2022 lottery pick, Johnny Davis, who was taken 10th overall, has not shown much promise yet.

Davis has been struggling to find his role and has been sent to the G-League for much of his time with Washington. The seventh pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Bilal Coulibaly has been a bright spot with his defensive ability and effort at the young age of 19. 

Could the Wizards' historically bad season be beneficial going forward?

The last time the Wizards won fewer than 20 games was the 2008-09 season. Despite having such a poor record, they decided to trade their fifth overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. The Wolves took Ricky Rubio with the pick.

That 2009 draft class featured future Hall of Famers and All-Stars: Stephen Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, and Jeff Teague are some of the most notable players among them. The class also featured other noteworthy players like Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans, Ricky Rubio, Darren Collison, and DMV native Ty Lawson.

The Wizards could have had a really good player in that draft. Fortunately, the Wizards stuck gold with the first pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, selecting John Wall from the University of Kentucky.

With this season going down in the history books, the Wizards hold the second-best odds in the upcoming draft lottery and are guaranteed to obtain a top-six draft selection. This summer's draft can help move the franchise in the right direction. Fans are hoping for some wins soon as help is surely on the way this June.