Wizards face potential nightmare with looming NBA Expansion Draft

The has been plenty of discourse about a possible NBA Expansion Draft coming into fruituion in the near future.

With cities like Las Vegas and Seattle deemed as two realistic locations for an NBA team, commisioner Adam Silver has made is stance on a league expansion over the last few years crystal clear: it's good for the game and business.

For teams like the Washington Wizards, many would think that they'd be one of the last teams to be impacted by an expansion draft considering their abundance of young talent and current state of their rebuild.

However, that's exactly why a league expansion could spell bad news for the Wizards in specifc.

NBA Expansion Draft would be last thing Wizards need

Up to this point in the rebuild, Washington has yet to fully establish cornerstones that they can build around.

Sure, players like Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George have emerged as likely candidates to be those pieces, but still the Wizards find themselves in the position to potentially add yet another high-upside prospect this offseason who could shake up the team's future plans depending on their development.

Not to mention, Washington's bold moves ahead of the NBA trade deadline acquiring four-time All-Star Trae Young and future Hall of Famer Anthony Davis only made the team's potential decision ahead of an expansion draft that much more difficult.

With the original 30 NBA teams expected to be able to protect 8 players on the roster to keep out of the potential draft, Washington could find themselves having a hard time figuring out which young prospects they hope to keep.

Obviously candidates like Sarr, George, Young and Davis seem to be locks and that puts the number at four already.

So let's examine what the 8 players could look like with the likes of obvious names and which players that would leave on the outside looking in.

Obvious players to protect:
1. Alex Sarr
2. Kyshawn George
3. Trae Young
4. Anthony Davis
5. Tre Johnson
6. Will Riley
7. Bub Carrington
8. 2026 First-Round Pick

Assuming the players above would be the selections made by the team's front office, here's a look at the notable prospects that would leave available to the expansion draft:

Players eligible for expansion draft:
1. Cam Whitmore
2. Justin Champagnie
3. Jamir Watkins
4. Tristan Vukcevic
5. Jaden Hardy

Washington's decision to interchange any of these players would then put them in position to still lose talented depth that it took general manager Will Dawkins and President of Monumental Basketball years to build.

All that to say, the NBA Expansion Draft could be a looming nightmare rather than the team's dream offseason.