The Washington Wizards are in the midst of their long-awaited rebuilding process and as they continue to stack young talent on the roster, general manager Will Dawkins continues to consider every avenue to help his roster compete sooner rather than later.
Washington has took an interesting approach to their rebuild with the priority of surrounding their young core with a reliable veteran presence to mentor their squad.
The Wizards tried their hand at veteran leadership in both the backcourt and front court last offseason by making the offseason move to land Malcolm Brogdon prior to the NBA Draft in a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers and the free agency signing of Jonas Valanciunas.
However, Brogdon's injury-riddled season and Valanciunas short tenure in the DMV after being dealt ahead of the NBA trade deadline in February made it clear that Washington still needed to find a reliable veteran to serve as that mentor.
Now, with Khris Middleton and newly acquired CJ McCollum set to be those pieces heading into the 2025-26 season, the Wizards hope that they'll finally be able to find that reliable veteran.
Nonetheless, Washington could have ended this search long ago had they made the decision to hold onto Chris Paul when they had the chance instead of sending him to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Jordan Poole.
Paul has created a league-wide reputation for being one of the smartest players in the NBA and with his willingness to mentor young players and help them develop, he could have been the ideal candidate to serve that role for the Wizards.
Granted, following the departure of Beal, Washington was in the mindset of acquiring as many young assets and draft capital they could, but had the team kept the future in mind and realized the importance of veteran leadership at the time, CP3 would have been arguably the best vet the Wizards could have asked for.
Obviously, Paul being willing to serve as a mentor on a rebuilding team that is nowhere close to competing anytime soon would have been a huge hurdle to overcome, but if the Wizards could have at least agreed for the guard to start the season on the roster and deal him down the road, the minor time he was in D.C. would have been vaulable in its own.
Especially if they could have kept him around longer than that.
Now, the Wizards hope that McCollum can answer the call as the team's veteran presence on the roster.