Is it wishful thinking to believe the Wizards are following the Thunder’s blueprint?

Over the last few decades the NBA has seen plenty of franchises take over as the model team that others try to emulate.

For years, many tried to build teams that not only resembled the Golden State Warriors, but could beat them.

Last season, the Boston Celtics were the standard led by their two star studded wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, whom were both drafted by the C's.

However, it's been awhile since the league has seen a young team ascend to the level of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

A team that completely hit the reset button after trading away Russell Westbrook and Paul George, now see themselves as the squad that teams in the league are trying to stack up against.

Most of that credit goes to general manager Sam Presti who has done an outstanding job accumulating draft picks and young talent to get his team to this point in the NBA Finals.

Three games away from the organizations first ever NBA Championship, Presti's blueprint to the Thunder's rebuild is now what rebuilding teams around the league are hoping to follow.

One team in specific that many have drawn comparisons to OKC is the Washington Wizards, and mainly due to the team's current state with Alex Sarr headlining the abundance of young talent on the roster.

And while Wizards' fans obviously hope that they're on the right path, is it wishful thinking to believe that Washington is indeed following the blueprint of the Thunder? Let's examine.

Are the Wizards OKC 2.0?

There's no doubt that the talent gap between the Wizards and Thunder is steep.

Oklahoma City is being led by the current MVP in the league in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and they've managed to stack an outstanding supporting cast around him, with names like Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Joe and the list goes on.

Multiple of the team's top players who aqcuired via trade, even SGA. However, Presti's eye for drafting top talent such as Jalen Williams, Holmgren, Wallace and Wiggins is a large reason why the Thunder were able to get back on top in the West as quickly as they did.

It's easy to see why Sarr draws comparisons to Holmgren with his 7-foot build and versatility on both sides of the ball.

Although Kyshawn George's offensive game is not close to the level of the Thunder's Williams, his versatility as a two-way player for Washington makes it easy to see the slight resemblence.

However, that may be as far as the comparisons go, at least in terms of realism.

The Wizards have yet to find an alpha that can lead them offensively into battle on any given night like SGA can for OKC. Sure, Jordan Poole is an option, but he's not nearly as dominant as Gilgeous-Alexander, nor is he really expected to be a longterm option for the Wizards to begin with.

Then you look at Bub Carrington and even AJ Johnson. Both guards are special in their own means, but they haven't shown enough for them to be compared to a player of SGA's stature.

Even then, it's easy to draw comparisons to the Thunder's rebuild for the Wizards, even if it's not exactly the blueprint of the talent they assembled, but how they're doing it.

Washington offloaded Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma. Now, they're left with veterans like Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart, who can easilty bring back additional assets.

Are the Wizards following the Thunder's blueprint of their rebuild? Kind of.

Is Washington's roster taking shape like OKC's? Not exactly.

Despite that, Washington is still heading in the right direction and while it may not allow for them to get back in contention as quickly as the Thunder did, they're building their roster the right way.