Washington Wizards At A Disadvantage With Absence Of Normal Pre-Draft Evaluations

Along with the stoppage of play in the NBA due to the coronavirus pandemic, teams are unable to partake in the pre-draft process as they normally would. 

Due to various social distancing guidelines across the country, team personnel are unable to host potential draft picks for interviews or workouts as is the common procedure. Teams are also not anticipating a draft combine this summer.  

Instead, team executives will likely have to rely on virtual interviews and whatever amount of game film they have. On that latter note, there is a significant dearth of film on many prospects compared to previous years because the NCAA Tournament was canceled and many conference tournaments were not finished. 

This combination of changes to the pre-draft process could be extremely detrimental to lottery-bound NBA teams, such as the Washington Wizards. 

The NBA Draft Lottery is still scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, and there has been no indication that this season will resume before then. That being the case, teams would be locked in at their current odds for the lottery. 

At 24-40, the Wizards have the ninth-worst record in the league. According to tankathon.com, Washington has a 20.3 percent chance at a top-four pick and a 4.5 percent chance at the top overall pick. 

If the season does not continue, or if the league plans to start up again only with the playoffs, the Wizards will not have a chance to make the postseason or improve their lottery odds. 

Last summer, Washington had the sixth-best lottery odds but slid to the ninth spot, where it drafted Rui Hachimura. 

Hachimura had a fine rookie season, showcasing his athleticism on offense while also struggling to defend at times. At 6-foot-8, Hachimura played most of this season as a stretch-4, even though his outside shot is not yet fully developed. 

Of particular concern for the Wizards going into the draft and free agency beyond that is finding a strong on-ball defender who can play the small forward position. In the absence of the traditional pre-draft process, that task becomes significantly more difficult, especially if General Manager Tommy Sheppard and head coach Scott Brooks cannot evaluate players in person. 

Sheppard was technically the interim GM during last season’s draft, but at that point, all signs were pointing to him as eventually being named the general manager anyway. 

After taking over for the unpopular Ernie Grunfeld, Sheppard’s selection of Hachimura was his first major decision in his new role. After that, Sheppard re-signed Thomas Bryant in free agency, swung a trade for Dāvis Bertāns and added Ish Smith on a team-friendly contract. 

All of his moves have been made without a definite misfire. 

The lack of a traditional pre-draft evaluation period makes it much harder for him to nail his next big decision, which is what to do with this 2020 lottery pick. It becomes more difficult to build the Wizards in his vision if he cannot interact with prospects in person or have them work out at the team’s facility. 

It is not an enviable position for a second-year general manager. 

Further complicating the matter is that this group of draft-eligible players doesn’t appear to have defined tiers as previous drafts have had. In 2019, there was a clear top two in Zion Williamson and Ja Morant, but the top of this year’s draft is much less obvious. 

Included in the top prospects are Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, but there is no clear-cut favorite among them. Where one tier of players ends and another begins is murky, which adds to even more uncertainty regarding the 2020 NBA Draft. 

How GMs and fellow front office executives navigate all of these pre-draft challenges will determine much of their teams’ success in the next few seasons. 

For Sheppard and the Wizards, the rebuild can be either derailed or accelerated depending on how they fare during this less-than-ideal evaluation period.