Wizards Rumors

Southeast Notes: Sarr, Wizards, LeVert, Hornets

In a new interview with Grant Afseth of RG.org, All-Rookie Wizards big man Alex Sarr indicated that his growth during his debut NBA season extended beyond his stat line.

“I feel like kind of everything,” Sarr said. “Defensively, I think physicality. Offensively, trying to get to the rim more, more drives. So I think that’s how I developed the most, for sure.” 

Across 67 contests, the 6’10” forward/center logged averages of 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.5 blocks per game for Washington. He had a fairly inefficient start as a shooter, Afseth notes, as he connected on just 39.4% of his field goal attempts and 30.8% of his three-point tries.

“They’re holding everybody accountable,” Sarr told Afseth regarding the approach of head coach Brian Keefe and his staff. “Trying to build something here and everybody’s bought into building our identity.”

After an encouraging debut 2024/25 season, Sarr is now gearing up to represent his native France in this summer’s EuroBasket competition.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

  • In a new Wizards offseason preview, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) breaks down routes for Washington to add to its $18.4MM in cap space; takes stock of the trade markets for veterans like Khris Middleton, Marcus Smart, and Jordan Poole; and proposes methods for the team to move up in this year’s draft.
  • Bringing back free agent Hawks guard Caris LeVert is expected to be a primary goal for Atlanta this summer, reports Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscriber link). LeVert proved critical as a bench scorer, and helped stabilize Atlanta’s minutes when All-Star guard Trae Young sat. After being acquired in a February trade, LeVert posted averages of 14.9 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 2.9 APG while Atlanta finished the season after the deadline on a 17-14 run. The 30-year-old is wrapping up a two-year, $32MM deal. Williams notes that Atlanta possesses LeVert’s Bird rights, meaning the team could re-sign him to a big deal without requiring cap room.
  • With the Hornets currently in the midst of the longest active playoff drought in the NBA, Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer (subscriber link) examines Charlotte’s roster and considers which players will and will not return. Despite a couple play-in tournament appearances, the Hornets have not played a postseason series since 2016.

Pelicans Hire Troy Weaver As Senior VP Of Basketball Operations

May 28: The Pelicans have formally confirmed the addition of Weaver to their front office, announcing that he’s the team’s new senior VP of basketball operations.

New Orleans also announced Jason Hervey as the team’s director of player personnel and Davis Smith as basketball operations manager. The club’s deal with Hervey was previously reported by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.


April 23: The Pelicans are hiring former Pistons general manager Troy Weaver, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, who reports (via Twitter) that Weaver will be named the senior vice president in New Orleans’ basketball operations department under new executive VP Joe Dumars.

In a full story on ESPN.com, Spears says Weaver will also hold the title of Pelicans general manager.

Weaver spent more than a decade in the Thunder’s front office before being hired by the Pistons as their general manager in 2020. He oversaw the rebuilding project in Detroit for four years, but was removed from his position last spring after the team posted a franchise-worst 14-68 record in 2023/24.

As poor as the Pistons’ record was during Weaver’s tenure, he perhaps deserves partial credit for the team’s renaissance this season, which was led by a handful of his draft picks, including star point guard Cade Cunningham, center Jalen Duren, and swingman Ausar Thompson.

Following his exit from Detroit, Weaver joined the Wizards last summer as a senior advisor. He’ll be leaving that role to join the Pelicans’ front office, says Spears.

Although both Dumars and Weaver are former heads of basketball operations in Detroit, their stints with the club didn’t overlap at all. Dumars led the Pistons’ front office from 2010-14, departing the organization while Weaver was still in Oklahoma City.

2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Washington Wizards

When Michael Winger and Will Dawkins took over the Wizards' front office in 2023, they got the go-ahead from ownership to rebuild a roster that had hovered between 25 and 35 wins for five straight seasons. And they wasted no time in tearing things down.

A 15-67 season in 2023/24 - the worst mark in franchise history - earned Washington the No. 2 overall pick in a 2024 draft without any clear-cut future superstars at the top of the class. Alex Sarr was a fine addition in that spot, and the Wizards had acquired a couple extra first-round picks that they used on Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George. But the front office would need a more ample base of young talent - and ideally a singular young cornerstone to build around - before moving onto the next stage of its plan for the roster.

As a result, the 2024/25 season was another slog for the rebuilding Wizards, who traded Deni Avdija to Portland last summer and then leaned further into player development by sending out Jonas Valanciunas and Kyle Kuzma midway through the 2024/25 campaign. With the exception of Jordan Poole, the team's top five players in total minutes ranged from 19 to 21 years old, with second-year forward Bilal Coulibaly joining Sarr, Carrington, and George on that list.

Having relied so heavily on first- and second-year players who probably weren't ready for such major roles, the Wizards unsurprisingly finished dead-last in the NBA in net rating (-12.2) by a significant margin. Unfortunately, a victory over Miami on the final day of the regular season dropped Washington to second in the pre-lottery draft order, and some bad luck on lottery night pushed the club all the way down to No. 6 in the actual draft.

It was a brutal - and unlikely - outcome for a team that had a hard time buying a win for most of the season. Having reduced the roles for productive veterans like Poole down the stretch, the Wizards can't say they avoided outright tanking altogether, but they weren't doing it as egregiously as some of their fellow bottom-feeders -- their 18-64 record was much more about an inability to win than a deliberate effort to lose.

There will be some promising young players available at No. 6, but the prospects with the most obvious star potential - like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, and V.J. Edgecombe - figure to be off the board by that point, forcing Winger and Dawkins to get more creative, and perhaps more patient, as they continue trying to build a roster capable of making it back to the playoffs.


The Wizards' Offseason Plan

In addition to the No. 6 overall pick in this year's draft, the Wizards will control No. 18, having acquired it in a deadline deal with the Grizzlies. They also own a small handful of extra first-rounders and swaps in the coming years, along with a plethora of second-rounders.

Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription

BENEFITS
  • Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Luke Adams
  • Join exclusive weekly live chats with Arthur Hill
  • Remove ads and support our writers.

Southeast Notes: Heat, Howard, Sarr, Carrington

The Heat must be aggressive this offseason and willing to remain in luxury tax territory to improve the roster, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. If Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant and/or Zion Williamson become available at the right price, the Heat should pursue those opportunities, according to Jackson, who says that includes looking into the possibility of making a deal with the Celtics, who are facing a prohibitive tax bill next season.

The Heat should also gauge the Hornets‘ interest in removing protections on the 2027 first-round pick the Heat owe them for the Terry Rozier deal, perhaps by offering an unprotected 2032 pick with added incentives, Jackson says. That would allow Miami to offer up to four first-round picks instead of three in a deal for a star.

What the Heat need to stop doing, in Jackson’s view, is overvaluing their assets. While they shouldn’t be shopped outright, Bam Adebayo or Tyler Herro shouldn’t be off the table in a blockbuster deal if it helps the team acquire an even more talented player, Jackson contends.

We have more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Heat should seriously consider moving the No. 20 pick in this year’s draft, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel opines. The pick they owe the Hornets currently puts them under restrictions from trading some of their future first-rounders. If they deal the No. 20 pick for any first-round pick in 2027, it could open multiple first-round picks for trades in the coming years, Winderman notes.
  • Jett Howard got more opportunities in his second season with the Magic but didn’t take advantage of them, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel writes. He appeared in 60 games but averaged just 4.5 points in 11.7 minutes per game. Howard remains confident he can be an impact player with more playing time. “I can shoot the ball at a pretty high level,” he said. “Getting used to doing that out there … It’s hard being called in sometimes and not other times, but that’s just with anything [as] a young guy trying to get into the league, trying to get navigate through that and get some comfortability with that.”
  • As we relayed earlier today, Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington earned All-Rookie honors. How rare is that for the Wizards franchise? They are the first Washington players to make an All-Rookie team since Rui Hachimura was a second-team pick in 2019/20, Varun Shankar of the Washington Post notes. The only other time the franchise had two selections was when Rod Thorn and Gus Johnson earned the honor in 1963/64 for the Baltimore Bullets.

NBA Announces 2024/25 All-Rookie Teams

The NBA has officially revealed its All-Rookie teams for the 2024/25 season (Twitter links). The First Team is made up the top two picks in the 2024 draft, a pair of Grizzlies, and this season’s Rookie of the Year, while the Second Team is heavy on centers.

A panel of 100 media members selected the All-Rookie teams, with players earning two points for a First Team vote and one point for a Second Team nod. The 10 players who made the cut, along with their corresponding point totals (Twitter link), are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

There are no real surprises on the First Team. Castle was the recipient of this season’s Rookie of the Year and was also the only player to be unanimously selected to the First Team, but fellow Rookie of the Year finalists Risacher and Wells weren’t far behind him. Edey and Sarr played significant roles for their respective teams and also finished in the top five in Rookie of the Year voting.

Among the members of the Second Team, Ware and Buzelis finished sixth and seventh in Rookie of the Year voting, while Missi, Clingan, and Carrington became starters for their respective teams in their first NBA seasons.

Carrington just narrowly edged out Jazz guard Isaiah Collier, who received one First Team vote and 50 Second Team votes for a total of 52 points. Carrington technically showed up on fewer overall ballots, but gained the slight edge because he was selected to the First Team by three voters (he was named to the Second Team by 47).

A total of 23 players showed up on at least one voter’s ballot, with Jazz forward/center Kyle Filipowski, Pistons forward Ron Holland, Lakers forward Dalton Knecht, and Suns wing Ryan Dunn rounding out the top 15 vote-getters — they, along with Collier, would’ve made up a hypothetical All-Rookie Third Team if the league recognized 15 players like it does for All-NBA.

All-Rookie is one of the few awards that doesn’t require players to meet the 65-game minimum and certain minutes-played thresholds. Risacher, Edey, Ware, Buzelis, and Clingan each would have been ineligible for consideration if that rule applied to All-Rookie voting.

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Heat, Jovic, Harris

The Wizards fell to No. 6 on lottery night after finishing the season with the second-worst record in the league, taking them out of the Cooper Flagg conversation and forcing them to confront a draft picture that’s far less certain to deliver a star.

One option, according to Varun Shankar of the Washington Post is center Derik Queen, who, like last year’s 14th overall pick Bub Carrington, is a Baltimore native. The two even briefly played together in high school, Queen told Shankar (Instagram link). The 6’10” big man has some athletic limitations, but would make for an interesting fit with last year’s number two pick, Alex Sarr.

Egor Demin and Cedric Coward could also potentially be in play for the Wizards, Shankar writes. Demin, a 19-year-old 6’9″ point guard, met with the Wizards during a pre-draft process that has seemingly gone well for him. He struggled with his shot in his lone season at BYU but has impressed scouts with his shooting drills at the NBA combine.

Coward is one of the draft’s big potential risers after playing just six games for Washington State with a shoulder injury and could be under consideration at No. 18. The 6’6″ wing boasts a 7’2″ wingspan and shows promise as both a shooter and a defender, which would fit in with the team’s draft track record, according to Shankar.

Here’s more from around the Southwest division:

  • Wizards owner Ted Leonsis rebukes the idea that his team was tanking this year. “We weren’t tanking. We were developing players. It’s a little different than maybe what some of the other teams’ strategy was,” he told Front Office Sports editor in chief Dan Roberts, as reported by Colin Salao. However, Salao notes that Jordan Poole‘s late-season minutes drop-off, as well as the moves to trade established players such as Deni Avdija last summer, point to a team intentionally limiting the minutes of its impactful veteran players.
  • The Heat don’t have a specific type when it comes to drafting, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez, and Kel’el Ware all represent very different age and experience ranges. With the 20th pick in the 2025 draft, the Heat will have to figure out what they’re prioritizing. “We talk about looking for upside, but we’ve seen players that are four-year seniors that get drafted lower that turn out to be Hall of Famers, and you see guys that are drafted younger that have upside that don’t pan out,” Heat VP of basketball operations Adam Simon told Winderman. He went on to add that the goal would be to find a player who can contribute immediately, similar to Ware and Jaquez.
  • Speaking of Jovic, the 21-year-old forward had an up-and-down third season in the NBA for the Heat, going from starter to out of the rotation to key reserve. A year out from restricted free agency, he’s looking forward to an offseason of work, according to Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang. “I have a solid three months to work on something,” Jovic said. “What that something will be, I don’t know yet. I still have to connect with the coaches and think about it a little bit. But I feel like this might be the first summer that I actually have some time to improve my game.”
  • Gary Harris is no stranger to adapting to changing roles for the Magic, writes Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. Dealing with injuries throughout the year, Harris found himself as the veteran mentor of a young, up-and-coming Magic team. His contract has a 2025/26 team option for next season that Orlando must decide on by June 29. “… All I can do is control what I can, continue to put the work in [and] stay ready for whatever the future may hold,” Harris said. “But I definitely love my time here in Orlando, so we’ll see if it continues.”

2025 NBA Draft Picks By Team

The Nets and Jazz were among the teams who left Monday’s draft lottery disappointed, as Brooklyn slipped two spots to No. 8 while Utah, the NBA’s worst team during the 2024/25 season, ended up at No. 6.

Still, while they won’t be picking as high in the lottery as they might like, the Nets and Jazz will enter this year’s draft armed with plenty of ammunition. Brooklyn controls a league-high five 2025 draft picks, including four first-rounders and an early second-rounder. Utah, meanwhile, is one of just two teams (along with the Magic) controlling four picks in this year’s draft, including a pair of first-rounders.

Four other clubs – the Spurs, Hornets, Wizards, and Thunder – own three picks apiece, so those seven teams combine to control 25 of the 59 selections in the 2025 draft.

In addition to those teams with three or more picks, 12 more clubs own a pair of 2025 draft selections, while another 10 control one apiece. That latter group includes the Mavericks, whose No. 1 overall pick is their only selection in this year’s draft.

That leaves just a single NBA team without a draft pick this year: the Nuggets. Denver traded its 2025 first-rounder to Orlando back in 2021 as part of a package for Aaron Gordon in a deal that has worked out exceedingly well for the 2023 champions and sent out its 2025 second-rounder last offseason in a Reggie Jackson salary-dump. The Nuggets could still trade into this draft, but for now they’re the only team on track to sit it out.

To present a clearer picture of which teams are most – and least – stocked with picks for the 2025 NBA draft, we’ve rounded up all 59 selections by team in the space below. Let’s dive in…


Teams with more than two picks:

  • Brooklyn Nets (5): 8, 19, 26, 27, 36
  • Utah Jazz (4): 5, 21, 43, 53
  • Orlando Magic (4): 16, 25, 46, 57
  • San Antonio Spurs (3): 2, 14, 38
  • Charlotte Hornets (3): 4, 33, 34
  • Washington Wizards (3): 6, 18, 40
  • Oklahoma City Thunder (3): 15, 24, 44

Teams with two picks:

  • Philadelphia 76ers: 3, 35
  • Toronto Raptors: 9, 39
  • Houston Rockets: 10, 59
  • Chicago Bulls: 12, 45
  • Atlanta Hawks: 13, 22
  • Minnesota Timberwolves: 17, 31
  • Indiana Pacers: 23, 54
  • Boston Celtics: 28, 32
  • Phoenix Suns: 29, 52
  • Los Angeles Clippers: 30, 51
  • Memphis Grizzlies: 48, 56
  • Cleveland Cavaliers: 49, 58

Teams with one pick:

  • Dallas Mavericks: 1
  • New Orleans Pelicans: 7
  • Portland Trail Blazers: 11
  • Miami Heat: 20
  • Detroit Pistons: 37
  • Golden State Warriors: 41
  • Sacramento Kings: 42
  • Milwaukee Bucks: 47
  • New York Knicks: 50
  • Los Angeles Lakers: 55

Teams with no picks:

  • Denver Nuggets

Southeast Notes: Hornets, Wizards, Giannis, Heat, Isaac

The Hornets were one of the finalists in the draft lottery but wound up with the fourth pick, dropping one spot from their pre-lottery position. However, Charlotte’s front office and coach put a positive spin on the outcome.

“Up until this moment, everyone just (had) a ton of anxiety, just waiting to see where we would be picking,” president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson told the Charlotte Observer’s Roderick Boone (subscription required). “But now that we know we are picking four, it helps clear some things up in conversations with other teams and continue the process as we are here with the draft prospects at the draft combine. So we are really excited.”

Hornets head coach Charles Lee expressed similar feelings.

“Excitement, clarity,” he said. “I think that this whole time, you are sitting and (wondering) what pick do you get? But I know talking to Jeff, talking to (assistant GM) Dotun (Akinwale) and the entire front office. They’ve talked about how deep of a draft class this is.I think they have a lot of the intangibles, in terms of great work ethic and great competitiveness, and they understand the team game and what it’s going to take to really impact winning at a high level. So, I look forward to kind of getting into the weeds with Dotun, and Jeff and the front office, and figuring out who is that next pick to continue to help us to build. ”

We have more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Wizards had miserable lottery luck, falling from No. 2 to No. 6. “We started the day with zero, and we walked away with six. So that’s the mindset we have coming in,” general manager Will Dawkins told Varun Shankar of the Washington Post. “We gained the sixth pick this year, and we also have 18,” he said. “So time to get back to work with our scouts.” The latter pick was the first-rounder acquired from the Grizzlies ahead of the trade deadline. Dawkins is apparently open for business if some team wants to move up in the draft or if the Wizards chose to seek a higher pick by packaging both of theirs. “We’ll look to move … but we’re very comfortable staying where we’re at,” Dawkins said.
  • Could the Hawks be a dark-horse candidate to pull off a Giannis Antetokounmpo deal? Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal Constitution believes the franchise should pull out all the stops to make that happen. Cunningham anticipates that the Hawks could offer the Bucks two of their three top players — Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels — plus their two first-round picks this season (Nos. 13 and 22) and up to three more first-round picks through the 2032 draft.
  • The Heat aren’t going anywhere — at least in terms of their local broadcasts. They have reached a multiyear agreement with FanDuel Sports Network to remain on FanDuel Sports Network Sun, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets.
  • Magic forward Jonathan Isaac appeared in 71 games, the second-most of his career, but he was far from satisfied with his season. His playing time was spotty, partly due to his offensive struggles. He shot 41.4 percent overall and 25.8 percent on threes. Isaac believes he needs improve his stamina, he told Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel. “Definitely inconsistent,” he said. “I started to feel a little better towards the end of the season, started to feel a little lighter, a little more agile. So, I’m taking that into the summer to just focus on my game, focus on really getting in shape, shedding some weight and kind of getting back to where I was before.” Isaac has three years left on his contract.

Mavericks Win 2025 NBA Draft Lottery; Spurs, Sixers, Hornets In Top 4

The Mavericks have won the 2025 NBA draft lottery, jumping all the way from No. 11 in the lottery standings to No. 1 in the draft.

Dallas had just a 1.8% chance of claiming this year’s top pick. Those are the longest odds for any team that has won the lottery since the NBA revamped the format prior to the 2019 draft.

The Mavs’ unlikely lottery victory puts them in position to select consensus top prospect Cooper Flagg, the Duke star who led the Blue Devils to the Final Four as a freshman and was named the ACC Player of the Year, as well as the Naismith College Player of the Year.

The full lottery order for the 2025 draft is as follows:

  1. Dallas Mavericks
  2. San Antonio Spurs
  3. Philadelphia 76ers
  4. Charlotte Hornets
  5. Utah Jazz
  6. Washington Wizards
  7. New Orleans Pelicans
  8. Brooklyn Nets
  9. Toronto Raptors
  10. Houston Rockets (from Suns)
  11. Portland Trail Blazers
  12. Chicago Bulls
  13. Atlanta Hawks (from Kings)
  14. San Antonio Spurs (from Hawks)

It’s an incredible turn of events in Dallas, where general manager Nico Harrison and his front office have been hammered by fans and pundits alike for the last three-plus months for their decision to trade franchise player Luka Doncic to the Lakers at February’s deadline. Now the Mavs are poised to add another cornerstone and a potential All-Star in Flagg, who will join Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving on the new-look roster.

As Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News tweets, this is the first time in 17 lottery appearances that the Mavs ended up with a better pick than their odds dictated.

The lottery results feature plenty of fascinating stories beyond Dallas’ win, starting with the Spurs‘ pick moving up from No. 8 in the pre-lottery order to No. 2 in the draft. Dylan Harper of Rutgers is widely viewed as the second-best prospect in this year’s class behind Flagg and will be the frontrunner to join an up-and-coming San Antonio roster that already features Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, and Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.

When it was revealed on ESPN’s broadcast that the Mavericks and Spurs had moved into the top four, it momentarily looked as if the Sixers would lose their top-six protected pick, which appeared poised to slide to No. 7 and be sent to the Thunder. However, Philadelphia was among the lucky clubs to move up, claiming the No. 3 pick and hanging onto the selection for at least one more year. The 76ers will now owe their 2026 first-rounder, with top-four protection, to Oklahoma City.

The Hornets, who entered the lottery as one of three teams tied for the best odds at the first overall pick (14%), moved down one spot from No. 3 to No. 4. The Jazz and Wizards, who posted the NBA’s two worst records during the regular season, were even less fortunate, falling four spots each and coming in at No. 5 and No. 6.

That’s a worst-case scenario for those two clubs, who came into the night hoping to add a centerpiece like Flagg or Harper for their rebuild and instead dropped as far as they could have. There was a 47.9% chance Utah would end up at No. 5, but just a 20% chance Washington would slide all the way to No. 6.

The Pelicans were among the night’s biggest losers as well, slipping from No. 4 in the pre-lottery order to No. 7 when three teams leapfrogged them. The Nets and Raptors each dropped two spots to No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, while the Rockets (No. 10, via the Suns) and Trail Blazers (No. 11) slid one spot.

Although the Bulls didn’t move from their pre-lottery slot of No. 12, they had one of the biggest heartbreaks of the night — they finished with the same regular season record as the Mavericks and lost a coin flip last month for the No. 11 spot in the lottery. If they had won that tiebreaker, it would be the Bulls, not the Mavs, whose ping-pong ball combination was drawn for the top pick on Monday.

The lack of movement at the very back of the lottery means the Kings‘ pick, which came in at No. 13, will be sent to the Hawks, as expected. That selection – from the 2022 Kevin Huerter trade – was top-12 protected, so Sacramento only would have kept it if it had jumped into the top four.

The Spurs’ second pick of the lottery, courtesy of the Hawks, didn’t move from No. 14.

The NBA has posted a 13-minute video of the lottery drawing on social media.

Exploring Washington's draft options from pick No. 1 through 6.

  • Flagg would also be a monumental addition for the Wizards, who also have a 14% shot at the No. 1 pick and are assured of finishing in the top six. David Aldridge and Josh Robbins of the Athletic look at Washington’s likely selections with each of their potential picks, noting that the choices would get much murkier once Flagg and Dylan Harper are off the board.
  • Speaking to Raul Barrigon of HoopsHype, Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly discussed his goals this offseason (working on his handle and three-point shot), the most difficult NBA player to defend (De’Aaron Fox, due to his speed), and his plans to play for France in EuroBasket 2025, among other topics.