#SoWizards

The Washington Wizards are 12th in the Eastern Conference and will likely miss any form of postseason play. Nearing the end of a "win now" season, Washington is on track to have the sixth best odds of landing the top pick in the NBA's draft lottery. They're a game-and-a-half from passing the Orlando Magic for fifth best odds.

What's been going wrong? What will some of the key franchise figures — and fans — regret from the 2022-23 season?

In this episode we discuss:

Key question: Is Kevin a traitor to the Wizards tribe for watching the opposing team's broadcast?

Washington Wizards president Tommy Sheppard gave interviews that were filled with nonsense, non sequiturs and incoherence. Kudos to Craig Hoffman for asking serious questions, by the way. In this episode, Kevin and Ron delve into five of the most absurd comments, and go on an array of tangents that come when people talk hoops, including the value of floaters, whether Kyle Kuzma has actually improved, what Deni Avdija is doing well the past eight games and what he needs to do to keep it going.

The Sheppard absurdities:

The Washington Wizards made the kind of trade that’s become familiar, sending former first round pick Rui Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kendrick Nunn and three second-round picks — two of which convey in 2028 and 2029. In this episode, Kevin and Ron analyze the trade for all involved, discuss what it means for the Wizards, and take a look at the schedule ahead.

And they get into a conversation about which player jerseys they'd be willing to buy/wear.

In this episode, OKC Dream Team podcaster and long-time Oklahoma City Thunder expert Jon Hamm joins Kevin and Ron to talk team building, how teams communicate with their fans, the importance of ownership and the relative progress of OKC and the Washington Wizards in their respective rebuilds/reloads.

As is usually the case on the #SoWizards podcast, the conversation goes in an array of directions, including a moment when Ron gets his mind blown when he learns the Bullets once drafted a player who was blind in one eye.

If there's such thing as a classic episode of the #SoWizards podcast, this is one of them.

The Wizards are on a seven-game losing streak, they've lost 10 of their last 11, and the schedule ahead is challenging. In this episode, Bleav In Wizards podcast host Matt Modderno joins us to discuss the relative merits of current Wizards players, whether the losing binge is actually a good thing for the franchise — and whether it should continue — and how to divvy up responsibility for the team's futility between owner Ted Leonsis, team president Tommy Sheppard and head coach Wes Unseld Jr.

Following up on the 2019 Rui Hachimura redraft Matt and Kevin did on Matt's podcast, we redid the first 15 picks of the 2020 Deni Avdija draft. Here's who we picked:

We agreed that if the draft were rerun the same way it went in 2020, the obvious pick for the Wizards would have been Haliburton. We discussed who the Wizards might have taken if both Avdija and Haliburton were out of the equation, as well as where Avdija might get picked in a full redraft.

Kevin Folli is the man behind Wizards Film Room on Twitter (follow him @KevinFolliNBA) where he provides insights, analysis and data with illustrative video.

In this episode, we discuss offensive and defensive scheme, Wes Unseld Jr. strengths and weaknesses, whether the Wizards have the talent to achieve even their modest goals, and what Tommy Sheppard has done since taking over as team president. This leads back franchise goals set by Ted Leonsis.

There are a few digressions along the way, including a brief conversation of the best possible All-NBA style all defense/no offense lineup.

Please forgive the false ending. We just had more to say.

Ken Budd writes for an array of outlets, including Washington Post Magazine and The Atlantic. Writing for The Atlantic, Budd delved into why such thing as Wizards fans exist — complete with interviews of psychologists explaining why otherwise intelligent, accomplished people can't stop rooting for perennial losers. We took some trips to fond memories of the past and pondered whether we're all just a bunch of masochists.

We also discussed the 3-2 Wizards, fresh off an embarrassing nationally broadcasted loss to the Indiana Pacers, and whether we've seen anything over the first five games to change our expectations for the team this year.

With guest basketball expert Mark Schindler joining the discussion, we went deep on the Washington Wizards and their prospects for the 2022-23 season. We touched on key questions like:

We also made predictions about the team's final record and where they'll ultimately finish.

Click here for Kevin's full stat-driven forecasts, which includes the team's expected 10-man rotation.

In this episode we analyze the Washington Wizards preseason games against the Golden State Warriors and discuss some of the key questions and position battles for the Wizards, including:

Support the podcast by checking out Athletic Greens, a lifestyle-friendly supplement that provides 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens -- with less than 1 gram of sugar. Visit www.athleticgreens.com/emerging 

In this episode, Ron and Kevin talk about the Sarver Report, what to call the Wizards' current "Big Three" (hint: the Wizards don't have a Big Three), and then go into a hypothetical of how good the Wizards might be if they could acquire Michael Porter Jr. from the Denver Nuggets and Jonathan Isaac from the Orlando Magic.

For those who don't keep up with such things, both Porter and Isaac are known to have conservative political views. They're also both young, talented, injury-prone, and were highly productive when last healthy.

Support the podcast by checking out Athletic Greens, a lifestyle-friendly supplement that provides 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics and adaptogens -- with less than 1 gram of sugar. Visit www.athleticgreens.com/emerging