WASHINGTON — They did it.
The Washington Wizards have accomplished one of their primary goals for the 2025-26 season. In an NBA season tainted by a widespread tanking epidemic, Washington has lost enough games to ensure it will keep its protected first-round pick in June’s draft.
The Wizards would have conveyed their first-round pick to the New York Knicks if the pick fell to ninth or worse in the draft order. But with their 129-98 loss Tuesday night to the Chicago Bulls, the Wizards dropped to 17-62, continuing their hold on the league’s worst record. If Washington remains in sole possession of last place, its worst possible result in next month’s draft lottery would be to receive the fifth pick. Even wins its final three games would drop it to no worse than the seventh.
The numbers paint an ugly picture overall. The Wizards have lost 12 games by at least 30 points. They have endured a 14-game losing streak and a 16-game losing streak.
All of this prompts a question that, under almost any other circumstance, would seem ridiculous to raise: Have the Wizards accomplished anything else this season other than keeping their pick?
The answer is yes, though fans might have to squint really hard to see some, but not all, of the positives.
Most of the first- and second-year players have improved in terms of their individual skills. None of the young players’ improvements has been more obvious than those of big man Alex Sarr and wing Kyshawn George.
Sarr has averaged 16.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and two blocks per game, but those statistics do not tell his full story. At his best, Sarr protected the rim well and performed with a level of energy that often eluded him last season as a rookie. At the end of last season, perhaps only the most optimistic of observers (and the Wizards’ front office and coaching staff) could have envisioned Sarr developing into a potential top-three player on a contending team. But now, if Sarr continues to improve, being a high-level player on a contender appears well within his reach.
George has far outperformed where he was drafted. Picked 24th in 2024, with his rights acquired in a draft-night trade, he has emerged as a legitimate two-way player with impressive versatility as a point forward, a strong feel for the game and 3-point shooting, which rose to 38.1 percent this season.
Bub Carrington, another second-year player, remains rough around the edges as a point guard and as a finisher at the rim, but his improvement as an outside shooter is undeniable. He has converted 39.1 percent of his 3-pointers on an above-average volume of five attempts per game. He will turn 21 in July, and he has already shown the potential to become at least an above-average outside shooter.
The rookies — sixth pick Tre Johnson, 21st pick Will Riley and 43rd pick Jamir Watkins — have improved, too. Johnson has shown the ability to hit 3s. Riley has demonstrated an outstanding feel for offense. And Watkins, who was billed as a tenacious defender when he was picked, has upped his offensive game since the All-Star break.
“All the rookies, they’ve been doing a great job just staying with it, working, listening to coaches and all that, doing the right thing,” third-year wing/forward Bilal Coulibaly said. “I think that’s part of the growth of the team.”
The development of second-year big man Alex Sarr has been one of the Wizards’ positives this season. (Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)
Team officials expect to make a significant jump next season, shifting to trying to be much more competitive.
Washington’s two major midseason trade acquisitions, point guard Trae Young and big man Anthony Davis, should make significant impacts if they remain healthy and buy into the team concept. Young and Davis will be expected to lead the team over the next few seasons, helping to win games in the short term while aiding in the development of Sarr, George, Johnson, Riley and the rest of the young nucleus, including this year’s first-round pick.
Wizards officials continue to tout how they have improved the team’s infrastructure in ways not clearly visible to fans, with added player-development specialists and improved player services among those growth areas. Capital One Arena’s home and visiting locker rooms, which include revamped athletic-training areas, are vastly improved after the building’s first phase of renovations last summer.
When Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins were hired in 2023, they took over a franchise that ranked among the league’s least respected. They have reshaped the core and word has gotten out within the league that the franchise is on a better long-term path. There is still work to do, however; it is difficult to point to tangible improvements when their team is 17-62 record and in its third consecutive year of tanking.
Perhaps the most obvious theme of the Wizards’ season has been just how effectively the team has tanked. To be sure, Washington is not the only team that has spent much of the season playing to improve its lottery odds. Indeed, not tanking this season — especially with its 2026 first-round pick at risk of going to the Knicks — would have amounted to organizational malpractice.
Even with Young and Davis on the roster, even with the growth of youngsters such as Sarr and George, the Wizards still lack one crucial component: a player who can reasonably project as a perennial MVP candidate.
The presence of Young and Davis, if they remain healthy, should enable continued growth even if the team does not draft a franchise cornerstone in June. At the very least, consider Young and Davis insurance policies if the draft does not go as well as the Wizards hope.
But for now, Washington has done everything it can to ensure its best possible draft outcome. The Wizards appear to have hit on at least five of their most recent draft picks: Sarr, George, Johnson, Riley and Watkins, and that success should leave franchise officials optimistic they will make the best possible use of their first-round pick in June, wherever that pick lands.
The tanking has led to pain in the short term: an arguably unwatchable on-court product for large portions of the season. The Wizards have lost 23 of their last 24 games.
Still, that leads to one more positive. Despite all the losing and double-digit losses, the team has not fractured.
“I think the biggest step we took … is the aspect of team camaraderie,” forward Justin Champagnie said. “We all support each other. We’re all trying to root each other on and building that team aspect from the bottom up, especially with a group of young guys.”