This is a serious turning point for the Wizards...

This is a major turning point for the Washington Wizards as we have a huge update on the Anthony Davis saga with trade rumors swirling all summer long. A brand new update from Will Dawkins himself not only puts it to bed but honestly gives a bit of an interesting and mildly concerning update about his future. We're going to dive into all of that but the turning point is not just on the trade front. We're also talking about team culture as a great recent article from The Athletic dives into what the Wizards have done, this new way of being a wizard, and even AJ DeBonce giving some massive praise to the organization. We're going to dive into all of that and more all coming up on this episode of Wizards Digest. Now look this summer has been full of well entertainment for sure of course getting that pick getting AJ DeBonce and looking towards next season with Trey Young Anthony Davis but one of the big things that I think the Wizards have really been focusing on Nick is the culture and a fantastic recent article that's linked down below please go read it from The Athletic was highlighting this and you see Keyshawn George mentioned we've been trying to build a culture for the last two years there's no way I was missing summer league and by him being there Alex Sarr was there Bilal was there it attracted the other vets and JJ Outlaw assistant coach for the Wizards even said we're creating a chemistry and cohesion among the group they want to be a part of what's the new Wizards way so you know Nick I don't think there's any better with way to come out of a rebuild any better thing to hear with having so much young talent and I'm really excited that this seems to be like a full-on culture shift for yeah and obviously this is a nice change of pace from the Anthony Davis trade room this we'll dive into later in the video but you mentioned I mean it's been rough for uh for everyone over the past few years and to see this now it finally feels like things are coming together at the right time lucking into somewhat lucky into the first overall pick getting AJ DeBonce I also love this comment from JJ Outlaw and seeing everybody there whether it's Alex Sarr whether it's Bilal Ghobaly all these guys together is obviously something that I think a lot of fan bases would like but especially us as Wizards fans going through what we've gone through the past few years I think it it's a little bit different and I'm just ready for the season to start at this point and especially with the way these young guys are coming together there are a lot of them and shout out to Sean George he is a very very his vibe is super high yeah I really like him Swiss Canadian boy like there's something about him man watching those like the end of last year coming into his own and like he's clearly taking this taking the reins and just going for it right trying to be one of these driving factors of this I mean I want to culture shift I mean obviously the last few years have not been great but just this new era let's say that instead instead of a shift because that implies there was a lot of negativity whether there was or not yeah I mean you guys can decide but it is really cool but we talked a bit about AJ DeBonce and even he had some comments once again from this fantastic article please go check it out um he said look I told him when I first got here this is like ridiculously professional I don't even know how you get a court in here or a weight room in here but it's incredible now this is a guy who you know had a fantastic NCAA career was definitely um getting spoiled a bit in the NCAA but not only did he have some great stats in college as you can see here obviously we know the numbers now inside and out but his summer league stats were great too and while you know the Wizards did play yesterday a lot of the top prospect guys that you want to see didn't play but and AJ DeBonce is now shut down for the rest of summer league but Nick in just 25 minutes a night he was scoring a point per minute seven boards four stocks a game I know the three wasn't really there get him in the lab working with a three-point specialist but I mean just now briefly before we get on to these trade rumors isn't it just almost incredible to see like this guy he is the guy for this organization and a guy that as much as I do love so many Wizards in the past has a real path to become the greatest Wizard of all time yeah the shooting will come you look at his stats I mean let's look away from the three-point percentage for a minute but what you wanted to see was his game that you saw in college and obviously it's summer league right we're seeing a lot of players do well 25 points a game is no joke and you can even argue it's impressive that he was able to put up these stats with how poor he was shooting from the field but looking at his college stats comparing it to summer league you want to see effort you want to see defense and you want to see his game him not look super scared he definitely did not look scared did not look passive and that's what you want to see from AJ DeBonce he's gonna have lots of opportunities at the NBA I mean all the opportunity in the world all the runway in the world even though the Wizards have a bit more of a more win now this upcoming season than the years obviously I liked what I saw again the efficiency will come and you look at a lot of different even number on overall picks but lottery guys naturally sometimes you'll start off a little bit slow from the efficiency department but it's hard to say that he had a slow start because it looked really really good yeah I'm excited like and I already am throwing out this you know greatest Wizard of all time kind of thing and you know maybe that's controversial leave your thoughts down below but I mean looking especially post-merger right I mean you guys got like Elvin Hayes back there west on so but like you know post-merger it's it's tough is it John Wall right and he was fantastic in his own right but DeBonce is like there's something different about him now there was when Wall got drafted of course injuries and so many other things were other factors but you're right when you say the Wizards are sort of in a more win now type of area and part of that is because of what the starting lineup is going to look like with look at all those day-to-day injuries on ESPN's debit chart but Trey Young and Anthony Davis obviously and we know Alex Saro's recovering from that broken foot surgery and so much of this stuff um but Trey Young and Anthony Davis are going to be huge parts of this team moving forward uh but the question is for how long right and these guys 60 million for AD this year 50 million for Trey Young he just of course signed that big extension the AD trade rumors have been looming over Wizards fans heads over this offseason but Will Dawkins came out very recently and had this to say um AD's in DC he wants to be in DC we're going to keep him there so this this is and I used the word concerning earlier and maybe a lot of fans may instantly had a reaction like concerning well I just I think I can't help but feel like I don't want to give him a max extension of course he has an option next year but like with Trey Young I wonder if that's the best course of action now Dawkins did say look it's been a fun summer we'll have a conversation when we're officially allowed to have a conversation but the plan is to be big to be strong and to be skilled and the Wizards certainly are that especially with all this great young talent some even bigger like guard type guys like uh like Mr. Riley uh but you know what I mean here with Anthony Davis like does this concern you at all that the Wizards might go after a max extension maybe some of the fans think that'd be okay but for me it's something that's kind of like looming in the back of my mind yeah the comment I mean it makes sense and most GMs would say it in this case he is a Washington Wizard the question is the max you know the max extension if the boys are gonna do that I don't really want them to I think at this point the best case scenario I mean obviously there was some rumblings about a Warriors trade and getting a ton of assets back there the Wizards front office at this point I think the best bet if they just kind of wait a little bit see how it plays out now the concern with that is we know Anthony Davis's injury troubles in the past and that becomes a bit of a concern and obviously the value but realistically like the reason they went out at least my eyes and got Trey Young you got Anthony Davis you got these guys at the lowest values of their careers and that's something that no matter what happens the rest of the way that's at least something now obviously AD you still give a couple first picks I think there's a chance AD and might be crazy plays really really well with this team but at the same time the risk of giving him that extension is he's approaching his mid 30s slowly but surely and the injury concern is the biggest thing I at this point would probably just let it ride and see what happens he has that player option after this upcoming year he could opt into it he could opt out of it but if there's no you know path to trading him for great assets I don't know if I would jump to give him that extension I think it's a little bit too risky but at the same time you have a lot of really good players on super cheap contracts which gives you a bit more flexibility anyway for now right like that that's kind of the thing because we know AJ Devonsa in a few years we got four years so plenty of time but you know if you're looking at this Max Trey Young extension you're looking at Anthony Davis if you give him a four year which I think would be crazy like I don't I don't really see that but you don't want these contracts to affect the young guys contracts that are coming up right and we're talking guys like Alex Tsar AJ Devonsa and even some of the other guys like Trey Johnson I mean we don't know what he's going to end up getting what his future role is going to be is he a six man of the year type is he going to push for a starting spot I think he could I think the wizards have so many talented wings and guards that there's just it's going to be a big fight to see who gets minutes but I think that's a good thing so anyway there's going to be a lot of competition and there are going to be a lot of guys that in a few years are going to be demanding a lot of money so in my mind you got to be looking shorter term with 80 right now and I think you make a great point that like look you gave up assets for him you got to see what you can do with him but you almost can't afford to let him walk away for nothing but then there's the sunk cost fallacy it's a lot of interesting stuff but you let us know down below what do you think about these new ad trade updates would you want to trade him right now trade rumors gone right it sure seems like he's going to start the year as a wizard he's going to try his best with Trey Young and there's a lot of updates from AJ Devonsa all this kind of stuff that we got to talk about as well but that'll be for another video that'll do it for this one thank you so much for tuning in I'm Josh Goss my co-host Nick Goss we'll catch you all in the next one.