Something STRANGE is brewing...

The Wizards still have one roster spot remaining, and it has raised a ton of questions as to what Washington plans to do with it. Of course, the Anthony Davis extension is looming just a day or two from now, but this final roster spot, well, some people are speculating that it could even be for a backup big man. We're going to dive into one recent option highlighted in an article, but also a little bit more hype on AJ Debon says, even after this crazy LinkedIn post we talked about last video, he continues to be a quote machine, a whole lot of great stuff all coming up on this episode of Wizards Digest, but hey, don't you guys forget to subscribe. We're now less than 300 subs away from a thousand. Make sure you are hitting that button because we have daily Wizards content every single day, even during the dead time of year. Thank you for your commitment to us. Let's start with some AJ Debon say hype. So Debon say I'm winning a title with the Wizards. First of all, yeah, I mean, that's obviously what everyone's goal is. It has been, well, yeah, obviously not in our lifetimes, very obviously, but still, hey, AJ Debon's I'm winning a title quote. I'm trying to bring championships. I definitely have to bring one back for the city. AJ is going to get us a title and you know what? I know this is not much really. This is just a small little quote at the end of the day, but still every single thing that he has said or done since we drafted him genuinely feels like he cares about nothing more than seeing the Wizards get back to the promised land, something that we really haven't seen in a long, long time. And no matter what, it feels like everything he says, I want to quote it. I want to talk about it because at the end of the day, like looking at this, Ross looking at this team, this guy could very well be a serious part of Wizards history when it's all said and done. Yeah, obviously in the past, there's been times where number one overall picks have media problems. They have ego problems. Debon say does not have that now, obviously are the Wizards going to win a championship in his tenure? Hopefully. That's obviously the that's the goal. But one of the bigger things for me here is, like you mentioned, just the attitude that he has from the LinkedIn post to this, obviously just talking about trying to win championships. It's less about what the actual quotes are, and it's more about how good I think I'm feeling about the team and how confident he is in the team. And you need to obviously have the mindset to be able to do it. So I don't know. The vibes are high. And I didn't know too much about him personality wise before. Obviously the Wizards got the number one overall pick and then drafted him. But he is he wants to win. And that's going to be the number one thing here, as opposed to trying to win scoring titles and whatnot. I want you guys to leave some hype for AJ Debon say down below, because no matter how much it is, they obviously the hype was there when the Wizards got the number one pick. They picked him. Yeah, sure. But we're getting closer to the season now. Like let's get this going. But still, before we talk about titles, the Wizards have to figure out their roster for this year. And there still is a spot. And I know we've talked about it a lot. And there have been a lot of options. But I want to highlight a recent article from Mr. Bryson talking about top five free agents for the Wizards last roster spot. Now, some of these on this list, if you're to check it out, for example, Draymond has since signed and there's other guys that we've mentioned like Westbrook. But there's an interesting name on the list that Bryson highlights. And that is Nick Richards. And my I can't lie, my immediate gut reaction was a bit of shock surprise, not a name I thought I would see. But to get into the reasoning here and, you know, leave your thoughts down below, first of all, whether you agree or disagree to look, getting a center is not needed next to Aiton. But Richards would not be a bad signing in a backup role. Look, he can still get some valuable usage and maybe you need to trade Aiton or maybe you do something with Anthony Davis, causing the Wizards to now need another center. He's cheap and would still keep the team under the luxury tax. And that is true. But I also wonder about a guy like Tristan Vuksovic, like he still exists, right? And DeAndre Aiton, Alex Tsar, Anthony Davis. To me, this team does already have a lot of big man depth, though, to be fair, not as much at the four where it's kind of like Chris Middleton is sort of your pseudo back up there. So having an extra body that doesn't need a ton of minutes maybe is not a bad idea. But I and I know some people said, oh, maybe we could use a big man. I still think the Wizards are going to go for a guard. That's what the reports say. But I mean, what do you think about a move like this for kind of a low usage depth big man that can just, again, add some options to the team if we have an injury or we need to make a trade? Yeah. Him being low usage is kind of the thing that I mean, maybe you bring up the depth chart like a backup for this. I'm not saying Nick Richard's going to play the four necessarily, but they do still need bodies. I guess. I mean, it depends on where you view Chris Middleton, but I think you can move guys around enough to where you probably don't need another one at the same time. John Drayton. Is he reliable? Like they're taking a flyer on it. Who knows? Things could hit the fan there. Nick Richard's a very good defender. Very good rebounder. He's kind of just someone who can factor in and play a handful of minutes a night and be fine. The question is the opportunity cost of who else? And we talked about Anthony Gale, who's some rumblings about him going overseas, I believe it is. And I think Aiden is a better offensive player than Richard. You can argue that. Does he have a better impact on the team? Maybe he was OK in L.A. They didn't like him too much over there, because obviously the defense has some troubles that had a decent block game or whatever it was last year. I don't know. I'm fine with basically anything to do with this spot, because I think most of their holes are filled in the sense that they have an extremely deep team. The least depth. If you look at the depth, like the least part of the team that's at least deep is kind of that four. And that's maybe why you go after a guy like Richards or maybe go after a more traditional four. Because if you go after outside of like Russell Westbrook, someone like that, Aaron Holliday makes some sense as well. You have backup after backup. So I don't know. It becomes interesting. I don't mind Richards. I don't know if it makes the most sense, but if they go with them, I'm not going to sit here and be upset. Yeah. It's not a it's not a move that I would hate. It's just a move that I think I'd be indifferent about. And I think at this point, if the goal is to really be a winning team, push for the playoffs, which again, I think we're all hoping the Wizards make a solid playoff spot, not even just playing. You want to be above that. Like, I kind of want this last move to be something that I'm excited about. And I know that's hard. It's a lot to ask for, but excited about one way or another, not just about on court talent, but about maturity and leadership. And you're right. Like Middleton could play the four. Now, I also do like Champagny. Champagny is a very, very, very good rebounder that I feel like people who don't watch him don't understand how good of a rebounder he is for his size. So he can also play some four. But yeah, that upside, I think, of the back of big position is something, you know, something left to be desired there. But on that note, you know, as Bryson mentions, like there could be a world where, again, You never know what the Wizards could end up doing here. We assume we're going to get a Davis extension, whether it's on Thursday or not. But I think there's a lot of potential, especially later in the year, to maybe move off of one of these big men. So my opinion, I don't know if you agree with this, and we'd love for the fans to have some input too. I actually think that if the Wizards are going to bring in a big man, it won't be this offseason. It won't be like a Nick Richards signing now. They might pull what a lot of teams end up doing is as we get towards even past the trade deadline, finding a veteran big man on the market to just sign to play some spot minutes if you need to. You know, if there's an injury or whatever, you deal with it then rather than maybe deal with it now and risk having too much of a logjam. Yeah. I'll get a lot of it. We'll come down to where they what they go with that spot. And if it's Anthony Gill, obviously, you know, it makes some sense if it's Richards. Sure. They probably wait, though. I don't think they would necessarily go out and prioritize a big man. I think there is better fits. We've heard Aaron Holliday. We've heard Russell Westbrook. We've heard a lot of names that I think make more sense and fill a more immediate hole. And they're clearly trying to win. And you got to give also DeAndre Aiton a chance. You brought him in for a reason. You bought super low. So it's possible, though, I do ultimately think here, I mean, you can make the argument Anthony Davis not being healthy, 80 slides into the starting spot, having Richards as a third string helps there. So maybe that's why they're going after it. But I think there's a team out there that needs Richards a lot more than the Wizards do. And we'll probably get them. Yeah, probably get them probably paying more money. So anyway, leave your thoughts down below. Do you think this makes any sense? I mean, yeah, as is acknowledged by pretty much everyone involved here, it's not the number one move I would have, but it's not the worst one either. So we'd love to hear your thoughts. That will do it, though. For this episode. Thank you for tuning in every single day. I'm Josh Goss. My co-host, Nick Goss. We'll catch you up.