This has gotten to a ridiculous point...

They are sleeping on the Wizards. It is getting unbelievably disrespectful as NBA.com officially released their power rankings for each conference, and the Wizards, despite having a whole lot of good going for them, were a lot lower than I would have wanted. Even lower than you're probably expecting. And also, the win total predictions for NBA teams from Kalashi have dropped, and it's still... I don't think they realize how good this team is. I feel like I'm getting gaslit into thinking Trae Young and Anthony Davis are not good players anymore. Look, we're gonna get into all of that. But also, a former NBA legend, actually current legend, really gave his thoughts on the whole situation. They were brief, but it gives insight that not everyone is sleeping on the Washington Wizards. We're gonna dive into all of this coming up on this episode of Wizards Digest. And before we get into it, guys, we are getting so close to 1,000 subscribers. You guys have been subscribing like crazy. 90% of you still aren't subscribed, but hey, we appreciate every single one of you that has subscribed for the latest and greatest daily news, rumors, reports, even in the dog days of summer. Can you know that when the regular season starts, playoffs come around next year? That's right, playoffs. We're gonna be here every day. I think I want to start here with Charles Barkley, which is kind of funny that we're talking about this, but Wiz District tweeted out this video. Barkley says the Wizards are going to be one of the teams that LeBron has to watch out for in the East. And the exact quote, well, Chuck was talking about the teams that the Sixers will have to pay attention to, and he said, well, the Celtics is probably a pick-em. The Wizards are going to be a handful. Atlanta's a handful. Orlando's a handful. I love that the Wizards are being talked about here. And I know, I know, I know we're going to get into these projections soon, but it is nice to see the Wizards at least being mentioned in a sentence like this, because honestly, I believe it to be completely true. Yeah, they're one of the deepest teams in the NBA, and we've been talking about it, or at least in the conference, if everything goes well. Now, I think some of the disrespect, and obviously Charles Barkley is not giving disrespect, he's giving us props. A lot of it comes from the fact that, I've mentioned this in like every video now, and I don't think a lot of people watched Wizards basketball last year, or even the year before, or for the past handful of years. I mean, looking at the bench, looking at everybody, they have a lot of young players. The ceiling is high for this team, and obviously Trey Young, Anthony Davis, how are they going to play together? How is Anthony Davis's health going to hold up? I mean, you have Bob Carrington off the bench, Trey Johnson, and that second string unit right there, you could argue, is somewhat of a starting lineup for some really bad teams in the NBA. Like, it's not like this team has a bunch of bums. The problem is, how is it all going to come together? I think a lot of fans of other teams just kind of scoff at the Wizards, but they added two All-Stars and a future All-Star in AJ Devonson, and that's not even accounting for any of the development that we saw last year, and assuming that that translates as well. So, maybe it's ignorance, maybe it's just pure disrespect, which we'll dive into in a minute, but it's nice to see Charles Barkley talk about it, and it's true, the Eastern Conference is way, way better now than it was last year. I mean, you can expect a bounce back from a lot of different teams, specifically, obviously the Sixers are significantly better, so it is going to be interesting to see how everyone does. Yeah, and look, I'm not disillusioned in thinking that the Wizards are a guaranteed lock to be top five or anything. Like, I understand the reality of this situation. I understand that the Eastern Conference is very good, but you guys also understand that we're going to be a little biased talking about the Wizards. Like, there's going to be a lot of Wizards fans who say, these developments, the players are going to develop well, there's a chance that Trae Young and Anthony Davis work well together and are healthy. It's like, if all of these big ifs come together, this team can be good. I just think that for a lot of other fans or analysts or whoever, they see a team with a lot of uncertainty versus a lot of other teams in the East that have a bit more, a bit higher of a level of certainty and say, well, let's just push the Wizards down and down. But I think it's gotten a bit too far, right? Because NBA.com recently released their power rankings for the East, and like, we're one of the hornets in all these things. Like, I don't, you know, that's what, that's what annoys me. Look, last week, as in the last time they did it, obviously the Wizards were last, they finished last in the East last year, whatever. Offensive rating, like, those numbers, this is part of the reason I think these models won't predict the Wizards well, is because the numbers that you see representing their statistical profile are going to be completely nonsensical if you add AJ Devonta, Anthony Davis, and Trae Young. You can see, obviously, Anthony Davis, AJ Devonta here, but their main reasons are here. Their reasons for number 12, one, outscored by 8.6 points per game in the restricted area, and by 5.1 points per game on free throws. They were the worst discrepancies for any team in the last 10 years. Anthony Davis helps that. The Wizards have ranked in the bottom 10 in each of the four factors on offense and defense each of the last two seasons. I would say Trae Young helps that, and the Trae effect, they, you know, they do acknowledge he's good, but they said the Wizards ranked 26 in shot quality last year, but their shot quality score was much higher off of Trae's passes in the five games he's played. The offense was still not good, we talk about Trae Young and Anthony Davis together. NBA.com's acknowledging that these guys are good. It's really just a sample size thing, though, right? They can say they're good, but they don't have the sample. I mean, what are you making? Is it disrespectful? I think they're at least given credit where credit's due, but I can't help but feel like people should be higher. Yeah, I mean, the reasons that they are ranking the Wizards low is valid, and it makes sense, but it doesn't, it almost goes to show why Will Dawkins made these moves. It's almost like they did it without taking into account the exact needs that they addressed in the offseason, and you bring up the power ranking there. Again, they were outscored by a lot of points per game in the restricted area. You add Anthony Davis, a very, very good rim protector, in theory, should help solve that, and then you look at points per game on free throws. The team's going to get better defensively with Anthony Davis. They're going to get more open shots with Trae Young, and we've seen in the past that, I mean, obviously, the Wizards had 17 wins last year, and that's probably where it gets rough, expecting them to jump 35, probably, maybe even more than that to get into a playoff spot. 35 more wins, I mean, like in the 40s. So, I don't know, it is, or 25, either way, yeah, 25, 35 would be crazy, so 25, but that's exactly why they made the moves, and we've seen teams in the past that didn't make big moves like, you know, two All-Stars, and Trae Young and Anthony Davis just develop their young players and have a big jump. We have two other All-Stars and A.J. DeBond start coming in, and that's not even factoring in the potential development, or, as no one talks about it, other trades as well that could happen. Yeah, I mean, that is another interesting avenue, right? I mean, I know we're kind of dead on the AD talks now, but, like, there's a world where, like, yeah, Will Dawkins is probably going to be active throughout the year, but you're right, like, teams that build their team from the ground up, you keep that team chemistry with those young guys who have been around each other for a couple of years, that starts to manifest itself by just knowing where they're going to be and just, you know, better cohesion chemistry on the court. But, like, you mentioned the wins, right, and I gotta just get into this, too, because it goes hand in hand. Like, Calshi has done their win total projections for every team. You're not seeing the bottom there. It's cutting off at the Wizards, because I just want to show you that they're 12th here, too. Again, behind the Hornets, like, they have the pacers at 44 wins. It seems like the bar to get into the playoffs, well, I should say a top 8 seed in the East, is about 45 wins. And you're right, for the Wizards to jump up to that level, you would need almost 30 wins, right? The East is absolutely stacked. You can see, they projected to be, they have a lot of parity, 52, 51, 51, 51, 47, like, there's no standout team above the rest. But I think that in these games, like, first of all, I cannot believe they have, I still don't really understand how people can look at the Wizards roster and the Hornets roster and, like, really say for sure the Hornets are going to be better. I don't know, like, I think this team's at least a 40-win team. It's what Anthony Davis said. I'm not disillusioned in this, right? Like, I'm not, I feel like I'm going crazy here. And I know there is uncertainty, but, like, I don't know. You know what? I think the Wizards are going to use this as fuel, at the very least, and motivation to outperform all of these critics. Yeah, you look at the rankings. I mean, it's going to be, it's tough to judge because of how good the, you know, the Eastern Conference is right now. Yeah, it's not baseball. But you could see, like, Hornets at 39, they got rid of LaMelo Ball. Now, maybe you can argue, you know, you added Nazri, you added some other guys. I mean, I think a lot of these, I don't know if it's a lazy list. Like, Raptors at 46 seems kind of low to me as well, assuming the Kawhi Leonard trade goes through and what they did last year. The Pistons at 51 seems a little high to me, even though they had a great year last year. So, I don't know. It is, I could pick at the list all day. Even the Celtics at 51 seems, like, really, really high considering they gave up Jalen Brown. So, it's kind of, that's a bad list, I think, all the way around. But for the Wizards at 37, I think 40 is pretty generous. But, again, we are talking about a 20-win increase being disrespectful, which usually would be funny, but not here. You're adding, and this is, again, we can't even predict really how good A.J. DaBanca will be. If he ends up being even remotely what we expect, I think 40 is almost the floor for how this team can do. And then, from there, you kind of just figure the rest out. And if Anthony Davis stays healthy, I mean, they could probably approach the mid-40s and, I don't want to say 50, but pretty, I think mid-40s is easily doable. It's doable, but I think the theme of this video is the if, because as much as we want to hype up the Wizards, there are a lot of ifs, and I get it. But also, I just say, look at the Spurs, I know it's a different situation, and they have Wenbinyama, but they went from, like, borderline tanking to almost winning the title. And, you know, I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but the personnel on the Wizards, at least to me, screams more than 37 wins. But we'd love to hear your guys' thoughts, because the East is going to be tough, but also the games against Western Conference teams are not that crazy. But leave your thoughts on all that down below. Thank you so much for being subscribed, for liking every video, for showing up here every single day. I'm Josh Goss, my co-host Nick Goss. We'll catch you all tonight.