Tony Massenburg has had a front-row seat to the Wizards’ 3-19 start, and when the only notable thing to happen so far is they stopped their losing streak well before the NBA record, there’s not much to crow about.
But, is there anything Massenburg can tell Wizards fans as we slog through another year of the rebuild?
“Listen, this is gonna be a process. The team is super young, we’ve got some talented 19-year-olds and I think the draft class was excellent,” Massenburg told BMitch & Finlay Tuesday. “All three picks are great pick, and in my opinion may even be a little ahead of where they were drafted, and Alex Sarr is on par for where he should be from a development standpoint. And, we've seen Bilal Coulibaly make a nice jump from his rookie year to his sophomore season, and what it’s about right now for the Wizards is it’s a development stage; we’ve seen teams go through these growing pains and they’re better now than they were, and you have to give the Wizards at least a two-to-three year window before we're really gonna see these draft picks pan out and the team kind of start to turn things around.”
As BMitch noted, though, fans really only care about wins, so what is there to look for as we know there’s not going to be a lot of those coming?
“One of the things you see is the improvement in the culture; you're seeing real development with guys,” Massenburg said. “Look at a guy like Justin Champagnie, who didn’t get to play much this season but has had two of his best games against Denver and Memphis. And when you look at these draft picks, they have gotten better since summer league; these guys have come in and you've seen them get better as time goes on, getting real minutes on a nightly basis. Young players don’t get better but sitting on the sidelines watching everybody else, it’s about being in the action and having the chance to really experience high-level professional competition and learning things from those experiences. So, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen, and to me, the sign of a good organization is if your young players are getting better, and you see improvement over the course of the season.”
This is what we signed up for, as JP said, and we just have to be patient and watch that development.
“It starts with your culture, and bringing guys into situations where you got good vets where they're gonna teach them great practice habits and how to be professional, and the overall approach that you have to have on a night-to-night basis in the NBA,” Massenburg said. “One of the toughest things is playing 82 games and really trying to give it your all; that’s a behavior you have to learn, because when you look at these young players, they have already played a college season for most of these guys, and even the guys in Europe don't play 82 games. So there’s a learned behavior and how to be a professional and have the right approach on a nightly basis.”
Take a listen to Massenburg’s entire visit above, as he also talks about how college hoops has changed drastically due to NIL and the transfer portal, Maryland's strong start, and more!