With two games left before the All-Star break and 25 games left in the regular season, the Washington Wizards holding onto the final play-in spot (10th in the Eastern Conference ) by a half-game. After dealing Rui Hachimura in January, many around the league expected Washington to make a follow-up move before the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline.
But, what turned out to be a very eventful deadline across the league with two superstars on the move and a plethora of second-round picks getting dealt, the Wizards stood pat. Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard joined The Hoffman Show the day after the deadline to shed some light on the move the team made, the moves they did not make, to talk about the development of first-round pick Johnny Davis, and to answer many questions from Washington fans.
Sheppard called the deal for Hachimura "significant" and said the organization's goals going into the trade deadline were to increase draft capital and get a trade exception while opening up minutes for forward Deni Avdija – and those increased minutes have seen the third-year man play better and drew praise from head coach Wes Unseld Jr.
When looking at moves at the deadline, Sheppard said deals had to make sense "for now and for the future" and "taking on money and taking on players that probably wouldn't be able to play for you next year at a big salary to get a rental player, there's a lot of scenarios that we looked at and none of them made sense."
"There wasn't a move significant enough, I thought, that moved the needle to help us do more than what we already have," Sheppard told Hoffman on Friday, Feb. 10. "There are some players that are ready to step into bigger roles, get more minutes, and I think we need to look at that."
One of those players he mentioned was Davis, who Washington selected 10th overall in this year's draft. Sheppard added Davis is "a very talented player," but that it takes time to learn how to play in the NBA and the Wizards are going to be very patient with his development and focus on the big picture.
"We're gonna be patient with him and injuries certainly put him back," Sheppard said. "He's gonna be on his own track. I don't have any issue because there wasn't that big expectation of immediate impact."
He added Davis is already making an impact on defense in practice, could be a plus defender in games, and the "scoring piece will come." Sheppard said "we're not concerned" about Davis' rate of development.
"Our concern with Johnny is gonna be: get stronger, stay healthy, we'll know what your NBA superpower is gonna be as you evolve, but we still believe him to be a solid defensive player who is going to be able to score the ball, a good blend player, and time will tell," Sheppard told The Team 980.
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When asked about the criticism of recent draft picks, Sheppard said many have developed into good rotation players already and preached patience.
When asked by Hoffman about potentially trading Kyle Kuzma, who the Wizards have indicated they want to re-sign, to grab additional draft capital, Sheppard said they like the look of a core built around Kuzma, Bradley Beal, and Kristaps Porzingis.
"We like the picture of those guys playing together," he told Hoffman. "I think Kyle's on an upswing and continues to get better. The numbers that we value, he's shown he's got a lot more layers to his game, a lot more to go. I think he, Bradley and Kristpas are able to be out there on the floor without really getting into each other's space, their shots work well off of each other.
"I like the balance of that. And I like what Deni and Corey [Kispert] and Monte [Morris] been able to bring. I think Daniel Gafford's been valuable, putting Delon Wright in there, it's a nice balanced roster where the shots make sense. We need to increase our number of threes that we get up and, certainly, make but [Kuzma's] been a great addition to our team. And we've only had him for a year."
When examining the opportunity cost of a trade, Sheppard said he likes what Kuzma brings to the team verse who you would get in the draft.
But, Hoffman asked, is the core of Beal-Kuzma-Porzingis good enough to compete for a title? Sheppard went back to patience.
"I would tell you this, the patience factor certainly, and it starts with you have to find out how good they really truly are, and I don't think there has been enough time with those guys together to say they're just not gonna work," Sheppard said. "Before you can win a title you have to build, build, build. You don't just overnight say, 'This team is good enough, let's go.' No, it takes time."
Sheppard added it takes repetition, time, and chemistry built over time together and this Wizards group has only been together for a calendar year and that isn't enough time to say this core is not going to work.
He added this is not the time to say, "'Hey, let's just toss this out and go find something else,' [because then] you're in this eternal search and a bit of a treadmill. I'd like to see these guys stay healthy, I'd like to continue to grow our young guys, add selective players that can make impact... if you can add meaningful pieces around those guys, I think that's the big thing that you can add."
Follow @BenKrimmel and @Team980 for more.
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