The Wizards picked 4th and 25th in this exercise.
The start of March seemed like as good as time as any for our first mock draft of the season here at Bullets Forever. It’s always interesting to look back and see how the thinking changes between now and after the NCAA Tournament.
Based on the latest draft odds, I ran a series of Tankathon simulations and decided to go with the results of the fifth simulation regardless. Unfortunately for the Wizards, they dropped to fourth in this simulation. Fortunately for us, I think this actually made the results more interesting as the pick was less obvious and could be a real-world scenario they have to deal with.
To run through this exercise with me, I enlisted the help of Dominique “Domo” Nelson of the Wizards of Gallery Place podcast. Nelson had the first overall pick and we alternated from there.
Based on how it worked out, I picked fourth for the Wizards, with Alex Sarr, Cody Williams, and Zaccharie Risacher already off the board. I opted to take Connecticut’s high-upside freshman guard Stephon Castle. The 6’6 19-year-old could offer the type of size and athleticism that could form a potent defensive perimeter with Bilal Coulibaly for the future.
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The question mark with Castle is his perimeter shooting. He’s currently shooting just over 30% from three on around two attempts per game. He’s also shooting around 74% from the free-throw line, which is typically a good indicator of shooting potential.
If you look at their per-40 numbers in their freshman seasons, Stephon Castle compares fairly favorably to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the comparisons I’ve seen thrown around. Gilgeous-Alexander was the better perimeter shooter but otherwise there’s a good amount of similarities in their freshman campaigns.
It’s also worth taking into account that Castle dealt with a knee injury earlier in the season that likely held his development back to some extent. He presents some amount of risk but so did Bilal Coulibaly and he fits the archetype of player this front office seems to covet.
When the Wizards were up again at 25, it was Nelson’s turn to pick. He opted for another big playmaker in Miami’s 20-year-old freshman Kyshawn George. The 6’8 George offers an intriguing mix of shooting (41% from three) and facilitation, although he’s still very much a work in progress.
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Right now, George is only averaging around 8 points in 22 minutes per game. There’s a good chance he opts to return for his sophomore season to try to rise higher in the draft if he doesn’t get a first-round guarantee this year.
Given who was left on the board with each of the picks, who would you have selected on the Wizards’ behalf? Let us know in the comments!