Three scenarios: What history says about the Wizards this season

After a brutal stretch of losing by design, the Wizards are going to try to start winning this year. The past three seasons, the team totaled 50 wins — tied with the 2021-24 Detroit Pistons for the 10th worst three-year stretch in NBA history.

The worst stretch belongs to The Process Philadelphia 76ers, which went 37-109 from 2013-16. That’s a .150 winning percentage. That got them six trips to the second round of the playoffs in the years since. The last player still around from all that tanking is the creaking, disintegrating, brittle Joel Embiid.

Advertisement

While cratering the franchise for multiple seasons had become such a prevalent rebuilding strategy that the league finally imposed draft lottery rules to put an end to the practice, the reality is it takes a long string of roster moves (draft, sign, trade) that work and a liberal dose of good luck to build any team into a title contender.

Can the Washington Wizards end the tank? With Anthony Davis, Trae Young, and DeAndre Ayton onboard, here are 3 historical paths and what each would mean for 2026-27. | NBAE via Getty Images

This isn’t me just tapping away — rebuilds are difficult and complex, and big leaps from a bottom dweller are relatively rare. Last season, the Wizards had the NBA’s worst record — just 17 wins. Based on history, what’s realistic for the team this season? Scanning back through time, three paths emerge:

The Stagnanation — Think the multiyear tank — where the Wizards, Jazz, and process Sixers were. This is what Washington is hoping to graduate from. Another sub-20 win season would be unbearable. Teams in this phase would typically “improve” by up to three wins, though another season at the bottom of the rankings would be fairly normal.

The Norm — Teams that finish at the bottom get high draft picks and accumulate young talent. Where building a title contender takes a long sequence of good decisions and good luck, continuing to lose when given prime opportunities to add top-shelf talent takes the opposite. That said, it takes a special rookie to transform a persistent loser into a winner, though normal improvement from young…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/three-scenarios-history-says-wizards-110000563.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-10-04 11:00:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.