WASHINGTON — With their NBA Summer League debuts looming July 12, the time to analyze how Washington Wizards rookies Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George stack up against top-flight competition will come soon enough.
Saturday, however, Sarr, Carrington and George passed an off-court test and offered a tantalizing glimpse into the characteristics and intangibles Wizards team executives have been raving about ever since the team snagged them in the 2024 NBA Draft’s first round.
Advertisem*nt
The rookie trio said all the right things during their introductory news conference and, more importantly to the team’s long-suffering fans, looked and sounded like they are genuinely happy to start their NBA careers in Washington and view joining the early stages of the Wizards’ rebuild as an opportunity rather than a burden. They seemed mature beyond their years.
“We’re looking at this as a challenge,” Carrington, who will turn 19 in several weeks, said. “It’s something that we want to attack, something that we know we could be successful in, and we’ve just got to put the work in every day to accomplish that.”
Sarr, a 19-year-old Frenchman who spoke in near-perfect English, said: “Same. I haven’t met all my teammates, but just watching the games from last year, you can see that it’s all guys that really persevere. They never really give up, no matter how the game goes, and I think that fits all three of us, too. So I think we’re ready for that.”
If you’re looking for something concrete that all three first-rounders have in common, you only need to take a look at them up close to get a feel for their positional size. Sarr, a center/power forward, measured 6 feet 11 3/4 without shoes during the draft combine, with a 7-foot-4 1/4 wingspan. Carrington, a combo guard, is 6 feet 3 3/4 without shoes, with a 6-foot-8 wingspan. And George, a wing, stands 6 feet 7 with a 6-foot-10 1/4 wingspan.
When asked about the Wizards wanting to develop an identity as a tough defensive team, George answered, “I think defense wins games, and to be able to guard multiple positions with our size and be able to impact the game on both ends of the floor is very important, and it’s going to allow us to win a lot of games.”
Positional size is one of the qualities the front office, headed by Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins, values.
The Wizards introduced first-round picks Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Bub Carrington on Saturday at Washington’s Union Station. (Josh Robbins / The Athletic)
The value of workouts
Much has been made in recent days about how Carrington solidified his standing with the Wizards during an individual workout in Washington the weekend before the draft.
Though Carrington fared well in that session, Dawkins said Carrington’s workout accentuated what Wizards scouts and talent evaluators had gleaned about the guard before and during his one-and-done season at Pitt.
Advertisem*nt
“I would say with any draft workout, we try to conduct it to where it just helps us get a little bit more information,” Dawkins said in an interview Saturday with The Athletic. “We might have a question or two on if they have one ability here or there and put them in situations to test to see if they grew from when we last saw them play basketball. So, it’s definitely insightful. It’s not everything. It’s a small piece to the puzzle. But with him specifically, it was very beneficial.”
Carrington told The Athletic that his Wizards workout “was pretty challenging, but it was also welcoming. A lot of the staff came down to help with the workout or watch, and they always made me kind of feel at home. They always made it feel less formal, in a way. They keep it very honest with you. They don’t try (to tell) any white lies or anything like that. They’re very straight-up, and I really enjoy it.”
Arguably more crucial than the workout were Carrington’s conversations with the front office — especially a talk with Dawkins about a variety of subjects that included Carrington’s love of the Baltimore Ravens and Dawkins’ love of the Buffalo Bills and, most important of all, whether Carrington would welcome playing so close to his hometown of Baltimore.
“We spent a really funny lunch, just talking football, talking sports, talking life and just really connecting to see if he can really handle coming back home, because that’s not the same for everybody,” Dawkins said on draft night.
Carrington’s mother, father and grandparents made the relatively short trip from Charm City to attend Saturday’s event at Washington’s Union Station.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Carrington said Saturday. “They’re super happy just that they can drive 40 minutes to a game every other day or whatever the case is. I definitely feel all the love and support from them just knowing that they’re a short drive away.”
Advertisem*nt
Dodging kangaroos
In a sign of how much Sarr intrigued the Wizards, Dawkins spent a week in early March in Australia, primarily in southwestern Australia, where Sarr was playing for the NBL’s Perth Wildcats.
Dawkins attended the Wildcats’ shootarounds and practices, in Dawkins’ words, “just to see how he interacted in those moments as well, because that’s when players get better.” Dawkins also met with Sarr’s coaches.
The trip had one negative — or, more accurately, a wildlife encounter. Dawkins said he was riding a bicycle through a park in Perth, to get a workout in, when he was “chased by kangaroos.”
“I have video evidence to confirm this,” Dawkins recalled Saturday, smiling as he told the story. “There’s a small island in Perth that you can ride into and go around, and they typically have kangaroos. We both met in the middle of our treks. Three of them looked at me. I looked at them. They came towards me, and I went the other way. But other than that, it was a very productive trip.”
In mid-June, the Wizards hosted Sarr in Washington for an individual workout and get-to-know-you conversations.
Sarr said he granted only one team workout during the pre-draft process, and that was with the Wizards. “It was a really tough workout, but I think it went pretty well,” Sarr told The Athletic on Saturday. “I was able to showcase what I had to showcase.”
He added later: “When you’re working out (for a team) by yourself, it’s always going to be harder because it’s just you. You can’t take breaks, so you’re just going and going. So it’s always going to be difficult for that. But I was able to showcase my shooting, my defense and I think my competitiveness.”
Front-office changes
Amber Nichols, who has worked as the general manager of the Capital City Go-Go since January 2021, is going to be promoted to a larger role within the Wizards’ front office, league sources said.
Advertisem*nt
Meanwhile, league sources said the Wizards have parted ways with several members of their front office in recent weeks, most notably vice president of player evaluation Antawn Jamison and senior director of college personnel Tony DiLeo.
Jamison, who played six of his 16 NBA seasons for the Wizards, had been a member of the Wizards’ front office for five seasons.
DiLeo, a former high-ranking member of the Philadelphia 76ers’ front office who also spent part of the 2008-09 season as the Sixers’ interim coach, joined the Wizards in 2013.
Jamison’s and DiLeo’s contracts ran through the 2023-24 season.
Coaching moves
The Wizards are hiring J.J. Outlaw and Adam Cap*rn to Brian Keefe’s coaching staff, league sources said.
Outlaw and Capron have extensive player-development backgrounds and will join David Vanterpool as Keefe’s front-of-the-bench assistant coaches.
Outlaw, who played college football at Villanova and was a Philadelphia Eagles free-agent signee, has been in the NBA in various capacities since 2011, working for the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers. Outlaw spent the last three seasons as a Cavaliers assistant coach, including a front-of-the-bench role during the 2023-24 season.
Cap*rn, who is from Australia, spent the last two seasons as a Brooklyn Nets assistant coach. He was the head coach of the G League’s Long Island Nets during the 2021-22 season.
Cody Toppert, the Go-Go’s head coach, will be the head coach of the Wizards’ summer-league team, team sources said.
— The Athletic’s David Aldridge contributed to this report.
Required reading
Aldridge: Wizards’ teardown proceeds by trading Deni Avdija
Robbins: Wizards took big swings in the NBA Draft
(Top photo of Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Kyshawn George: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
Josh Robbins is a senior writer for The Athletic. He began covering the Washington Wizards in 2021 after spending more than a decade on the Orlando Magic beat for The Athletic and the Orlando Sentinel, where he worked for 18 years. His work has been honored by the Football Writers Association of America, the Green Eyeshade Awards and the Florida Society of News Editors. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2014 to 2023. Josh is a native of the greater Washington, D.C., area. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshuaBRobbins
