Is Washington Putting Pressure on Charlotte and the Southeast Division?

Charlotte’s Southeast Division foe, the Washington Wizards, has taken a lot of swings recently.

Trae Young and Anthony Davis made us curious; they raised our eyebrows (no pun intended) as people who follow the NBA…

That was the extent of the reaction, though. My reaction, at least. Davis spent his short stint in Dallas after the Luka Doncic trade with the Lakers, trying to find his place, often injured, and left marred by the Dallas fanbase for a trade he had no control over.

He’s also 33 years old now, and closer to the back half of his career than the Defensive Player of the Year version of himself we once knew.

That version of AD, combined with the often-cited ‘defensive liability’ in Trae Young, would’ve done more than raise an eyebrow. Alone, these moves by Washington felt like long-shot redemption opportunities, with a chance to rub their experience off onto the Wizards' younger pieces.

“Once we got Trae, our competitive approach changed,” Wizards President of Basketball Michael Winger said on the Ryen Russillo show yesterday. “So we decided internally, we’ve already gotten Trae Young, what if we paired him with one of the best bigs in the league, one of the best bigs of all time?”

When you get the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, that whole outlook changes. Washington may have a real chance now to build something at least competitive, and I think that should worry Hornets fans a bit.

Not because of the Wizards alone, but the league is in a place where it’s so competitive league-wide, the parity so strong, that they’ve finally decided to expand the NBA to two more cities. That ONLY happens when talent is very evenly dispersed across the league.

Hornets on SI’s own Matt Alquiza recently shared a clip of Brad Stevens, Former Celtics’ head coach turned President of Basketball Operations, having this to say about next year’s competition league-wide:

“There were a lot of teams in the NBA that were playing for draft position this year,” Stevens said in his Exit Interview.

“That will not be the case next year. And so the league is going to be a lot better, the regular season is going to be a lot harder, and it will probably give you a better indication of what everybody really is.”

Now, for the lede that’s been so far buried that its headstone has moss on it.

At what point do the Hornets have to look around, see the competition that’s brewing in the East and now in their own division, and jump all in this summer to take advantage of a LONG laundry list of advantages they have at their disposal in the NEAREST future possible:

Kon Knueppel has multiple years left on his rookie money. There’s one more year of rookie contract money for Brandon Miller before/if his extension kicks in, whatever that number may be. Moussa Diabate only has ONE more season on his extension, his highest-paid year yet; a whopping 2.46 million for an NBA starter, and potentially the best value contract in the entire league.

This kind of talent with this kind of cost efficiency does NOT come around in the NBA very often whatsoever. We’ve heard time and time again that GM Jeff Peterson, HC Charles Lee, and co-owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin want to be patient.​

Kon Knueppel even referenced this almost scripted line of patience from the front office again on Dale Jr.’s podcast this past week:

“We’re super pumped to have C Lee back and extended, because we want to keep building. I think what Jeff (Peterson) talks about a lot is he doesn't want to skip steps. Maybe, you know, put a lot of stuff together and go maybe try to go get some guy, and maybe that doesn’t work out, or maybe it’s only for one or two years. And so we want to keep building together. I think it will be really good that way, and just keep adding guys through the draft. We have a couple of first-round picks this year, hopefully we get two more studs, and keep building this thing.”

This quote from Kon piques my interest for a few reasons, but most of all because it sounds verbatim to what we’ve heard from everyone else in the organization. You would think that means it’s 100% true, but I can’t shake the massive advantage Charlotte has with the money on their books next year.

How does that factor in here?

Ultimately, I think what it means for Charlotte in the big picture is that they will be ACTIVE this offseason.

They’ve interviewed Caleb Wilson, a projected top-four pick, even though they have picks 14 and 18. Maybe their splash deal looks like a trade-up in the draft to get a high-potential player who is then another cost-controlled piece, making Moussa Diabate and Brandon Miller’s new money in 2027-2028 less detrimental than doing absolutely nothing.

That’s the crux of my point, though. No scenario I’ve run in my head actually BENEFITS the Hornets long-term if they don’t make some kind of win-now move this summer. Whether that’s the draft like I said, a massive trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, or multiple smaller trades that fill out your depth to get you in the playoffs.

That’s the other thing, too. Next year is as much of a “must make the playoffs” year as we’ve seen… since the Bobcats inception in 2004, perhaps. They need to know where this collection of talent’s shortcomings are in the playoffs. It’s imperative that they finally get there.

You can’t make the playoffs next year, given the jump in talent that Brad Stevens mentioned earlier, by staying stagnant. Players get better year-to-year, but there are clear holes in the Hornets' roster that need to be filled.

​Let’s recap:

Must make the playoffs for evaluation, a talented team with the best value per dollar spent on players given their output in the entire league, and an Eastern Conference all around you that isn’t looking to get any worse.

Up to and including your own division, which had three teams jockeying for play-in positioning already this past season, and now the Wizards are lurking with the No. 1 overall pick, Anthony Davis, and Trae Young, too.

So, are the Wizards putting pressure on the Hornets? Not by themselves, no; they’re certainly contributing to the league-wide pressure, though. Whether the Hornets are feeling it or not.

Expectations are a new territory for this team.

If Jeff Peterson is who we’ve come to think he is, a savvy GM that’s ultra-aware of what his team needs…

I don’t think he’s going to let those expectations go unmet, by whatever means necessary. Even if that means contradicting what he’s preached for almost two years now, just a little bit along the way.

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