Basketball is a game that we all know and understand to some degree. Maybe not on the highest level like an NBA coach or player, but any fan can watch a game and understand on a base level what’s happening. Whichever team plays better and scores more points will win. But there’s a game within the game that’s much more difficult for the average fan to wrap their heads around.
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On a macro level, teams need to be either really good, so that they can challenge for a title, or really bad, so that they can improve their lottery odds and give themselves a chance to land the next big prospect. Being anywhere near .500 is purgatory.
We’re seeing that play out in real time with the recent trade of Trae Young to the Wizards. On this morning’s episode of The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst drove home just how absurd a system it is.
“You got one team that basically wants to trade [Trae], sort of as soon as possible, because when he plays, they don’t win,” Windy said of the Hawks. “The team that acquired him in Washington, guys, I don’t think they’re gonna play him.”
After Vince Goodwill pointed out that Washington gets to keep their pick if it stays in the top eight, Windy continued.
“That’s right, so they don’t control their pick totally. It’s top-eight protected. They’ve won five out of seven games, they’ve moved up I think two or three spots in the standings … and they’re not gonna play him I don’t think”, he explained.
Why on earth would the Wizards trade for a four-time All-Star point guard and not play him? The answer is stupefying, but in the ‘up is down’ reality of the NBA lottery system, it makes sense. “They’re not gonna play him, because they think if they play him, they’re gonna win too many games,” Windy said.
“So I was like let me get this straight,” he went on as he rubbed his head in exasperation.
“So one team doesn’t wanna play him because they don’t have their pick, and they think if they play him they’re gonna lose more. And then the exact same player, the other team thinks that if he does play, then they’re gonna win too many games, because they have to worry about their pick. What are we doing here?” he asked, practically scratching his head at the absurdity of the situation.
As an NBA team executive said in response, “Welcome to life in our current lottery system.”
You can quibble with what the Hawks got in return for Trae, as Danny Green and Paul Pierce did on No Fouls Given, but anyone can at least understand why the Hawks would be anxious to trade away someone when they’re 16-13 without him and 2-8 with him.
With a loaded 2026 draft class that will likely include college stars like AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson and Caleb Wilson, it’s also easy to see why the Wizards, who are nowhere near contention yet, would want to maximize their chances of landing one of those possible franchise-altering players.
The way they have to go about it, though, is gross, and just a bad look for the NBA. Trae Young is a flawed player in some respects, but he’s still a guy who led the league in assists last year and was the best player on a team that came within two games of reaching the NBA Finals in 2021.
If he’s healthy, he needs to be on the court, otherwise, as Windy said, what are we doing here?
