With a quarter of the season already underway, the Washington Wizards have turned out to be the worst team in the league with a 2-18 record and a 16-game losing streak. On the Ticket & The Truth podcast, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were asked if the Wizards are intentionally losing games to get a better shot at drafting Cooper Flagg next year in the 2025 NBA Draft.
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Flagg is slated to be the number-one pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. However, KG and Pierce don’t think that any of the losses are intentional from the franchise. Garnett said that they simply lack to tools to put up a fight in the league right now.
And even if they get Flagg next year, Pierce believes that they have a very poor setup that will restrict them from changing anything in a short span. In addition, the Truth also declared that Flagg and his peers in college aren’t at that Ja Morant-Anthony Edwards talent level yet. They can reach an All-Star potential in the league, but the Celtics legend doesn’t think they have what it takes to change a franchise’s fortunes singe-handedly, like a Wembanyama or a Doncic can.
Pierce added that the next draft isn’t going to make a major difference in the league. He said, “I don’t think that this next draft…that’s going to be life-changing for a franchise. I don’t see that. I love Cooper Flagg and I love the kids over there at Rutgers, but I think they’re still a work in progress.”
“I see very good players coming in…but I don’t see that next superstar coming in yet,” he added.
Pierce believes that Wembanyama was a life-changing pick because he was already a star before entering the league. He is also an incredibly gifted athlete who showed his talent in his rookie season. Pierce isn’t seeing anything like Wemby in the next NBA Draft.
The 2025 NBA Draft Class
For the next draft, players like Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecombe, Tre Johnson, and others are lined up. While they are all talented athletes, most of them will need some additional time to get used to the NBA standard of basketball. This wasn’t the case with Wembanyama, which is why a lot of people saw him as a generational pick.
Now, this doesn’t mean that there is no real talent in the upcoming draft class. Flagg has been one of the most talked about young athletes in the country for the past year. Apart from him, Harper has also shown a lot of potential.
Garnett has always shown love to the Blue Devils star. He believes that Flagg can become a superstar, but he will have to learn a few things first.
“When it comes to being a leader, with all the exposure he has gotten in high school, he is used to leading a team, he is used to the attention. He is used to walking to the gym and people knowing who he is, that superstardom, that follows you… When you’re joining a team, that’s what you’re locking into the links of the other greats around you and the other good players that are around you,” KG said on All The Smoke.
He believes that the league has not seen a “bad-a** cold-a** white boy” like Flagg in a long time and it will be refreshing to finally see one in the league.
