The No. 1 pick is known, but what about others?
It has been so long since last month’s NBA Draft Lottery that the responses from the Wizards’ brass are starting to sound a little preprogrammed.
Team president Ernie Grunfeld was asked about John Wall’s workout — not about whether Washington intended to select him — at the opening of his pre-NBA Draft news conference Wednesday.
Grunfeld’s answer: “We can’t say right now who our No. 1 pick is.”
Thankfully, the hedging and thinly veiled secrecy will end Thursday. But the NBA Draft also will mark the long-awaited new phase for the Wizards, who began a process of demolition, change and rebuilding more than four months ago during the middle of last season.
“For us, it started last trading deadline, when we made some major changes and decided that the team got stale,” Grunfeld said.
The net result is a roster that contains a mere six players under contract and more than $20 million in salary cap space. The Wizards own the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-round pick (via the Antawn Jamison trade), a high second-round draft pick and, of course, the top pick in the draft, which fell into Washington’s lap May 18.
Wall has been the presumed choice ever since. Grunfeld said it would be fair to say he has spent far more time in the last five weeks evaluating what to do with the Wizards’ two latter picks and answering to new team owner Ten Leonsis’ professed desire to add more picks in the first round.
Grunfeld didn’t give an enthusiastic endorsement for what the Wizards might find should they move up.
“A player could go from 15 to 35 in this draft,” Grunfeld said. “Once you probably get past the top 13 or 14, it pretty much evens out.”
But Wall still stands out and is set to become a fitting first acquisition for Leonsis, who said after he became the franchise’s official owner that he believes “in the power of young players becoming iconic to the team’s success.”
