Trae Young exits with injury, Bilal Coulibaly shines in another Wizards loss

What is up and welcome back to another episode of the Wizards podcast.

I'm yours Greg Femberg and in today's episode we're going to be diving into the 12th straight

loss for the Washington Wizards.

This one was more competitive than that Boston game ended up losing 125 to 117 to a depleted

Warriors team, no Steph Curry, obviously Jimmy Butler is out for the year and obviously

there's still a better team than the Washington Wizards who battled some of their own injury

bug again tonight with Tre Young who was in the midst of his best game as a wizard unfortunately

goes down with another injury diagnosed with the right quad contusion, about three minutes

into the third quarter, missed the rest of the game, probably played only one to two minutes

less than he would have played otherwise or still on that miniature restriction, but

he got injured.

We'll have more on that later in the pod, but obviously a loss is a loss and all losses

at this point in the season, this tank standings in the battle for the worst record, they're

all good.

This one was different than the Boston one, it was different than the Orlando one a little

bit, but they pulled it back late and made it a game and I guess that's all you can really

ask for from this team.

So I'm going to break it all down in this episode.

We'll start with Tre Young who opened the game very well.

He had seven points in the first couple of minutes, hit a cross over into a three and

then he drew an offensive foul later in, I believe, the second quarter.

There was another play where he pinned a defender on his back, baited him into a foul and

nearly got the N1, really annoying if you're the other team, but if you're a wizard's fan

if you're Tre Young, that's great.

He also got posted up multiple times on defense, Gary Payton was sort of picking

on him down low and Tre had his moments, he had a block from behind, he drew an offensive

foul, he had another deflection off a pass from Dremont into the corner.

So he was active on the perimeter, but there were still moments inside where his size or

lack thereof, you know, Golden State took advantage of that and you're going to have to

live with that if you're the wizards.

You acquired Tre Young for his offense, knowing that this could be a possibility for him

on the defensive end, but he was really good.

The bench struggled, you know, last game against Boston, the bench was the best part of the

game.

The starters were terrible.

A little bit different in the first half, bench comes in, immediate 14-0 run for the

warriors between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter to take

a 43-27 lead, obviously that was a pretty low point for the wizards at that point in

the game, but then they bring it back a little bit with the run of their own.

There's a really good sequence in that second quarter where you have Tre Johnson who had

an up and down game, better than he had last game in Boston, but still not that great.

He put a defender in the post, you know, some good footwork and got to his right hand.

Her little push shot comes down the floor, takes his man off the dribble, gets right

to his spot at the elbow, rises up, contests the jumper and drills it.

You have a little Riley on the next possession, drills a rhythm three.

He was awesome tonight, so was Bloc Hulibali, and then you have Tre Young come down and transition

and drill.

That's the first step at that point, his second three of the game.

Pretty quick ten to two spurt for the wiz right back in the game, really nice job from

both Tre's and will Riley to get him back, so that was really encouraging.

And Tre was awesome, like I mentioned, in the first half, 19 points, four assists, zero

turnovers.

I believe he was three of five from three, and I think six of nine from the field.

So really efficient shooting the ball.

The interior, like scoring game around the rim, float game, mid range, that's all been

going for Tre.

But there's been moments where his three ball is kind of, you know, escaped him.

But tonight he was able to get back to that three of five from three was really good.

The was trailed by seven at half, I mean, it looked pretty bleak.

They were down 16 at one point and sort of pulled it back.

So that was nice to see some adjustments, some compete when the starters came in and was

really what kind of got this group going.

But then you start the third quarter and, you know, Tre comes in, makes another scoop

layup and, you know, he's got 21 points.

The most he scored is a wizard.

But a couple minutes into the quarter, the wizards are on offense and Tre sort of stumbles

out a little bit from, he got caught up in a screen and Will Richard, I guess, also got

caught up in a screen previously.

So he was kind of on the ground about to get up.

And so Tre kind of didn't see him or runs in and collides.

It looked like you're typical like knee to knee, which might really hurt.

And I think what happened is, I think Tre caught a knee into his thigh or his quad, I guess,

because the wizards quickly ruled him out.

He went right to the locker room, hobbling.

But it seemed like a dead leg that you would, if you're in pickup, like you just walk it

off, you, you limp for a bit, you walk it off, you run it off for a second, and then you're

kind of back.

That's probably the next day.

But I mean, it certainly seemed like it's something you could play on.

And again, I don't want to minimize it because I'm not, I'm not Tre young.

I'm not on the court.

I'm sure it really hurt.

But again, it didn't seem like an injury that like in a playoff game would take him out.

I think Tre young would have, I don't even think it would have come out of the game at

this world playoff game.

I think Tre young would have continued in.

But you obviously have the underlying theme of the wizards are tanking and they will do

anything to be able to not play their players while hiding behind genuine injuries.

You also have them being very cautious in the season.

That means nothing.

Like yeah, maybe it's a quad contusion.

But you also at Haliburne, who had a calf, I think a calf strain, that turned into something

more.

Now, quad contusion probably isn't that severe.

I don't think it'll cause any killies at any means, but maybe there's, you know, possible

risk to reactivate it.

And that's what the wizards are going to sit there and say, and if the league presses

them about it, if Tre misses some time, then they're just going to be like, look, that's

what our doctor said.

You can come and consult.

But that's just the diagnosis, the prognosis for recovery that we had.

So Tre young exits the game, seemed like he was all right.

But nonetheless, the wizards are being cautious, can't fault them for that.

And he doesn't play the rest of the game.

And in my head, I thought like, okay, this is probably going to be ruled out with a quad

or a thigh contusion, one of the two.

And then we won't see him tomorrow against Detroit.

There's zero chance.

Like anything, like I mentioned, any opportunity the wizards have to hide behind, I guess

what you call like a legitimate injury to hold the guy like Tre or Saw or Kishon or

anyone out of a game, they're probably going to up to do that, especially when it's so

close between them and Brooklyn and Sacramento and Indiana and the tank standings.

Every loss is important.

I would be shocked if Tre plays tomorrow, which by the time I'm recording this is tomorrow,

but it'll be Tuesday night for the first of two games against the Detroit Pistons.

It's a second of a back-to-back and I don't believe Tre Young has played in a back-to-back

since he has come back from injury.

So it's very possible he wouldn't have played anyway because of injury management.

But now with this quad contusion, I would be shocked.

This is about 99% chance that Tre Young is out tomorrow against Detroit.

And I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's out longer.

Like he had a quad contusion that held him out for months.

Like his MCO sprain, he had before the wizards and the Hawks, it looked like we're about

to clear him to return and play right before they started to say, all right, we're going

to trade you, we're going to hold you out.

And then he continued to miss about two months with the quad contusion.

And so maybe this one isn't as severe, but it's fine for the wizards to say, look, he

is a quad contusion.

And my friend Riley commented on one of my posts, this might be, it's just crazy for me

to think that this might be the last time we see Tre Young in a wizards jersey this season.

I would be a little bit surprised if they're able to hold him out for the final 15 games

because of a quad contusion that didn't look too bad.

But we've seen crazier things in this league and we know what the goal is for the wizards.

And if they can sit there and say, look, that's unfortunate.

We really wanted him to play, but really unfortunate that he got this quad contusion.

I guess we have to hold him out for the final 15 games.

That's probably what they'll do.

It would suck from a fans perspective.

I know wizards fans like to see him play.

He's a really entertaining tonight and had a really good game.

But nonetheless, if they have that opportunity, I think they'll take it.

And I think they probably wise take it like you got your four or five game sample size.

He looks great.

He's good alongside.

Johnson Alkzar, you kind of know what you have and what you can build on in the off season.

And now you don't have to play him for a bit.

Maybe the rest of the year, like, I think this is an opportunity they might take.

I think it's a little extreme.

And I'm not going to sit here and tell you that that's going to happen.

I'm not confident that's the case.

But I want to be surprised I should say if it does happen.

But he'll definitely be out tomorrow.

No way he plays.

Betray gets injured.

It was a close game at that point.

And then you get Bob Carrington, who gets ejected.

He had an ankle breaker.

You kind of step back on Pat Spencer and drove the mid-range dumper.

He was great for the mid-range tonight.

But I guess he got a tech in the first half for arguing a call.

And then as he was back peddling after that, I don't really know what he was saying to

Scott Ballster, but he was kind of, you know, talking all the way down the floor.

And then he pointed at him two separate times.

You could see Scott getting a little mad and he pointed at him again.

And then Scott just said, get out.

Now you could hear it on the broadcast.

He was pretty frustrated with whatever Bob said.

But Bob said a little too much, I guess, according to Scott Ballster.

And he decided that he wanted to be the main character and throw him out.

Honestly, I'm sure, like Scott Ballster gets a lot of flack.

I'm sure Bob probably did say a little too much.

The pointing might have been excessive, but he gets ejected.

And so in the matter of minutes, the wizards are down two of their premiere guards.

Do the guards that handle the rock a lot on the offensive end.

And so when that happened, you were like, okay, that's unfortunate.

But Bob Riley is going to get some, some run at point guard.

Let's see what he can do.

And he was awesome tonight, 21 points for Bob Riley.

He had a cut, he opened the game with the spin move.

That was just so clean.

And then got to his left hand, still contested.

But a really nice finger roll off the glass.

Next possession comes down, gets fouled, makes both free throws.

He shot the ball from three pretty well for, for his standards finished.

With 21.6 of 13 from the field four of eight from three,

which is insane.

Got to the line six times, added five dimes, four rebounds was a plus five.

He was awesome tonight.

He had another spin move in the second half, where he took his man off the dribble.

So the right spawned back, left, and then drew the interior defender,

a little dump off past the Julian Reese from the end one.

That was really beautiful.

So we just had a couple of moments sprinkled throughout where you just kind of sat there

and said, this kid is good.

He's really good.

And at times, you said, this kid is not only a rotational piece next season,

but he might push for a starter role at some point, maybe not next year.

But he has the tools and you can see him.

He's so crafty.

He can get to the lane.

He can get to the rim at any time, but he can also dump it off to a big.

He can throw a skip pass across court.

He has a real guard skills.

He has guard type vision at six foot nine.

So a guy that can also score from the mid range, create for himself, and knock down an open

three.

He's kind of got exactly what you want.

The complete package from an offensive perspective, and he showcased it tonight.

He was fantastic.

But he played really well in the third quarter, and he played really well in the fourth quarter.

And he was a big reason why the Wizards brought it back.

I mean, they were down and out.

The Warriors opened a double digit lead midpoint of the fourth quarter.

They kept battling this the bench unit, some of the starters, whoever was left in

on a mid restriction.

And we'll get more on that from Tray Johnson's perspective in a bit.

But they thought and under man goal in state or not, they made it the game, which is all

you can really ask for from that group.

But they added, I think, at a five point game, it was one 15 to one 10 at a certain point,

and we'll rather have just made a three at a certain point.

I think it was like one 19 to one 13 like it was.

It was close towards the end and Golden State pulled away a little bit at the end and at

a certain point like the Wizards are down eight with like a minute 15 left and they're

just playing possessions out or with a minute left.

You can clearly see like they're trying their best to win the game, but they're not

fouling.

You know, they're not they're not scrapped.

They're not doing everything in their power.

I think they're just happy to compete and be close and if they lose, they lose.

You see what the jazz all the time, but I appreciated that fight after a Boston game where

they pulled it back a little bit towards the end as well and then the Orlando game where

they were down and they somehow forced over time.

These are kind of the ideal tank losses, Boston not as much because the stars were awful

and for the most part, the effort was abysmal way closer than it appears.

But tonight against Golden State against the Orlando, those are our tank losses that

are perfect where you may be getting blown out at a certain point, but you're younger

guys.

Tonight, it was belong.

Well, Riley, they lead you back and they make it a game.

It's not enough.

You don't have enough firepower to close, you know, those closures on the floor to finish

this comeback until you lose, but you see a lot of good things and you compete and you

still lose.

That's kind of the perfect tank loss there.

I mentioned well, Riley, the other guy that was awesome was, was a ball, clavoli and he

did it from a plethora of ways.

There were a couple.

He only made two threes.

They were both from the far corner and they were just both catching, shooting nothing but

net.

That's what you want to see from the law.

He wasn't forcing any triples.

He wasn't trying to get off the dribble trees like he was just letting the game come

to him tonight.

And it's another example of when he lets that happen.

Good things happen.

And it's another efficient night for a ball.

He finished with 21 as well on 7 of 10 from the field, made both of his threes, got to

the line six times eight boards, which is great.

Four assists was a plus six.

He was fantastic.

The help on the boards was big.

Obviously no sword tonight, Julian Reese started.

He was actually pretty good, 12 and 6 on 5 of 7 from the field.

You had Tristan Luke-Dovitch played decent bit as well, but you kind of needed some help

on the glass and below provided that.

But he got to his bag at a couple of times, like he took his man off the dribble and got

to the lane, got fouled a lot.

There was one move I liked where you saw sort of the maturity from him where he dribbled

to the right elbow and he saw Guy Santos reach in low for the ball.

So ball brought the ball low and then brought it up high through the arm to draw the contact

nearly got the end one, but you see it all the time from like James Harden and Anthony Edwards

where they're just seeking contact like that.

And ball is kind of adding that to his game, which is great.

For a guy that doesn't get to the line all too much, he's done it a lot in the last couple

of games.

And there were a couple of times where he just kind of in the mid-range like got into his

dribble bag, which was interesting to see like a quick, like, heavy cross into a mid-range

jumper and he did that multiple times tonight.

He was fantastic.

He got out in transition where I think he's at his best.

Showcase that speed got fouled a couple of times, got a couple of layups.

He scored from all three levels and he was efficient in doing so, let the game come to

him.

And he's done that the last couple of games.

It's really cool to see sort of the evolution from ball always that being asked to do a lot

more.

And late in these games, you have Trey Young when Sar was healthy, you had Alex Sar who

didn't play tonight, by the way, because of hamstring injury management.

Maybe it's the first game of back to back and they wanted to send him and I'll get to

the tanking stuff in a bit because I think it was fully a tanking decision.

But you know, the local ballie that's 21 tonight, he had 12 points against Boston, 29 against

Orlando.

This three really good games for a ball.

Really enjoying to see his evolution, he'll play a lot of think over the final 15 or so

games.

And so you hope to see him sort of build on these types of performances, but he was great

as well.

But like I mentioned, 125 to 117, Wizard's Falls, their 12 straight loss, which is great.

And they are, at this point, I marked a couple games because I, before this, this losing

streak began, because I'm so locked into this team, I went to the schedule and I looked

at this little patch and I said, this is, this has the makings of a humongous losing streak.

And I pointed out, I think three possible wins throughout this stretch.

One was against Utah, which they lost.

The other was against New Orleans, which they lost by 20.

And then the last one was against Golden State, who I didn't think would have Steph at

the time.

And all three are losses.

And now they have two back to back games against the East leading Detroit Pistons.

And then they have another against the West leading Oklahoma City Thunder.

And then they go to, I believe, the third best team in the East, the New York Knicks on

the road and shocking, I would say, is the word I'd describe any of the, if the Wizards

were to win any of those games, because they won't win them.

And if they did, I'd be shocked.

And you would be shocked as well.

So that's looking like another four losses.

And then that would tie the franchise record for a 16 game losing streak.

Again, it would be the fifth time that they fit that mark in franchise history.

It's kind of funny that they can never get over that hump.

And if they did that, that game against Utah would be the one to break it.

And Wizards fans would tell you they want to break that streak every single day of the

week.

And I can't tell them they're wrong for doing so.

But that's a really tough stretch coming up.

They're in a great spot in the tank standing.

So we pull those up right now, because Sacramento is kind of hot for tanking standards.

They won two games in a row.

They sort of jump the Wizards, but the Washingtons are in a really good spot.

They are second.

They own outright the NBA second worst record at 16 and 51.

They're still trailing Indiana by one game in the win column.

Indiana's 15 and 53 and they've lost 13.

They're just kind of one-opping Washington.

But you have Brooklyn at 17 and 51.

You have Sacramento with two wins in a row.

They're five, five, both are last 10.

They're 18 and 51.

So that's a two game lead for Washington in the win column on the fourth worst record.

One game lead in the win column for the third worst record.

And Sacramento and Brooklyn, by the way, at 17 and 18 wins, they have to play each other

twice.

One in Brooklyn, one in Sacramento.

So no matter which way that goes, again, win, win situation for the Wizards.

One team is going to move farther away while Washington continues to stack losses.

So that's something else the monitor.

And then you have Utah who has lost three in a row, but they're 20 and 48.

And Washington has a four game lead on them in the win column, which is awesome.

They only have to play in one more time as well.

So Washington slowly but surely with 15 games left is creeping ever so close to guaranteeing

a bottom full record, which guarantees they keep their pick as top they protected.

But they're also moving closer and closer to guaranteeing that maybe they have a top six

pick or a top seven pick because the worse you are, the better your standing is in terms

of how far you can fall.

But the worst record is only can fall the five and that the Wizards finish the season

then today, the Wizards could only fall to the six pick.

And that's like your absolute floor at six and you're telling me that, I don't know,

maybe I can get Darius Acuff at six or I can get where I can get another unbelievable point

guard like Wogler from Illinois, you know, there's so many good options at five.

You can get Flemmings from Houston, like floor, your floor being six is incredible.

The Wizards clearly want their floor to be five, but the Pacers might want it more.

So that's enough to know the tank standings.

The Wizards aren't in the greatest, greatest spot in terms of they want the worst record.

But out of all the other tanking teams, I think they're sitting really good and they

also am one of the hardest remaining strength of schedules in the league.

I want to close this this pod.

I got a couple questions tonight regarding Trey Johnson and his minutes recently because

someone messaged me, you know who you are if you're listening to the pod and it was

sort of like Greg, why am I missing something?

Why is Trey Johnson not played in the fourth quarter in like a month?

And it's funny because he really has it to my knowledge he hasn't.

Again, just 23 minutes tonight, he plays about six minutes in the third quarter and then

he sits for the final 18 minutes of game time.

And that's been pretty regular since early February and it's it's his minutes restriction.

Same that it's been for over a month now.

But again, he he had an ankle sprain where he messed about I think five games maybe earlier

in the season.

And then he returned the game before the all star break against the Cleveland Cavaliers,

which was on February 11th.

And it's March 16th like you can't there's no other way around it other than to say and

I mentioned this multiple times.

It was it's fun to watch how strategic they are with their tank like they take the

tanking stuff like quite seriously it seems because an ankle sprain is an ankle sprain

and it's never a fun injury.

But I can't tell you the last time I saw a guy have a minute restriction be over a month

long because of an ankle sprain and an ankle sprain that only kept him out for a handful

of games and not like a 15 20 game stretch because it was severe.

So again, it's and I would expect for the next month until the end of the season for

trade to still be on that minutes restriction.

It's like the wizards were benching their guys in the fourth quarter against Detroit and

against Sacramento and they weren't injured.

And now they found like this little loophole, which is, you know, for Alex Sare for

Tray Young for Tray Johnson, it's like, well, play you around 20 minutes.

Well, now it's that before the game so that everybody the league knows that this is not

more benching them to tank it's oh, they're on a minute restriction.

We want to be cautious.

But it's the same thing.

There's they're still not playing the end of the third.

There's not not playing the fourth and you can kind of get away with it.

Whereas a team like you tall hand because you announced before the game that this is going

to happen.

And I still think it's it's ridiculous, but if you're the NBA, what are you going to sell

the wizards?

It's like, no, don't be cautious with your guys coming back from injury.

And now the wizards are exaggerating it.

And that I mean, pretty blatant, but Tray Johnson's probably going to be on its

minutes restriction for the remainder of the year.

Tray Young, I would assume if he continues to play in this quad contusion isn't too big

of a deal.

He'll continue to be on a minute restriction for however many other games he plays this

year, same with Alex R. If someone else gets injured, you'll probably see a similar thing.

And the funny thing with that is you saw John your Watkins get injured.

It's not like he's really on a minute restriction is he is not like he's only playing a certain

amount of minutes.

You know, Jameer Watkins is playing 16 to 20 minutes a night.

And he played 16 tonight.

And that's not anything with a, oh, he was out for a couple of games.

So we need to minister strict them.

You can see that they're pretty selective with who they're doing it for and they're

doing it to tank.

It's not like it's anything that's insane, but I get it from some fans perspective because

you probably think that, but I'm sure you don't act.

You don't actually think that the wizards are like doing that intentionally.

You think maybe they are just, they're just, you know, on a minute restriction.

But I would say for, for Tray Johnson to still be on a minute restriction, 35 or so days

after he returned from an ankle, his brain and, and one that wasn't that serious, it seems.

There's clear tanking intentions there.

And then Alex Sarr, right, amstering injury management, again, it's another tanking decision

because he, I would assume, was not going to play a back to back, which is fine.

If you're, if you're injured, you're coming back from injury and he's, he's only a recent

return E back to backs are tough and those guys typically don't play them tanking or not.

But I will say the wizards probably sat there and were like, he's going to play one of

these two games.

Would we rather have him play against the warriors who I believe at the time were 33 and 32

and 35.

And without Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler and a game you probably could have maybe won.

You only lost by eight points.

Alex Sarr might have helped win this game or would I sit him for this game and basically

ensure that I lose it and then play him the next night against Epistons who we beaten,

but they're still the best team in the East and we're probably going to lose to them regardless

of if Alex plays or not.

And we're probably lose by a lot.

And so again, I think that's another tanking motivated decision and I don't mind it.

I don't.

You have net fans that are up in arms because they're playing their starters and they're

winning some games.

King's fans are mad because they're winning some games.

Their GMs are just saying we're going to be righteous and we're not going to like try

to tank.

The wizards are like, we're not going to be blatant about it.

But we're going to arrest our best player against a bad team and play him against a good

team because statistically, it's probably going to mean a loss against both instead of

a win against the bad team and a loss against the good team still.

So I think the trade Johnson stuff is tanking what, you know, just tanking motivated at this

point.

I think the Alcs are sitting tonight playing probably tomorrow as motivated by tanking.

And I don't really think there's too much around it, but I wanted to talk about it because

I've had enough people reach out sort of inquiring about that stuff.

I think it's just fully tanking.

But the wizards are doing a good job of it.

Like I mentioned, they've lost 12 games in a row.

They're 16 and 51 and they're in a pretty good spot in the tank standings and I think

they're going to lose another four and we'll probably be at 16 here when we're talking

about that Utah game.

And we'll see if they break the streak then, but that's probably going to wrap it up

for this episode of the wizards podcast, wizards fall 125 to 117 to go in state.

They're 12th straight loss.

They are 16 and 51 and they returned tomorrow at 7pm, the capital arena against the East

leading Detroit Pistons.

You'll hear from me then to break that one down as always.

Thanks for listening.

Go Liz.