The 2025-26 NBA season is here! Over the next few weeks, we’re examining the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and win projections for all 30 franchises — from the still-rebuilding teams to the true title contenders.

2024-25 finish

• Record: 18-64 (15th in the East, missed playoffs)

Offseason moves

• Additions: Tre Johnson, Cam Whitmore, CJ McCollum, Malaki Branham

• Subtractions: Jordan Poole, Marcus Smart, Saddiq Bey, Malcolm Brogdon

The Big Question: To whom do these Wizards belong?

The Wizards boast 12 players who have been selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since 2021, including nine from the past three drafts. Alex Sarr, the No. 2 overall selection in 2024, and Tre Johnson, this year’s lottery pick, are the highest profile among them, and neither has turned 21 years old.

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Sarr is one of five first-round selections from the 2024 draft on Washington’s roster. That group includes AJ Johnson and Dillon Jones, who arrived in the past year from the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively. Cam Whitmore is also in tow from the Houston Rockets. All of them will be carving out their roles in the NBA. That does not include recent lottery picks Bub Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly.

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The Wizards also feature past-their-prime veterans Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum, either of whom probably imagines himself still as an elite-level performer who warrants his own share of opportunities.

In theory, they could all work in tandem on a team that dares to defy its low expectations.

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In practice, third-year Wizards head coach Brian Keefe will have his hands full trying to keep everyone from pursuing his own path in the league and instead swimming in the same direction. As his prospects chase stardom, he must ensure that they are working as some semblance of an actual basketball team.

Keefe will be tempted to lean into Middleton and McCollum as stabilizing forces within the offense, but at what cost to the development of Washington’s cache of young contributors? There is a delicate balance between the pursuit of a few more wins and doing what is best for the longterm health of the franchise.

After all, this season is not about winning in Washington. The Wizards won 18 games last season and should have no fantasies about making the play-in tournament. If all that occurs this season is the Wizards determine a pecking order among their prospects, then it will have been a step in the right direction. All the better if one or more of those players develops into someone whom they envision as a rising superstar.

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It is about putting the right players in the right positions to succeed. They do not want anyone overreaching on a role for which he is not designated. In that sense, the addition of McCollum — the 34-year-old former president of the players’ union — serves Washington’s goals better than the player for whom he was traded, Jordan Poole, a 26-year-old point guard who still fancies himself as a lead option.

[Get more Wizards news: Washington team feed]

Similarly, after a few injury-riddled seasons, Middleton may be the sort who finds salvation in helping young players thrive, knowing he is no longer competing for titles (or at least until he is moved again). It will then be on Sarr, the Johnsons, Carrington, Coulibaly and everyone else to seize their opportunities.

Is that not what you want from this team? The chance for someone to take the reins and alert the public: This is my team, and we are gonna be OK. That and a shot at another star at the top of next year’s draft.

Best-case scenario

Sarr is a true floor-spacing, rim-protecting big man. Tre Johnson is the smooth-shooting scorer they imagine. Both are potential stars. Coulibaly is a complementary 3-and-D wing. Everyone settles into his role. And enough of them fulfill those roles admirably enough to think this roster could do some damage in a year’s time. And in the meantime the Wizards cruise into another lottery pick to join them.

If everything falls apart

Nobody was worth his draft status. Not one of them. Years into their rebuild the Wizards are without a star in the making. Middleton and McCollum fail in their attempts to fill the void. Everything becomes about the next great hope in the draft, and that is no place a franchise wants to be, where there is no internal development and no hope for the next guy in need of it. It can get real bad, real quick in Washington.

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2025-26 schedule

• Season opener: Oct. 22 at Milwaukee

Even if everything clicks, the Wizards have no incentive to win and every incentive to play as many of their young players as often as possible. With that will come development and lots of losses. Go under.

More season previews

East: Atlanta Hawks • Boston Celtics • Brooklyn Nets • Charlotte Hornets • Chicago Bulls • Cleveland Cavaliers • Detroit Pistons • Indiana Pacers • Miami Heat • Milwaukee Bucks • New York Knicks • Orlando Magic • Philadelphia 76ers • Toronto Raptors • Washington Wizards

West: Dallas Mavericks • Denver Nuggets • Golden State Warriors • Houston Rockets • Los Angeles Clippers • Los Angeles Lakers • Memphis Grizzlies • Minnesota Timberwolves • New Orleans Pelicans • Oklahoma City Thunder • Phoenix Suns • Portland Trail Blazers • Sacramento Kings • San Antonio Spurs • Utah Jazz