51st State of Basketball: A Monumental Rebuild

“Rebuild”... A word lamented by all.

Players, Coaches, GMs, and most of all fans never want to hear or speak of entering a rebuild process.

While there are success stories that come to fruition, such as the Oklahoma City Thunder culminating a long rebuild process with a competitive championship-winning team, there are plenty of franchises across the realm of competitive sports that never reach that ultimate goal. 

The Washington Wizards and Mystics are both seeking to assemble the building blocks of sustained success. 

The structure of the NBA, WNBA, and G-League teams under the Monumental Sports umbrella is overseen by the President of Monumental Basketball, Michael Winger, with a true system of strategic basketball unity. 

Since his induction to the role in 2023, we’ve seen the Wizards and Mystics take on the brunt of a rebuild process primed to create winners in DC. 

We’ve seen both teams cut player salaries through trades and get young talent. The promise is there, but at this phase of a rebuild, fans are looking for some success to fuel future hope.

On the Mystics' side, the rebuilding process is showing progress. Despite a tough 2025 season record of 16-28 and a difficult ten-game losing streak to end the year, the team established a promising young core. 

The Mystics brought in three highly touted rookies in 2025. Georgia Amoore, Sonia Citron, and Kiki Iriafen.

Early in the season, despite losing Amoore, the Mystics were competitive, but after trading away Brittany Sykes, they seemed to lose that magic for the rest of the season. 

With dynamic play from rookies and a hyper-talented guard awaiting her debut after injury, the ‘Stics have the building blocks and a vision, but still need more pieces to be a contender.

Wizards

The Mystics' player movement and setup from an outsider's view mirrors the Wizards. 

The Wizards have a fun combination of young talent highlighted by Bub Carrington, Alexandre Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, and incoming rookie Tre Johnson. 

The major difference between the state of these two teams is that while we’ve seen flashes from the young guns, we have yet to see anyone take a leap to truly put the league on notice nightly. 

Despite the questions, the talent is there and will be further helped by the veteran presence in the Wizards' locker room. Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum were acquired by the team as low-risk, high-reward options that, when healthy, can raise the scoring floor of lineups that include the raw young talent. 

Overall, it’s an uncertain but exciting time to lock into pro basketball in the city, but I truly believe the building blocks across the organization can build a sustainable winner. 

While the building blocks are there, both teams are searching for the star power to put DC professional hoops back on the map. 

I’m optimistic that day will come, I just don’t expect it in 2025-26.