The Washington Wizards have done all that they can in submitting themselves before the basketball gods, at least on a technical level. They went out there and prioritized long-term development like no other, collecting a league-high 65 losses over the 2025-26 schedule and earning a guarantee at a top-five pick the hard way. Now, it's up to pure luck to see where they'll fall in the drawing order.

It's a near-identical spot to the situation the franchise was preparing for exactly a year ago, but they'd be best off avoiding any parallels to that tragic chain of events.

Bub Carrington had his fingerprints all over the catastrophe, even if there isn't a thing he'd likely do differently to influence the chain of events. His season-ending game-winner was just enough to knock the Wizards from that year's worst record and open the door for the team to fall to No.…