Washington went 17-65 last season. That’s not an accident record. That’s a record you build on purpose, one bad roster decision at a time, for two straight years, until the lottery balls finally cooperate and hand you AJ Dybantsa at No. 1. Nobody needed a locker room confession to figure that out. The whole league watched it happen in real time.
And now it’s just over. Done. Washington spent the summer undoing two years of misery with actual intent — Trae Young in, Anthony Davis in, Dybantsa himself in, Deandre Ayton and Khris Middleton in, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Whitmore out. Per The Athletic’s Greg Finberg, Bub Carrington says the buy-in is immediate: “We have no egos on this team… We’re trying to win.” Sure, fine, take it at face value. A roster that spent two years being honestly, deliberately bad doesn’t have much reason to start lying about the rebuild now.
Toronto doesn’t get that version of honesty, because Toronto never picked a side. The Raptors have spent two years hedging on a Scottie Barnes rebuild that was never bad enough to tank outright and never good enough to actually compete. Just competent enough to float in the league’s most forgettable tier. They finally splashed for Kawhi Leonard this offseason, and good for them, except it took two years of straddling the fence to get there instead of two years of a PLAN.
The league office wants you to believe the vibes have already turned:
Scottie Barnes and the @Raptors are ready to make noise in 2026-27 🫨 https://t.co/SnJRi0sB58 pic.twitter.com/7RootfENQC
— NBA (@NBA) September 29, 2026
Great graphic. Barnes is legitimately a top-three power forward now, which is nice. It’s just about two years later than it needed to be, and a hype tweet doesn’t erase the indecision that got them here. Washington knew exactly what it was building toward and said so with its roster moves. Toronto still isn’t sure what it’s building, and that’s the whole difference. Being bad on purpose and then stopping is one kind of honest. Being stuck in the middle for two years is just stuck.
