NBA Injury Report: Rookie Lottery Pick Ruled Out For Season

Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs talks with Bilal Coulibaly #0 of the Washington Wizards after the game at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. The two teammates were both top lottery picks in 2023 — but only one is out for the year.

Very little has gone right in this 2023-24 NBA season for the Washington Wizards. At 11-57, the team is the worst in the league by record. Yes, even worse than the Detroit Pistons, who themselves broke an NBA record for most consecutive losses in a season earlier this year.

Now, it appears the reeling Wizards have stumbled into yet another unwelcome development. The club has announced via its official X/Twitter account that rookie small forward Bilal Coulibaly has now been ruled out for the rest of the year. The 6’8″ Frenchman was selected with the seventh pick in last summer’s draft out of Metropolitans 92. Yes, he was teammates with No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, a Rookie of the Year frontrunner this season.

As the Wizards note, Coulibaly fractured his right wrist during a fall on Saturday against another Eastern Conference team likely bound for the 2024 lottery, the Chicago Bulls. Chicago demolished Washington in the game, 127-98. It appears that the young man’s recovery will take longer than the rest of the regular season.

Coulibaly entered the NBA as a far less polished product than Wembanyama. Even on the lowly Wizards, he’s still playing a fairly minor bench role as he develops. Across 63 contests (15 starts), the 19-year-old averaged 8.4 points on .435/.346/.702 shooting splits, 4.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.8 blocks. He played 27.2 minutes a night.

None of his numbers are too shabby for a rookie. What’s disappointing is that he hasn’t capitalized fully on his opportunity playing for the league’s worst team in getting more minutes and more touches. There’s always next year, we suppose.

Washington has had an absolutely miserable go of it this year. The good news is that the team has plenty of future draft equity and should be able to shore up its roster with young talent in the years to come. Coulibaly may be catching a bit of a break to avoid the team’s depressing present, really. Though we’re sure he would rather just be able to move his right wrist without discomfort.

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