{"id":99898,"date":"2024-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=99898"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:59:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:59:05","slug":"wizards-pillar-bilal-coulibaly-paints-compelling-picture-of-offseason-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/08\/wizards-pillar-bilal-coulibaly-paints-compelling-picture-of-offseason-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards\u2019 Bilal Coulibaly Paints Compelling Offseason Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now 6-foot-9 with shoes and up to 205 pounds, Washington Wizards second-year wing Bilal Coulibaly<\/a> has grown physically since his rookie season. However, his development isn\u2019t limited to his physical profile<\/a>, as the 20-year-old has also improved his awareness<\/a> and added to his skillset.<\/p>\n

Wizards\u2019 Pillar Bilal Coulibaly Paints Compelling Picture Of Offseason Growth<\/h2>\n

\u201cI just feel like I know what\u2019s going on on the court,\u201d Coulibaly considers, per The Athletic\u2019s Josh Robbins.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, there was some times where I felt awkward on the court and I didn\u2019t know what I was doing for real. But now I know what I gotta do, what Coach really wants me to do. So, I know where my spots are. I know where I\u2019m going to get the ball. It makes it way easier for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankly, Coulibaly\u2019s confusion was par for the course.<\/p>\n

He was a rookie, for one. He also had a significant defensive role and was being asked to play an unfamiliar offensive role. Furthermore, the Wizards are a team devoid of experience and top-tier talent, making it even more challenging to flatten his learning curve. Lastly, French is Coulibaly\u2019s first language, while the vast majority of his teammates and coaches were native English speakers. There\u2019s basketball-specific verbiage that could have been lost in translation.<\/p>\n

However, time is a key ingredient for comfort. After a year stateside and as a professional NBA player, Coulibaly was able to decompress in the offseason and absorb his experience. Even before his fractured right wrist healed up, he was working on the parts of his game that weren\u2019t up to scratch.<\/p>\n

Coulibaly got stronger. He worked on his ball-handling, shooting, and passing. He also won a silver medal<\/a> alongside San Antonio Spurs forward-center Victor Wembanyama<\/a> in the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, man,\u201d he says, \u201cyou don\u2019t even know how much I worked on my left hand… I can shoot with my left hand now, too, because I\u2019ve been working so much on my left hand. It was like six weeks straight shooting with my left hand, dribbling, passing, all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of note, Wizards coach Brian Keefe \u201cintends to assign Coulibaly every game to guard opponents\u2019 most dangerous perimeter players. But Keefe also expects to have Coulibaly take more of a role handling the ball and initiating the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler\u2026 Bilal Coulibaly?<\/h3>\n

In his time with Metropolitans 92, Coulibaly was a bit more than Wembanyama\u2019s wingman. However, like Wembanyama, he had to learn what level of skill and physicality he needs to be an adroit offensive player in the NBA.<\/p>\n

With his offseason improvements, Coulibaly has taken a step towards being a bonafide two-way player. If he can take the path of a player like Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler<\/a> or Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, who morphed from defensive-stoppers to All-Stars, he may even become the Wizards\u2019 best player. Of course, 2024 No. 2 pick Alex Sarr<\/a> will hope to have something to say about that<\/a> though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now 6-foot-9 with shoes and up to 205 pounds, Washington Wizards second-year wing Bilal Coulibaly has grown physically since his rookie season. However, his development isn\u2019t limited to his physical profile, as the 20-year-old has also improved his awareness and added to his skillset. Wizards\u2019 Pillar Bilal Coulibaly Paints Compelling Picture Of Offseason Growth \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":100010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1608,62,3],"tags":[4769,4557],"class_list":["post-99898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wizards","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-bilal-coulibaly","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}