{"id":2525,"date":"2023-10-13T23:16:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=2525"},"modified":"2023-10-23T14:34:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:34:01","slug":"bilal-coulibaly-is-off-to-impressive-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/13\/bilal-coulibaly-is-off-to-impressive-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Bilal Coulibaly Is Off To Impressive Start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When the Wizards <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/23\/fan-react-to-wizards-selecting-bilal-coulibaly\/\">traded up for Bilal Coulibaly in the 2023 NBA Draft<\/a>, there were mixed reactions. Mostly because the Wizards had new front office leadership that fans were getting to know and Coulibaly wasn\u2019t necessarily the expected pick. However, Wizards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/2023\/06\/05\/will-dawkins-wizards-general-manager\/\">general manager Will Dawkins<\/a> was sold on Coulibaly\u2019s upside and ability to develop over the long-term.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWith him [Coulibaly], we don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a risk,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cWe feel like it\u2019s a player that can come in and play, and just continue to chip away, continue to get better. But his future\u2019s much brighter than his present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wizards GM Will Dawkins said first round draft pick Bilal Coulibaly fits into the team\u2019s long-term plan: \u201cHe\u2019s coming in with substance as a competitor, as a person, and as a worker. That\u2019s going to fit in very well within our walls.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@dbltakesports<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DCAboveAll?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DCAboveAll<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/x0YEO6RdyY\">pic.twitter.com\/x0YEO6RdyY<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Double Take Sports (@dbltakesports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports\/status\/1673449982211371010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 26, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wizards first-round draft pick Bilal Coulibaly talked to us about what fans are getting from him as a person and player \u2b07\ufe0f<br><br>#NBA#NBATwitter <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jkjYvn4WWk\">pic.twitter.com\/jkjYvn4WWk<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Double Take Sports (@dbltakesports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports\/status\/1672658363820261377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that Summer League and two preseason games are under his belt, how is Coulibaly measuring up? He has actually been a refreshing addition, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Dawkins acknowledged that his defense would come along before his offense but for a team that desperately needed defensive talent, he is immediately contributing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his preseason debut, Coulibaly landed in the starting lineup, finishing with&nbsp;5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a block.&nbsp;He followed that up against the Charlotte Hornets with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals, and a block.&nbsp;<br><br>\u201cThere&#8217;s a comfortability with that,\u201d Coach Wes Unseld, Jr. said in reference to Coulibaly\u2019s defense. \u201cI think like I said last night, he&#8217;s leaning into that side of the ball as part of his identity. He knows how to guard at an elite level.&nbsp;There&#8217;s minutes, so let the offense come and stay aggressive, which you know, he showed at times playing in the open floor, playing downhill. But, you know, do your work on the defensive end and let that generate easy offense for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coulibaly\u2019s poise and maturity is also a noticeable part of his game and overall demeanor.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>\u201cThere&#8217;s a\u2026and I\u2019ve used this term, youthful maturity about him,\u201d Unseld, Jr. continued.&nbsp;And I don&#8217;t know if that\u2019s just because he&#8217;s played professionally at young age. He&#8217;s been around a little bit but there&#8217;s a level of composure and poise, you know, which are unique, I think, for teenagers.&nbsp;You know, on this stage, it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s really encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the Wizards traded up for Bilal Coulibaly in the 2023 NBA Draft, there were mixed reactions because of the unknown. But now he&#8217;s making an early impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wizards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/BilalCoulibaly_scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2525"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}