Through their first 13 games of the NBA season, the Washington Wizards have shown that while they’re not a contender right now, they have building blocks that will eventually get them to the next level. Chief among them is second-year guard Bilal Coulibaly, who’s impressed some of the league’s best players recently.
Future Hall-of-Fame sharpshooter Steph Curry, for example, gushed about Coulibaly’s defensive acumen after the Golden State Warriors’ 125-112 win over the Wizards on November 5th, via Monumental Sports Network’s Bijan Todd.
Also from postgame last night: Steph Curry was extremely complimentary of Bilal Coulibaly, especially on the defensive end.
“You gotta have counters for him…he looks like he has a sense of pride on that end of the floor.”
Compared him to an Andre Iguodala-archetype defender
pic.twitter.com/lva2pAgKWy
— Bijan Todd (@bijan_todd) November 5, 2024
“He’s tough. He’s long, athletic, quick on his feet. Saw a little bit of him over the summer in the Gold Medal Game, but obviously FIBA and the NBA are different,” he said. “He’s a willing three-point shooter now, you have to be a threat on that end of the floor. But defensively, he’s tough. You gotta have counters for him, you gotta be able to take the physicality.”
Curry, who had his usual solid night at the office with 24 points on 7-of-15 shooting (4-9 3pt) that game, knows a thing or two about what makes a good defender at the top level. The NBA’s all-time three-point shooting leader has been guarded by opposing teams’ best defenders countless times throughout his 16 years in the league, so it’s notable for him to praise a new kid on the block.
“It looks like he has a sense of pride on that end of the floor,” Curry continued. “That’s gonna be how he excels in this league, no matter how many points he scores. Andre Iguadola type, can you lock up? I know he takes pride in that.”
Coulibaly, who is 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, has a limitless ceiling defensively. Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young was also impressed with the French international’s effort on that end, as he held him to 2-for-15 shooting on October 30th, via Todd.
Asked Trae Young about Bilal Coulibaly, who held him to 2-15 shooting on Monday and scored a career-high 27 points tonight.
“You gotta try to use different tricks to get the ball around him…he’s a great player. He’s gonna have a good career in this league.”
— Bijan Todd (@bijan_todd) October 31, 2024
“He’s a really good player, he has long arms, long defender. If you don’t get screens on him he’s fighting over, you gotta try to use different tricks to get the ball around him, and that’s how you can get deflections,” Young said. “He’s a really good defender, I see a lot of him, really every night. He’s a great player, he’s gonna have a good career in this league.”
On top of showing defensive promise on the perimeter, Coulibaly has been active offensively. The 2023 No. 7 overall draft pick is averaging 14.8 points on 55.4% shooting (37.1% 3pt) with 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists across 34.6 minutes per game. He also set a career-high with 27 points on 11-14 shooting in the 133-120 win over the Hawks on October 30th, the same night he locked up Young defensively.
While Coulibaly has taken a leap forward in his sophomore season, he’s still an under-the-radar player. That’ll change, though, by the end of this season.
Bilal Coulibaly will cement himself as a potential Wizards star
Coulibaly was a productive role player as a rookie, averaging 8.4 points on 43.5% shooting (34.6% 3pt) with 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists across 27.2 minutes per game before going down with a season-ending wrist injury in March. However, the 20-year-old has already improved into a starting-caliber presence on both ends, and is now the third-highest scorer on Washington behind veterans Jordan Poole (21.1 points-per-game) and Kyle Kuzma (17 PPG).
Coulibaly, though, is shooting much more efficiently than both of them (45.8% for Poole, 40.9% for Kuzma), albeit on less attempts. At the very least, he’s earned more than the 10.1 attempts per game he’s getting, so expect him to get more opportunities as he continues to cash in at a high rate. Once that happens, he could easily approach a 20 PPG average.
If and when Coulibaly does reach that scoring output, he’ll have officially arrived as a leader on both ends of the floor for a young Wizards team. The best part is, he’s still nowhere close to his prime.
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