Undrafted to a multi-year deal, Justin Champagnie's relentless effort and "winning stuff" define his remarkable rise with the Wizards.
It’s not easy to find a diamond in the rough in the NBA. For the Washington Wizards, prior years and previous regimes massively struggled to develop their players.
There isn’t a much better story in the league than Justin Champagnie’s. The 24-year-old wing had nothing handed to him.
Despite an All-ACC first team nomination in 2021, he went undrafted. For some, this becomes the end of the story. Champagnie kept the book open.
Not even five years later, Champagnie has become one of the winningest players on a Wizards team that doesn’t win much yet.
He becomes one of the biggest success stories of Washington’s new front office, who has turned Champagnie from underappreciated to underrated.
After the Toronto Raptors gave him a chance, he spent most of his time with Raptors 905, their G-League affiliate. After a full-season with them, he played with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. After soon signing with the Miami Heat, he was waived just days before the season started, so he returned to Sioux Falls.
In the G-League, he was impactful. Still, he hadn’t stuck anywhere.
Finally, in 2024, he found himself with his third organization, the Washington Wizards, where he signed a 10-day contract. Playing with the Capital City Go-Go, Champagnie was named to the All NBA G-League Second Team.
Eventually, the big leagues required his services. It didn’t take long for the Wizards to see something in him. On March 3rd, 2024, he was elevated to a two-way contract. Exactly one year later, he signed a four-year, $9.8 million dollar contract.
That contract looks like a steal now.
“Just the opportunity to play,” Champagnie said when describing what about the Wizards’ player development helped him. “A lot of times, you go to other places, and the opportunity may not present itself. [The Wizards] give everyone a good opportunity for everyone to go out there and show what they’ve been working on and what they’re made of.
The player development program led Champagnie to find his home. He thinks the other young players fighting for a chance can do the same.
“They’re very intentional with the work they make us put in,” Champagnie said. “They take pride in making sure we are getting the work in and, getting better, and not BSing it.”
When I asked his head coach Brian Keefe about what makes him so impactful in his minutes, he smiled.
“He just does little winning stuff all the time,” Keefe said.
You might ask; how does someone do winning things on a team that isn’t winning? Well, it is a thing. Champagnie finished last night's game a +10 last night, despite his team falling to the Chicago Bulls by 11. His 17 minutes featured his usual tricks.
He snagged eight rebounds, including three offensive. It’s hard to find anyone else at his size that rebounds like him. Despite standing at 6’6, he’s averaging 10.1 rebounds per 36 minutes.
I use the per 36 metric because it’s rare to see him play that much this year. In fact, he hasn’t even touched 30 minutes in a game since December 31st. Why? He might be too impactful.
Champagnie takes pride in his “winning player” prowess. That term gets thrown around often, for better or worse toward players, so I asked Champagnie what that means.
“Someone who is willing to do anything to make the team win. It comes down to that,” Champagnie said. “Whether it’s diving on the floor for a loose ball, going to get that game winning rebound, taking a foul when you need to; those are the qualities of a winning player.
Washington’s first-round pick was top-eight protected this season. A bottom-four finish was the only way to guarantee they’d avoid the pick conveying to the New York Knicks. 79 games in, they accomplished that goal. Now, they’ve officially locked up a bottom-two record, and are one loss or Pacers win from locking up the worst record in the league.
Should that happen, Washington’s worst draft scenario becomes the fifth overall pick.
At times, the Wizards have almost hit Champagnie from games. In a handful, he’s received DNPs. Still, when on the floor, the Wizards are a better team.
“Getting in for an offensive rebound, cutting to the rim, making a play defensively; that’s stuff [Champagnie] always does,” Keefe said.
When they become focused on competing and winning more games next season, he will play a massive hand. His +/- for the season is -4.2, which doesn’t seem great on paper, but compared to his teammates who have played as much as him, he stands out.
Champagnie wants his impact to stretch beyond just his play.
“How can I be more effective for my team? How can I make more winning plays? How can I uplift guys and get others to make more winning plays?”
Next season, the Wizards need others to play the way he does, and he’s confident that will be the case.
“Those are the qualities that build winning teams, and I think we got a lot of guys in this locker room that live up to those qualities, and it’ll be fun to see how we all play together,” Champagnie said.