The Washington Wizards have been making a lot of noise of late. They made even more noise during the 2023 NBA Draft by agreeing to yet another trade. They moved up one spot in the draft to select Bilal Coulibay as the No. 7 overall pick, agreeing to send a couple of future draft picks to the Indiana Pacers as part of the deal.

The Wizards clearly wanted Coulibaly and they did not want to run the risk of the Pacers stealing him away one pick earlier. At this point, there's no denying that Washington has some high hopes for the 18-year-old guard.

If you ask him, Bilal is extremely confident that he will be able to live up to all the hype. As a matter of fact, the Frenchman is adamant that he will step into the role of the Wizards' cornerstone star in the not-so-distant future:

“I want to be a good two-way player,” he said, via Josh Robbins of The Athletic. “But, yeah, I want to be a franchise player by the next four years. I want to stay in D.C., give it all for the fans, for the city.”

That's quite the declaration from this young man. What you can say for sure is that he is not short in confidence whatsoever.

Let's also not forget that at 18, Bilal Coulibaly is still just a kid. He still has a lot of growing up to do — in more ways than one — and this is something he is definitely looking forward to:

“Yeah, I’m only 18. I’ve got a long way to go,” Coulibaly said. “Physically, gain some weight. I’m going to grow. I know it. I can’t wait to be Bilal, the real Bilal, the man one.”