Washington Wizards Preview
The Wizards are good, but are there any avenues for them to improve?
Last Season:
After a 2–8 start to the season, and calls to break up the John Wall-Bradley Beal backcourt from the usually calm and rational NBA Twitter landscape, the Wizards outperformed expectations to finish 49–33 and one game short of defeating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. Bradley Beal emerged as a premier 2-guard as he avoided the injury bug and combined a stellar 60.4% true shooting with a 25.4% usage rate. Otto Porter Jr. took a leap forward as well and established himself as one of the league’s top three point marksman, shooting 43.4% from three on over 4 attempts per game. These two, in addition to one of the premier point guards in the NBA in John Wall, made for a dynamic perimeter trio. Eventually, the team’s lack of quality backups, even after trading for Croatian gunner Bojan Bogdanovic, did the team in. Ian Mahinmi was brought in to be a defensive 5 who could take some of the burden off of Marcin Gortat, but was limited to 31 games and has 3 years, 48 million left on his contract. While Scott Brooks proved what he could do with a flawed roster, the Zards future lack of picks and flexibility will make it difficult for the team to improve. Despite a star studded backcourt, The team must face the reality that retaining Porter will require matching a max contract for the upcoming restricted free agent and must decide if they want to re-sign Bogdanovic for 10+ million a year after surrendering their 1st round pick to the Nets to acquire him. The Wizards must find an additional big man that can protect the rim and improve on the team’s 20th ranked defense to supplement their high-powered perimeter offense.
Draft from the Past:
As a result of the Bogdanovic trade, the Wizards only had their 2nd rounder, #52. General Manager Ernie Grunfeld traded that pick to New Orleans for point guard Tim Frazier, who projects as a solid backup and distributor that can allow the team to tread water while Wall sits. Unfortunately, this means that Wizards fan cannot join every other fan base this summer in irrationally comparing their draftees to Hall of Famers on SB Nation blogs.
Free Agency Tinder Superlike:
While “Showtime” Willie Reed has shown promise in his first two NBA stints, Brooklyn was willing to move on from him and it seems apparent that Miami will follow suit as evidenced by the selection of Bam Adebayo in last week’s draft. Reed was a double-double machine in the artist formerly known as the D-league, and has translated his rebounding production in his NBA minutes. Reed would provide the Wizards guards with a mobile pick and roll target that can provide vertical spacing on alley-oops, and is a decent shot blocker when he is playing motivated. While Reed is already 27, which may be surprising given his inexperience, he can step into the role than Ian Mahinmi was supposed to assume. Marcin Gortat is showing signs of decline at 33, and the Wizards desperately need to find serviceable big men on the cheap if they plan on resigning Porter to a mega deal. Reed fills that need and projects as one of the better backup centers in the league if he can improve on his consistency.
One Defining Stat:
The Wizards finished 16th in the league with a 57.7% assist percentage. This is altogether too low considering the team’s personnel led by one of the NBA’s top passers in John Wall. The addition of Tim Frazier should help with ball movement and result in a more efficient offense in D.C.
How Far Away Are They?
The Wizards are firmly behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference hierarchy. As long as the Cavs have LeBron and the Celtics retain their treasure trove of young prospects and draft picks, which can be cashed in for an All-Star at any moment, the Wizards will be capped at the 2nd round of the playoffs for the foreseeable future, unless complementary players like Otto Porter and Markieff Morris can make unexpected improvements to their skillsets.
The Up & Under:
The Up: The Wizards re-sign Otto Porter to a max contract and he improves his defense and off the dribble capabilities to live up to the deal. John Wall and Bradley Beal continue to be one of the league’s top backcourts and Markieff Morris becomes more consistent and emerges as one of the better power forwards in the league. Meanwhile, opposing teams continuously miss back-to-back free throws in the 4th quarter, delighting the D.C. faithful as they receive free Chic-Fil-A. Scott Brooks puts a giant poster of Kelly Olynyk in the locker room, which motivates the team to finish 52–30 and knock off the Celtics, as Danny Ainge refuses to give up anything more than Terry Rozier in a trade for a star, before Washington eventually loses to the Cavaliers in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Under: Bradley Beal’s injury woes resurface and John Wall does not have enough help around him. Complementary players such as Bogdanovic, Porter, and Jason Smith struggle to defend and as Marcin Gortat’s defense regresses, the Wizards struggle to both defend the perimeter and protect the rim. This culminates in Ernie Grunfeld returning to the hot seat as Washington finishes 39–43 and misses the playoffs, leading to more tension between Wall and Beal over the size of their contracts.
