The Wizards came into the season with the expectation of being a serious contender with LeBron James out of the Eastern Conference picture.
Following a 1-5 start, the Wizards might have to start thinking soon about breaking up their nucleus. They’re not only losing, they’re bickering once agin.
John Wall and Bradley Beal have criticized teammates for having their own agendas. Austin Rivers says the rest of the league is laughing at them.
Certainly, Washington’s defense has been a joke. They’ve given up the most points per game in the NBA. During their current three-game losing streak, they’ve allowed 144 to Golden State, 116 to Sacramento and 136 to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Their rebounding has also been atrocious, though in fairness Dwight Howard hasn’t played a game due to injury.
The overriding concern is whether the Wizards can be taken seriously with the pieces they have. They’re currently over the cap and the luxury-tax line. Their top three players — Wall, Beal and Otto Porter Jr. — will eat up over $92MM in cap space next season and more than $98MM the following season if Porter exercises his player option.
Wall and Beal have always had an uneasy partnership and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. The supporting cast has been underwhelming, with Porter in particular not producing at the level expected of a team’s No. 3 option. Perhaps the return of Howard will help settle things down in the interior, though Howard has a way of quickly wearing out his welcome.
This brings us to our question of the day: Should the Wizards stay the course and keep the John Wall-Bradley Beal backcourt intact or should they try to shake things up with a major trade?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
They don’t have the pieces to do anything except rebuild. At this point they might as well let it play out for another month and then blow it up.
Wall to Charlotte
Kemba, Marvin Williams to Washington
Kemba and Marvin have no ego, or at least none as significant as Wall, and Wall can get a fresh start. Wall will remain under contract and Charlotte won’t risk losing him like they do with Kemba.
Yea. No. Charlotte has zero reason to make this trade unless they want to end up in a shittier situation than they’ve been in the last few years.
Kemba has expiring contract, and I don’t know if Charlotte would want to take Wall’s enormous contract on when he clearly isn’t a winner and he seems to get hurt a lot.
Wall and Beal are not winning anything by themselves. Unless the Wizards find a way to ship Porter and Mahinmi somewhere (which right now seems nearly impossible) and bring some real talent in their stead, they are doomed to another 2-3 years of irrelevance. Probably their best option is to break the Wall-Beal backcourt and start rebuilding right away.
I doubt they can get much for Wall. He’s way over paid. Beal on the other hand might bring back a good return.
They have committed almost $55M to Porter, Mahinmi and Rivers. That’s insane…
Yeah those contracts don’t look good for sure, but in the NBA where everyone is paid at insane levels those types of deals are everywhere.
They’re stuck in purgatory. They’ve got too much to rebuild and not near enough to win much. Wall clearly isn’t a winning type point guard. If they can get much for him they should for sure listen. I’m just not sure he’ll bring much back with his huge contract.
I think Wall is disrespected. Look at that 2014/15 team. Wall led that team. Id say they have better overall players on this team but they just don’t gel together. Signing Mahinmi and porter were poor choices. And idk what to believe about the locker room drama
Wiz are the Blazers of the East. Mirror situation.
I think Portland has better players