The Washington wizards are still playing basketball, and I thought I’d keep you posted because you might have forgotten about them like the empty La Croix can on your coffee table has been there for so long it basically is. center. “Skipped Garbage” is probably the most appropriate way to describe this team after their lucky/hot start months ago.
The only standout they’ve made lately is a rough foul on Grayson Allen.
A cheap, relatively innocuous shot from a cheap hitter who epitomizes all that people hate about Duke basketball is always welcome in my eyes and commends Tomas Satoransky for doing what a lot of players wanted to do with Allen without breaking Allen’s wrist. Satoransky wasn’t even pushed out; he had a white ball and was able to end the team’s loss to the Bucks.
Honestly, I would only be half mad if you stopped reading after watching it because Wizards is so utterly useless, so unhelpful that it’s boring. This is the part where I remind you that they bought Kristaps Porziņģis at the close of the deal, and he only appeared in 10 of Washington’s 19 games and the team was 3-7 in those competitions. However, his stats have improved a bit, so there’s that.
If you’re wondering what this team looks like at full power, I imagine they’ll be somewhere around .500 and possibly make a play-in game. The Wizards fans I know, and I know an odd number of them as I’ve only spent one summer in DC, are indifferent to Bradley Beal and really don’t care if he stays or goes.
It’s not a Damian Lillard-Portland scenario, where the fan base is upset that he’s playing elsewhere, and those pushing for a rebuild are in denial that they’ll miss the player. The best in franchise history. While I couldn’t think of a “Greatest Mage Ever” in the first place (I mean Unorganized?) it certainly wasn’t Beal.
The point is that Beal and Porziņģis owe more than $70 million combined for next season, and if you add $26 million for Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, that’s big money for the two glorified actors. , a unicorn with no horns, and a guy whose All-Star numbers don’t translate to victory. New GM Tommy Sheppard should treat the entire roster as expendable this season and either go all out to surround his “star” with a bunch of players – who I’m not sure exist or even available in dealer for free – to complement Beal’s skill set or gut the team and start rebuilding.
I’m never in favor of tearing down a team so many years after the season. It’s like when you’re making a cake and it goes horribly wrong but the only option is to kick the damn thing and enjoy the crumbling mess or start from scratch. Let’s at least give Wizards fans a sizable chunk of success before turning them into a fast one for the foreseeable future.
The team’s two young Gonzagans have shown promise as it looks like Coery Kispert’s shot will make it to the NBA, and Rui Hachimura will be a serviceable NBA player if he can stay fit. I also like Deni Avdija’s game. However, he, like the previous two Bulldogs, needs more experience to develop, and Wiz bloggers were very upset With new coach Wes Unseld Jr. enjoy playing the vet in another disappointing season.
When Sheppard brought Porziņģis in, I wrote that it was basically a calculated gamble. If the Latvian big man delivers impressive numbers in the expanded role, it could restore his value and make him a trading asset for another undoubted team to the extent that Stupid to think he’s nothing more than a proper player. That said, they seem intent on proving he’s what the NBA teams think he is.
His role was not expanded. He takes fewer shots per game and plays less minutes. Did I mention his stats go up – 21 points per game versus 19 in Dallas, seven free throws per game over five in the Mavs and 49/32/87 shots, up from 45/28 /eighty six (per BasketballReference) – so what for? What prevents them from releasing Zinger?
That could be an injury concern because you can’t flip a damaged property, but you can’t flip a property if its value decreases; That’s called taking a loss. Maybe they wanted to save him to see what he looked like next to Beal. OK, so why give Kuzma and KCP all these minutes? Let the Wizards buy an upper repair tool just to grind more manure into the carpet.
The only reason I can be sure from this fun-filled team building approach is that they’re trying to piss Beal off with him asking for a trade. I don’t know why they want to lose all their leverage, but I rarely have an explanation for why Washington does so many of the freaks they do.
They don’t want good or bad, they just seem to want to exist.
