Leonsis: Making playoffs a priority
Owner says team won’t throw in towel
LONDON — Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis met with reporters before Thursday’s game at O2 Arena and made it clear that, even with his team eight games under .500 and without point guard John Wall for the remainder of the season, he has no intentions of throwing in the towel and looking ahead to next year.
“We set out goals and ya gotta meet the goals,” Leonsis said. “And the first goal is to make it into the playoffs and to do better than we did last year, and to me that will make for a successful year. . . . What I’m encouraged by is that guys aren’t feeling sorry for themselves. In fact, they looked at it now as an opportunity. They’re getting more minutes and everyone wants to make the best of their time, but to meet the goal of making the playoffs, not for individual stats and accolades. This is a team, collective goal.”
The Wizards are 5-4 since Wall last played and elected to have season-ending surgery on his left heel. At 18-26 entering Thursday’s game here against the Knicks, they were 2.5 games behind the Charlotte Hornets for the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. Washington went 43-39 last season and lost to the top-seeded Toronto Raptors in six games in the first round of the playoffs. The franchise hasn’t been to the Eastern Conference finals since 1979.
Shooting guard Bradley Beal has stepped up in Wall’s absence, averaging 29.3 points with 5.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists over his last nine games. Leonsis said that Beal, who has averaged nearly 40 minutes a night during that span, remains confident that Washington will rebound to qualify for the postseason.
“Bradley Beal told me, ‘We got enough, we’re going to make the playoffs, we’re not going to let you down,’ ” Leonsis said Thursday. “So who am I to change the goals? We said, ‘No excuses.’ It would be easy to say we have so many players out injured, but we’re not going to do that. We’re not letting anybody off the hook. We gotta make the playoffs.”
With the team already in disarray when Wall underwent surgery, few would have faulted Washington’s front office for turning its attention to the 2019 draft. Tanking seemed to be as worthwhile a goal as sneaking into the playoffs. Washington could have elected to limit Beal’s minutes to keep him fresh for next season, given younger players such as Thomas Bryant and rookie Troy Brown Jr. more run and looked to unload veteran players via trades. In tumbling down the Eastern Conference standings, the Wizards would have simultaneously increased their chances of landing a high pick in the draft lottery. Leonsis isn’t a proponent of the tanking strategy that the Philadelphia 76ers most notably employed in recent years.
“I don’t think you can tell players, coaches, staff: ‘Don’t make the playoffs and tank!’ We will never, ever tank,” Leonsis said.