Wizards offer a study in ineptitude
Collection of talent goes to waste amid competing agendas
Let’s be blunt: The Washington Wizards, as currently constructed, are a waste of NBA space. They are hoarding mismatched talent that should be dispersed throughout the league like a car sold for parts.
Together, this team is nothing right now. It stands for nothing. It plays hard for nothing. It inspires nothing, other than the occasional boo from a fan base losing interest with each game. Some of these players could be something useful elsewhere, but if they remain on the same team, the Wizards will continue to be all-in on a squad that peaked during the third quarter of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2017 and never recovered after getting Kelly Olynyk-ed in the final period that May afternoon.
The Wizards have long contended that they are still a rising young team experiencing the inevitable pain of NBA contention and preparing for a glorious b re a k t h ro u g h . T h e y h ave preached patience, celebrated incremental success and made significant roster investments. Now, they have payroll of about $132 million that has resulted in a 1-7 record and a squad that plays no defense, shows few signs of chemistry and seems so fragile mentally that the players and coaches would rather tiptoe through denial than spark meaningful conversations in order to change.
These are not kids who will figure it out in time. John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr. are in their sixth season together. Markieff Morris is 29. Dwight Howard turns 33 in December. The Wizards may be young in age because they have several players who didn’t stay in college beyond their sophomore years. But they are not a young team, not with all that NBA experience. They are not a raw group with limitless potential that deserves patience.
They are what they have been for most of the past five years: a low-tier Eastern Conference playoff contender with a bad habit of floundering for long stretches of seasons and putting themselves in difficult positions. At 1-7, this season isn’t over. They will get better, probably even make-thepostseason better. But in the big picture, they will never get right. They are terminally addicted to drama, finger-pointing and underachieving. The accumulation of exasperating, uneven performances over the past five years provides compelling evidence to support what should happen next. Blow it up.
Give the Wizards the month of November to show dramatic, sustainable improvement. If they can’t do it, owner Ted Leonsis should give the order to start over. I don’t think they will do it. I didn’t make this conclusion lightly, either, because I do believe there is value in simply making the playoffs almost every year, especially in a league dominated by dynasties. The problem with the Wizards’ situation is how joyless the experience has become.
The fans are tired of watching a team that doesn’t play together, whose players seem to have little respect for each other and that refuses to muster the professionalism and urgency to play consistent basketball.
The players have given every indication that they just don’t mesh. But Ernie Grunfeld, the team president, has doubled down on this group so far. The front office has given max extensions to Wall, Beal and Porter. Heck, Wall will be a super-max player next season. And the team keeps adding to the core with veteran free agents who are good players but imperfect fits for the Wizards’ volatile situation.
That’s how you end up with the NBA’s sixth-highest payroll and a team that must now crawl out of a hole just to be a playoff disappointment again. The Wizards keep repeating this vicious cycle, and the longer they wait to make a major adjustment, the more expensive change will become. Because Wall’s four-year, $170 million deal is about to kick in, this season is really the last chance to ask existential questions about the current era.
Wall is scheduled to make $37.8 million next season in the first year of that contract. The Wizards wouldn’t have any flexibility with him then, though he is a talented and coveted player. In trying to deal a single star who makes that much money, the Wizards would struggle to get appropriate value for him, no matter how many teams it involved in an exotic trade. They would have to take back a lot of undesirable salaries, which would complicate the effort to rebuild without Wall.
That’s why this season is so important. The Wizards will be locked into whatever they choose. The trio of Wall, Beal and Porter is overpriced considering the results. The team looks set to pay the luxury tax for the second straight year.
Coach Scott Brooks, who is in the third year of a five-season deal, is one of the league’s highest-paid coaches, with an average annual salary of $7 million. And several of the role players on this roster are set to be free agents next summer, including Morris and Kelly Oubre Jr. The retention of a flummoxing squad is getting expensive.
On Friday night, after the Wizards gave up 79 points to Oklahoma City in the first half and lost 134-111 at Capital One Arena, Brooks wondered about lineup changes he could make. He said something that the entire organization needs to consider.
“I have to figure it out,” he said. “We can’t just keep watching the same thing over and over and over and expect things are going to change.”
Other than that, Brooks mostly protected his fragile team, asking the players to stay together and making references to how much he believes in them. It was a good opportunity for the coach to make some stronger remarks, but these are tense times. Wall and Beal ripped into the team after the fifth game this season, and if the players didn’t seem united before then, now they play like strangers.
The Wizards’ bench failed them during the second quarter against Oklahoma City, but beyond that, the team quit for a portion of that game. The players didn’t compete. And Brooks declined to get after them publicly, which shows how delicate he thinks the situation has become.
Dwight Howard, who finally made his Washington debut, preached “energy and positivity” afterward.
“We’ve just got to change our mindset,” he said.
The Wizards have been trying to change their mindset since 2013.
It’s time to change. Or brace for obliteration.