Washington Wizards
The 2019-20 Washington Wizards season can be defined by the fact that Bradley Beal actually signed his contract extension, $72 million for two years to align the duration of his contract with John Wall’s.
What did we learn?
We shouted it from the mountaintops: THE WIZARDS GET INTO SOME HIGH SCORING AFFAIRS!!!
Just look at this shit:
158-159
133-140
138-132
140-132
125-150
133-119
133-152
131-151
126-133
Those are final scores to Wizards games and not one of those games went into Overtime.
For the first month of the season, the Wiz had the NBA’s second most efficient offense. They slowly but surely dropped to a middling 16th, but they ended the season with the 7th highest points per game average in the NBA. As you can imagine, the Wizards defensive rating on the other hand was at the bottom of the league the entire year, finishing second to last and just by 0.1 over the league-worst Cavs. A high-octane fast-paced offense (5th in Pace) put together with a Swiss cheese defense is a peculiar concoction.
How did the Wizards have such a good offense and score so many points?
His name is Bradley Beal. Around here, we call him Blue Panda.
We knew that Brad Beal is the real deal. But we did not know that he would take his game to another level, averaging 30.5 points, 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game as the Wizards main scorer, distributor and defender. Beal averaged 36 minutes per game for the third straight season and posted the highest usage rate of his career at 34.4 percent. We can’t deny that Beal’s stellar defense slipped a bit this season, but we think it’s understandable given the max effort that Blue Panda was required to exert on offense. Beal was robbed by being left out of the All-Star Game and he was slighted again by not being selected to All-NBA. Expect Bradley Beal to play with an even bigger chip on his shoulder next season. You better watch the fuck out for Blue Panda.
The biggest help for Beal this season came in the form of sharp-shooting big man Davis Bertans a.k.a. The Latvian Laser. Bertans shot a remarkable 42.4 percent on three-pointers while averaging 8.7 three-point attempts per game, both of which are top-10 marks in the entire NBA.
Rui Hachimura (a.k.a. Japanese Jordan!) had a solid rookie campaign, achieving a Second Team All-Rookie selection. Some have questioned how high of a ceiling Hachimura actually has, yet Rui has only been playing basketball since he was 14 years old. Rui is just 22, we are down to give him some time.
We really hoped that he would, but Isaiah Thomas did not find his 2016-17 magic as a Wizard. Not at all. IT was eventually traded before the deadline. (Update: IT had hip surgery back in May and says he’s finally pain free for the first time three years.)
The Wizards trip down to Disney World to play in the bubble was not glamorous. Without Beal and Bertans, who did not make the Disney trek, the Bubble Wiz lost every game save for their last against the Celtics B-squad.
Even though the bubble was not a success for the Wiz, this season still was because Blue Panda is staying in D.C. (for now).
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What are the answers to our Season Preview Final Questions?
Who is going to trade for Bradley Beal? Our preferred Blue Panda destination is Denver, but Beal would be a perfect fit pretty much anywhere.
Bradley Beal was NOT traded and actually signed a two-year contract extension. However, Blue Panda oftentimes looked like this:
The Wizards have stated they have no intentions of trading Beal, and Beal in return has said he and John Wall are looking forward to playing with each other again.
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Would our preseason Over/Under prediction have hit?
We are not thinking twice about UNDER 27.5 wins. (34% winning pct)
Wizards 2019-20 final record: (25-47) 35% winning pct
Nope, our preseason Over/Under prediction most likely would not have hit. The Wizards needed just 3 more wins to hit the Over.
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What’s Next?
John Wall back!? How will Wall look after all of his injuries? How will Wall look next to the newest and greatest version of Bradley Beal? Wall has said that while watching Beal’s rise to stardom up close and in person, he is going to mold his game to fit alongside Blue Panda upon his return. We love the sound of that.
Re-sign the Latvian Laser! Getting Bertans back on this roster is a no brainer and should be Priority 1.
Bubble bright spots for the Wiz were Thomas Bryant and Troy Brown Jr., both of whom played some pretty good bubble ball.
We are high on Garrison Mathews, who the Wiz also need to bring back to D.C. Garrison shot 41.3 percent from 3 and looked like he can actually play some beneficial help defense.
The Wizards roster is currently lacking the prototypical 3 and D, long and athletic, versatile and switchable players that are imperative in today’s game.
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Favorite Wizards Highlight from the 2019-20 Season:
Blue Panda power dunk on Big Penguin!
