Washington Wizards
The Basketballin’ in D.C. has been a long standing model of mediocrity, predominantly filled with team dysfunction and front office ineptitude.
After 16 long years, the Washington Wizards finally canned President of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld. It was a chilly day back in early April and Wizards fans everywhere rejoiced.
Of the current active lead executives, only a few have held their positions as long as Grunfeld did:
R.C. Buford
Danny Ainge
Pat Riley
That’s it. That’s the list.
Under Grunfeld, the Wizards never made it passed the 2nd Round of the playoffs, never eclipsed 50 wins and won less than 30 games six times. How Ernie was able to keep his job for so long is perhaps a blog for another day, but we can’t deny that we’ve jokingly pondered a scenario like “The Cheever Letters.”
So now there’s hope. Yet hope is not a strategy. The Wizards need a plan.
Grunfeld was notorious for mortgaging draft picks and young players for average to bench-level vets that didn’t pan out. It would appear that recently promoted Tommy Sheppard, the team’s new general manager, is trying a different approach. The Wizards left the 2019 NBA Draft with two players: Gonzaga’s Rui Hachimura and Tennessee’s Admiral Schofield. Say what you will about Hachimura and Schofield, but the Wizards included their All-Star, Bradley Beal, in the draft room to try to plan for the future together, and that is a commendable strategy.
Two rookies with potential is a start, but the fact remains that taking a look at this cap sheet is a difficult and excruciatingly painful exercise.
John Wall’s monstrosity of a contract has been the worst in the NBA for a while now and it’s just about to kick in: $38 million this year, $41 million next year, $44 million the year after that, and then a whopping $47 million player option in 2022-23 when Wall will be 32 years old. (Bold prediction: He’s opting IN.) Wall’s contract was already deemed preposterous and that was before he ruptured his achilles back in January in his house.
During Wall’s absence, Bradley Beal has elevated his game to another level. The Blue Panda led the league in minutes as the Wizard’s main distributor, scorer, and defender en route to averaging 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game — something that only 12 other guards have accomplished in NBA history over the course of a full season.
Brad Beal is the real deal. But he likely will not accept the Wizard’s current contract extension offer of three years and $111.8 million which means that this could be entering into a Anthony Davis vs. Pelicans or Kemba Walker vs. Hornets zone of what to do with a major asset while you still can. And if Beal makes an All-NBA team this year, then next summer he would be eligible for the supermax which, as we mentioned, has already crippled this franchise mightily. The Wiz would have to double down to keep Beal which may in turn cause them to completely fold.
The immortal Ernie Grunfeld’s work is not done haunting Wizards fans just yet.
League Pass Notes
Bradley Beal can seriously ball. In case you are wondering about his new Blue Panda nickname, we’ve combined Blue Magic and Big Panda. (Both are on his Basketball-Reference page if you don’t believe us.)
Rui Hachimura threw down a power dunk on Myles Turner a few weeks ago during the FIBA World Cup.
Our favorite possible outcome for this year’s Wiz-ards: Isaiah Thomas finding some of his 2016-17 magic. IT is a Wizard now after all!
The Final Question / The Final Take
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.
We are not thinking twice about UNDER 27.5 wins.