Chuck Texas & PMOTT3's Early Off-Season Review: Washington Wizards

[WizardsWorld]

Ya hate saying this but feels like this upcoming season is a throw-away year for us. The plan for years now has been to plan everything around going after KD in 2016 and now we're almost there. So can't sign anyone to more than a 1 year deal which limited what we can do this offseason. Losing Pierce will really hurt... hopefully Porter's improvement along with Dudley/Anderson/Neal will offset losing Truth.
I feel at the end of the day we'll have pretty much the same record we had last season and take another 2nd round playoff exit when either Cleveland, Chicago or Atlanta eliminates us. The draft was a disappointment to me. Didn't want Oubre at all. Wanted to trade the pick for a guy who's been in the league a few years already. Terrance Jones was my first choice and Mason Plumlee if we couldn't get Jones. Only saving grace in the Oubre pick to me was that apparently him and Durant are really close friends. Probably something else the front office factored in when making selection.

[nykballa2k4]

Wiz have had an underrated off-season. I think that Gooden is a good veteran presence at this point. Pierce was a great veteran leader, similar to Kidd for NYK on our 54 win season. However, Wizards did make the additions that were there for them. The reason they are handcuffed is because they are developing young talent. Of course, they could move Humphries and Porter for different shaped pieces, but the hope is going to be that Porter continues to progress and that the new pieces will play their roles well. Also as WizardsWorld said, the hope is to lure Durant next season.

Last I checked Wizards are still in the east. No team, aside from the Knicks made any significant upgrades such as to become BETTER than the Wizards. The top 4 in the East are pretty well formulated: Cavs, Wizards, Hawks, Heat* with the Heat relying on health. All of those teams could be the #1 seed IMO and the sexist thing about the Wizards is that they look the most similar to the Warriors with Wall and Beal being a complimentary back court.

I love their potential. This season will be the accountability on Wittman. If he makes the conference finals, he may survive the next summer, if he doesn't he had better be out with maybe aforementioned Thibbs incoming.

[cammac]

The Wiz must depend on the development of Wall, Beal & Porter because they aren't a young team the addition of Kelly Oubre Jr. will help but he plays the same position as Porter. Gortat, Nene, Dudley, Anderson & Hump are all over 30 and the loss of Pierce and Kevin Seraphin so see them with at best the same record as 2014/15 or slightly worse.

They can finish from 4th to 7th.

[Illmatic12]

Seems like people are really overrating Pierce leaving.. didn't Washington get to the same exact spot in the playoffs the season prior (second round) with Wall and Beal even a year younger? He's not what made us into a playoff team. I've seen some people on GB who have the Wiz missing the playoffs.. imagine that, a top ~5 defensive team in the NBA for the past 3 seasons is going to miss the playoffs in the East

Pierce was a great veteran leader and everyone wanted him back, from the fans to the team. But on the court, he wasn't exactly a worldbeater in the regular season and his defense was a liability. I'd wager quite easily that 3rd year Otto Porter will post better on/off numbers and offensive+defensive stats as a starter.

It seems the casual fan assumes that Wall has peaked and that Beal is just going to continue averaging 15ppg (he was def disappointing in last year's regular season, but injuries played a role), or that Otto Porter is a bust. Anyone who watched Bradley Beal in the playoffs clearly saw that he's not going to peak as a 15ppg scorer in this league.. the kid has averaged 20/5/5 as a #1 option in the playoffs vs primary defenders like Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Demarre Carroll. You would also know that Otto Porter Jr playing more minutes is probably going to be a GOOD thing for the Wizards, not a bad thing.

Everyone is projecting leaps forward from unproven teams like Milwaukee, Orlando etc. Washington's core has been to the second round two years in a row now.. they know what it takes to win and all of their young players have confidence. The Wiz are one of the few teams with young players who already have experience coming up big in the postseason:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNp33MwpqD4[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajDvGnl-ehs[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV1AkC6gQnQ[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rHwmCxX5ng[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itVAnVP445Q[/youtube]


If there's a team with a young core poised to take a leap THIS season. Washington has to be considered one of the top choices. It seems like all people know about the team is Paul Pierce left , they have John Wall and that's it. Well a guy like Bradley Beal or an Otto Porter (both aged 22) is going to take a leap at some point in the very near future, you don't project a team with young talent to remain static.

Also Re: Oubre (who a few people have brought up) he's very young and has a lot of potential, but I don't expect him to play a lot this season. There just isn't space on the wings to get him minutes over proven vet shooters like Anderson, Neal Dudley etc. All those guys are on 1yr deals though, so next season Oubre would be in line to get solid minutes backing up Beal/Porter at the wing