Upper Decker wrote:The formula for winning is excellent defense (check), excellent shooting to spread the floor (check), an all-nba caliber player (with the way Wall’s currently playing, check).
The two main questions going into next year.
1) Will Wall maintain this excellent level of play?
2) Will Bradley Beal take the next step?
If the answer to those two questions are ‘yes’ than Washington will be a top-5 team in the NBA next year.
This is a compelling argument. We do indeed have an excellent defense and excellent shooting on the wings. Our problem was that the primary engine of our offense (Wall, or, at times, Price) was an inefficient shooter and turnover prone. If you plug in a top 10 player and high-efficiency offensive threat and playmaker into that role, the offense should be at least above-average, and perhaps very good. An above average offense plus an elite defense should be a top 5 team, particularly when playing against East competition.
Of course, it's a little hard to believe that Wall has made such an incredible leap in such a short period of time. The more likely scenario is that he isn't as bad as he looked during that February slump, and he's not as good as he has looked in March. The John Wall of next year will probably be more of a Russell Westbrook good-but-sometimes-frustrating type of PG rather than the Chris Paul/Tony Parker uber-efficient elite PG. It's going to take a while for Wall to be consistent. With that the case, I expect our offense to be modestly below-average next year (say, 15th-20th overall) with our defense being very good (5th or so). That would still put us as a consistent, winning team that should finish in the top 5 in the East, but not quite up there with the actual contenders.
