John Wall says you shouldn’t count the Wizards out
By Cody Rivera
They might not seem like a true contender based on last year’s results, but John Wall says the Wizards are right up near the top of the Eastern Conference.
The competitiveness of the Eastern Conference has been considered inferior to the Western Conference in the NBA for quite some time now. But with LeBron James leaving the East for the first time in his career to join the Los Angeles Lakers, that opened up some windows for a few of the up-and-coming teams in the Eastern Conference.
Just two years ago, John Wall and the Washington Wizards came within a win of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, losing to the Boston Celtics in a wild seven-game series in the semifinals. Last year, however, the Wizards took two steps backwards and finished with just a 43-39 record, barely squeaking into the playoffs as the eight seed.
The teams expected to excel in the East this year are the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers. The Wizards did sign veteran center Dwight Howard, but it will be interesting to see how he works out, considering he’s struggled to fit in with the last several teams he’s played for.
But even so, with James out of the conference, Wall believes his Wizards have just as good of a shot to reach the NBA Finals as any of the other East teams.
“I feel like we’re all equal,” Wall told Yahoo Sports. “None of them won a championship. This is no knock on no other team. Don’t get me wrong.
“I know one guy that separated himself from the Eastern Conference every year, and that was LeBron James and the Cavs. Other than that … if you lose in the second round, or conference finals, you still didn’t get to your ultimate goal.”
Next. John Wall needs to focus on his own team's chemistry. dark
Though it’s good that Wall has confidence in his team making a run, it’s hard to imagine the chemistry with Howard being great. But nonetheless, the Wizards should still be able to improve on their 43 wins from a year ago.