Why aren’t the Washington Wizards better?
By Keith Parish
After taking the Celtics to seven games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals — a series Wizards fans think they should have won — Washington entered the season with high expectations. At the midway point of 2017-18, however, they are only projected to finish with 44 wins according to 538’s NBA predictions.
John Wall and Bradley Beal are an elite backcourt. Wall averaged over 23 points and 10 assists per game last year, joining the likes of Russell Westbrook and James Harden (not to mention Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson). Beal averaged over 23 points per game while having an effective field goal percentage over 56 percent, joining only Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Karl-Anthony Towns to do so in 2016-17.
As a third option, Otto Porter Jr. earned a max contract by being a versatile and efficient wing. He led the NBA in turnover percentage, was second in offensive rating and fifth in effective field goal percentage last season. Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat are talented big men. Kelly Oubre, Tomas Satoransky and Mike Scott have all performed well off the bench. So outside of a few injuries, why hasn’t this team performed better?
To help answer that question, Candace Buckner (@candacedbuckner) joins the latest episode of Fastbreak Breakfast. Candace is the Wizards beat reporter for The Washington Post, whose hectic lifestyle unfortunately has her regularly skipping breakfast. She also addresses:
- What is the severity of the chronic injury that has plagued Porter his entire career?
- With so many options for the wings and forwards, what is Washington’s top five man combination? Is it matchup dependent or is there a clear best lineup they should be featuring?
- Are there any big trades or small trades on the way? Fans still clamor for a Wall and DeMarcus Cousins reunion, but what price do they want to pay to make that happen? And after unloading draft picks in the last two seasons to bring in Morris and Bojan Bogdanovic, does the team have the appetite to trade their draft pick yet again?
All Fastbreak Breakfast episodes are also available for download on iTunes and Soundcloud.
Original music provided by Codaphonic
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