Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

Why did the Wizards lose to the Cavaliers by double digits on their home floor? I suppose it depends on who answers the question.

Coach Scott Brooks was so convinced that the free throw disparity–the Cavs shot 29 and the Wizards shot just six–played a significant role in the Wizards demise, that he led his postgame press conference with this line, “29 free throws to six, that’s hard to overcome….every time I complained they[the refs] said they had the call right.”

CJ Miles, who went scoreless and shot 0-for-7 in 15 minutes of play, blamed the loss on the lack of made shots and turnovers: “We were just missing them. We had been making them the last couple nights…We have a lot of mishaps — things that aren’t from us being overly aggressive of forced turnovers. We have some things [where] we try to make some hero plays, or just kind of slip up, being lackadaisical with the ball. I think we have to take some of those out. ”

Bradley Beal had no interest in the refs or the missed shots by he and his colleagues. He honed in on the poor defensive effort the Wizards showed as a whole: “Everybody wants to say we’re missing shots or whatever, but I mean, if we can control making shots, we’d be 100 percent from the field. Right? So it’s defense. We’ve got to be able to guard. Get back in transition and rebound. That’s what’s killing us.”

The truth is that Brooks, Miles and Beal were all 100-percent accurate in their assessment of the putrid performance put forth by the Wizards.

The Wizards only shot six free throws, but in fairness, they were nowhere near as aggressive in the paint as the Cavaliers. 19 of the Cavaliers 25 free throw attempts were by Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.  Love’s go to move was to use a head fake on whoever was guarding him, and then to jump into that player to draw the foul. Thompson had nine offensive rebounds, and his aggressiveness led to his six free throw attempts.  The Wizards neither met nor matched that level of intensity in the paint, and Beal, who was by far the best player on the court, shot just two free throws—largely because he settled for outside shots (he shot 8-for-21) instead of getting to the basket.

The Wizards did not shoot lights out as CJ Miles alluded to after the game, but they shot 46-percent which was better than the 45-percent the Cavaliers shot from the field.  But the difference was indeed the turnovers.

The Wizards shot 52-percent from the field in the first half and the Cavs shot 50-percent.  But the Wizards also turned the ball over 11 times to just five times to the Cavaliers, which was the main reason they trailed 67-52 at halftime.  When the Wizards minimized their turnovers (they had just seven in the second half), and ran a more cohesive offense, they were able to turn a double-digit Cavs lead into single digits in both the third and fourth quarters.  But why weren’t the Wizards able to win despite them nipping their turnover issue in the bud?  As Bradley Beal alluded to, it was the defense or lack thereof.

All of Cleveland’s guards, whether it was Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson or Kevin Porter Jr., seemed to feast on mid-range jumpers or points in the paint. They would make a move off the dribble, get in the lane and shoot high percentage shots.  And when they missed, either Love or Thompson were there to clean up the mess. The Wizards perimeter players did not provide a sufficient amount of resistance, and their interior defense could not prevent Love and Thompson from rebounding and scoring.

That lack of defense, combined with the Wizards starters accounting for 15 of the 18 turnovers, ultimately contribute to the Wizards downfall.

Were there positives? Why yes, yes there were.

Rui Hachimura overcame a scoreless performance against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, to score 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting along with seven rebounds. And Thomas Bryant, scored 13 of his 23 points in the second half, when the Wizards fought to shrink the Cavs lead to just one point.  But their heroics weren’t nearly enough.

Bradley Beal briefly took over the game in the third quarter when he had six points and six assists, and helped shrink the Cavaliers lead from 21 to four points.  But at no point did Beal just flat out take over offensively and bail his lesser shooting teammates out. Yes he scored 20 points, but he shot 8-for-21 and he went to the free throw line twice in 39 minutes of play. Not exactly the type of performance expected out of a max player. Part of Beal’s subpar performance could justifiably be attributed to the lack of strong point guard play from Ish Smith and Isaiah Thomas.  But Beal was clearly the best player on the court, and at some point, his hubris–not his all around play–should have kicked to lead his team to victory against the lowly Cavs.

Is this young Wizards team destined to  produce these types of uneven, underachieving performances from now until John Wall returns, or will practice and browbeating from Coach Brooks provoke the team into playing better than they did last night against the Cavs?

Only time will tell, but for now? The Wizards are 2-6 with the second-to-last record in the Eastern Conference. A far cry from the good ol’ days of Gilbert Arenas…Speaking of Arenas…

(AP Photo/Nick Wass)

A young team like the Wizards who have an All-Star (Bradley Beal), a former All-Star (Isaiah Thomas) and lots of youth and inexperience, isn’t exactly in a position to declare any game a must-win, but given the circumstances leading up to last night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, that’s exactly what it was.

Minnesota was without their All-Star player Karl Anthony-Towns, who was suspended for fighting/tussling/wrestling with Joel Embid, and although the rest of their roster is certainly formidable, players like Jeff Teague and Andrew Wiggins have been mercurial at best during their NBA careers.

Ideally, the absence of Towns, combined with how well the Wizards played in a one-point loss to an elite-level team like the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night (also known as the night the Nationals won the World Series), should have meant that the Wizards would avoid a letdown.

Even Scott Brooks agreed before the game when he was asked about a possible letdown.

 I don’t think so, this is the first time we’ve had this[a possible letdown game] with this group of guys but I don’t think so we were locked in in our shoot-around.

Brooks was wrong, there was a letdown and the Wizards flat out got spanked, 131-109.

By the 3:58 mark of the first quarter, thanks to anemic offense and hot shooting by T-Wolves forwards Robert Covington and Andrew Wiggins, the T-Wolves led 35-18 and a blowout looked inevitable.

Then the Wizards bench, led by Isaiah Thomas, who scored nine points in just under four minutes, cut the lead down to eight points. The comeback was a bit misleading given that the T-Wolves had pulled their starters and the bench committed three turnovers during that span, but still, the Wizards were confident and their deficit was down to single digits.

The bench eventually worked the T-Wolves lead down to six points at the start of the second quarter, but that was as close as they would get the remainder of the game.

Coach Brooks started gradually working his starters back in the game and  Timberwolves Coach Ryan Saunders began to do the same. Bradley Beal caught fire by scoring 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting but the rest of the team combined to shoot just 26-percent. Gorgui Dieng, who was starting in place of Karl-Anthony Towns, scored 12 points and blocked two of Rui Hachimura’s shots during the second quarter and Jeff Teague added seven points. The Wizards single-digit deficit ballooned back up to 20 during the second quarter before settling at 14 points at halftime, 70-56.

Beal started the second half with a mid-range jumper and pretty assist to a cutting Hachimura after consecutive Timberwolves’ baskets to keep the lead at 14 points, and then Robert Covington caught fire just as Isaiah Thomas had the previous quarter. Covington scored 10 points in less than five minutes and the lead was 24 points.

Washington only scored 16 points on 25 percent shooting in the third quarter, while Minnesota poured in 36 points at a 57 percent shooting clip. Minnesota led by 34 points entering the fourth quarter and the final 12 minutes of the game was extended garbage time.

While coach Brooks seemed quite confident that his team would rise to the occasion before the game, he acknowledged during his post-game remarks that his team was a step slow and made numerous errors defensively. Brooks ultimately took full responsibility for his team’s performance: “We didn’t play to our identity tonight for some reason, we were in a fog. There’s no excuses it’s on me, we gotta start the game much better.”

Beal and Thomas, the veteran all-stars on the team, did not allow Brooks to take the blame. They blamed the team for the loss and vowed to improve:

Safe to say we didn’t come out with the energy we’ve had in previous games. It [was] kind of a trickle-down effect. Our offense was struggling and it carried over into our defense. We weren’t guarding anybody. Can’t really pinpoint it, but it’s something that we’ve got to nip in the bud now versus later….We didn’t play hard. I feel like [the Timberwolves] didn’t do anything outrageous game-wise or plays-wise. They were just out working us in every aspect of the game. – Bradley Beal

We can play better. That was an embarrassing game for us. That should not happen again and we shouldn’t play so well that we should have beat the Houston Rockets the day before and then lose by 30 to the Minnesota Timberwolves without their best players. That’s definitely embarrassing. We gotta learn from that. We gotta be better, every player, every coach. We gotta be better….We addressed it. It won’t happen again.  –  Isaiah Thomas

Next up for the Wizards? Andre Drummond (who had 25 points and 20 rebounds last night against the Brooklyn Nets) and the Detroit Pistons on Monday night here in D.C.

]]> http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/11/timberwolves-131-wizards-109-the-letdown-game.html/feed 0 http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/10/theres-no-way-around-it-another-wizards-season-is-here-season-preview-and-predictions.html http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/10/theres-no-way-around-it-another-wizards-season-is-here-season-preview-and-predictions.html#respond Wed, 23 Oct 2019 12:47:42 +0000 http://www.truthaboutit.net/?p=56637

How many games will the Wizards win?

Adam Rubin (@LedellsPlace) – 29 wins, including a whole lot of games where Bradley Beal scores 30 points and the Wizards give up 120.

Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) – 31 wins–and that’s assuming Bradley Beal plays 75-82 games.  If his body breaks down because Scott Brooks is channeling his inner Tom Thibodeau, and Beal misses a significant amount of games, this win total will plummet to 20 or less.

Bryan Frantz (@BFrantz202) – The ceiling is probably 35 or so, if Beal stays healthy and the young guys are productive early. The floor is sub-20. The reality is probably in the 26-28 range.

Troy Haliburton (@TroyHalibur) – Wizards will win 35 games and yes, I’m betting my future child’s college tuition on them hitting the over of 27 wins.

Given that “50-wins and ECF” is no longer the franchise’s stated goal, what would constitute a successful Wizards season this year?

@LedellsPlace – This is a trick question. In the grand scheme of things, there is no circumstance whereby this season can be considered a success. Two years ago, the Wizards were coming off an exciting seven-game Eastern Conference series against the Boston Celtics and were being touted as a top contender in the East.  One year ago, the owner called the team the most talented in decades. Now, fans are being told to ignore wins and losses and just be happy if the team plays really, really hard.

I don’t think so. Homey don’t play that.

Ted Leonsis cannot spend a decade insisting he has a plan in place and mocking fans who call for Ernie’s firing, only to say “my bad” and expect everyone to move on.

Now, if you are asking what could make the Wizards fall from grace more palatable: Substantial development from the only three non-Bradley Beal assets on the roster – Troy Brown, Thomas Bryant and Rui Hachimura. With limited cap space and an uncertain future for John Wall, the Wizards only path to respectability during Beal’s prime is from internal improvements. That should be the number one focus this season.

@rashad20 – A successful season is hearing that John Wall is ahead of schedule in his rehab, and is available for the first round of a Wizards playoff appearance that has no chance in hell of happening. The other tenets of a productive Wizards season include a healthy Beal, a significant jump in productivity from Thomas Bryant, and versatility on both ends of the floor by Rui Hachimura.  Lastly, this season will be a success of Isaiah Thomas embraces his role as a bench player, has a rejuvenation of sorts, and averages 17-20 points off the bench.  None of these things are as fancy and shiny as being one of the four top teams in the East, but it certainly gives Wizards fans, coaches and players, something to build on for next season.

@BFrantz202 – Playing the young guys all of the minutes; giving Beal a restful season; trading CJ Miles and any other productive role players above the age of 26 for assets; sticking to the long-term goals; avoiding scandals.

@TroyHalibur – A successful Wizards season would be getting 30+ wins and Rui, Thomas Bryant, and Troy Brown growing as players.

What is your current Wizards mood and why? (e.g., hopeful because of all the off-season front-office changes; depressed because you looked at the opening day roster; numb from decades of basketball irrelevance…)

@LedellsPlace – If you are not hopeful on opening night, then you might as well get in your car and move to the eastside. There is plenty of time for dissecting wins and losses (probably a lot more losses than wins) but for now I will set aside preconceived notions and get to know the new-look Wizards.

@rashad20 – Anyone who has ever played pickup basketball knows how it feels to be the eleventh man on the court after ten players have been selected for the upcoming game.  You pick up a spare basketball and shoot while the action is on the opposite side of the court, you do some fancy calisthenics to keep your body loose and limber, and you may even do a little scouting in anticipation for the next game. But the bottom line is you’re a spectator for 20-25 minutes, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

That is my current mood about this Wizards team. After years of being on cusp of contending, the Wizards are simply just watching the ascension of teams like Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, Brooklyn, and Indiana.  A spirited run towards the eighth-seed would be temporary delightful, but overall, I have a fever, I’m mired in a spectator-related malaise, and not even a prescription of more cowbell could cure it.

@BFrantz202 – Tuned out. Hachimura might be awesome, but he’s not a particularly exciting prospect. Beal is a known quantity who can’t do much until he gets legitimate help. Scott Brooks isn’t about to revolutionize the sport with innovative schemes. I’m a Troy Brown believer, but I’ve been hurt by promising Wizards first-rounders so many times before.

The roster is full of guys who you kind of go, “Hey, they might be decent” — but deep down you know most of them won’t be there in a year or two. And that’s just not really enough to make me want to devote considerable time to a team that will probably finish 24th or so in the standings.

@TroyHalibur – I’m optimistic that the Wizards will outperform they lowest expectations that a team can have.

What Wizards player are you most interested to watch this season?

@LedellsPlace – Bol Bol. A day may come when I forgive Tommy Sheppard for drafting Admiral Schofield over Bol Bol. But it is not this day. Even if Bol never plays a meaningful minute in the NBA and Schofield goes on to a respectable journeyman career, the mere possibility of the younger Bol following his father’s footsteps in a Washington uniform was too much to pass up.

As for the Wizards, up until he was waived a week ago, my pick would have been Justin Anderson. He’s built like a football player and can shoot. Now, it’s Davis Bertans. He is an unrestricted free agent next year so he is probably one-and-done with the Wizards, but he is the kind of power forward who would look good firing up threes alongside John Wall. I am interested to see if he can hold his own defensively and on the boards.

@rashad20 – Bradley F. Beal.  It is one thing for him to come into the season thinking he was going to be the Pippen to Wall’s Jordan (or vice versa depending whose vantage point is taken), but it is an entirely different mind state for him to know that this squad will be the toothless 2006 Lakers and he is going to have to be Kobe Bryant.

For a full season–or as long as he stays healthy–Beal will score or facilitate big shots, he will be the coach on the floor, the motivator in the huddle, the alpha dog in practices, the last name called during pregame introductions, and he will enjoy all the spoils (and the blame) that comes with that role.

If you read the overall mood of this Wizards preview, it certainly feels like regardless of how well Beal does in that leadership role, this team is destined for a depressing finish.  But Beal and his ability to be the proverbial Man could possibly change that, and it will be enjoyable to watch—until he gets traded to the Heat or Nuggets next season.

@BFrantz202 – Hachimura and Brown, as boring as that answer is. If Satoransky was still in DC, he might be the choice. And sure, Isaiah Thomas could have a resurgence. But this year will probably come down to finding a worthwhile piece for the future, and that means one of the young first-round picks. 

@TroyHalibur – I’m most interested to see what Jordan McRae can do as a microwave scoring option off the bench.

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The initial John Wall rehab update from two weeks ago where he shared he was able to stationary bike and leg press: https://t.co/hvpvvSJR4x

— Neil Dalal (@NeilDalal96) June 25, 2019

The basketball season is now over. The Toronto Raptors were crowned NBA champions and the regular season awards were finally given away earlier this week. Yes, free agency figures to be its own separate season, and summer league–which will feature Zion Williamson–has the potential to be quite entertaining. And for those folks who are suffering NBA withdrawal, note that the WNBA is in full swing and the Washington Mystics have the second-best record in the league and are legitimate title contenders.

But the frenetic pace of the NBA regular/playoff season has subsided considerably which means other types of stories will have to occupy that space. Here at Truth About It, we have decided to use this “down time” to interview and get to know some of the other writers who cover our beloved Washington Wizards. There are bloggers, seasoned writers, writers who grew up in this area, and others who were kind of grandfathered into this rollercoaster ride of an assignment covering this team.

The first writer we’ll feature in this series is Neil Dalal (@NeilDalal96). Neil has been covering the Washington Wizards since the 2014-15 season for Hoop District and is a University of Maryland – College Park alum. Let’s chat shall we?

Q #1: Tell the story of how you started covering the Wizards, and what do you remember about the first game you attended?

@NeilDalal96: My first year of college I was just scrolling through Twitter and came across District Sports Page looking for writers. As an obsessive sports fan I was more than thrilled with the opportunity. During the 2014-15 season, the early few games I attended, I do not remember too much about besides being in awe. Paul Pierce’s sweeping of the Toronto Raptors and ‘I Called Game’ shot against the Atlanta Hawks will be games and moments I never forget.

Q #2: If the Wizards don’t appoint a GM and Tommy Sheppard ends up being THE guy, how much confidence do you have in his ability to run the team?

@NeilDalal96: For the casual Wizards and/or basketball fan, I’d like to stress that Tommy Sheppard is an extremely qualified front office executive. He has been interviewed for the top front office position two years in a row for the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively. Although he did not land those jobs, they speak to his qualifications. He is not Ernie Grunfeld 2.0, as he has his own ideas including heavy on analytics and has his own style that gives everyone a more cheerful vibe in the workplace. If Sheppard is given the keys to the team for the upcoming season, I do not doubt he will do a fine job, but he has also not been dealt the best hand so expectations have to be tempered.

Q #3: Who should the Wizards pursue in free agency given their financial limitations? Give me your top 5 list?

@NeilDalal96: Presuming Washington waives Jonathon Simmons before his $5.7 million contract becomes guaranteed on July 1, the Wizards will have less than $10 million in cap space with only nine roster spots filled including the non-guaranteed contracts of Jordan McRae and Tarik Phillip, but not including undrafted free agents Justin Robinson, Armoni Brooks, and/or Corey Davis Jr. That means they have next to no chance to land the marquee free agents that they do not hold the Bird Rights for. If I were the team, I would look to sign Thomas Bryant, Tomas Satoransky, Jabari Parker (one-year deal), Quinn Cook (Editor’s note: who is from Washington, D.C. and a DeMatha alum) and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, but that is probably a bit unreasonable.

Q #4: Which one of the Wizards–past or present–is/was your favorite to interview?

@NeilDalal96: Let’s go with a dark-horse candidate. Austin Rivers and his 29 games with D.C. Despite the short time he was with the Wizards, Rivers was always forthcoming with the media and did not hold back with the profanity. Things did not fit right between the two, but Rivers was not shy about trying to pinpoint Washington’s struggles.

Q #5: Make a bold prediction about this upcoming season.

@NeilDalal96: Throughout this offseason, I have said the Wizards should not trade Bradley Beal unless given a historic haul a level or two below what New Orleans received for Anthony Davis. Despite Beal not indicating he wants out of D.C. up until this day, he has a hunger for success that will not be quenched by a team likely missing the playoffs. Hot take alert, but Beal will be traded before the 2019-20 trade deadline.

Hello, friends. My name is Rashad Mobley of the site formerly known as Truth About It. As you may or may not have noticed, we’ve been on a four-month hiatus. In fact, before Lukas Kuba’s brilliant article on Tomas Satoransky, Jan Vesely and the imprint the Czechs have left in the NBA, the last article posted on this site was February 8. That was the day Jabari Parker made his sparkling debut in a Wizards uniform (7 points, 9 assists, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, and a blocked shot in just 23 minutes of play). The frivolity of this February feat is even more pronounced when you consider that the Raptors just won the NBA title and real title contenders are in the midst of wheeling and dealing in preparation for the start of free agency on June 30. But that just further underscores how long it has been since this site has consistently produced even a paltry bit of prose.

So, what the hell were we up to the past four months? I’m certainly not foolish enough to speak for my colleagues, because I am sure they will be writing their own mea culpa-ish essays in due time. As for me, I started a new job after eight months of unemployment, and that combined with the usual rigors of being a husband and a father, rendered my mind and fingers feckless.

Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly times when I almost came out of retirement. When Beal was on his magical (but useless) post All-Star break run, I wanted to wax poetic about the maturity of his game, but it never quite happened. When the revamped Raptors with Kawhi Leonard turned into a legitimate playoff contender just a few short years after the allegedly resurgent Wizards swept them, I wanted to write something on the ineptitude of Ernie Grunfeld–but then he was relieved of his presidential duties, which represented yet another opportunity for me to come back and write. Realistically, there were about five or six Wizards-related stories which should have lit a fire in my writing loins, but in each case my comeback stalled like Dwight Howard in 2019.

**As an aside, it is weird writing a story for this site, and not being able to hyperlink fairly recent Truth About It content. That represents even more hiatus-related collateral damage**

Then on Thursday, May 30, the day the NBA Finals were to start, I read/watched NBC Washington’s Chris Miller’s interview with Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. He covered a few different topics during this chat, but of particular interest to me was his explanation of why it was taking the Wizards so long to replace Grunfeld who was fired the day after April Fool’s Day of this year. The Wizards courted Denver Nuggets General Manager Tim Connolly for a few weeks before he ultimately decided to snub the team he worked for intermittently from 1996-2000, and stay with the Nuggets. So surely Leonsis would want to clear the air and possibly announce a new candidate or at the very least a finite timetable right? Not so much:

“These are multi-billion enterprises now. I’ve invested in, I’ve led, I’ve run other multi-billion franchises. The notion that you would hire a leader [based on] a two-hour interview in business would be scoffed at.  That’s irresponsible to your shareholders. My intent on this is to be very, very thorough.”

Leonsis was basically telling Chris Miller and the rest of the world to trust him because he’s had endless experience putting out much bigger fires than the open GM slot, and he was NOT going to be rushed by the media, the fans or anyone else. His words, and the defiance behind them, resonated with me.

Sure, it had been nearly five months since I put the figurative pen to paper, and yes that is quite ill-advised when Wizards-related news stories are flowing all around me like the Force. But I’ve been writing about the Wizards for 11 years, and I’ve given the world (OK, mostly Washington, D.C.) plenty of stellar content.  I’m entitled to take an extended break because whenever I do come back, I will continue to churn out solid, thoughtful pixels.

So, I decided to double-down in the hiatus department, which means I started, stopped and deleted countless number of drivel-filled drafts. I kept telling myself I was on break, but when the wont to write appeared, I lacked the drive to produce something cohesive. But then that #SoWizards song starting playing and it summoned me like a clear bat signal on a cloudy Gotham night. I gradually powered through my writing hiatus and started the comeback.

First the rumors of Masai Ujiri coming to D.C. for millions and an ownership stake started to circulate.  First Ben Standig reported it, then Woj, then it was everywhere.

Then Ted Leonsis, not via an interview, but via a statement, came out and first praised Ujiri for leading the Raptors to the title, and then denied that he or any of the Wizards staff had attempted to reach out to Ujiri about a job.

The #Wizards have no imminent plans to reach out to the NBA Champion Toronto Raptors to speak with Masai Ujiri, which means there is no massive offer being prepared… I've been told by a person close to the organization.

More details coming.

— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) June 14, 2019

Right before the draft, Woj reported that not only would the Wizards be navigating the draft sans a GM, but they were also considering offering Bradley Beal a three-year extension worth $111 million. Beal’s name has been unofficially mentioned in trades for the past several months, and Leonsis has repeatedly said publicly that both Beal and the injured Wall are made, untouchable men. While that extension sounds nice on paper, Beal could get a larger four-year extension in the summer of 2020, or become a free agent and sign a max five-year deal in 2021.

When draft time arrived the Wizards–presumably Tommy Sheppard–were quite active. They first drafted Rui Hachimura, a talented forward out of Gonzaga, who the Wizards didn’t even bother to meet with before the draft.  Then they executed a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. They sent the Sixers cash, and the Sixers gave up Jonathon Simmons and the 42nd pick in the draft. The Wizards used that pick to draft Admiral Schofield, a stellar four-year player from the University of Tennessee.

Sheppard, Leonsis and other mysterious front office staff probably put a great deal of love and thought into each one of these moves, but again, there was no General Manager/Team President laying out a vision for the future, or a thought-process behind the players selected. From the outside, it appears as if they are basically winging it with free agency less than a week away.

So, if Leonsis and his staff of interim front officers can wing it while running a franchise that isn’t anywhere close to contending in the East, let alone for a title, surely I could shed months of rust and write a little something right? If they can pull off the greatest trick by convincing the world that a permanent GM/President role doesn’t exist or matter, surely I could just re-appear after months in self-imposed exile, and just start writing like I never left right?

We’ll see how it goes.

An old Czech proverb says “If there were no children, there would be no tears.” Similarly, if there were no Czechs, there would have been no “Havlicek stole the ball,” Neto’s in the Meadows, Hanz’s mustache, Hornacek’s famous free-throw face ritual, The Jan Vesely Diaries, #FreeSato, or maybe even the NBA itself.

Ever heard about a guy named Max Kase?

Born at the end of the 19th century in New York City, Kase was a famous newspaper writer and perhaps the major driving force behind both the creation of the New York Knickerbockers and the Basketball Association of America, the predecessor to the NBA. One author wrote that “Kase conceived the BAA and drew up its charter” and the second commissioner of the NBA, Walter Kennedy said, “His personal involvement in the beginning of the NBA in the 1940s and his strong belief that pro basketball was destined to be a major sport were important factors in the growth and success of the NBA.” But why I’m telling you this? Because Kase was most likely a Czech-American Jew: his parents, Solomon and Frances Kase, emigrated to New York from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they were probably Bohemian (Czech) Jews, since Kaše is a Czech surname (it means “mash”).

As you might have heard, the Wizards’ Tomas Satoransky is the fourth Czech in NBA history. But since there are almost two million American citizens of Czech descent, some of whom live in towns like New Prague in Minnesota, Prague in Oklahoma, Pilsen in Wisconsin, Tabor in South Dakota, and Protivin, Iowa, sometime in 2012 I began to wonder how many Czech-Americans had played in the NBA. This led to months-long research and eventually the creation of the unofficial Czechoslovak-American Basketball Hall of Fame. Though an exact number is impossible to define (for example, if a player named, say, Williams had a Czech mother or grandmother and it’s not mentioned anywhere, we wouldn’t ever know he belongs to the Czech diaspora), there have been around 20 NBA/ABA players of Czech ancestry.

Many cities in America hold festivals celebrating Czech culture. In Parkville, Maryland, for example, there’s a Czech and Slovak Heritage Festival celebrating Baltimore’s Czech/Slovak heritage. So this month, as a celebration of Czech contributions to the NBA history and to the history of the Wizards franchise (did you know that in 1964, the Czech company Bata’s factory in Maryland created the Bata Bullets basketball shoe collection for the Baltimore Bullets?), I put together a hypothetical basketball squad comprised of Czechs and Czech-Americans who played in the best basketball league on the planet Earth.

Starting Five

Jeff Hornacek, John Havlicek in the backcourt, Don Kojis and Bob Netolicky at the forward spots, and Jan Vesely at center.

Players off the bench

Tomas Satoransky, Chuck Mencel, Jiri Welsch (guards), Bill Hanzlik, Steve Novak, C.J. Kupec (forwards), big men Jiri Zidek and George Zidek.

If we have a 15-man roster, I’m also adding Nebraska’s Chuck Jura, a 1972 NBA draftee, and former Duke Blue Devil Shavlik Randolph as the team’s 15th man (Shavlik’s currently playing in China; did you know that his grandfather Ronnie Shavlik was a first-round draft pick of the New York Knicks in 1956?). For the hell of it, Greensboro Swarm’s Luke Petrasek is the team’s two-play player and since every team needs a nickname, I’m naming this team the Sokols. Nazdar! (Note: Besides the four Czech-born players, these Czechs played in an NBA Summer League: Ondrej Balvin, Lubos Barton, Ales Chan, Jiri Hubalek, Martin Ides, David Jelinek, Pavel Milos, and Ondrej Starosta; plus American-Czech Blake Schilb, and Loukas Mavrokefalidis, a Greek with a Czech passport born in Czechoslovakia.)

And all these guys would be coached by Joe Lapchick, who played for the OG Celtics in the ’20s and 30s.

At traditional Czech taverns, it’s acceptable to share a table with other people – and for other people to join you, if space is available. So in that spirit, I enlisted the help of basketball writers and each one of them was kind enough to pen a short write-up about one of the 14 guys. Without further ado…

#17 JOHN HAVLICEK

by Cort Reynolds, freelance writer and historian of the game

Almost unnoticed, former Celtic great John Havlicek had consecutive seasons in the early 1970s that were better than Oscar Robertson’s vaunted triple-double season. And arguably the best all-around seasons in NBA history. In 1970-71, the 6-foot-5 Havlicek averaged a career-best 28.9 points per game while also yanking down 9 rebounds a contest and dishing out 7.5 assists per game. He shot 45 percent from the floor and 81.8 percent at the foul line and missed only one game. He followed that year with 27.5 points per game, 8.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists in 1971-72.

Okay, maybe not quite as great statistically as Robertson’s triple-double year, but then consider the other end of the court, where Hondo was probably the most versatile and best defender in the NBA for much of his career. He was voted second team all-defense that season, and was capable of guarding anyone from small guards to big forwards with his quickness, tenacity, intelligence and most of all, incredible endurance. Havlicek made the all-defense team eight straight years, from the award’s inception from 1969 through 1976, when he was age 29 to 36. No doubt in his six seasons before the all-defense team was born, Hondo would have made it at least five times. Havlicek would be far and away the best player on this Czech team. Great scorer, super passer, great athlete, very clutch, and along with John Stockton the best conditioned player in NBA history.

With Boston he started out as a sixth man and didn’t complain, unselfishly sacrificing so lesser teammates could start. But even by his second year Hondo was second on a championship team in minutes played, and was almost always on the court at the end of the game, when it mattered most. By 1969 he had become the star who led Boston to the last title of the Bill Russell era. The quiet son of a butcher who spoke only Czech at their rural Ohio home, Havlicek had the humility, athletic ability, smarts, size and drive to be truly great, and his unassuming personality made him universally respected. As Russell said in a 1974 Sports Illustrated article on Havlicek, he called the tireless John “quite simply the best all-around player in NBA history.” The running machine Havlicek was named the NBA Finals MVP that year—averaging 26.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists. Don’t underestimate how great a competitor he was. Most fans know about his famous steal in final seconds of the 1965 seventh game against Philadelphia. Not many recall his nine-point overtime in Game 6 of the 1974 Finals (including three huge baskets over the 7-foot-2 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), or his apparent running game-winner off glass in the second of three OTs in the classic fifth game of the 1976 Finals.

The most underappreciated superstar in NBA history ran (and willed) his way to the top echelon of the Hall of Fame. Hondo said that if he knew Bird was coming, he would have stayed around instead of retiring in 1978 to play with Larry and possibly add to his total of eight rings. In his 16th and final season, Hondo still averaged 16.1 points a game in 34 minutes a night. Thus even though he would have been 40 by the end of Bird’s rookie year, Hondo still could have been a valuable reserve by 1979-80, maybe even back full circle to his early-career sixth man role—and his familiar role of NBA champion.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio. John’s father Frank and grandpa Ferdinand Havlicek were born in Cihost, a village near Havlickuv Brod, Bohemia (grandma Marie Simova in Motycin).

#14 JEFF HORNACEK

by Paul Coro, former Suns beat writer

Division I coaches did not believe in Jeff Hornacek enough to offer him a scholarship. NBA teams did not see enough talent to consider him one of the top 45 players in his draft class. Now, his No. 14 hangs retired for Iowa State and the Utah Jazz as a symbol of a career that includes an NBA All-Star season and two NBA Finals visits. Hornacek made it happen with the instincts of a coach’s son and resilience and toughness that belied the image of a nice guy who wiped his cheek three times before each free throw as a hello to his three children. Hornacek went from being an Iowa State walk-on to setting a then-Big 8 record for assists and making the overtime game-winner for Iowa State’s first NCAA tournament win in 42 years. He still was prepared to take his accounting degree elsewhere when the Suns drafted him 46th overall, behind their three other first- and second-round picks.

Hornacek stuck as a playmaker with a shooting stroke that did not suggest he would become the 18th-best free throw shooter in NBA history or a two-time NBA 3-Point Shootout champion with 15,659 career points. But he fixed that stroke at the behest of then-Suns general manager Jerry Colangelo. Hornacek taped his left thumb to his hand to prevent him from creating a side spin on his shots. He averaged at least 12 points for the last 12 years of his NBA career, which included a 1991-92 All-Star season in which he averaged 20.1 points, 5.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds. He was so good that the Suns used him to trade for Charles Barkley, a player Hornacek suggested the Suns needed. Hornacek escaped Philadelphia for Utah, where he was an ideal fit alongside John Stockton and Karl Malone for 6 and a half seasons. Before 3-pointers were cool, Hornacek held NBA records for making eight in a game and 11 in a row . . . over two weeks. The only thing that could stop that shot was Father Time, when his aching knees prompted retirement at age 37. The family man stayed home for six years to watch his kids grow up before starting a coaching career that eventually put him at the helm of Phoenix and New York.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Elmhurst, Illinois (western suburb of Chicago). Jeff’s grandfather John A. Hornacek was from Tasov, a small Moravian village in the region called Moravian Slovakia. His grandmother was Marie Hornacek (born Mrkva), a Czech-American.

#44 DON KOJIS

by Reinis Lacis, host of The Handle Podcast

Don Kojis was a fluid and athletic 6-foot-5 small forward who enjoyed a 12-year career which spanned from 1963 to 1975. The two-time All-Star was famous for playing well above his height and could really rebound the ball. However, Kojis’s road to success in the NBA wasn’t of the usual variety. After averaging 21 points and 17 rebounds as a senior at Marquette, the Czech-American played for two years on the AAU’s Phillips 66ers. It was the so-called industrial league where he began showcasing The Kangaroo Kram, becoming possibly the first ever alley-oop dunker in basketball. You don’t get called “the jumping-est white boy I’ve ever seen” by Wilt Chamberlain for nothing.

Kojis hit his stride relatively late in his career, though—the 1967-68 San Diego Rockets was his fourth NBA team in his first five years in the league. He had just become 30 when he received his second All-Star invitation in a row. The marriage with the Rockets didn’t last as long as it could have, yet the forward played until 36, an impressive feat for those times. Matter of fact, the likes of Jerry West and John Havlicek lead the list of seven players at 6-foot-5 or shorter who scored at least 13 points per game at the age of 35 or older. You can also say that about the very durable Kojis and the last hurrah he had with the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both of Don’s parents, George and Agnes (née Koubkova) Kojis, came to the U.S. from Bohemia before World War I; his grandad modified the surname from Kois to Kojis.

#24 BOB NETOLICKY

by Tom Orsborn, sportswriter at San Antonio Express-News

A native of San Francisco who was raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the rugged 6-foot-9, 220-pound Bob Netolicky ranks as one of the ABA’s early stars with his ability to shoot, rebound and defend equally well. A star player at Drake University in the 1960s, “Neto” averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds over his first six pro seasons, earning All-Star recognition in each of the ABA’s first four campaigns. A beast on the boards, Netolicky averaged nearly 4.0 offensive caroms over his first six seasons and ranks 115th on the list of NBA and ABA career leaders for offensive rebound percentage at 9.33.

Netolicky ended his nine-season career after the 1975-76 season known as one of the all-time great Indiana Pacers after spending seven seasons with the club and helping it win two league titles. Named to the 30-member all-time ABA team in 1997, he was also one of the league’s most colorful personalities. Tagged the “Broadway Joe Namath of the ABA” by one sportswriter, and the only player to make the ABA’s All-Flake team four years in a row, Netolicky was quoted by the website remembertheaba.com as saying: “If you’re single and you don’t wear a gray flannel suit, they say you’re different. I wear mod clothes, enjoy good times, and I like to party. If that’s a flake, then I’m a flake.”

Netolicky also enjoyed stints with the Dallas Chaparrals and the San Antonio Spurs and has the distinction of playing for two teams in one game (the Spurs and the Pacers in a game played 18 days apart due to a protest).

FACT OF INTEREST: Neto grew up in Iowa, son of a brain surgeon, Dr. Robert Y. Netolicky, and grandson of a doctor, Dr. Wesley J. Netolicky. Since Czechs love beer so much, I asked Neto how many beers this Czech-American team would drink at Neto’s bar after a game. He texted me back, “We would probably make the Guinness Book of Records on that one.”

#15 JAN VESELY

by Michael Lee, The Athletic NBA writer

Jan Vesely has always been a crowd pleaser, except for those two years when an NBA audience was too caught up in his missed free throws, non-existent outside game and clumsy fouls to find much amusement in those astonishing dunks. Fortunately for Vesely, his professional career didn’t end at the conclusion of a forgettable stint in the world’s greatest league. Vesely used that failure as the launching pad for greater success—and most importantly—happiness elsewhere.

The Washington Wizards thought they were selecting the ideal, high-flying, rim-running complement to John Wall when they made Vesely the first NBA lottery pick from the Czech Republic in 2011. It was a glorious moment, celebrated with an infamous kiss with Vesely’s then-girlfriend, that serves as the pinnacle of his time in the league. Vesely had some memorable dunks—including a slam in which he took off one step inside the foul line—and earned the nicknames Air Wolf and Dunking Ninja, but never quite lived up to the (self-proclaimed) European Blake Griffin label that came with his arrival to the United States. Two years with the Wizards and later the Denver Nuggets did so much to derail Vesely’s confidence that he scurried back to Europe. Vesely didn’t settle into obscurity, instead choosing exultation. He re-discovered his love for the game and proved that there is a place that will appreciate a big man who glides down the floor, soars toward the rim as if he was launched with rocket fuel and never runs low on energy.

Audiences in Serbia, where he represented perennial power Partizan and first flashed the above-the-rim potential that earned him FIBA Europe Young Men’s player of the year in 2010, and Turkey, where he finally turned that promise into production with Fenerbahce, have been fortunate to witness his best days as a professional basketball player. With legendary coach Zeljko Obradovic unlocking that swagger, Vesely has blossomed into a Euroleague legend. His game is mostly the same but Vesely plays with more joy and passion. Vesely has won a Euroleague championship (in 2017), a MVP award (this year), thrice earned first-team and become, to the surprise of many, one of the league’s better free throw shooters.

Back in America, basketball fans will continue to question why the Wizards picked Vesely over the likes of Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard. But that’s no longer Vesely’s concern. Instead of dwelling on what he isn’t, he’s found a home that cherishes all that he is. Vesely is back to being a crowd pleaser, back with an audience that is captivated by the dunking, howling, raucous show.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Ostrava, Moravia-Silesia. Famous person from Ostrava: Ivan Lendl.

#31 TOMAS SATORANSKY

by Chase Hughes, NBC Sports Washington writer, and
Kelyn Soong, sports writer at Washington City Paper

Hughes: Through his three years in the NBA so far, Tomas Satoransky has gone from a little-known second round pick to an essential piece for the Wizards and someone who is likely to make a good deal of money this summer on his second contract. Satoransky first carved his niche as a backup point guard, and arguably the best the Wizards have found since drafting John Wall. Over the past year, he has taken another step, proving to be a legitimate starter in Wall’s injury absence. Satoransky is versatile, tough on defense and has a high basketball IQ. He is popular among teammates and fans. He is the type of player the Wizards could use many more of. The Wizards would be smart to keep him beyond this season and have made doing so a top priority.

Which Czech player would you like to play with in the NBA, Tomas?

“I would like to play with Jan [Vesely] here because we have a good connection and he’s one of my best friends in basketball. Before, it was different basketball, but I think with Jan, he would be really good to play with here. I also would like to play with Jiri Welsch. I don’t know if we could be on the same team, [because] we are kind of similar players in terms of being creative with the ball for the others. I did play with him for a couple years on the national team. He was an older player back then. He had a lot of experience and you could see he had went through a lot of different basketball situations in the NBA, the Euroleague. It was great to have him on the team as a vet. Maybe it would be fun.”

Soong: It only took a few weeks into the season for the Wizards to reveal its dysfunction. The team showed little chemistry on the court, and a prevailing narrative was the players simply didn’t like each other. But one player continued to stand out from the soap opera: Tomas Satoransky. What intrigued me the most about the relatively unknown third-year player from the Czech Republic was how often teammates commented on how much they liked him or enjoyed playing with him. Former Wizards players Marcin Gortat and Austin Rivers both told reporters that Satoransky cannot be blamed for the team’s struggles. I spoke with several Wizards players about what made Sato so likable, and one word kept coming up: unselfish. He’s competitive, but he doesn’t seem to mind when his teammates receive the spotlight or attention, something that anyone who plays with him will appreciate.

I think Rivers put it best: “He just plays the right way. Tomas can shoot two shots and not give a fuck. But if his impact is out there and he’s playing a lot and he’s competing, then he don’t care.”

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Prague, Bohemia. Famous person from Prague: Vaclav Havel.

#18 CHUCK MENCEL

by Stew Thornley, official scorer for Minnesota Timberwolves games

The grandson of immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Charles (Chuck or Charlie) Mencel grew up in Wisconsin and in 1951 he moved 90 miles to the west, to Minneapolis, to enroll at the University of Minnesota, where he became an All-American guard. Mencel was a smooth player with an uncanny knack for getting open or setting up a teammate and he was highly regarded for his jump-shooting ability. In four years with the Gophers, he participated in 87 games, scoring 1,391 points (a record that stood for more than 20 years before it was finally broken by Mychal Thompson) and pulling down 353 rebounds. In 1954-55, he teamed with another Gopher All-American, Dick Garmaker, for a 10-4 Big Ten record, good for second place; both Mencel and Garmaker are honored today with banners and retired numbers in a display at one end of Williams Arena. The next season, Mencel was voted the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player and it’s worth mentioning that he played all 70 minutes in a six-overtime win at Purdue on January 29, 1955.

After graduation, Mencel joined the Minneapolis Lakers (a team that won six league titles in its 13 years in Minnesota), part of the tradition that saw Gophers Don Carlson, Tony Jaros, Don Smith, and Garmaker ascending to the local pro team. The bright professional career forecast for Mencel did not pan out. A little undersized for the NBA, he played for two seasons, averaging 9.2 points per game in 1956-57, and then he fulfilled his Army obligation; when he got out, he could have played more but it was known that the new owner of the Lakers was planning to move the team to Los Angeles, so Mencel decided to stay with his family and embarked on a construction industry career, eventually becoming a vice president of Caterpillar, Inc.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Phillips, Wisconsin. From Chuck’s father’s side, his grandparents were born in Kublov, Bohemia; from his mother’s side, Chuck’s grandfather Ludwig Urban was born in Benetice, Moravia, his grandmother (née Hostynkova) in Veseli nad Moravou.

#9 JIRI WELSCH

by Rich Kraetsch, co-host of Over & Back podcast

Jiri Welsch entered the NBA in 2002 with lofty expectations. A 6-foot-6 combo guard with a championship pedigree, Welsch was drafted amongst “Euro Fever” where every NBA team was seemingly looking for their version of Dirk Nowitzki, their diamond in the rough, their unknown European enigma. Like Nowitzki, Welsch possessed incredible size for his position but matched his physical gifts with tremendous smarts as well as a keen eye for the basket and his teammates. In an ESPN.com NBA Draft preview, Welsch was described as “John Stockton on hormones.” Unfortunately for Welsch, he’d finish with 15,431 fewer career NBA assists than Stockton.

Welsch arrived in the NBA on draft night 2002 when he was selected 16th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. His tenure in Philly was short-lived as he was immediately traded to the then-hapless Golden State Warriors for two future draft picks. Welsch struggled with the Warriors shooting only 25 percent from the field and sporting a ghastly assist to turnover ratio. The following offseason, Welsch was thrown into a Dallas Mavericks/Warriors mega deal. Welsch along with Antawn Jamison, Chris Mills and Danny Fortson were sent to the Mavericks where Jiri would join the aforementioned Dirk on the up and coming Mavs. Or not. In October, before ever stepping on the floor for the Mavericks, Welsch was once again on the move—this time to Boston.

In Boston, he finally found his footing averaging 9.2 points per game for the playoff-bound Celtics, providing brief glimpses into his tremendous promise. Welsch’s momentum stalled the following season as the Celtics attempted to integrate new players into their rotation including Ricky Davis and Tony Allen; midway through the season Jiri was dealt to Cleveland where he’d join rising star LeBron James and help solidify their depth for the playoff run. Welsch became a footnote in history as the unprotected future first-round pick Cleveland gave up for him eventually turned into Rajon Rondo. Welsch was never a good fit in Cleveland and quickly saw his playing time evaporate as the season progressed. His fourth and final NBA stop came with Milwaukee in 2005-06. While his numbers rebounded slightly, the bloom was off the rose and following the conclusion of the season he returned to Europe signing with Unicaja Málaga of the Spanish ACB league.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Holice, Bohemia. Famous person from Holice: Harry Horner.

#22 BILL HANZLIK

by Ian Thomsen, author of The Soul of Basketball

I have known of Bill Hanzlik for most of my life. In 1975 he was starring for his high school in my hometown of Lake Oswego, Oregon, while I happened to be attending junior high school across the street. Decades later we became acquainted while he was serving as a Denver Nuggets analyst for their local TV network.

Hanzlik was a star 6-foot-7 guard for the University of Notre Dame in 1976-80. He was appointed to the forgotten 1980 U.S. Olympic team (the Americans boycotted the Games that year) even though he averaged only 5.9 points per game in college. But statistics weren’t the real measure of Hanzlik’s influence. He was a defensive stopper who in 1978 drove Notre Dame to its lone appearance in the NCAA Tournament Final Four. Hanzlik then affirmed his selection as the number 20 pick of the 1980 NBA Draft by playing 10 seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics and (following a 1982 trade) the Nuggets, who brought him off the bench to provide game-changing energy and stifling defense against opponents of all sizes and positions.

Hanzlik scored in double-figures only twice in his NBA career—he averaged 12.5 points in 1985-86, and 13.0 points the following season—but memories of his off-the-ball influence remain strong among Nuggets fans. Hanzlik runs the Gold Crown Foundation, a charity in Denver that has helped thousands of children and families.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Middletown, Ohio. Bill’s dad John Hanzlik—son of a Czech—was a World War II Army Air Corps veteran; Bill told me that John’s father Henry Joseph (Hynek Josef in Czech) Hanzlik immigrated to the USA from Prague in early 1900s, then he met his would-be wife Nora, a Bohemian, and they married in upstate New York in 1913. Henry’s brother Stanislav immigrated along with him, but he later returned back to Prague, where he became an influential professor at Charles University and a world-renowned meteorologist.

#20 STEVE NOVAK

by Mick Minas, author of The Curse

Steve Novak will always occupy a special place in my heart, as he was one of 12 Clippers who played in the season opener on October 29, 2008. This date holds particular personal significance, as attending this game and watching the Clippers lose to the Lakers by 38 points sparked an interest that ultimately led to the writing of my first book: The Curse: The Colorful & Chaotic History of the LA Clippers.

The game itself was like a microcosm of Novak’s 11 year NBA career. He played a little under 14 minutes off the bench, during which time his primary role was to space the floor with his long-range shooting. Novak finished with 6 points on 2-for-5 shooting from 3 and was the only Clipper to record a positive plus/minus rating.

For his career, Novak hit 575 3-pointers at a remarkably accurate conversion rate of 43 percent. He led the league in 3-point percentage in 2011-12, shooting over 47 percent while playing for New York. Even more remarkable is the fact that this was not his most accurate NBA season. That came 12 months earlier, when Novak hit over 56 percent of his 3-point attempts.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Libertyville, a suburb of Chicago. Another person of note surnamed Novak born in Windy City: Kim Novak, a Czech-American actress. In late 19th century Chicago, a full-valued life could be lived knowing only the Czech language exclusively. Even later on, the largest Czech community in the United States lived in “Czech-ago.”

#41 C.J. KUPEC

by Dan Peterson, legendary Olimpia Milan coach and basketball commentator/writer

Coaching C.J. Kupec was one of the great joys of my career! He played three seasons in the NBA for the L.A. Lakers and the Houston Rockets, and back then, three years in the league was a lot. Once I saw him in the L.A. Summer League in 1978, I knew he was the guy I wanted and I waited until he was available. Shooter, defender, rebounder, force, leader. He was, as they say, the total package. So C.J. came to my Olimpia Milan team in 1978-79. We were predicted for dead last and relegation to A-2, as we had the smallest and youngest (six teenagers of our ten players) team in the league. But we had C.J. and we had Mike D’Antoni. I knew what we had the first game of the season, against the defending champions. We were down by eleven at half, then won 77-68, stopping them cold, as C.J. stopped the Serie A league’s greatest scorer, Bob Morse, and scored one long basket after another on the pick-and-roll, as he stepped out to the corner and Mike got the ball to him. He did not miss. That got our season rolling in the right direction and we went to the playoff final.

In those playoffs, in the quarter-final, down in Rome, Blue Star had us down by 10 the whole game. But guys like C.J. do not give up. We were down 7 with 1:43 to go and rallied to tie it, 92-92 (despite the worst refereeing I have ever seen in the Serie A, all in favor of Rome). We tried a jump shot to win it: miss, with no foul called. C.J. got the offensive rebound and went up, missing because no foul was called. He kept after it, got the rebound again, went up again and, with contact, put in the winning basket to give us the 94-92 win in regulation time. That got our playoffs going and we knocked out Blue Star, 2-0, to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-final, we had not win at Varese in 13 seasons but upset them, up there, 91-81. They won Game 2, but we won Game 3 to take the series. We won because C.J. hit six straight shots from ICBM range to bring them out of their air-tight 2-3 zone. We did not have the 3-point shot back then but they came from way, way behind where the 3-point line is today. It was just another clutch performance by C.J.

But my favorite story is set in the summer of 1979. We were to play three exhibition tournaments in Sicily: Palermo, Capo d’Orlando and Messina. Each stop had three games: two against USA all-star teams and one against the USSR national team. The U.S. teams were packed with guys trying to get contracts in Europe, so they were battles. I only had seven of my ten guys, as D’Antoni was in the U.S., another guy had been loaned to a team and one was with the Italy National Team. So, I had three 16-year-old kids, including Rinaldo Innocenti. I put Rinaldo in one game against the Americans and he accidentally tripped one of their guys, who went down hard.

Their whole team came after Rinaldo, who was scared to death. C.J. stepped forward and said, “If you want him, you’ll have to deal with me first.” Now, of course, C.J. is 6-foot-8, weighed 235 pounds and had played football at Michigan. They stopped where they were, “Hey, C.J., hold on there a second. No need for that.” It was over before it started. Here is the best part: C.J. did not even know Rinaldo’s name! No matter. Rinaldo was his teammate. I saw Rinaldo a couple of years ago and I asked him what he recalled about his time with our team. He said, “C.J. Kupec.” As they say in Italy, “You can’t buy that sort of thing at the supermarket.”

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Oak Lawn, a suburb of Chicago. C.J., born Charles Jerome, told me all he knew about his Czech ancestors; his grandfather Frank J. Kupec was born in Velky Vir, Bohemia, and served as a journeyman tailor in Vienna from age 12 to age 17. He then returned home and joined the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1904, he immigrated to the United States, where he worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines until he learned enough English to work as a tailor in Chicago. There he married a woman from Vinarice, Bohemia, Sophia Vaic, and they had six children—one of them was Charles, C.J.’s dad.

#10 JIRI ZIDEK

by me, Lukas Kuba

Some of you are probably asking “Who is Jiri Zidek? Ain’t that George Zidek?” Well, no . . . it’s Jiri “George” Zidek’s father, a 2019 FIBA Hall of Fame inductee and arguably the greatest Czechoslovak player of the 20th century. Obviously he didn’t play in the NBA, but reportedly, he got an offer to play for the Celtics in the mid-1960s. Czechoslovakia played two exhibition games against the USA basketball team in the summer of 1964. Zidek scored 22 and 23 points, respectively. And almost every summer in that decade, Zidek and his club team, Slavia Prague, played at tourneys in Italy; the legendary Celtics coach/GM Red Auerbach probably first saw him at one of his basketball clinics/tournaments there. Jiri said that back in the spring of 1966, when he played in a European Champions Cup final in Bologna, Italy, “representatives of the Boston Celtics came to me and offered me a contract for five years and $600,000. Like every kid, I dreamed about playing in the NBA.”

But it was impossible and unthinkable for him to get out of Czechoslovakia.

“The formalities took place in the arena; I agreed to it, and I even had an airline ticket in my hands and I went to the airport with them, but then I figured this would get my girlfriend and my family into trouble. We lived in the communist era, without personal freedom. Getting out of the country in a legal way was almost impossible. So I canceled the deal and returned behind the Iron Curtain.”

Could this story be true? I’d say $600,000 is a tad too much for that era (maybe it was $60,000?), but I discussed it with historian Cort Reynolds who said “I think it is very likely the Celtics were exploring all options to replace an aging Bill Russell and did look into signing Zidek Sr.”

I contacted George Zidek and he emailed me back with: “Papa tells this story about the Celtics. It’s his word, no proof.” In his book Let Me Tell You a Story, Auerbach was quoted as saying: “I do know a lot about the game internationally—I was the first guy to spend a lot of time overseas. I would bring [Bob] Cousy or [Tom] Heinsohn and sometimes a referee with me. We would work with the coaches and the players too. I always enjoyed it because they were all so eager to learn.”

Aram Goudsouzian, author of King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution, opined: “It does seem plausible that Red Auerbach would have offered Zidek a contract. Auerbach made frequent trips to Europe to conduct basketball clinics during the summer. If Zidek could play in the NBA, Auerbach was probably the only figure in the NBA at the time who would have had the regular exposure to European players. He would naturally search for a competitive edge.”

Esteemed European basketball writer Vladimir Stankovic told me, “I am sure that Zidek was ready for the NBA, he was a really great player.” Zidek was a 6-foot-9, 220-pound center; according to Stankovic “his best weapons were the fundamentals, he could hit the outside jumper, had a hard-to-guard hook shot, was a great rebounder and had the spirit of a natural-born fighter.”

Then I emailed veteran sportswriter Lew Freedman, author of Dynasty: The Rise of the Boston Celtics, and he speculated:

“Although I know the older Zidek was a great player I cannot recall anything about him from that time more than 50 years ago. I do remember his son George playing. I have no recollection of hearing about a flirtation between him and the Celtics during the 1960s. As you mention, given the political climate of the era it would have been extremely tough for him to come to the United States then. It was well before the basketball world changed to see so many overseas players joining the NBA. (Note: From 1959 to 1973, there were no international players in the NBA, with the exception of Tom Meschery, born in Manchukuo to Russian parents.)

“Yet certainly it is possible that ex-office talks took place. Besides Zidek’s word and memory, I am not sure how else you would be able to pin down such a communication that was unlikely ever put in writing. I am the type of person who is an optimist who would like to believe such a story was true with the Celtics on the threshold of being pioneers and looking the world over for talent.”

By the way, the second Czech-born baller who got an offer to play in the NBA before the year 1989 was Kamil Brabenec, the Czech scoring machine of the 70s and 80s. In 1974, the Detroit Pistons took an interest in him and Brabenec—chosen as the second best Czech player of all time—took part in the Pistons’ training camp that year. Allegedly, Detroit wanted to sign him, but Brabenec made a decision to go back to his native country because during that era signing for an NBA team meant renouncing your spot on the national team and emigrating without family.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Prague, then the capital of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

#25 GEORGE ZIDEK

by David Svab, Czech basketball journalist

The first Czech-born basketball player in the NBA could have been Jiri Zidek in 1966, but Czech basketball fans had to wait 29 long years on top of it before they saw a Czech player in the NBA. And that player was George Zidek, Jiri’s son. Soon after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, George moved—urged on by his dad—to the USA to attend UCLA, where he played four years on the Bruins’ team. In 1995, Zidek helped the Bruins win the NCAA tournament; he scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the final against Arkansas. After that, the 7-foot center was selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the 1995 NBA draft, with the 22nd overall pick. George was an able player for his size, with good skills, strength, rebounding instincts and a hook shot. He was also a player who coaches appreciated: not a superstar, but he always played hard.

Zidek started his NBA career well: he scored 13 points against Jordan’s Bulls in his first NBA game and in the second he had 21 points, which was his best performance in the NBA scoring-wise. During the first month in the league, he averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds per game, but then his playing time began to decrease. In his second season, he was traded to the Denver Nuggets, where he lasted just for a year and then was waived. In March 1998 Zidek signed with the Seattle SuperSonics, but eighteen days later he was waived again and his NBA career came to a close. He appeared in 135 games, averaging 3.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 10 minutes per game. For comparison, Ed O’Bannon—the NCAA’s Most Outstanding Player in 1995—played only three NBA seasons, too, with averages of 5 points and 2.5 boards per game. Zidek returned back to Europe and immediately became a star in the Euroleague, winning an EuroLeague title in 1999 with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania. George Zidek thus became the first person ever to win both an NCAA and a EuroLeague championship.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Zlin (then called Gottwaldov), Moravia. Famous person from Zlin: Tomas Bata.

Coach JOE LAPCHICK

by Gus Alfieri, author of Lapchick

Joe Lapchick, the son of Czech immigrants, resembled his mother’s narrow frame, blond hair and high cheekbones while inheriting athletic advantages from his father’s large hands and long arms. By the time Joe was 18 years old he grew to be 6-foot-5 and his size and basketball talent attracted the best professional team in America, the Original Celtics. By the end of the basketball season in 1922, Joe signed an exclusive contract with them that eventually made him one of the highest paid players. And his play made him arguably the best big man in basketball. After a career barnstorming America with the Celtics, Joe retired from professional basketball to try his hand at coaching.

In 1936, Lapchick was hired by St. John’s University to coach one of the most powerful basketball programs in America, and became one of the school’s most successful coaches. In a career that spanned 20 years, Lapchick’s St. John’s teams would win four National Invitation Tournaments when the NIT more than challenged the present day NCAA tournament. Meshed between Lapchick’s two successful coaching stints at St. John’s, the New York Knickerbockers in 1947 tapped Joe to become their first coach. Lapchick’s legendary status, as well as his coaching success, helped the new National Basketball Association to survive and then succeed beyond any one’s imagination. In the nine years that he coached the Knicks, his teams won 326 games while losing 247, never had a losing season, and made the NBA finals three times.

His coaching career ended at SJU with a spectacular double triumph in the Holiday Festival and in the 1965 NIT final. The next year, Lapchick was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and spent the rest of his life mentoring coaches who went on to fame, like Bob Knight, Lou Carnesecca, Al McGuire, and Butch Van Breda Kolff. But of all the honors Lapchick accumulated what stands out is Bill Bradley’s summary of his life in the foreword to Lapchick, where he identifies him as “a man of character,” a quality that is missing in much of society today.

Coach Lapchick was a wonderful man to play for. As I emphasized in my book, he was a chemist able to get his players to play together, and hard, not by screaming or ranting but by his command of plain, old fashioned horse sense. As he often said to us, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” and won us over by always being fair in his judgments. If you dealt with him, you respected him. He always wanted to play against the best teams, never wanted to build wins on soft teams, and would never “run the score up,” when an opponent was overmatched. As far as coaching this Czech team, he would have cherished the opportunity. And I’ll close with a statement I used to make to my classes: “The smartest man I ever knew was my college coach, Joe Lapchick, and he was only an 8th grade graduate!” He was a person who could honestly be called, a gentleman.

FACT OF INTEREST: Born in Yonkers, New York. Joe’s father Josef Lapcik was born near Zlin, Joe’s mother Frantiska (born Kasikova) was a Czech born in the Russian Empire. They both immigrated to America in late 1880s.

***

Czech-American Game Highs in the NBA

POINTS: 54 (Havlicek)
REBOUNDS: 20 (Kojis, Havlicek)
ASSISTS: 18 (Hornacek)
STEALS: 7 (Hornacek)
BLOCKS: 4 (Hanzlik)
THREES: 8 (Hornacek, Novak)

***

I asked the New York Times’ Marc Stein (via his NBA newsletter) about this Czech-American team. How would it fare in today’s NBA? Would this be a playoff team?

Stein: Admire the ingenuity, Lukas. Write in with an original concept like this—all the way from Prague—and, yes, you read me very well. I couldn’t resist giving this some run. Can’t say I really see your roster as playoff material, but who cares? It’s a fun concept that makes me want to see more rosters like this from different places, while throwing in the disclaimer that I’m taking the leap that you have indeed confirmed that all of these players really hail from families of Czech origin. Also: What you presumably didn’t know is that I am also always on the lookout for reasons to talk about the Czech Republic. Part of it is the fact that one of my closest childhood friends grew up worshiping Ivan Lendl. The other part: I made one short day trip there to see a Champions League game in Pilsen a few years ago and saw enough to know that I need to get back ASAP.

***

Note: Originally, I had Jon Koncak on the team as a backup center. Michael Lee wrote the following about him:

Jon Koncak will always be known, derisively, as “Jon Kontract.” Whether unfortunate or unfair, Koncak won’t just be remembered as the 7-footer from Kansas City, Mo., who turned tiny Southern Methodist University into a respected program that knocked off powerhouses North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville and Duke and nearly upset Patrick Ewing’s 1984 champion Georgetown Hoyas in the NCAA tournament. He won’t be looked upon as a member of the 1984 gold-medal-winning Olympic team that included future Dream Teamers Michael Jordan, Chris Mullin and Ewing. The Atlanta Hawks thought enough of Koncak to take him fifth overall in the 1985 NBA draft—ahead of future Hall of Famers Mullin, Karl Malone, Joe Dumars and Arvydas Sabonis and other stars like Detlef Schrempf, Charles Oakley, A.C. Green, Terry Porter and Michael Adams. Koncak wasn’t some stiff before his arrival in the NBA but he always wasn’t going to be confused with Wilt. He was a serviceable big man over his 10-year-career who could be trusted to work hard, grab some rebounds and make the most of limited scoring opportunities.

He could have played his entire career in anonymity and retired an afterthought. But Koncak became much more—a symbol of a broken NBA salary structure—when he signed a six-year, $13 million free agent deal with the Hawks in 1989. The contract was astronomical at the time, especially for a backup/part-time starter averaging roughly six points and six rebounds, because it put him on the same level as superstars Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jordan and his all-star teammate Dominique Wilkins. “I can’t justify what they offered me,” Koncak told Sports Illustrated, “but what was I supposed to do? Say no?” Koncak went from fan favorite to most hated, especially after Hawks management used his contract as an excuse for higher season ticket prices. He retired in 1995 as a member of the Orlando Magic, walking away from the game with a nondescript career but a nickname that will always stick.

However, I managed to obtain Koncak’s email and he told me:

“My father used to tell the story of his grandfather and two brothers who immigrated to the USA. Their original last name was spelled Konczak. One brother removed the C, the other the Z, and the third left name intact.”

They must have been Poles, not Czechs, because “Konczak” is probably a Polish surname. (TAI’s Polish Correspondent Bart Bielecki said that it doesn’t sound 100% like a typical Polish name, but that it is possible. According to the website House of Names, “Konczak” is a Polish/Ruthenian/Ukrainian surname.) So I had to un-induct Koncak from my CSABHOF (I decided to add Jiri Zidek Sr. to the Sokols team instead of him).

Sorry, Jon.

[Photo: NBA Fantasy Twitter]

Given his comments earlier that day during shootaround, his placid demeanor should not have been too much of a surprise. The angst surrounding the trading deadline was over, and he finally had a bit of closure regarding his whereabouts.

“It’s kind of, sort of been a relief, just because I knew what direction I was going to. There’s some confusion when you don’t know, you hear speculation here and there. Finally getting to that place, finally knowing where I’m at is a sign of relief for me.”

When Coach Scott Brooks was asked before the game how he would use Parker (along with Bobby Portis and Wesley Johnson), he was remarkably candid. Basically, he’s unsure about how to use his new toys:

“We gave them our video playbook yesterday, so they got the chance to see that when they were flying in and last night. And then we worked with them this morning at shootaround, so we’ll try to keep it real simple.

“My expectations are… I don’t really know, I don’t know how they’re all going to play, but they’re all going to play and they’re all going to play together. I just need to figure out who are going to be the other guys with them, because they’re going to need stability and guys that have been [here].”

Whatever magical words of encouragement Coach Brooks gave to the new guys, it would behoove him to bottle it up and use it for Saturday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls.

Wesley Johnson had a quiet night with just two points in 14 minutes, but Bobby Portis was the star. He scored 30 points (12-17 from the field, including 4-6 from the 3-point line) and grabbed five rebounds. And then, of course, there was Jabari Parker.

He checked into the game with 4:33 left in the first quarter, and fifteen seconds later–as predicted by NBC Sports Washington’s Ben Standig–he jacked up and shot, and made it, which was hardly shocking. The real surprise was the rest of the half when Parker, who is primarily known as a scorer, unveiled his all-around game.

Parker did not take another shot the remainder of the half, but he filled up the the stat sheet with 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, and 7 assists, including this nifty behind-the-back maneuver:

https://twitter.com/HoopDistrictDC/status/1094037561524277248

Parker finished the game with seven points (on 3-of-6 shooting), 9 assists, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, and a blocked shot. Scott Brooks joked after the game that Parker could have easily had a triple-double, had Brooks not checked him out of the game with 4:05 left in the game.

But more importantly, Coach Brooks, who had admitted that he didn’t quite know what to expect prior to the game, was now a believer in Parker after just 23 minutes:

“He knows how to play, he’s almost like a point forward out there and I’m comfortable–even after one game now. I’ve seen him handle the ball and I’ve seen him enough against us. He can handle the ball and make decisions, he’s a playmaker.”

When Parker spoke after the game, he maintained the exact same cool demeanor that was on display beforehand. Leaned up against the wall in the hallway outside of the locker room (where John Wall was holding court), Parker spoke about his performance in his first game as a Wizard, all the while snacking on pineapples and berries. He also admitted that playing with Trevor Ariza was a dream come true of his: “Playing with Trevor is a great thing just because there’s history, I grew up watching the guy, so it was a good feeling for me.”

As unselfish as Parker’s stat line was in his first game in Washington, his postgame comments were even more magnanimous.

Saturday night the Wizards are scheduled to take on the Chicago Bulls in Chicago, and that just so happens to be the former home of both Parker and Portis. I asked Parker if he had any trepidation about playing his former team so soon after he had been traded, and instead of making it about him, he quickly genuflected:

“I want to be there for Bobby,  I want to be there for him. It’s an important game for him because that’s his first time playing against his former team. Milwaukee games were my games, in my opinion, because that was my first time [playing against my former team], so I want him to have that and I’ll look out for him.”

Yes, this is just one game, and one game against the lowly, 11-44, lottery-bound Cleveland Cavaliers (despite the return of Kevin Love). But still a bit worrying: Parker was quite the matador on the defensive end of the floor, and the gaudy stats he was able to accumulate didn’t exactly come against stellar competition.

As the cliche’ goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and Parker checked all the boxes. He showed personality before the game, versatility during it, and humility afterwards.

Not a bad opening statement.

https://twitter.com/NBCSWizards/status/1094052889243336704

[Photo: @JohnCTownsend]

Grunfeld’s actions as a general manager/president are indefensible. Each of his most impressive accomplishments of the past decade has simply pushed the reckoning of his own mistakes to the future. That future has finally started to become the present, and the ensuing reality is going to be grim. This reckoning was predictable and avoidable, but Leonsis has refused to take responsibility for this disaster, and he appears content allowing this ship to sink all the way to the bottom.

The “Plan” Doesn’t Exist

Do not listen to the noise. There is no plan. The Wizards have eased off using the terminology of “The Plan,” but the same rhetoric remains. Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld want you to believe they have a plan, a backup plan, the ability to think long term, and the ability to react coherently. They have none of those things.

Grunfeld told Fred Katz of The Athletic that the Wizards “wanted to stay competitive” and needed to determine what “the best course of action is for the team for the remainder of this year — but also looking into the future, what helps us the most?”

That is not a plan. That is a trash bag full of half-baked ideas for building a basketball team. This is a cacophony of front-office buzzwords, like a toddler playing with magnetic letters on a refrigerator.

The following teams are in win-now mode: Milwaukee, Toronto, Indiana, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Golden State, Denver, Oklahoma City, Portland, Houston, Utah, San Antonio, Sacramento. They all have winning records and can easily justify attempts to win now.

The following teams are in various stages of a rebuild: New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas. The all have losing records. But also, crucially, either young talent, quality draft picks, cap space, or a combination of the three.

Here are the teams that remain in the Western Conference: Minnesota and both Los Angeles teams. The Lakers and Clippers are planning a big swing, and the Timberwolves were forced to trade their best player early in the season, lost the main piece they received in that deal to injury, and have still pulled off a 25-29 record in a deep Western Conference.

Here are the teams that remain the Eastern Conference: Charlotte, Miami, Detroit, Orlando, and Washington. There aren’t many worse teams in the NBA to be grouped with, in any conversation. Charlotte and Orlando are in a perpetual state of mediocrity, but at least Orlando has some young talent and could have a bright future. Detroit is in its first season with a new head coach and GM and is still 2.5 games up on Washington.

Miami is the most comparable team to Washington for the sake of this exercise—in salary cap hell and just traded a big contract to avoid the luxury tax. But the Heat have a four-game lead on the Wizards, the team’s starting point guard is about to return from injury, Dwyane Wade is doing his victory tour so arenas are filling up, and a playoff spot seems likely.

Also, two years from now, the Heat have committed $71 million to six players while the Wizards have committed $73 million to three players. Oh, and the Heat play in one of the most desirable markets in the NBA and, for now, have an NBA legend in the front office, so future free agent pitches will likely be better for the Heat than they will for the Wizards.

Forget About This Year

What is the absolute best-case scenario for the 2018-19 Washington Wizards? At the time of the trade deadline, they sat 10 games below .500. Ten games. One of the team’s best players likely won’t take the court again until October 2020, when he’ll be 30 years old, and the other one is second in the NBA in minutes played (15 minutes fewer than Jrue Holiday, who has played one more game than Beal).

So one of their stars is on the mend for a huge chunk of what should be his prime, and the other star is being ground into dust playing 39 minutes a game . . . for what? To “stay competitive” this year? The four best teams in the East can all claim to be among the five or six best teams in the NBA, and all but the Celtics made trades this week to dramatically improve.

If the Wizards somehow stumble into the playoffs this year—that would require something like an 18-10 record the rest of the way, and 12 of those games are against teams with winning records—the NBA might have to institute a postseason slaughter rule.

When Washington loses Games 1 through 3 by an average of 25 points, well, do we really need to play a Game 4? The fans don’t want to see it, trust me. Or don’t trust me. Here’s what ticket prices for Wizards games look like the morning after the trade deadline.

What About The Future?

Let’s pretend the powers that be for the Wizards are rational, level-headed folks who realize this is a lost season, and let’s just focus on the second part of that Grunfeld quote: “Looking into the future, what helps us the most?”

Ernie Grunfeld rejected at least one trade offer that included a first-round pick, according to the Post’s Candace Buckner, because he didn’t want to accept a trade that “would force the team to take back the same amount of salary.”

Think about that: A week ago, the Wizards were content to pay the luxury tax next season for a team built around a Wall-Beal-Porter core with a slew of cheap veterans, apparently under the impression Wall would return healthy and looking like an All-Star again. Basically, they wanted to run it back against a new and improved Eastern Conference. Wall’s new injury problems, the Achilles tear, which Grunfeld claims will set him back “two, three months longer,” was enough to convince the team that saving money was now the ultimate goal.

Washington could have had a first-round draft pick (far from a slam dunk given Grunfeld’s spotty draft history), which would have provided young talent on a cheap deal for multiple years. The price was continuing to pay the money you had already signed up to pay. Instead, the front office decided to save the money, forgo the pick, and get a chance to “really take a good look at” two players who had little value; one of them you could have drafted but chose not to and has since punched a teammate in the face (Bobby Portis), the other is headed to his third team in two years and has two ACL tears over the past five seasons (Jabari Parker).

Well, you might ask: What happens if the Wizards actually got sneaky good value on the trade and one or both of Parker and Portis plays well? They can pick up a team option on Parker to the tune of $20 million, and Portis is a restricted free agent after the season.

This is a fun exercise, though, so let’s run through it.

Say the Wizards love what they get out of Parker, and they pick up his option. Here is what the 2019-20 Wizards look like: Wall (likely out for the season), Beal, Parker (now on an expiring contract, so even if he turns out to be a late bloomer, you’re going to lose him after the season), Troy Brown, Ian Mahinmi, and Dwight Howard. This ragtag bunch will cost Ted Leonsis $109 million, and that doesn’t include the cost of re-signing Tomas Satoransky, Thomas Bryant, or Bobby Portis, nor does it factor in a first-round draft pick or any other free agents.

Okay, what if they let Parker walk but Portis has a strong season and they want to bring him back? Now they’re at $89 million for Wall, Beal, Brown, Mahinmi, and Howard, and they’re at the mercy of the rest of the league on bidding for Portis and Satoransky. With all the major free agents available this summer, there will be many teams who whiff spectacularly and will need to spend that money elsewhere—picture summer of 2016. It’ll likely cost more if Portis plays well, but let’s pretend the Wizards get lucky and are able to re-sign the two players for a combined $25 million per year.

That puts Washington at $114 million for a mediocre starting lineup, a backup center, and John Wall on crutches. You’re now over the cap and about $18 million away from paying the luxury tax again, and that’s without paying your first-round pick or any free agents (including Thomas Bryant). That’s not exactly the stuff stellar general managers/presidents are made of.

The Window Has Passed

Both of those situations ignore the fact that Washington will again look up at the top of the Eastern Conference and see absolute juggernauts. Imagine if Kyrie Irving stays in Boston, Kawhi Leonard stays in Toronto, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris stay in Philadelphia, Khris Middleton stays in Milwaukee, and the Knicks go all-in and get Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis. You now have five powerhouse teams, plus the Pacers (currently 36-19) will have two-time All-Star Victor Oladipo back.

The Eastern Conference was a trainwreck for years. The depth is still laughable and it’s highly likely there will be multiple teams in the playoffs with losing records. But now, the top half is dominant—and the Wizards are nowhere to be found.

Their young core is in tatters, their coach is a lame duck, they have likely the worst contract in the league (and they still have another year of Mahinmi!), LeBron James Jr. will be in the NBA before they have their own second-round pick, and they’ve managed to be just good enough to position themselves for the bottom of the lottery each year, where they’ve historically struggled to find talent.

Avoiding the tax this season is not nothing. People love to mock teams for making moves to avoid the tax, and if that’s your championship for the season, that’s a fair criticism. But avoiding the tax in a lost season allows a team to go into the tax for a better team next season without paying an increased repeater tax, and that matters. Leonsis and Grunfeld, if they still retained any credibility, could reasonably say they were throwing this season away and getting out of the tax this year so it would be easier to dip back into the tax next year (or the following year) to make another run at it.

Two things invalidate that thinking: First, the ownership and front office don’t have a plan and are just bumbling through this ordeal until somebody puts them out of their misery, and nobody believes the cliché tropes they throw out at every trade deadline. Second, by not trading away Trevor Ariza and Jeff Green for future assets and a chance to tank, they’ve proven they are not committed to any one plan.

A brief history of Ernie Grunfeld, feeling good. (Ok, it isn't very brief.)

— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) February 8, 2019

The Excuses Will Always Exist

In that same article from The Athletic, Grunfeld said the Wizards “had to change [their] approach” due to John Wall’s Achilles tear. He added, “some things in this league you can’t control, and injuries are one of them.”

Grunfeld’s boss, Leonsis, said the following to NBC Sports Washington in September: “We need to raise the expectations. We have to make the playoffs. I’d like us to win 50 games. I’d like us to go to the Eastern Conference Finals.” This was in the fifth paragraph of the linked article.

Two paragraphs later, Leonsis was quoted as saying the following: “We have one of the highest payrolls in the league with the Wizards. They have a beautiful, world-class practice facility. They’re healthy entering the year. Alright Wizards. If you have this practice facility and one of the highest payrolls in the league and you’re getting well-tended for your health, nutrition and the like; no excuses. Let’s play ball.”

Ted Leonsis is the owner of the Washington Wizards. Ted Leonsis is responsible for everything that happens to the Washington Wizards. Ted Leonsis has lied to Wizards fans repeatedly. And if Ernie Grunfeld is allowed to keep his job for another year, Ted Leonsis will have lied again.

your guide to supporting the Washington Wizards in 2018 (and beyond) pic.twitter.com/XWsdX2EMro

— Guacamole Gunnar Solskjær (@JohnCTownsend) April 30, 2018

The New Orleans Pelicans’ option to trade or not trade Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers has cast quite a pall over the NBA this week, and justifiably so. Davis is arguably one of the top three players in the NBA, and whether he goes to the Lakers, the Clippers, the Knicks, the Bucks, or the Wizards (too soon?), his whereabouts will justifiably command front page, NBA headlines.

But at 1:39 p.m. yesterday, the Washington Wizards PR team unsheathed a bit of news that temporarily pressed pause on all things Anthony Davis. Their press release read as follows:

“Wizards guard John Wall will undergo surgery to repair a ruptured left Achilles tendon.  The procedure, which has yet to be scheduled, will be performed by Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay, WI. Wall is expected to return to full basketball activity in approximately 12 months from the time of the surgery.

“Wall had developed an infection in the incision from initial surgery on Jan. 8 (a debridement and repair of a Haglund’s deformity and a chronic Achilles tendon injury in his left heel that was also performed by Dr. Anderson) and he suffered the rupture after slipping and falling in his home.  The rupture was diagnosed by Wizards Director of Medical Services and Orthopedist Dr. Wiemi Douoguih during a procedure to clean out the infection.”

Wizards Twitter immediately shifted into Apoplectic Mode, and the reactions ranged from “thoughts and prayers,” to outrage over Wall’s sizable contract, to sharp criticism directed towards the front office tandem of Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld.

Fans, bloggers and writers openly wondered if Wall would ever be the same, if the Wizards would have the cojones to make an impactful move–whether it be via trade or tanking–and what this will all mean going forward. Others chose to prematurely throw dirt on Wall’s career—and as a result, in his defense, Twitter was strewn with pictures and videos of Wall’s highlights from the past.

So what does all of this mean? No one truly knows, but TAI writers Bryan Frantz, Sean Fagan, Rashad Mobley and John Townsend did their very best to make sense of this weird, wild stuff.

Bryan Frantz (@BFrantz202)

This is devastating. John Wall should have had a long, productive career as one of the top guards in the NBA. Instead, the Wizards surrounded him with exactly one good piece for the majority of his career, which was Bradley Beal. Besides Beal, all Wall has had to support him is a few years of Marcin Gortat, a year of Paul Pierce, a couple of years of Trevor Ariza, a handful of mediocre seasons from Otto Porter, and some on-again-off-again play from Nene.

Now, Wall is 28 years old and is looking at a grueling road back to the court. If his current timeline holds, he won’t take the court again until roughly this time next year. If the Wizards are indeed going to “stay the course” as Candace Buckner and Tom Haberstroh report they will, they’ll in all likelihood miss the playoffs next season, in which case it would behoove Wall to just sit the entire season and come back for the 2020-21 season. That means he would next take the court in October 2020, nearly 22 months since his last game action, at age 30 no less.

As everybody outside the Wizards front office knows, the best course of action is to go into sell mode. (This was the best course of action even before this news came out.) Washington could go into full seller mode by pawning off Bradley Beal and Otto Porter to the highest bidder, or it could be more conservative and just trade away expiring contracts for future assets.

The future is exceedingly bleak in Washington. The young core is aging and broken, the coach and GM have both proven to be among the league’s worst in their respective roles, the payroll is bloated for years to come, and there is little room for immediate improvement even for a talented, creative front office–which the Wizards don’t appear to have.

The worst part about all of this? Ted Leonsis just doesn’t give a damn. He has time and again refused to raise the bar for the basketball team he owns, and he has made it abundantly clear that perpetual mediocrity is a perfectly fine goal. Considering the Wizards are currently nine games below .500 and among the worst teams in the NBA, Ernie Grunfeld has some work to do to get back up to mediocre.

Strap in, Wizards fans: Minor, inconsequential change is coming.

★★★

Sean Fagan (@McCarrick)

The only thing more depressing than the news that John Wall ruptured his Achilles and will be out for a least a year is the news (according to Tom Haberstroh) that the Wizards intend to “stay the course.”

This is the Wizards’ apparent path of choice despite the fact that the universe decided to weigh in and take out billboards on every street corner in America, advising the Wizards that now, perhaps, might be the time to blow it up. A clearer message couldn’t have been sent unless it was hurled through the window tied to a brick. Yet Team President Ernie Grunfeld and Ted Leonsis, are safely ensconced in their war room at the center of the earth, headphones set to blast and pointedly ignoring the phone ringing off the hook for teams who might be interested in the services of Otto Porter.

Instead, what we have is an extremely diluted Tang-flavored version of “run it back.” Except this time next year, you are running it back without John Wall, mostly likely without Tomas Satoransky and Thomas Bryant (the Wizards can’t afford them) and adding the charred remains of Dwight Howard (if he picks up his player option). Wizards management is also going to have present to their already anxious season ticket holders a po-faced rendition of “You can’t predict injuries, so if you hang on for 1.5 years we can promise you that this team is on the right track.”

To this point, the fact that management is asking Wizards fans and players to just wait out the next 12-18 months is what should set off alarm bells for the few remaining stalwarts following the team. “Staying the course” means subjecting yourself to losing basketball for at least a year, without any of  the promise of a rebuild. “Staying the course” means it become more likely each day that Bradley Beal takes a look around the league and issues a statement through his agent to get him out of D.C. and to a contender (e.g. Anthony Davis).

The real disappointment is that even with all the (fun) chaos currently engulfing the NBA and with the tea leaf reading business going gangbusters, the Wizards are immune to all weather patterns. They act (and react) like a far-flung small market outpost—simply unable (or unwilling) to acknowledge that the very structure of the league is changing around them, secure in knowledge that no outside of the DMV cares about the Wizards.

Perhaps they are embarrassed by the fact that the last time they tried to flex: Kevin Durant and Al Horford told them kick sand. But the fact remains that the Wizards remain a franchise firmly stuck in 2006, still using rotary phones and pagers while the rest of the world zooms by.

★★★

Rashad Mobley (@rashad20)

Man plans and God laughs, the expression goes, but in the case of the Wizards, Ted Leonsis planned to stand pat at the trading deadline (and possibly beyond), and Wall’s unfortunate Achilles injury makes those plans look laughable at best.

There’s no question that Wall will work hard to return to peak form, because as Boogie Cousins alluded when he was interviewed about it, Wall has overcome far tougher obstacles in his life. He’ll put in the work, he may even document the arduous process on social media, and he will be back in the Capital One Area either at the tail end of next season or at the very start of the 2020-21 season (if that seems far away, that’s because it is).

The question is what condition will Wall be in upon his return. Cousins looks surprisingly spry after missing a year due to his injury, but he’s more of a plodding big man who relies on strength, not quickness and speed. Derrick Rose did not have an Achilles injury like Wall, but he suffered a series of knee injuries that robbed him of much of his explosiveness. The first of those injuries happened in 2012, and it wasn’t until this 2018-2019 season that Rose’s game resembled what it used to be–and that still is a far cry from the level of play he possessed during his MVP season.

Considering Wall hasn’t even had the surgery yet, it is impossible to speculate what kind of player he’ll be in 11 to 15 months. But it is the job Ernie Grunfeld and Ted Leonsis to construct a plan in his stead, and that is where the trouble begins.

The last time the Wizards were faced with a stagnant roster and an injured/diminished superstar (Arenas), they lucked up and got the No. 1 pick (Wall) and they slowly built a team around him while shedding the previously problematic players in the process. This time around, the Wizards have a player to possibly build around (Beal), but his salary, as well as the ones for Wall and Otto Porter, make it virtually impossible to overhaul the roster sans trade. And in case you missed it, Leonsis has claimed that he won’t trade any of his so-called big three.

The other answer would be to figure out a way to tank and increase the team’s chances of getting a high draft pick, but again, Leonsis shut that down last week. Strike two.

So the question is, what’s the revised post-injury Wall plan? A playoff berth this season will most likely mean a first-round exit at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks. Keeping Wall, Beal and Porter and making everyone else open to trade is the equivalent of watching Tom Glavine pitch. A pitch on the corner of the plate here, a pitch on the other corner there, but no at-bat ending high heat down the middle. And given that a (sometimes) healthy Wall wasn’t exactly leading this Wizards team to post-second round playoff glory before his injury, minor changes just won’t do.

Unless Grunfeld and Leonsis step out of their respective comfort zones, and decide to make productive moves to improve the team with or without Wall, the Wizards will continue to be stagnant. That means the Wizards will continue to make substandard plans, the basketball gods will keep laughing and the Wizards’ fans will surely cry–or just stop coming to games altogether.

The bloggers will be fine by the way. We love writing about this stuff.

★★★

John Converse Townsend (@JohnCTownsend)

America loves an underdog story. The Washington Wizards, this year, just like too many years prior, are not one of them. But at least then, in 2010, they looked like one. D.C. had John Wall, 20 years old and full of promise. At least then (closer to now, now), they had a five-time All-Star to carry a franchise that is too proud to tank but also too stubborn—some might even say stupid—to be truly, actually good. What a burden.

Wall put it all on the line, almost every time. Already, he’s the Wizards’ all-time leader in assists and steals, putting up numbers that test Magic Johnson’s legend. He’s starred on broken teams, and just fine ones. He’s played through broken bones and heartbreak. But eventually, it’s the promises broken by the team’s front office that have let down John Wall, and Wizards fans everywhere.

That same front office will do now what it always does: whatever it takes to survive. The franchise has long been desperate to be relevant, dying to be respected. (Never forget 2013’s chase for the 9th seed.) Now, surely, the team’s brass is exploring a minor deadline trade to save a job, or to save this season, as if a season can be saved by qualifying for the playoffs. 

Everything changes. Nothing changes.

“We have to stay the course for this season,” the team’s owner says. And sure, that makes sense. Wall was already out for the rest of this season. So why should the latest injury update change anything with respect to this franchise’s direction? Everything is fine. The Plan is working. We’re a free agent destination. And if we make the playoffs, anything can happen.

It’s business as usual.

The reality is, where the so-called American Dream is the most dead, people believe in it most strongly. That’s certainly true in Wizardsworld. A wealth of wins are not just around the corner. Unwilling to accept reality, the team’s leadership is doubling down and, once again, betting on themselves to prove the basketball gods wrong.

In the end, how long can an underdog be seen as such till it’s seen for what it actually is?

“Don’t ever think it can’t get any worse, because it can.” -Flip Saunders. https://t.co/tHfbFkskHq

— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) February 5, 2019

]]> http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/02/john-wall-is-dunzo-part-deux-what-does-his-extended-absence-mean-for-the-wizards.html/feed 0 http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/02/a-bad-loss-to-a-young-team-and-an-older-man.html http://www.truthaboutit.net/2019/02/a-bad-loss-to-a-young-team-and-an-older-man.html#respond Tue, 05 Feb 2019 15:20:45 +0000 http://www.truthaboutit.net/?p=56499

[Photo: Geoff Burke / USA TODAY Sports]

Last night, the Wizards were once again on the business end of a sizable deficit, but they weren’t facing an MVP candidate . . . or even one of the better teams in the NBA.  They were facing the Atlanta Hawks, who had a record of 17-35 heading into the action.

Although the Hawks had to that point exceeded expectations by going 3-3 on their seven-game road trip, they’d also been on the road for 14 days. Weary, sure, but also ready to win.

“We’ve been on the road for 14 days, I think we’re all just tired and ready to get back to Atlanta,” Coach Lloyd Pearce said before the game. “And [tonight’ game is] a great opportunity to finish this trip out above .500, and that’s what the conversation was going into the Phoenix game. When you’re on a long trip like that, you have to find as many positives as you can.”

After one quarter, the Hawks led the Wizards 35-20 (spoiler: a lead they would not surrender), and it was crystal clear that the Hawks had taken Coach Pearce’s message to heart. Meanwhile, the Wizards shot 33 percent from the field and zero percent (0-9) from the 3-point line.

The Wizards trail the Hawks 35-20 after the first.

This is one of two games before Thursday's trade deadline. Long way to go, but lose this one and, well, it might time to adjust any deadline thinking.

— Ben Standig (@BenStandig) February 5, 2019

The Wizards snapped out of their doldrums in the latter part of the second quarter, thanks to Jeff Green (9 points), who is averaging 15.2 points in his last 10 games, and Jordan McRae (13 points), who was averaging 30 points in the G-league and has continued with that prolific streak in the Association.

The Wizards trailed by just four points at halftime, and it felt like their late second-quarter momentum would propel them to a lead in the third quarter.

Then 42-year-old Vince Carter got going.

Vince Carter came out of the locker room after halftime and damn near missed every 3-point shot he took during warmups. You wouldn't know by the way he's playing in this 3rd quarter. He's hit 3-of-4 and has 11 points overall.

— Rashad Mobley (@rashad20) February 5, 2019

Carter did not play in the first half, and during the post-halftime shootaround, he missed all five of the 3-pointers he attempted. But the Capital One Arena crowed cheered when he entered the game midway through the third quarter, and Carter singlehandedly stymied Washington’s momentum by scoring 11 points (with one assist) in just 5:20 of play. As he worked himself into a lather with each made 3, the roar from the crowd got louder.

When Carter was asked after the game if he heard the cheers from Wizards fans, he chuckled and said, “Of course I did. It’s a cool feeling, like I said, to still be around and a lot of the fans that are cheering for me probably weren’t even born yet when I first started. But it is a great feeling, and I am thankful to have fans and have people cheer for you when you are on the road. Like I said, it’s just a cool feeling.”

The ebb and flow in the fourth quarter resembled a heavyweight prize fight. In one corner, the Hawks represented the champion fighter who did just enough to win rounds and maintain the advantage, and the Wizards were the scrappy challengers throwing haymakers with bad intentions, but connecting at a low percentage.

Beal (18 points in the fourth quarter) and to a lesser extent Trevor Ariza (7 points) did their very best to keep the Wizards close–in fact at one point they again whittled the Hawks’ lead down to four points. But just when the Wizards seemed poised to get within one possession, Beal would turn the ball over or miss a shot and Otto Porter would miss a free throw. The Hawks exacerbated that carelessness by hitting timely shots of their own.

In the fourth, Carter and guard Jeremy Lin score five each, Kent Bazemore scored six, but it was Taurean Prince (who according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is on the trading block) who did yeoman’s work in the with 12 points–including this one which put the Hawks up by seven points and effectively put the game out of reach:

Taurean Prince hit his last four 3’s to ice it for the #Hawks, including this one… pic.twitter.com/lpIutU9MkG

— Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) February 5, 2019

After the game, Coach Brooks, Jeff Green and Jordan McRae attributed the Wizards loss to their inability to run the Hawks off the 3-point line. Brooks’s comments were the most damning, since he admitted that his team knew what the Hawks were going to do leading up to the game:

“Tonight we couldn’t guard the 3-point line. We came up short on all of our closeouts, and they made shots. And then we tried to and we did have good closeouts, then they made shots because they were hot and they were filling up and the basket became as big as an ocean. We couldn’t get the stops that we needed. They were feeling good, and then they banked one in. It’s about guarding the 3-point line. They took 41.

“We knew that they were going to be a 3-point shooting team. We knew that we were going to switch. We had some coverage mess ups. You got to close out alternate shooters and they got guys just do that alone and they do it at a high level. We were short so many times.”

At the end of the day, the nuts and bolts of why the Hawks played better than their record, and the Wizards disappointingly played down to the level of their inferior opponent, is irrelevant. What matters is that the Wizards are now tied for 10th in Eastern Conference and they are a full three games out of the last playoff spot.

If they were in tanking mode, that type of slippage would not at all be discouraging, but given that Ted Leonsis is operating under the playoffs-or-bust creed, losing a winnable game to a bad team–especially when 42-year-old Vince Carter was one of the catalysts–is simply not good. And nowhere near good enough.

To make matters worse, the Wizards next game is in Milwaukee against those pesky Eastern Conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks.

OMG TOMAS SATORANSKY pic.twitter.com/0t20AOsDrh

— Hoop District (@HoopDistrictDC) February 3, 2019

The Capital One Arena fans went crazy, the Wizards bench immediately went to shower Sato with hugs and praise. Bucks Coach Mike Budenholzer, however, went apoplectic and called a Gregg Popovich-like timeout just 45 seconds into the game.

When Sato was asked about the dunk after the game he remarked, “I really didn’t see if I made it, but I saw the reaction of TB [Thomas Bryant] so it told me that I made it.”

Yes, only 45 seconds had elapsed, but considering the Bucks came into last night’s game with the NBA’s best record, and the fact that the Wizards were able to hit them in the mouth and jump out to a 5-0 lead, seemed to be a good omen for the Wizards.

But not so much.

In fact, when Bucks forward Khris Middleton was asked what was discussed during that quick, early timeout, he basically said that the Bucks were neither panicked nor worried. Just a little out of sorts to start the game.

“It was just about transition defense. We had two turnovers, forced or unforced. We just did not get back and gave them two quick baskets. That is all it was about. We knew what it was. Just get refocused and get back out there and play.”

The next two minutes of game time saw the Bucks turn a five-point deficit into a two-point lead. Giannis Antetokounmpo socred on two dunks and a layup, Malcolm Brogdon hit a 3-point shot, and Middleton also scored via layup. The score was 11-9 in their favor. But they did not stop there.

Thanks to Middleton, Giannis and a 26-foot 3-pointer by Brook Lopez, the Bucks were able to extend their two-point lead to nine points. The previously delirious Capital One Arena was now quite subdued, the Wizards bench tried their best to encourage the starters, and it was Scott Brooks, not Budenholzer, who called timeout and took that exasperated walk of shame towards the middle of the court.

To the Wizards credit, after that Brooks timeout, they played hard–specifically Sato and Thomas Bryant. The Wizards kept within reach of the Bucks, whose lead stayed between seven and 14 points. But the post-Sato dunk energy that filled the Capital One Arena earlier in the evening had completely disappeared. When the Bucks put their foot on the gas over the last 2:08 of the first half, the lead ballooned fromv14 points to 26 and the game was effectively over.

It was 73-50 at halftime, and although the Wizards have erased larger deficits this season–most recently against Cleveland, when they cut a 25-point deficit to three points before falling short–this felt different. The Cavaliers are notorious bottom dwellers in the Eastern Conference, while the Bucks are the best…and it showed.

The Bucks extended their lead to 32 points at the nine-minute mark of the third quarter, and when Giannis checked out of the game with 5:56 left in the quarter, the Bucks still had a healthy 25-point lead.

Jeff Green and Bradley Beal helped the Wizards cut the lead down to 15 points in Giannis’s absence, and during that three-minute span, the energy on the Wizards’ bench and in the Capital One Arena overall nearly matched the post-Sato dunk frenzy. But at the two-minute mark of the third quarter when the Wizards had an opportunity to cut the lead to 13 points, Otto Porter turned the ball over and Middleton hit a 3-pointer for the Bucks to extend the lead to 18 points. The Wizards never got closer the 16 points the remainder of the game.

After the game, Beal and Coach Brooks sang the praises of the Bucks, while also managing to throw a few subtle jabs at Giannis’s 17 free throw attempts (he made all 17):

“Giannis [Antetokounmpo] is a pretty good player. The way he’s playing right now, the 12 free throws that he got in the first half, and he was 12-for-12, 17 for the game. It’s hard to stop.” —Scott Brooks

“He’s difficult in transition for sure…. It made it a little tough. At half court we did a good job, it was transition that was kicking our butts and getting a lot of fouls. I know they shot over 20 free throws, which is outrageous.” —Bradley Beal

These two teams will play again next Wednesday in Milwaukee and the result may be the same–especially since Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe (who coach Budenholzer said should have been an All-Star) will play after sitting out tonight’s game with a sore Achilles. But if the Wizards can somehow figure out a way to re-create and/or bottle up that energy they had after Sato’s dunk and again in that third quarter, maybe, just maybe, they could upset this team—and find a blueprint going forward. After all, this is a potential first round playoff matchup

In the interim, let’s look at that dunk again, shall we?

ON HIS HEAD @satoransky pic.twitter.com/8L05Gv2jjV

— Hoop District (@HoopDistrictDC) February 3, 2019

AP Photo/Nick Wass

When a star player misses a game-winning shot, or a cornerback gets beat for a touchdown, or when a baseball reliever gives up a game-winning home run, conventional wisdom says that a short-term memory is the best medicine.

While moping or dwelling on the mistake is the knee-jerk and obvious reaction, these players expected to shed that line of thought, get back on their respective fields/courts of play and be professionals.

On Tuesday night, despite a furious comeback by the Wizards bench over the last five minutes of the game, Washington endured a forgettable loss, 116-113, to the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. It was an L that saw Coach Scott Brooks openly question the effort of the starters. The Wizards could have carried those negative vibes into the matchup against the Pacers, or they could take advantage of the comfort of their home arena, be professionals and get the win.

Enter Jeff Green.

Lineup Update: Otto Porter Jr. will start tonight at the 4. Jeff Green will come off the bench. #WizPacers | #DCFamily

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) January 31, 2019

Prior, Coach Brooks sat down Green and informed him that he would be returning to the bench, and that Otto Porter would be starting. Brooks said that Green understood and even wondered why the coach had pulled him aside to tell about the decision.

When Green was asked about it, he echoed those sentiments: “He (Brooks) don’t need to explain, he’s the coach, I’m the player. Whatever he says, I do, and I’m fine with it. Otto’s a hell of a player and he’s one of our go-to guys on this team, so if he’s starting and coach says he’s starting, he’s starting.”

Porter didn’t play badly during the six minutes he played in the first quarter, but he did pick up two quick fouls, which forced Coach Brooks to insert Green for Porter. The Wizards trailed 18-14 at the time.

Green came in hot, and hit two of his three shots from the field and both of his free throws for a total of seven points. His sharp shooting, combined with the offensive exploits of Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza, put the Wizards up by 10 points by the end of the quarter. Green was had a team high plus/minus of plus-14 at the end of the first quarter. Not bad for a player who had been “demoted.” But he was not done there.

The Wizards bench extended their lead from 10 to 14 points in the second quarter by scoring 22 of the team’s 24 points in the period. Sam Dekker had six points via layups or dunks, Chasson Randle had five points, but the anchor of this unit was Green, who had nine points, three assists two rebounds and played every minute of the second quarter. When Porter was re-inserted in the game with 5:14 left in the quarter, he came in for Ian Mahinmi, not the glowing Green.

Otto Porter is limping pretty bad. He didn't even make it up the court for that last possession — signaled to Brooks, who called time. #WizPacers

— Bryna Kramer (@brynak13) January 31, 2019

Porter played four minutes of the third quarter before coming up a bit lame with a sore toe (Coach Brooks said after the game that was Porter jammed his toe and he was hopeful that he could return to starting lineup with a couple days of treatment). Brooks once again inserted Green into the lineup with the starters, and although he wasn’t as productive in the scoring department (he scored 5 points in 8 minutes), he helped with the Wizards hold on to a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Beal and Randle helped the Wizards go on an 8-0 run to begin the fourth quarter, to put the Wizards up 21 points.    They never trailed by less than 18 points the remainder of the game. Green played just 3:38 and scored just two points, but by that point, the heavy lifting had already been done.

The Wizards won 107-89. Green finished with 23 points, six assists, five rebounds, two blocked shots, and no fouls in 29 minutes of play. More importantly, if Porter had to miss any time with his toe injuries, Brooks will have zero problems with re-inserting Green back into the lineup and expecting productivity. After all, Green had done nothing but exude professionalism on and off the court.

After the game, Green was asked how he approached the game differently last night, since he was coming off the bench, instead of starting. Without missing a beat, Green calmly responded the way a veteran, professional is supposed to respond: “At the end of the day it’s just basketball and I just go out there, play hard and live with the results.”

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a Jeff Green Game.

— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) January 31, 2019

[Photo: @JohnCTownsend]

Strongly disagree with this take. Finishing strong and making the playoffs is fun. Tanking for a top 10 pick is not. Life is too short.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 22, 2019

I’ve long been on the record as saying this team needs to be blown up and rebuilt. It’s also well known that Washington will do no such thing, and the likeliest scenario is a short-sighted trade that sacrifices the future in order to make the playoffs this year.

But there are numerous paths the Wizards could take right now. For example, do you go for the full rebuild, trade all your best players for future assets, and start all over? Or do you simply take a year off, sell all your expiring contracts for picks or young players, tank the season, then give it another go next season with a potential franchise rookie snagged at the top end of a top-heavy draft? Or how about a middle ground, where you flip Otto Porter for a miscast piece on another team? (A good example of this latter option is the hypothetical McCollum-Gordon swap laid out by Jonathan Tjarks earlier this month.)

The only decisively correct path to success is to fire Ernie Grunfeld and put in place a general manager with a cohesive long-term plan, but why waste time on fantasies? Let’s instead explore a few different routes the Wizards could take. The Wizards’ performance in the days between now and the February 7 trade deadline will play a significant role in determining the immediate future, and unexpected occurrences (e.g. Victor Oladipo-type injuries) could throw a wrench into plans.

For now, here are four potential options:

Option No. 1: Stay the Course/Go All-in

This is the likeliest scenario, unfortunately. Ted Leonsis recently emphasized a refusal to tank — as everybody has correctly pointed out, no owner will ever, especially midseason, condone the intentional losing of games — but the repeated mandate to simply make the playoffs is the most telling element here.

If the stated goal is to make the playoffs, in a league in which roughly 53 percent of the teams make the playoffs, you’ve already given up. Leonsis has contradicted himself regularly since buying the Wizards more than eight years ago (emphasis mine in all cases below):

• He declared in October 2010, “We are in this together – to improve your experience at Verizon Center and to build championship-caliber teams that will make all of us proud” and “I am always cognizant of that, no matter how many changes we have made or may make, I will believe in the wisdom of our crowds.”
• He stated before this season began, “We need to raise the expectations. We have to make the playoffs. I’d like us to win 50 games. I’d like us to go to the Eastern Conference Finals.” … “If you are patient and work hard and are committed to continuous improvement then you can win a championship.” … “No excuses.”

Yet here we are, locked in a perpetual state of mediocrity. Years have gone by and the Wizards have nothing resembling a “championship-caliber team,” there has not been “continuous improvement,” and the expectations have remained the same for several seasons. Leonsis is certainly not listening to “the wisdom of [his] crowds” pleading for the dethroning of Ernie Grunfeld. (Look at his mentions.) All that’s left now is another offseason riddled with excuses about a litany of injuries hampering the team—and tall tales about how they were right there.

And because every other element of the cycle has remained the same, so too will the step that comes around each year in early February: The Wizards prepare to cast off another future asset in favor of winning a few more games this season, sneaking into the playoffs, getting thoroughly beaten while running their best players into the ground, and doing it all over again.

Will that asset be Troy Brown, the first-round draft pick who, despite an injury-free season, has played just 190 minutes, and that’s after a recent uptick in playing time? Here are three relevant facts:

1. Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre, the team’s only other first-round draft picks since Bradley Beal, played 319 and 671 minutes in their rookie seasons, respectively. Each of them has been criticized for developing slowly;
2. Only 14 players were drafted ahead of Brown last year, but 39 rookies have played more minutes than Brown has this season;
3. The Wizards have played 1,176 first-half minutes this season; Brown has played a grand total of 53 first-half minutes this season (that’s less than five percent!).

Will that asset be a future first-round pick? After all, the Wizards are currently burdened with all of their future first-round picks.

Sidebar: Washington traded its 2017 first-round pick at that year’s trade deadline for several months of Bojan Bogdanovic. The result was Washington losing in the conference semifinals for the third time in four years, and Brooklyn drafting Jarrett Allen. Allen was given plenty of opportunity to develop (1,441 minutes as a rookie) and looks like a rising star. He had 20 points, 24 rebounds, and 3 blocks for the Nets in a win earlier this month; the last Wizards player to record at least 20 points, 20 rebounds, and 3 blocks in a game was Pervis Ellison in 1992.

Will that asset be a future second-round pick? Probably not, as the Wizards won’t have their own second-rounder until 2023.

Another sidebar: Sam Vecenie of The Athletic put out a 2019 mock draft this week in which the Hornets, using the Wizards’ second-round pick, are projected to select UNC’s Cameron Johnson. Johnson is a 6-foot-8 forward shooting 46 percent from 3-point range and averaging 15 points per game against one of the nation’s toughest schedules. The Wizards won’t get to use that pick because they traded it (and other picks) away to draft Kelly Oubre, who they have since traded away. They traded away their 2020, 2021, and 2022 second-round picks in a pair of deals that sent away Jodie Meeks, who had exercised his wholly unnecessary player option, and brought in Sam Dekker and $1.5 million. This future-sacrificing cycle will harm the Wizards for years.

Those are the only assets that really fit into this category. More on Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Tomas Satoransky, and Thomas Bryant in a moment. Considering the Wizards probably won’t move on from Brown this early in his career, when his value is minimal, expect to say goodbye to another future first-round pick at a time in which the Wizards, already in salary cap hell, desperately need cheap players for the coming years.

Option No. 2: Swap Complementary Stars

This is the McCollum-Gordon swap. The only piece Washington has that it can afford to lose, because it will still draw something of significance, is Otto Porter. Porter’s value has dropped since he signed his max contract, and this year has been disastrous so far, but he’s shown flashes recently as five of his eight best scoring performances this season have come in January.

Shipping Porter out now makes as much sense as anything, but it’s unclear what a team would be willing to give up for him. Half the teams in the league have been linked to Porter over the years, and Shams Charania reports the Jazz are currently interested. Derrick Favors seems like the likeliest target in this scenario, if the Wizards are indeed hoping to pick up a replacement third option and continue down the Wall/Beal/[insert third option] path. But if a Wall/Beal/Porter trio isn’t contending for an Eastern Conference title, it’s hard to envision a Wall/Beal/Favors trio doing much better.

There have also been rumblings of the Mavericks having interest in Porter, but Dennis Smith doesn’t make sense as a target as long as John Wall is on the roster. Harrison Barnes works on a salary level, but that’s not exactly going to rally the Wizards’ fans.

Aaron Gordon or Nikola Vucevic from the Magic could make sense. Orlando isn’t exactly known for prudent team-building, so maybe they botch that trade, but I’m still not sure Porter is a big enough asset for either of those players.

In theory, swapping Porter for another fringe star that doesn’t quite fit in his current situation makes a lot of sense. In practice, it’s tough to find a good match.

Option No. 3: Retool for Next Year

This is probably the best option, the one that best combines pragmatism and immediate fan gratification. In this scenario, the Wizards sell off their expiring contracts of any value: Identify teams looking to win now and offer them Trevor Ariza, Jeff Green, and Markieff Morris in exchange for draft picks or young players on rookie deals.

That list could also include Tomas Satoransky and/or Thomas Bryant. In a perfect world, the Wizards would clear Ian Mahinmi from the books and figure out a way to keep both Sato and Bryant. In a more realistic world, the Wizards will extend qualifying offers to both players, both players will receive offer sheets from other teams, and the Wizards will be unable to afford either player, losing them for essentially nothing. If Washington can’t figure out a way to clear room to re-sign either or both of them this summer, the best remaining option is to sell high now.

More than anything, the Wizards need young, cheap talent. Trading a veteran for draft picks would not only save money, but it would clear room for Brown — the only player on the roster that matches the description of young, cheap talent — to develop this season.

If the Wizards still believe John Wall will recover fully from his nagging injuries and be the player he was a couple of years ago, and they are prepared to face the immediate future with a Wall-Beal-Porter trio, they’ll need to build around that core with young talent, not veteran mercenaries. With Oubre already in Phoenix and no guarantee of keeping Satoransky or Bryant past this season, the pool of young talent is painfully shallow.

The Wizards could cut their losses now and clear the way for their only young player on a long-term deal. Stop this business of playing Beal nearly 40 minutes per game, and let Troy Brown play 20-30 minutes per game. While you’re at it, give Sam Dekker and Devin Robinson more playing time and see if you have anything there.

If this front office really cares about tangible success and continued improvement, as the team’s owner claims to value, it will accept that a down year is worth the sacrifice if the payoff is multiple 50-win seasons down the road. Option No. 3, when executed correctly (and with a little luck), results in a roster next season that looks like this:

• A Wall-Beal-Porter core
• Troy Brown either as sixth man or starting alongside Porter
• A lottery pick (ideally in the top 10) coming off the bench
• Ian Mahinmi and Dwight Howard both on expiring deals
• Some combination of Satoransky, Bryant, Robinson, Dekker, and other young players you picked up in 2019 trade deadline deals for Ariza, Green, Morris, etc.

A word on the top-10 pick: I’ve seen many people disregard the value of this, as the 2019 draft is considered extremely top-heavy. I’m not holding out hope for Zion Williamson, or even R.J. Barrett or Ja Morant. But here’s a glimpse at what players currently projected to go in the late lottery are doing:

"If at first you don't succeed, try again." – Romeo Langford, probably. pic.twitter.com/W2AbqY81vS

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) December 15, 2018

https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1053045824152920064

https://twitter.com/AthleticDesires/status/1000078584285876230

Keldon Johnson block on one end, and-1 bucket on the other. pic.twitter.com/n7rx6b7dGO

— Scott Charlton (@Scott_Charlton) January 23, 2019

Highlights don’t tell the whole story, and these prospects all have flaws. But there is plenty of talent available in the entire top half of the first round, and forsaking that option has the potential to cripple a team. Even if you don’t get a star, you can absolutely get a fourth or fifth option as a rookie.

Oh, and you can definitely get a star. Here are some players that were drafted with picks 8-15 in the past decade: DeMar DeRozan, Gordon Hayward, Paul George, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Andre Drummond, C.J. McCollum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Dennis Smith, and Donovan Mitchell.

Option No. 4: Blow It All Up

This won’t happen, because Leonsis is stubborn and President Grunfeld wants to keep his job. But here is the total rebuild, swing-for-the-fences option.

John Wall is probably untradable for at least six more months, and teams will want to see how he looks on the court again before taking on that contract. While he’s out, the Wizards could sell high on Bradley Beal right now. Beal is playing some of the best basketball of his life and would fetch a decent haul of young assets.

The Anthony Davis trade request throws another wrinkle into this situation. It’s unlikely Davis gets moved before this deadline, as New Orleans should wait until July to see what offers matriculate. But if the Pelicans receive an offer that blows them away and pull the trigger, there will suddenly be a handful of teams who have already come up with packages of young talent and picks, but, with Davis moved, no asset to trade for. Beal won’t command the same return as Davis, obviously, but he’s a young star under team control for two more seasons after this one.

And here’s the best-case scenario, if the Wizards went this route: Trade Beal for young players and/or draft picks now and let Porter get a few games as the top guy. If he plays well and demonstrates an ability to thrive as the featured player in an offense — or even if he just inflates his numbers quickly and baits another team into thinking he’s better than he is — the Wizards could pick up additional future pieces to jumpstart a rebuild.

That leaves Washington with Wall (out for the season), Satoransky, Brown, Bryant, whatever players you get in the two above trades, and an island of misfit toys on expiring deals. That team won’t win many games, further solidifying a quality draft pick, and it will give Sato, Brown, and Bryant more exposure and opportunity to develop. It also clears a huge burden off your payroll, allowing you the ability to sign Satoransky and Bryant to an extension in the offseason.

So, what then?

Imagine if the Wizards stumbled into a top-three pick and picked up, say, R.J. Barrett with their own first-rounder. Then they added another mid-round pick in 2019, which they turn into, say, Bol Bol. Now you have John Wall passing to a potentially elite wing on rookie deal and an athletic freak of a center who can hit spot-up 3s. Add to that mix Troy Brown, Satoransky, and Bryant, plus a few more first-rounders coming in 2020 and beyond, and you might have something.

Maybe Wall doesn’t want to stick around for the rebuild, which is feasible. Let him show he’s healthy, then flip him for a Dennis Smith or a Lonzo Ball or a Frank Ntilikina. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. Either way, it’s more exciting and carries infinitely more upside than what you’re doing now.

This last option, again, is just a pipe dream and will never happen. And many fans, including Aaron, would prefer to win 45 games and make the playoffs every year instead of starting over. And that’s fine.

But Options Nos. 2 and 3 are out there, and a creative front office would come up with countless more options.

The Wizards do not have a creative front office, so they will take Option No. 1. The Wizards will likely make the playoffs, Ernie Grunfeld will likely keep his job, and the future will remain bleak in Washington for years to come. But hey, it’s fun to think about a world where that isn’t the case, right?

After the Warriors beat the Lakers on Monday night to close out the NBA’s Martin Luther King Day slate, the team spent the night in Los Angeles. The team flew out of L.A. on Tuesday afternoon, giving the players a day off before their game against the Wizards in D.C.

Golden State practiced at the Wizards practice facility Wednesday afternoon, and, since they had a bit of extra time, allowed their players opportunities to work on other business and philanthropic endeavors. Kevin Durant, for example, used his time to open up his Durant Center in Suitland, Maryland, which is designed to give kids from Prince George’s County extra resources and support to better prepare them for college. And Stephen Curry attended a movie screening of “Emanuel” at Howard University—it’s a documentary that Curry produced about the mass shooting at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Blessed to have spent last night screening our film Emanuel, executive produced by Unanimous Media and in theaters June 17th (the anniversary of the tragic shooting). Huge thank you to my partner @Chase for helping bring this to life. pic.twitter.com/ttzobB34Pj

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) January 24, 2019

Last year the Warriors celebrated their 2017 NBA Championship after the All-Star Break by taking a group of students from Kevin Durant’s hometown to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. While the gesture was symbolic, and the team definitely received a sense of fulfillment that they could not have gotten by rubbing elbows with Trump, one can only guess the kind of distraction that came from the media coverage surrounding the team’s open opposition to the White House (and its policies).

Before the team got to Washington, I was curious about what they had planned for this trip. So I reached out via email to the Warriors’ public relations director, Raymond Ridder, and inquired about any team plans to celebrate their championship in some unique way, as they had done the year before.

Ridder thanked me for my inquiry and insisted that the team did not have any celebratory team plans for D.C.

BUT WAIT!

A clear PR directive within the Warriors to keep their morning meeting with Barack Obama as mum as possible pic.twitter.com/fvQMjxXzDY

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 25, 2019

Looks like the Warriors paid a visit to President Barack Obama during their visit to Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/D5PSwjc3Gl

— Logan Murdock (@loganmmurdock) January 25, 2019

Logan Murdock, a Warriors beat reporter for the Bay Area News Group, found this photo of the team meeting with President Barack Obama on the Instagram of a team security guard. He posted it on Twitter, inciting a political wave. As it turns out, that meeting was supposed to remain private and the team official ended up deleting the post . . . but as we all know, “once it hits the internet, it’s forever.”

Okay then…
According to @loganmmurdock, the Warriors, who have not visited Donald Trump in the White House after either of their past two championships, were in DC today and spent about an hour with Barack Obama. Pic is via the IG of a team security guard, since deleted. pic.twitter.com/KuId7CXS6V

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) January 25, 2019

Steph Curry was the one who set up the meeting with Obama, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, and even though the Warriors did not publicly want to be in the political spotlight this week, they are very much aware of the things that are going on in this country—from the government shutdown to the war of words between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Trump.

Steve Kerr is very encouraging of his players to speak out publicly, but has also made a point of emphasis that they be informed before firing off (hot-)takes:

“The thing we talk to our players about is if you’re going to speak, make sure you’re well versed on the subject. If there’s something you’re passionate about, learn about it and speak about it, absolutely. If you’re not well versed on it, it’s probably not a good thing to say anything about it. You’re going to back yourself into a corner.” Kerr said the Warriors talk about current issues occasionally.

The presidential election dominated one practice day.”Sometimes, we’ll show stuff on our film session that might be funny or poignant. It’s not a daily occurrence. But what’s going on in the world is something we do address as a team,” Kerr said. “I like that our players are vocal and thoughtful.”

Pelosi was in attendance at the Wizards game, and was in the hallway outside the Warriors locker room after they defeated Washington 126-118. She was excited to take a selfie with her favorite player, Steph Curry. Some of the Warriors players looked excited to see her, too, and offered her words of encouragement like “Great job,” and “We’re rooting for you,” and “Stay strong.”

On the court, Golden State was not distracted at all, as they won their ninth game in a row, taking full advantage of a Wizards team overplaying the 3-point line. The Dubs scored a season high 70 points in the paint.

For a team that could be categorized as the most political team in all of professional sports, the Warriors understand the nature of how news coverage works—and tried their very best to not become the story in D.C. Even so, Curry and Co. gave a message of discontent for the current sitting president and, at the end of the day, the world heard them loud and clear.

[Photo: Nick Wass/Associated Press]

The Wizards picked up their first win since being across the pond, dominating Detroit from start to finish. After beating the Knicks in London in a back-and-forth affair, Washington was able to hold the Pistons to just 87 points, their lowest allowed point total of the season and used a balanced scoring attack to control the pace of the game. With this win the Wizards not only tied their season series with the Pistons, but also closed the gap in overall record with Detroit and find themselves just two games back of the eighth and final playoff spot. Washington is now 21-26, while Detroit is 22-26 after picking up a win later in the week.

There were seven Wizards who finished the game with double-figures and did not have to rely on Bradley Beal to shoulder the offensive load. After the game, Beal commented on how the balances scoring attack is a sign of growth for the team:

Beal on the balanced scoring from tonight’s game: pic.twitter.com/rYsWHWq8oO

— WizardsXTRA (@WizardsXTRA) January 21, 2019

Timely, since Beal did not shoot the ball particularly well (4-12) from the field, but what he did was initiate the ball movement on the offense by making the extra pass when the Pistons defense would send multiple defenders his way. In years past, Beal may have been more inclined to force the issue, and take some bad shots, but he is showing the growth as a player by incorporating his teammates.

Scott Brooks took notice of how Beal was not playing selfish and commended his All-Star player after the game:

“If you’re hunting for shots and if you’re all about shots, you’re going to have a lot of bad nights and you’re going to get frustrated, your teammates are going to get frustrated with you. But Brad plays the right way. He competes and he gives us a chance every night. It’s not about him getting shots–there are going to be some nights he gets 12 and a lot of nights he gets 25. It all kind of balances its way out. He knows when he steps on the court he’s one of the best players on the floor.”

The teammate that took the most advantage of the extra shot opportunities was Otto Porter, who led the team in shot attempts with 15. Porter has been as aggressive he has ever been since coming back from a knee injury that caused him to miss 10 games earlier in the season. Part of the reason why Porter is getting so many open looks is because he has come off the bench since his return from injury and it gives him an opportunity to take advantage of lesser caliber players. Within the Wizards team construct, Porter is normally an ancillary option who primarily scores as a spot-up shooter, but in his new role, Otto is asked to be the focal point of the offense on the second unit. Not only is Porter having more confidence in himself, but his teammates have more confidence in him as well.

“With his firepower coming off the bench, the advantage goes to us,” fellow Georgetown Hoya teammate Jeff Green says. “He’s been shooting the ball very, very well. We need that from him night in and night out, and he’s been giving us that. We’re going to look to him when he comes in the game and we’re going to continue to use him to our advantage coming off the bench.”

The Wizards have to be the first team in NBA history to have a player on a $100-plus million contract coming off the bench and regardless of how they got here, it behooves them to take advantage of the mismatches that it can cause. Porter was going to work on smaller defenders in the post, while also rising up and shooting on late closeouts on the perimeter. There were multiple situations where Porter found himself backing down the much smaller Reggie Jackson and used his size new newfound turnaround jumper to his advantage. At this point, with the Wizards playing their best basketball of the season, there is no reason for the team to make any lineup changes and Otto Porter will continue to come off the bench for the foreseeable future.

The Wizards now have a 57% chance of making the playoffs according to FiveThirtyEight and at those odds, it would behoove the team to stay on the course that they are on.

Honoring the Late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

The Wizards relish the opportunity to play on Martin Luther King Day, and head coach Scott Brooks and players were all happy to celebrate the man who led the way in the Civil Rights movement:

Scott Brooks on #MLK day and the honor of playing basketball for this city. #DCFamily #WizPistons #LockedonWizards pic.twitter.com/4oCFYnj0eb

— Locked On Wizards (@lockedonwizards) January 21, 2019

Beal on teaching MLK’s values to his son: pic.twitter.com/CH7qKDrUlY

— WizardsXTRA (@WizardsXTRA) January 21, 2019

Jeff Green on playing on #MLKDay: "It’s not about the game. It’s more about his message, continuing to learn his message & grow from his message. That’s what this game of basketball does. It brings people together of all races & ethnicities in one building to celebrate one thing" pic.twitter.com/T7wnaLFcro

— Hoop District (@HoopDistrictDC) January 21, 2019

Welcome Gary Payton II

The Wizards made an official announcement before the Pistons game about the signing of G-League player, Gary Payton II, to a 10-day contract. Payton is the son of basketball Hall-of-Famer Gary Payton and not to be confused with Gary Payton, Jr., who is his brother. The Oregon State product has spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth between the G-League and the NBA over the last few seasons, and will use this 10-day stint to try and earn a permanent roster spot with the Wizards. Smart money says that Payton may not be around long, as the team was obliged to add a 14th player to the roster due to mandated league rules.

And, uh, Payton received a not-so-ringing endorsement from Scott Brooks before the game when he was asked why they ended up signing him: “We had to add a 14th player and he fit a position of need.”

[Photo: AP Photo/Nick Wass]

This was a surprisingly fun ending to an exceptionally mediocre first 40 minutes, a throwback to when Wizards-Raptors games were things people looked forward to. Jake Whitacre’s recurring bit about the Wizards sweeping the Raptors in the 2015 playoffs remains amusing, but it lacks the luster it once possessed now that the two franchises are soaring in opposite directions.

Raptors fans are probably laughing at how Washington handles six inches of snow, but Wizards fans laugh at how Toronto handled Paul Pierce in the 2015 playoffs.

— Jake Whitacre (@jakewhitacre) January 13, 2019

Bradley Beal had a monster game, playing 55 of 58 minutes and dropping a huge line of 43 points, 15 assists, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. Trevor Ariza came within a rebound of his own triple-double, and Otto Porter added 27 points on a wild 44 bench minutes. All good and exciting things, sure, but in the end, the Wizards fell for the third time in as many tries to the Raptors, dropping to 18-26 while Toronto improved to a league-best 33-12.

If the season ended today, the Wizards would finish with the sixth-worst record in the league and the Raptors would have home-court advantage through the playoffs. Ted Leonsis and Co. will bill this as an “epic clash” against one of the top teams in the league, with the Wizards coming up just short despite playing without their star point guard. Sure. Continue to delude yourself.

Remember When?

In the years immediately following Trevor Ariza’s initial departure from Washington, the Wizards and Raptors were talented young teams battling for the right to lose to LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Finals. There was reason to be optimistic about the Wizards’ future, reason to think the backcourts of John Wall and Bradley Beal and Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan would go head-to-head for years to come.

The miasma of Ernie Grunfeld lingered then as it does now, of course, but optimism was abundant.

That’s all changed — for the Wizards, at least. All the Raptors have done is developed and grown and refused to settle. They’ve taken calculated risks. The Wizards have remained complacent, mitigated all potential out of fear of taking risk, and, more crippling than anything, settled.

Players get complacent sometimes in games, or seasons, even careers. When fans get complacent, it’s supposed to inspire change. In the case of the Wizards (and the local football team, for what it’s worth), it’s only inspired more of the same. Continuity.

I’m 27 years old. I’ve never witnessed an especially good Wizards team. That season right after Ariza left, when Paul Pierce ripped the Raptors’ hearts out in the postseason? That was the first time in my lifetime that Washington’s franchise won at least 45 games. The Wizards’ big three carried an average age of just 22 years that season, and the signing of Pierce the offseason prior seemed to suggest impactful players across the league were finally starting to take the Wizards seriously.

But cracks were always present, and they deepened in the coming years. Randy Wittman was retained for another year, which precipitated a drop to 41-41. Over the course of 24 months, Grunfeld traded a first-round pick and five second-round picks in deals that netted Kris Humphries, Jared Dudley, Markieff Morris, Kelly Oubre, and Trey Burke. (The second-rounder for Humphries never conveyed — it was eventually used on Aaron White.) Despite a weak bench and a young, unproven core, the Wizards gingerly went all-in.

Even during that 41-41 season, which was filled with frustration and disappointment, there were countless reasons to watch the Wizards play. They had so much youth and potential, and it was exciting to see the future of the team develop. There was genuine curiosity as to how they would handle the adversity of a down year. There was constant demand for Randy Wittman to be relieved of his duties, which naturally led to the fantasies of what a modern, progressive coach might be able to do with this collection of talent. And if nothing else, John Wall was a highlight machine.

All of those reasons to watch are no longer viable. The core youth has turned: Wall is 28, out for the season with yet another leg injury, and his contract is among the league’s most daunting; Porter still shows occasional flashes of what he could become, such as his Sunday performance, but he’s now 25 years old, remains far too inconsistent, and looks much like the player he’s looked like each of the past three seasons.

Beal, as he has repeatedly in the past month, showed Sunday why he is the team’s best player — with or without Wall on the court. The Wizards trailed by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, and by more than 20 for much of the middle portion of the game, and Beal’s monster fourth quarter was the catalyst for Washington’s comeback. But his growth simply can’t make up for the complete lack of youth on the roster, Porter’s gradual development, and Wall’s value cratering.

While it’s fun and nostalgic seeing Ariza in a Wizards uniform, the reckoning will come soon as he’ll leave again in the offseason and Washington will be left with nothing. Meanwhile, the Wizards have a total of four sub-25 players on the roster (now that Kelly Oubre is in Phoenix): Troy Brown, Thomas Bryant, Devin Robinson, and Sam Dekker.

Brown is sitting on the bench in favor of players such as Chasson Randle, even in blowouts, reminding fans of Otto Porter’s rookie season and Kelly Oubre’s rookie season. For a team in salary cap hell with minimal cheap, young talent, the last thing Washington can afford to do is bring first-round draft picks along slowly.

So what reason is there really to watch? Beal and Tomas Satoransky are fun to watch, and Thomas Bryant has been a pleasant surprise. Ariza is forever easy to root for, though he doesn’t have the same juice he had in his first stint. Scott Brooks is regularly out-coached, the top-end talent of the opposition is typically better than Washington’s, and the opposing bench is almost always better than Washington’s.

The crowd is rarely into the game, and empty seats dot the lower level. There’s no real reason to be optimistic for the future, because the team has exhausted most of its potential and all of its money. The general manager should have been fired a decade ago, and there’s little reason to believe he’ll be fired this time around. What’s worse, he’ll probably have the opportunity to make an attempt at a season-saving, future-mortgaging trade ahead of the deadline that further cripples the franchise.

This is where we are now, and we’re in the early stages of this phase. It could be years before the Wizards are either relevant or fun again. For one day, it was exciting to watch the Wizards again. But much like the next few years will look, they came up short in the end.

Sato has clearly been freed. You can all stop calling for his freeing.

— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) January 12, 2019

One way or another, the Wizards were going to be tested against the Milwaukee Bucks.

If Giannis Antetokounmpo (who was listed as doubtful before the game) had played, the  John Wall-less Wizards would have been tasked with beating a team with a an MVP candidate and the NBA’s best record.  Without Giannis, the Wizards’ challenge would be to maintain focus and not suffer a letdown against a team that was still formidable (going into last night the Bucks were 2-0 without the services of Giannis).

Giannis did not play, the Wizards only trailed for a grand total of 42 seconds, they won the game, and at least for one night they passed the proverbial test—especially Tomas Satoransky.

In 35 minutes of play, Sato scored 18 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, six turnovers (a mere afterthought tonight) and he dished out 10 assists.  The 10th assist, which gave him the triple-double, came via a play that Bradley Beal called, which resulted in an alley-oop.  After the game, Beal told the media that late in the fourth quarter, he was on a mission to get Sato his first triple-double:

I’d been trying to get him a triple-double for a minute throughout the game. A couple plays down the stretch you probably seen I was under the basket telling him to throw it, and the wouldn’t throw it. But eventually we got to an easier play, he didn’t want to turn the ball over, and I understood it, so we ended up calling that play, which we get that once or twice a game, so I had to get him his first and I’m happy he got it.

Sato, along with the rest of the Wizards starters, was both accurate and aggressive with his offense in the first quarter.  He hit four of his five shots including one 3-pointer, and had nine points by the time the quarter ended. He sat out the first 3:14 of the second quarter, and 58 seconds after he re-entered the game, Jeff Green found him wide open for a 3-pointer shot to give him 12 points.  The first third of his triple-double was complete.

When a reporter asked Green whether he was surprised at Sato’s ability to score, he chuckled and said, “You didn’t see it last year? The guy can score man, he’s a player. He belongs here and he’s showcasing it now”.   Scott Brooks agreed:

It’s constantly been telling him, ‘Hey, you’re really good at two things: spot-up threes and your floater. Never pass either one of those up.’ As the years have gone by, he’s taken those more consistently and he has to keep doing it. He’s been good and he’s been improving every year, and that’s what you want your players to do.

Sato’s offensive game has improved but he’s always been adept at passing the ball, so his assist total was hardly surprising.  But even though Sato grabbed 11 rebounds earlier this year against Atlanta, his career-high 12 rebounds against the Bucks represented just his third double-figure rebound game as a member of the Washington Wizards.

Immediately after the game, all of Sato’s colleagues crowded around him and heaped him with praise, hugs and adulation.  Once they left the court, the Wizards continued to show him how happy they were with this performance, but they doused him with a little something different:

First career triple-double = lit locker room celebration.#WizBucks | #DCFamily pic.twitter.com/bkF6nVoonE

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) January 12, 2019

When asked whose idea it was to pour water on him after the game, Sato quickly blamed on it on Ian Mahinmi.  “It was Euro on Euro crime, ” said Satoransky.

Given that Satoransky also displayed this level of skill last season while John Wall was hurt, only to see Scott Brooks and Ty Lawson usurp his playing time in the 2018 playoffs, it would be easy and understandable for him to be bitter and/or cynical regarding the attention surrounding his triple double.  But to his credit, Satoransky, while appreciative of the elusive milestone that he had achieved during last night’s Wizards victory, maintained his humility–something he had demonstrated throughout his brief NBA career.

Brad [Beal] had one before and for a shooter, it’s tough to get it. I’m more around organizing a team and I think I had a lot of numbers from the beginning. Everything was flowing down for me, rebounds, assists, shots. You always have more opportunities when you have a good start.

And now, some closing word from my TAI colleague Adam Rubin, who has been on the #FreeSato bandwagon for quite some time:

You ain't got the answers man! You ain't got the answers! You ain't got the answers! You ain't got the answers, @FredKatz I been doing this more than you! 

Scott Brooks tried to marginalize #FreeSato until he was out of his moment. https://t.co/NYwrH5quTm

— Ledell's Place (@LedellsPlace) January 12, 2019

Specifically in terms of team building, “tanking,” as we are to understand it, is a team’s intent to do less than everything it can to win. It is a concerted effort over several months (and perhaps several seasons) by a team to not be as good as it could be. It is considered cheap, disingenuous and dishonest, the byproduct of a flawed system where a team can be—and often is—rewarded for being bad and where deliberately losing is thereby a strategic decision in an attempt to get the best prospect possible.

By no means has the Wizards’ 2018-19 season gone as any of the players, coaches, or fans expected before the year began, but that does not mean that this team should pivot to tanking.

There are three key reasons as to why this Wizards team, now 16-24, should be putting their best foot forward for the rest of the season.

The first reason is that they’ve already lost a lot of ball games this year when they were technically trying as hard as they could. According to one prognosticator’s predictive measures, they have a good chance at losing a lot more of their games:

Just updated my #Wizards prediction sheet. Oh man. Based on how they've played so far this season, they're favored to win just 7 more games. The next time they'd be favored is 1/17 against the #Knicks.

— The Secret Weapon (@Broom_Kevin) January 5, 2019

Washington will not be favored in many games for the rest of the season, nor should they be considering how the team has fared this season. The Wiz already have the sixth-worst record in the entire NBA, and that position (were the season to end today) would give them a nine percent chance of landing the number one overall pick in the draft. There is almost no conceivable way that the team can do any worse than sixth-worst, considering the teams that are behind them in the standings.

Even if the Wizards make the playoffs, they will be so low of a seed that it almost guarantees them a selection in the top half of what some experts consider to be one of the most talented draft pools in recent memory. That first-round pick has immense value. It can be used to improve the team’s future with a young player, or maybe even used as a trade chip and aggregated into another deal to get Washington the third star player they have been chasing for the last few years. (Of course, one could argue that this whole process of tanking or not is a circular argument considering the fact that Ernie Grunfeld is still calling the shots.)

Another good reason why the team should not tank this season is because this current crop of players is significantly different from the expected rotation coming into this season. They deserve a shot at trying to reach their full potential as a group.

After beating the 25-14 Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-98, the Wizards have pulled to within three games of the Charlotte Hornets for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. Making the playoffs (something more than half of NBA teams do) was not the publicly stated goal when the season started, but it basically is now. Expectations for the team have obviously shifted after their five-time All-Star, John Wall, was diagnosed with a bone-spur in his left heel and advised to have surgery, effectively ending his season. Even if the goalposts have once again moved mid-season due to circumstances beyond their control, the Wizards should totally strive for a playoff appearance . . . even if they are to get knocked out in the first round. This team needs to push the limits of what they can do without John Wall.

Wall’s absence opens the door for Bradley Beal to further establish himself as one of the dynamic guards in the NBA, allowing him to not only grow as a ball-handler and distributor but to also assert himself as a leader within the organization. Last season Beal showed what he can do while Wall missed 41 games due to a knee injury—and the “Everybody Eats” Wizards showed the NBA that they could win without Wall. But as the season progressed, that edition of the team began to struggle and drastically faded going into the playoffs, barely winning the 8-seed even with Wall’s return. The rest of this season is essentially a case study in evaluating whether Beal can be a number one option on a winning team.

Beal is not the only player that the Wizards need to be evaluating for their long-term prospectus. Otto Porter has missed 12 games this season—the Wizards were just 4-8 in that span, so clearly his presence puts them in a better position to win. Otto being able to rotate at the forward spots with “3-and-D” specialist Trevor Ariza affords the Wizards versatility in the front court, and the positive results are already beginning to show.

Beyond the regulars, Washington’s roster is filled with mercenaries, such as Thomas Bryant, Jeff Green, Sam Dekker, Chasson Randle, Ron Baker, and Dwight Howard—they are all playing their first season in Washington and are not currently under contract for next season.

Bryant is steadily proving himself as a versatile NBA big man who can play in the paint and also stretch the floor. The former second-round pick is proving to be a god-send as a flyer the team took when they claimed him off of waivers from the Los Angeles Lakers. In the big win against the Thunder, Bryant showed he has the resiliency to come back after being dominated by the physically imposing Steven Adams. It is safe to say that the Wizards will have Bryant in their future plans as he hits restricted free agency this summer—the question is just how large of check Ted Leonsis will have to cut to keep him.

Jeff Green is what he is as an NBA player at this point, so the Wizards essentially know what they have with him. The rest of those players who are going to be free agents this summer are essentially auditioning for an opportunity to be one of the many low-value contracts that the Wizards will be forced to sign this summer because of the majority of their salary cap dollars being tied up into just four players. With nearly half of the season left, Washington has a chance to see how these rotational players can fit playing next to Beal and Porter.

The Wizards will actually have to make decisions on Chasson Randle going forward for the rest of this season on Janurary 10, when players with non-guaranteed contracts can become guaranteed if they are still on the roster. Randle became just the second player this season to have a plus/minus of plus-30 in less than 18 minutes of game action.

Chasson Randle joins Josh Hart as the only 2 NBA reserves this season to be +30 or better in less than 18 minutes #Wizards via @EliasSports

— David Devall (@McNubian) January 7, 2019

Smart money says that Randle will be here to stay for the rest of the season, as he has carved out a role as backup point guard behind Tomas Satoransky. The Wizards already made the decision on Ron Baker’s roster spot when they waived him, well ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Baker played 43 minutes as a Wizard and failed to record a single point, making his presence a little bit of a mystery for the team, especially when he was playing in front of rookie Troy Brown. Baker has never been a good basketball player in the NBA and for Brooks to afford him immediate playing time is definitely a cause for concern in terms of his ability to evaluate players.

Brown has been the topic of much discussion surrounding the Wizards in recent weeks as the fan base has been clamoring for the 15th overall pick in the draft to get playing time, but it has been clear that Scott Brooks does not think that Brown is ready to positively contribute to winning ball games at this juncture in his career. (Team officials said as much before the season, when he was drafted, which didn’t do Grunfeld’s selection any favors with fans.) Brown showed flashes during Summer League and more recently in limited game action, but with Otto Porter’s return to the lineup, Brown’s opportunities will be hard to come by. In this particular instance, Brooks may not be wrong to further develop his rookie: Porter’s return to the lineup takes the Wizards rotation up to nine players on most nights and leaves Brown standing when the music stops in this game of musical chairs.

Finally, evaluating Scott Brooks as a coach over the second half of the season may be as important a reason as any to not tank.

Washington has put themselves in a position where they cannot fire Brooks because they do not have an assistant coach on the bench who is even qualified to take over on an interim basis. Barring a full blown mutiny from his players, Brooks will get to see out his season, and contract. Brooks has worked diligently to bring this team into the new age of basketball by having his players play a more analytical style, which includes taking more 3s and shots in the paint. This season, the Wizards are taking 33.0 3s per game on 89 shot attempts, meaning 37 percent of their shots are 3s. Last season the team took 85.6 shots per game and 26.5 of those attempts were 3s for a rate of 30 percent.

That is a very macro view of how Brooks is running this team, but where he needs to show marked improvement over the rest of the season is how he manages the team in-game. There is much that needs to improve from Brooks in terms of managing rotations and play calling, and he has already begun his experimentation process. For the third straight game since Porter returned from injury, Brooks elected to bring the forward off of the bench—and he insinuated that Porter may continue to come off the bench for the foreseeable future.

Brooks has found a five-man unit that he likes in Satoransky, Beal, Ariza, Green, and Bryant—that unit leads the Wizards in minutes played together at 153, despite Ariza only being with the team for less than a month. The ability to have a starting unit that is productive without Porter allows for Brooks to solve two of his major issues coming into this season: finding ways to get Porter more shots and increasing the bench productivity. Porter coming off the bench allows him to be the focal point of the second unit offensively, thus drastically increasing the bench’s ability to score the basketball.

NBC Sports analytics expert Tom Haberstroh has a theory that, in Wall’s absence, the Wizards may have accidentally found the third star they were looking for all along:

“We also might see a different Otto Porter now that Wall is sidelined. In the 121 minutes that Porter has played without Wall this season, he has played like the star they envisioned, averaging 19.6 points, 8.3 rebounds per 36 minutes while shooting 52 percent from the floor and 38.9 percent from deep, per NBA.com tracking. Those numbers shrink to 13.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 47 percent shooting with Wall on the floor.”

The Wizards have an opportunity to feature Otto Porter more and Bradley Beal is welcoming of Porter getting up more shots on the court. “Who else is gonna shoot the ball? S***, that’s the way I’m looking at it. You’ve gotta shoot the ball, ” Beal said to reporters after the Wizards win against the Thunder.

Of course, teams will adapt to Washington’s newfound lineup choices and the onus will once again be on Brooks to adjust accordingly.

Ted Leonsis proclaimed before the season that there would be “no more excuses” for the Wizards this season, and while Wall’s absence may have tempered expectations, there is still enough talent here for the Wizards to make a playoff push. Anything less should be an indictment on Brooks, the players, and of course the team’s president for life. Such an indictment should force Leonsis to re-evaluate whether Brooks is the coach of the future, whether the roster needs a shakeup, and whether Ernie deserves to be the puppeteer pulling the strings for the 284th year.

Or maybe, just maybe, this team is already tanking—they just don’t know it yet.

[Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty]

“Wizards guard John Wall will undergo a debridement and repair of a Haglund’s deformity and a chronic Achilles tendon injury in his left heel. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay, WI, next week on a day to be determined. Wall is expected to return to full basketball activity in approximately six to eight months.”

Yikes.

Yiiiiikes.

So, what does this all mean for the Wizards now and in the future, considering that Wall’s $170 million supermax extension kicks in next year? Will the injury spell disaster or will the Wiz soldier on (and could they be better?).

Sean Fagan, Rashad Mobley and Adam Rubin—three members of the Truth About It gang—react.

Sean Fagan (@McCarrick)

With the news that John Wall is to undergo foot surgery (with a predicted 6-8 month recovery time), a Wizards’ season that was officially “lost” is now dead and buried with #WizardsTwitter leaping to scoop that extra shovel of dirt on the grave. The take machine is revved up and firing on all cylinders, with varying camps debating whether the Wizards should actively tank and, of course, how this is the ideal time to renounce the services of Ernie Grunfeld. There’s even a smattering of criticism directed at Wall.

But what really chafes at the underside of this writer’s chassis is how the injury itself was announced, another in a line of #SoWizards pronouncements that leave an observer of the team raging in mute silence at an organization that can’t communicate with its supporters except to assume that they have the IQ and emotional intelligence of a toddler.

Instead of a straightforward announcement that Wall was visiting a foot specialist and might need the requisite (and nausea-inducing) surgery, it was leaked to Candace Buckner at WaPo that not only was Wall consulting on whether the surgery was necessary but that he had been dealing with this injury for YEARS.

And just like that, the Wizards perform a tidy little magic trick and flip the narrative towards “we could’ve X, but injuries” and further cover up their own mess by saying that Wall has been gutted through the injury for longer than anyone’s known and the best thing for him is to finally take care of his body.

Nevermind the fact that if this injury has been around for years it means:

• Ernie once again gave a favorite son a mega-max extension despite the the existence of a pre-existing injury;
• The Wizards allowed Wall to gut through last season and drag them into a hopeless position as the 8th seed (once again with this existing foot condition);
• The Wizards once again willfully obfuscated the health of their players, which leads me to believe that the medical personnel in the Vault basically heal everything through the miracle of duct tape.

In the next few weeks, you will probably hear from the Wizards’ brass on how this setback shouldn’t affect your opinion of the franchise and how one has to “stay the course” and how injuries cannot be predicted. But Wall’s injury is just the latest in what seems to be a catastrophic litany of injuries that appear to afflict the Wizards more than any other franchise. They purchase players on the open market, who immediately develop debilitating conditions, they sign players to long-term contracts who break down like a Ford Focus leaving the used car lot. Meanwhile the players they let go suddenly seem to have a new lease on life. Nene—famously encased in ice for most of his tenure on the Wizards—regained spryness on the Rockets, and three-time champion Shaun Livingston still operates and thrives on Golden State.

The calendar has yet to turn to 2019 and the Wizards season is already over and their best player is once again on the shelf. In truth, it could be almost any other Wizards season.

★★★

Rashad Mobley (@rashad20)

When I initially heard that John Wall would be missing the remainder of the season due to foot surgery, I literally said aloud to no one in particular, “This is Gilbert Arenas all over again!”

Apparently, that was a popular sentiment to have.

Then, as most Wizards/Bullets fan are wont to do, I immediately started thinking of season-salvaging scenarios that would soften the blow of Wall’s absence, and I have no problem admitting that I did a damn good job of this. Initially. But then it became painfully clear that trying to extract even an ounce of goodness out of this season or next is the equivalent of me trying to put a fitted sheet on my bed. One part of the bed will look immaculate, but only at the expense of the other side of the bed, which will be left looking rumpled and just flat out messy. Allow me to explain.

Let’s say the Wizards choose to tank their way into the lottery and get a chance at one of the impact players in the 2019 NBA Draft. The fate and playing time of that player would be left in the hands of Coach Scott Brooks, and any trades before or after this draft would be written, produced and performed by Mr. Ernie Grunfeld.

The other option for this season involves the entire team rallying around Bradley Beal. Let’s say Markieff Morris, Otto Porter and Dwight Howard all return to peak form (!!), and that core, combined with the newfound confidence of Tomas Satoransky, Troy Brown, Chasson Randle and Thomas Bryant, buoys the Wizards into the playoffs. They would realistically be a 6-, 7- or 8-seed. The Wizards would still most likely lose in the first round the way they did last year, and Ted Leonsis would inform Wizards Nation that the team was going to stay the course, because a healthy Wall would be back next season to save the day.

The last scenario I cooked up in my head involved trading Wall, Beal or Otto Porter, but again, that reconstruction of the roster would be overseen by Mr. Grunfeld. These scenarios, combined with the former Wizards beat writer J. Michael indicating that Wall’s foot problem was a long time coming (or a long time lasting), is simply depressing—like this damn fitted bedsheet I still can’t get a handle on affixing.

I suppose there’s an outside chance that Ted Leonsis could decide that this season was his breaking point, relieve both Brooks and Grunfeld of their duties, trade Beal, Wall or Otto, and finally convince the fans that a Sam Cooke-type change is gon’ come. But that’s crazy talk right?

★★★

Adam Rubin (@LedellsPlace)

The nightmare scenario is that John Wall’s season-ending surgery provides cover for Ted, Ernie and Brooks to write this season off as an unfortunate series of injuries and run it back again with the same group. After all, that’s what they did last year.

The Wizards began the 2017-18 season almost as listless as they did this season with a handful of uninspiring losses. The season was already spiraling downward before John Wall underwent surgery after playing 37 games.

Nevertheless, the Wizards blamed their disappointing season, which ended with a first-round playoff exit, on Wall’s injury and spent the off-season making cosmetic changes to the roster. After Dwight Howard came on board, Ted called this the deepest roster of his tenure and declared 50 wins or bust.

It’s important to remember this history, because the Wizards ownership and front office seem destined to repeat it. Ted and Ernie seem to be the only ones who do not realize that this Wizards core has run its course.

John Wall’s injury does provide an opportunity to re-assess the short-term and long-term prospects for this team but there is very little evidence that Ernie is up for the task. The win-now trade for Trevor Ariza was the latest example that management still believes this team is one or two pieces away from contending in the East.

On the bright side, the lowered expectations for this season may nudge Scott Brooks to give more minutes than he otherwise would to the young guys on the roster who he clearly does not trust. With only five players under contract for next season, it would be helpful to find out if Troy Brown could be a rotation player next season and if Devin Robinson is worth continued investment.

Others have suggested that Washington should pivot to tanking in the wake of Wall’s season-ending injury. But they already have the sixth-worst record in the NBA. One could argue that Scott Brooks has already been tanking with some of his no-offense lineups. It’s unclear how much lower they could go—short of a Bradley Beal shutdown.

(Photo Credit: Kelyn Soong Washington City Paper)

Before the Wizards took on the Hornets, Scott Brooks answered a myriad of questions about the health of John Wall and how his injury and extended absence would impact the team. In the midst of answering questions about who would replace some of Wall’s minutes, Brooks declared that Troy Brown Jr. would play.

This wasn’t the first time Brooks mentioned that Brown would be granted minutes in the regular rotation, but there was a sense of desperation in the air that led assembled media members to believe this was the game when Brooks would actually turn to the team’s first round draft pick.

Coming into last night’s game, Brown Jr. had only played 102 total minutes on the season, the majority of which came in garbage time of many of the team’s blowout losses.  But last night, the rookie from Oregon came into the game and scored a career-high nine points (all in the first half) and in the process earned the adoration from the fans who had been clamoring in person and on social media for him to play. #FreeTroyBrown had become a real thing on Twitter, as Wizards faithful failed to see the logic in Scott Brooks replacing the traded Austin Rivers’ minutes with Ron Baker over Brown despite the former not scoring a single point in his Wizards tenure. The frustrations never seemed to get to Brown, who let his play do the talking on this night.

https://twitter.com/WashWizards/status/1079175612760244225

First came a dunk on a beauty of a cut to the basket. Then came a driving layup, followed by a made three pointer. Brown moved on the court with fluidity and looked as if he belonged.

“He’s excellent. Today was evidence of being ready when your name is called.” said Beal postgame when asked about how he was able to help his rookie prepare to make his first meaningful contributions of the season.

Brown’s feel for the game was what initially made him a target of the Wizards front office and coaches in June, and last night  he finally seemed “ready” enough for the coaches to trust him. Scott Brooks had basically insinuated that the team was being patient with Brown, allowing him to hone his skills with the team’s newly minted G- League affiliate in order to gain the proper experience to get him ready to contribute in the big leagues. “Give coach [Jarell] Christian and their staff, the Go-Go credit. They work with him a lot,” said Brooks post-game.

Brown has played in six games with the Go-Go averaging 18 points per game on 49-percent shooting from the field and 34-percent from the three-point line. He has learned how to play on the next level, as well as the dedication and professionalism it takes to be an NBA player. The team would have Brown flying across the country to play or dress in games with both the Wizards and the Go-Go. Sometimes he would have to be prepared to play three days in a row, even flying into D.C. on the same day once in order to be on the Wizards bench just in case.

Instead of being bitter about his lack of playing time, Brown stayed positive and looked to the veterans on the team for words of wisdom, while emulating their attention to detail and made sure to give his vets credit after the game “I’ve been working hard for a very long time. Just watching them out there and being able to get that experience. Talk to John, talk to Brad, talk to Jeff and just pick their brains so that I can see whatever they’re seeing and then go out they and execute on what they’ve been telling me.” Brown has been a visual learner so far in his NBA career but he’s also gained–albeit in a limited capacity– the tangible experience of being on the court and getting better. “It’s just all about getting reps, being able to go down there and have an impact and make plays, do the little things down there and be able to come and execute it up here. To come out here and play with that same confidence, it helped me,” Brown said as he got his first taste of a post-game media scrum.

When asked if the coaching staff had come to him and told him he would be playing tonight, Brown said no, but he treated his pregame routine as if he were going to be playing. During the locker room media availability before the game, Bradley Beal came back into the locker room after his pregame routine and sat in the chair in front of his locker to regroup. At that point, Brown, who had an extra pep in this step, walked out of the training room towards the locker stall directly next to Beal. Beal looked at him and asked “Are you ready?” Brown replied “You know it.”

The calmness with which Brown replied made it seem as if the moment was not too big for him, and in fact, he was ready. Brown stepped in as a more than competent ancillary role player and his contributions helped the Wizards break their losing streak with a much needed win. The circumstances surrounding Brown finally getting his opportunity to show the Wizards what he can do on the court were not ideal, but as Beal said “the team has to have a next man up mentality,” well call up number six from Las Vegas, Nevada because he’s in line and prepared to seize his opportunity.

https://twitter.com/Troy_Brown33/status/1079219816941187072