Washington Wizards vs. Cleveland Cavaliers: Two teams with two plans

The showdown between the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers will be one between two different teams with two very different agendas.

Over the past 15 years, it always seemed like there was some sort of link between the Washington Wizards and the Cleveland Cavaliers. From the battles of Gilbert Arenas vs. LeBron James in the early 2000s to the Kyrie Irving vs. John Wall debates, these teams always seem to pop up in the same conversations.

However, after years of glory, while slugging it out near the top, both franchises have recently hit or gotten close to rock bottom.

Unfortunately, both teams’ fall from grace was rather hard to watch. The Cavaliers’ fall was mostly by the departure of all-time great, LeBron James. The Wizards can blame their downward spiral on a slew of injuries and front office incompetence.

So whats going on now? Both of these teams are among the bottom half of the Eastern Conference and are in need of a rebuild/retool. However, it seems that one team has a plan moving forward and the other one, well, doesn’t.

The Wizards, after years of incompetence from ex-GM Ernie Grunfeld, are now being led by Tommy Sheppard, who has given the franchise some new life.

The Cavaliers on the other hand, while being lead by GM Koby Altman, are still trying to figure things out.

The two teams, each heading in seemingly opposite directions, will meet for the Wizards’ first post-All-Star break game. But first, how did we get here? And where are these two teams going?

What’s the plan in Cleveland?

It seems that after years of being shielded by the greatness that is LeBron James, the Cavaliers disastrous front office decisions are finally coming to light and making a lot of people scratch their heads.

After the departure of LeBron in 2018, instead of going into a full-blown rebuild, the Cavs decided that it would be smart to resign Kevin Love to a four-year, $120 million extension. They then selected Colin Sexton in the first round of the 2018 draft. Sexton is a solid prospect, assuming you can put the right team around him, but he was an odd pick at the time and is yet to become everything the Cavs had hoped for when they drafted him.

As expected, they did not have a very good year in 2018-2019. Then in the 2019 draft, they selected Darius Garland who plays the exact same position as Sexton. They hired John Beilein, which was never a smart plan. And dysfunction followed them into the season.

It didn’t take long for that dysfunction to show up on the court, as Kevin Love openly pleaded to be traded and threw frustration fits during games. And of course, Beilein calling his player “thugs” didn’t help things, either.

Then, at the deadline when they should have been sellers, Cleveland….traded for Andre Drummond. An odd move, but one that came with promise and hope. That didn’t last long, though, as the Cavs chose the All-Star break as the perfect time to relieve Beilein of his duties, who resigned as head coach after 54 games.

Less than a season after hiring a new head coach, Cavalier announced JB Bickerstaff as the team’s interim head coach with Beielin now off the sidelines.

Many of the Cavs issues this season will be attributed to Beilein and his inability to mesh in Cleveland and that is understandable.

So they are now in a position moving forward with two ball-dominant point guards in their early 20’s, Kevin Love who is 31 and on a huge contract, and Andre Drummond, who could walk after a few months.

So what is the plan here?

D.C. Distress

Obviously, in comparison, the Wizards have been in a pretty bad place over the past few years, as well. Coming off of their best season in 40 years in 2017, the Wizards signed John Wall to a supermax contract and planned on being right back at the top of the playoff mix.

But that’s not how it went down. The 2017-2018 season was then filled with injuries and a lot of finger-pointing. The ‘Everybody Eats’ debacle was a headline that loomed like a black thundercloud over the team, and the tension between John Wall and Marcin Gortat continued to grow. The Wizards then under-performed and barely squeaked into the playoffs where they were ousted by the Toronto Raptors in six games.

The 2018-2019 season was another season that started with high hopes and ended in disappointment. A team projected to win 50 games was overshadowed by locker room tension and even more injuries. John tore his Achilles and Dwight Howard only appeared in nine games. Despite preaching playoffs down the stretch, the Wizards never had a chance.

The low point over the past few years in D.C. came in December of 2018. Ernie Grunfeld traded young wing, Kelly Oubre Jr., for an aging Trevor Ariza in an attempt to make a run at the 8th seed in the playoffs…

….the Wizards finished 32-50, missed the playoffs, and Ariza walked this past summer.

Moving Forward

Leading up to this season, the Wizards and Cavaliers were in similar situations as they deal with injuries, locker room tensions, and losing.

And while things might look similar now between these two teams, each with a couple of big names surrounded by spare parts, the difference here is the future.

The Wizards have a few young prospects that have shown they can immediately come in and give this team a lot of value now and later. Rui Hachimura, Thomas Bryant, Troy Brown Jr., and Moritz Wagner have shown they can be apart of a young core that can come in and compete at a high level for a long time. They are all averaging over 20 minutes per game this season and none of them are older than 22 years old.

Bradley Beal is a star and is transitioning into the new leader of this team. When John Wall returns from injury next season, this team will get a chance to show that they can rebuild on the fly.

Cleveland, on the other hand, has two very interesting prospects in Sexton and Garland. Both have the potential to be good. Very good. The key will be finding a way for both ball-dominant guards to be able to play together efficiently and finding players that complement their redundant skill sets.

Kevin Love and Andre Drummond are both good players individually but how do they fit in Cleveland? That is the big question. Drummond will have a player option this summer that may or may not see him back next year. That’s definitely something to watch, as Drummond could turn into an expensive rental, and set back this Cavaliers rebuild by walking this summer.

While they came into this season in the same boat, it looks like the Wizards have a plan in place to retool quickly, and if they need to blow it up, they have the infrastructure and young core to get that started softly.

Cleveland, however, still has some lingering questions that need to be answered despite a promising pair of guards. Some connecting the dots will be key if they’re to get on the right track this summer.