Washington Wizards 2014-2015 Season Review: Regular Season Player Awards
By Ben Mehic
Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The ‘Why Is He On The Team?’ Award
Losing Trevor Ariza was supposed to hurt the Washington Wizards, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The Wizards quickly found a replacement by signing future Hall-of-Famer Paul Pierce.
Losing the other Trevor, Trevor Booker, hurt the Wizards fan-base more than anything else.
Washington acquired Kris Humphries from the Boston Celtics for virtually nothing, and he replaced most of what Booker did on the court. However, he didn’t replace the Cook Book’s tenacity and awesomeness.
DeJuan Blair was supposed to replace Booker’s awesomeness. Needless to say, he didn’t.
Blair struggled in the preseason and Randy Wittman played Kevin Seraphin instead for most of the season. Wittman kept telling the media that Blair’s chance will come, like he always does with players that he doesn’t play, but that chance never came. The handful of #FreeDeJuan hashtags became futile pretty quickly.
Quite frankly, DeJuan Blair never deserved a chance to play.
His inability to jump over a book made Blair a liability on the defensive end of the floor. Blair’s only offensive move resembled an Eric Maynor floater. He also seemed to be out of shape during the latter half of the season.
Unfortunately, Blair is under contract until 2016. If he gets in shape, then perhaps it’s good to have him on the bench in case of injury or if the other 20 big men get in foul trouble.
Winner: DeJuan Blair
Next: Sixth Man of the Year