Washington Wizards: Why Missing the Playoffs Could Be Good
On Friday night, the Washington Wizards lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in double-overtime. While that loss didn’t mathematically eliminate Randy Wittman and the Wizards from the NBA Playoffs, given where we’re at in the season, their chances have become significantly smaller.
Washington is now more than three games behind the Detroit Pistons for the eighth and final spot in the playoffs and there’s less than 10 games remaining in the season.
A loss to a team like Minnesota derails all of the momentum that was built up prior to it occurring, which puts Washington in an even tougher spot.
Unless something spectacular occurs – which, let’s be honest, we’re all hoping does – the Washington Wizards will be heading home very soon without a spot in the playoffs.
After giving it some thought, I’ve realized that missing the playoffs actually might not be the worst thing in the world for the Wizards. In fact, it might be a good thing.
The core is still intact
The Washington Wizards’ core – John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris and Kelly Oubre – isn’t going anywhere.
We can assume that Beal will return after signing a deal this summer. Beal probably doesn’t deserve a max contract at this point in his career, but that’s an entirely different discussion.
Washington has a bunch of players on one-year deals – meaning the core of the team is going to return regardless if they make the playoffs or not.
Despite the bad season, having that core means a lot going forward.
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Three of the five aforementioned players are still in the early portions of their careers and have yet to enter their primes.
Beal, Porter and Oubre all have their best days ahead of them.
Wall has become a perennial All-Star and he has three years left on his contract.
Morris is on an incredibly cheap contract and has fit in with the starters seamlessly.
Wall is going to continue being one of the best guards in the NBA and Beal will continue to get better.
Beal, as of today, is a flawed player. His picture-perfect jump shot isn’t enough to get by in the NBA nowadays. His ball handling needs great improvement and there’s no reason to believe he won’t get better in that aspect of his game. It’s really just a matter of staying healthy.
Porter has become more of a starting-caliber player for Washington over the past month or so, if that makes sense. He’s not hesitating from deep and has seen his 3-point shooting increase substantially.
Porter, along with Oubre, has the tools to become an elite 3-and-D player at this level. It will take some work and added weight, but again, there’s no reason to believe they won’t get better.
Morris is the prototypical power forward in the modern NBA. He can defend three positions, he shoots the ball well from the perimeter and he rebounds. He’s exactly the type of player you would want at the four spot going forward.
This season has been very forgettable as have many of the players that have suited up for the Washington Wizards. Once this season is over, we’re going to forget the likes of Jarell Eddie, Marcus Thornton, Ryan Hollins, DeJuan Blair and others even existed.
The ones that matter – to put it bluntly – will stick around.
Losing will force ownership to make changes
Even if the Washington Wizards make the NBA Playoffs, change is still very much necessary in both the coaching and management area.
Randy Wittman and Ernie Grunfeld have to go. It’s that simple.
Some of the blame on the lost season could be put on injuries, but the team has dropped winnable games when healthy. There’s no excuse to losing to the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The coaching staff – in particular Wittman – and management have failed John Wall and Co.
Wittman never coached an up-tempo team and he wasn’t the right guy for the job. Grunfeld wanted an old-school coach to coach a new-school offense. He tried to shove a new sofa into an old door opening. It didn’t fit, but he kept shoving the sofa in. It still hasn’t fit.
Grunfeld put together a bad roster, too. Having Kris Humphries shooting 3-point shots should have been a red-flag. Humphries has been a brute, physical inside player for virtually his entire career and the Washington Wizards asked him to become a 3-point shooter. /insert another lame sofa analogy
Drew Gooden, Humphries, Blair and Nene were all on the roster at the beginning of the season. That’s not a front court capable of running.
To make matters worse, his two biggest signings were Alan Anderson and Gary Neal. Anderson has played in roughly .503848 percent of the games this season (no, I didn’t calculate it, but trust me…) and Neal was eventually waived because he was hurt. That’s disastrous.
No other coach and general manager have gotten this many chances. Losing and missing the NBA Playoffs will cause the often too patient Ted Leonsis to make some changes.
Next: 5 Head Coaching Candidates for the Wizards
Missing the NBA Playoffs actually isn’t that bad for the Washington Wizards. See, there’s a bright side for everything.