Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal Needs To Step Up
Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal has been disappointing, but decided to call out his teammates after another loss against the Orlando Magic.
The Washington Wizards have lost four of their first five games of the 2016-17 NBA season.
Washington, for a short time, redeemed themselves when they beat the Atlanta Hawks in their most recent matchup this past Friday night, 95-92.
However, Saturday night’s loss against the Orlando Magic was one of those games where the Wizards should have otherwise won – not only because the Wizards have beaten the Magic their last 12 outings, but also because the Wizards controlled the game through much of the first three quarters.
Nonetheless, Orlando ended up winning, 88-86.
With John Wall out, Scott Brooks relied heavily on the second unit, often allowing Markieff Morris to lead the bench.
Morris has been having an exemplary season, such that if someone just started following the Wizards, some may mistakenly believe that Morris is the team’s second best player.
Morris had an opportunity to win the game for Washington at the buzzer, but the shot didn’t fall. Surprisingly, the team has asked Morris to become their bailout option.
It was expected that Bradley Beal, the team’s highest paid player, would take a step forward this year and control the offense when Wall wasn’t in the game. Against Orlando, Beal scored 15 points on 17 shot attempts and was largely invisible for much of the game.
Instead of accepting partial blame for the loss in Orlando, Beal decided to talk about his teammates.
“I think coach is pretty fed up with the way we’re playing and I think he’s going to start playing guys who want to play and guys who want to show up,” Beal said on Saturday.
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There’s a reason why the Wizards started the season 0-3 and that reason rests almost squarely on Beal’s shoulders.
Even though Beal was present on the floor during those losses, his basketball skills were not.
Against the Magic, Beal didn’t show up until the fourth quarter, allowing Orlando to cut into the Washington Wizards’ double-digit lead and gain the necessary momentum to close out the game.
Paul Pierce once told the Wizards’ backcourt, “if you want to be great, you gotta do it every single night, not just when you feel like it.”
John Wall, who’s averaged 22 points, 5.3 rebounds and 10 assists per game this season, has been great. He’s shown up every single game, just as he’s done for the past seven years.
His backcourt mate, Beal, hasn’t done the same.
Beal has had a difficult time staying out of foul trouble, committing unnecessary fouls that throw him off for the rest of the game.
Brooks hasn’t been able to play Beal as much as he’d like because foul trouble has been an issue. The highest paid player in Wizards history should not be sitting on the bench after making rookie mistakes.
Orlando took advantage of those aforementioned mistakes, cutting into the Wizards’ lead and ultimately handing Washington another “L.”
So far, Beal hasn’t lived up to expectations and he’s having the worst year of his career, shooting a putrid 37.3 percent from the field and 29.7 percent from three.
Next: Wizards Need To Reset Before It's Too Late
If there’s anyone on the Washington Wizards’ roster that needs to “show up,” as Beal put it, it’s Beal himself.