4 Washington Wizards that could be on next year’s SI Top 100 list
By Ethan Smith
Bradley Beal was the only member of the Washington Wizards to make this year’s Sports Illustrated Top 100 list. Hopefully, that changes next year.
The Washington Wizards don’t have a ton of the NBA’s top talent on their roster. I think pretty much anyone, no matter how big of a Wizards fan they are, would agree with that. The Sports Illustrated Top 100 NBA players of 2020 list certainly agrees. This morning, Sports Illustrated released players 30-11 and we finally saw our first and only Wizard on the list. Bradley Beal came in at 22.
Regardless of how low your expectations for the upcoming season may be, it still sucks to scroll through the long list of the NBA’s best players and see just one single member of the Washington Wizards. It’s damn near heartbreaking. However, there will be a new list next summer and the NBA, like most sports, lives by the mantra of ‘what have you done for me lately?’ It is very possible, almost certain, that we’ll see a very different list in a year’s time.
Will it include more Wizards? Considering this year’s list included just one, it would be hard for it not to. But nothing is certain. The Wizards will need more than a few guys to step up and have big seasons this year if they want to be considered among the best in the NBA by this time next year.
It is never too early to look ahead, so here are four Washington Wizards that could break out this season and find themselves on Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 NBA Players of 2021 list.