With tough remaining schedule, it’s time for Washington Wizards to tank

The Washington Wizards have a tough road to the playoffs and very little chance of getting the 8th seed. Here’s exactly how tough it will be.

It’s been an up and down season for the Washington Wizards, to be sure, but fans are still talking about the playoffs. I get it, I really do, but I’m here to be a bit of a downer for you all: They have basically no shot.

The Washington Wizards, as I’ve written in a few pieces previously, had the second hardest schedule in terms of opponent’s win percentage coming out of the break. They’ve dropped three of their four games since coming out of that break, and it doesn’t get any rosier from there.

The Utah Jazz, the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Philadelphia 76ers (twice), the Milwaukee Bucks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Indiana Pacers (twice), the Toronto Raptors, and the Houston Rockets are all on the upcoming docket. All of those teams have winning records as of the writing of this article.

That makes 12 of their remaining 25 games up against winning and playoff contenders. That’s just shy of half of their games, and according to Tankathon they still have the second hardest remaining schedule of all the teams in the NBA with a .542 Strength of Schedule rating (SOS) just shy of the Memphis Grizzlies who hold a .548 SOS for the remainder of their games.

The Orlando Magic on the other hand? 26th in SOS rating among the NBA. It’s not looking good for our Washington Wizards.

It’s time to look inward, and by that I mean it’s time to accept our fate and start developing the young talent on the roster. Short of that, it’s time to start looking towards the anticipated return of John Wall next season, and determine if he’s good enough to still be “the man” on this Washington Wizards squad after a horrible Achilles tear.

With their remaining schedules, the Washington Wizards need hope the Orlando Magic go 8-16 or worse in their last 24 games while the Wizards go 13-12 or better. The odds of that happening are close to none.

It’s time to play the young guys and cede the playoffs in hopes of landing a valuable swing man or backup guard for Bradley Beal in the upcoming draft. Here’s some targets that could land us, by the way.

Wouldn’t that be nice? But it looks like Scott Brooks and the Washington Wizards front office is set on making a push, playing the vets big minutes recently and trying to win these ball games. Time will tell, but I know how I would manage it. Time to tank.