Are the Wizards better without Bradley Beal?

For 10 years in the Nation’s capital, Bradley Beal has been one of the main fixtures for Washington Wizards basketball. We saw him go from a young rookie with promise to the franchise guy of today. There were moments of him potentially being moved to another team.

Beal is still considered a top 20-25 player in the NBA, but the Wizards have not been a contender. Heading into this season, things were going to be a little bit different. The Wizards added a plethora of new pieces alongside Kristaps Porzingis at the trade deadline last season but did not play a single game with Beal last season.

The biggest change is the rumor of Beal being traded, which were non-stop over the past few seasons. He re-signed with the Wizards for a supermax contract worth $250 million for the next five years. That should be the end of the story, right? Beal re-signed and has to be the face of the franchise now?

However, things have not been so simple during the early stages of the new season.

No Beal, No Problem

On November 4th, the Wizards got destroyed by the Brooklyn Nets. A 42-point loss at home is just unacceptable. Body language was poor and the effort was even worse. The cherry on top came the next day, as we found out that Beal was in health and safety protocols.

It looked as if the Wizards were going to begin a downward spiral to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. However, the script was flipped. They have now rattled off a 4-1 record during Beal’s absence.

A couple of quality wins and now the Wizards are 8-6. The season is still early, but they have looked pretty good these last few games without their top guy. Kyle Kuzma went off for 36 points against the Dallas Mavericks while Kristaps Porzingis dropped 31 points against the Utah Jazz.

They are hot right now with contributions from their young guys as well, such as Jordan Goodwin and Deni Avdija. Now the question remains, are the Wizards better without Beal? Let’s take a look.