Woeful Wizards

The Nation’s Capital team the Washington Wizards are in critical need of some help in any way they could possibly get. Currently, sitting at a record of 21-37 this is good enough for only 9th in the Eastern Conference, which consequently means that they are not in contention for the playoffs. The reason being is that the Brooklyn Nets who are eighth in the east are 26-32 meaning they have an immense 5 game gap on Washington. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t be the worst thing if the Wizards missed the playoffs

At least they’ll be able to look forward to a promising draft selection. Not to mention, if by the grace of God they do happen to make it by the skin of their teeth, defeat would be imminent. Hope would evaporate quickly for the team in a four out of seven series. The team just doesn’t have enough firepower or offensive production to put up an honest fight. This breaks my heart to say, as I see the things that the squad is capable of, for example, Bradley Beal going on a 40-point game streak followed by back to back 50 point games. In this span of games, Beal scored his career-high for points scored in a single game with 55. His efforts, however, sad to say, have been wasted as the Wizards only managed to capitalize in one game against the Brooklyn Nets in the past 5 games losing the other four in terrible fashion.

After losing in a horrible manner to the Chicago Bulls the head coach of Washington Scott Brooks went on record saying that the team was “playing soft” which I would agree as the Wizards have the tendency to play lethargically on defense and lose intensity throughout the game. Brooks went on to say, “We’re playing just comfortable and it’s disappointing and we got to step up and play with some toughness and some pride.” Coach Brooks took the words right out of my mouth as the competitive nature has been lacking in the Wizards locker room for some time now. Brooks follows this up in the best way possible saying “It’s not embarrassing to lose to an NBA team, but it’s embarrassing not to compete like an NBA team.”

The feeling of embarrassment is what the team and Beal felt when he was reported saying ” I put myself in that group, too. I can be better on the defensive end and all-around game. I think we all could be better. Coach is absolutely right.” per Candace of Washington Post. That feeling seeped deeper shortly after this game, a clip of Beal has gone viral after scoring his career-high 53 points and caught on camera scowling from the sideline as the final seconds dripped off the clock. Yet, that showed that Washington got the message going up against their next opponent, the number one seeded Milwaukee Bucks [and playing them to a thrilling overtime loss]

This season looks to be over for the team even though they are only one spot removed from playoff contention. If the Wizards do somehow manage to get their act together on the court and don’t realize their thoughts of winning more than one, it will mostly that grace of God I mentioned earlier.  With an undersized Thomas Bryant and waning big man Ian Mahinmi, Washington is in need of someone who can assert his presence in their scheme. So, if they don’t make the playoffs hopefully, they can strike gold in this year’s draft and next year’s free agency.