The Washington Wizards’ abysmal season last year was overshadowed by an even worse one from the Charlotte Bobcats.
This year, they are taking center stage with only four wins so far. They have been playing without point guard John Wall, but you have to wonder how big of a difference he could possibly make.
The good news for the Wizards is that with all the bad seasons they have been having, they have built up some high draft picks. The bad news? Well, they have pretty much gone to waste.
Most notably Jan Vesely, who the Wizards took with the sixth overall pick in 2011.
Vesely STILL has more fouls than points on the year. (Don’t believe me? It’s 54-49, I promise)
Bradley Beal (third overall, 2012) is in his rookie season so it is too early to make a real judgment on him. Wall (first overall, 2010) is going to take a big step back in his development after sitting out an extended period of time.
But the point is that the Wizards are not a young team playing towards the future, they are just a hopeless basketball team with nothing to build on. They are not like the Cleveland Cavaliers who are working on building around Kyrie Irving, or the New Orleans Hornets who have Anthony Davis and some other young, talented pieces to start with.
Yes, those teams are struggling now, but you see hope for them in the future.
Former coach and current NBA analyst Stan Van Gundy says the Wizards may be a team without hope.
I’d love to tell you you’re two years away; I really don’t [see it].” Van Gundy said. “That roster doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I know they’ll be better when John Wall comes back. He’s certainly got talent, but I don’t know that even John Wall is a great player to build your franchise around. I don’t know WHO you’re building around, so it’s tough to even think about what the construction of your team is. That’s just a bad basketball team.
So what do the Wizards do?
I cannot come up with an easy solution but I know they will have to do something drastic. They have to find someone they can build around and right now they do not have it. Whether that means trading to bring in new players or just continuing to be awful until they can get so many lottery picks that one of them has to pan out, this team needs to make a change.
Image: SportsCity.com
