The Washington Wizards are ever so close to becoming a consistently competitive basketball team. At least that is what they say… even when the talent Gods have been extremely cruel to the franchise. Neither a lack of effort nor the desire to compete is a problem for Washington. The players have embraced hard work under head coach Randy Whitman. The problem is that when your entire NBA roster consists of only six to seven players capable of doing anything particularly well or effective, you have a recipe for another losing season.
Fans who have endured all of the losing seasons are bewildered. There seems to be no quick way to come out of the abyss. Does former number one lottery pick John Wall have all of the goods to lead this team to the playoffs? Does recent draft pick Bradley Beal have enough assertiveness to be an effective scoring guard? Does the team’s recent run of bad second-round draft picks (after their annual lottery selection) get any better?
The outlook is that this is a young basketball team. And, no matter what, it needs time to mature on and off of the court. John Wall, for all of his immense talents, can not effectively shoot well enough to make NBA defenses modest. That is a problem. No franchise player on any team in the NBA has such a glaring weakness. Wall’s deep ball shooting percentage over his career is a paltry 22%. He has a career average of 41% overall from the floor, but a good majority of those shots were at close range or in transition. If he could learn to get an effective outside shot — being blessed with his size and athleticism — he would be virtually un-guardable.
The Wizards could help his cause buy surrounding him with more weapons that can contribute consistently, drafting wisely in the second round and not gambling on European talent. Washington is not a good team and General Manager Ernie Grunfield should not be taking chances on unproven players from around the globe.
It must be mentioned that, although I am not a fan of his rotational patterns, I am a fan of Coach Randy Whitman’s system of accountability. His team plays hard and competes. Regardless, the results will be the same if the talent pool is not playing with a full deck of cards.
Lake Lewis, owner and founder of SportsJourney Broadcast Network, is a former syndicated ESPN radio host and credentialed media personality. Hear his show live M-F from 3:00-6:00 pm at www.sportsjourney.com