With the departure of LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Eastern Conference seemed wide open for the taking. Certainly, favorites such as the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Toronto Raptors were pegged as top teams in the conference. However, James’ departure meant that many dark-horse favorites in the East finally had the opportunity to assert themselves and prove their worth, the most significant one of them being the Washington Wizards, a team which has a pair of All-Star guards and brought the Celtics to the brink of elimination in the Eastern Conference Semifinals just two years ago. Another year of John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter, along with the significant additions of Dwight Howard and Austin Rivers, implied that the Wizards could position themselves as a contender to make it to the FInals, much less make the playoffs in the first place.

Shockingly, this has been far from the case this season. With a current record of 12-18 and only one win over a .500 team, the Wizards are certainly a far cry from where they were expected to be at the start of the season. As the competition between the top three teams in the East will only thicken come playoff season and teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks have emerged as one of the best teams in the NBA, there are certainly doubts about whether or not it is even possible for the Wizards to contend now and in the future. The talent is certainly there, but the coaching, lack of cohesiveness/strategic play, and payroll do not serve as factors in their favor as the Raptors and Bucks continue to establish themselves as the cream of the conference and the Sixers have acquired major help via Jimmy Butler. In this article, I will be elaborating on the Wizards performance this season and summarizing the options they are able to take in order to legitimize themselves as a contender in the Eastern Conference for years to come.

The Wizards’ title odds begin and end with John Wall and Bradley Beal. When these two players have performed well, Washington is at its best and is able to compete properly with Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto. Unfortunately, both players have been wildly inconsistent this season. Buoyed by a very strong late performance, Wall is averaging 21.5 ppg and 8.9 assists, scoring two more points above his career average at the expense of his decline in assists and blocks. Meanwhile, Beal is, at the time of this article publication, scoring less points and other peripheral stats as well. In addition, the Wizards locker room has been rumored to be at odds with each other, with reports indicating that Wall and Beal have not demonstrated the veteran leadership needed to guide their fellow teammates. However, it would be unfair to place most of the blame on just these two guards alone. Austin Rivers and Kelly Oubre Jr. were unceremoniously traded in a scandal indicative of the Wizards already admitting defeat. Dwight Howard has not played many games with this Wizards roster and still requires time to properly adjust in his role, meaning that he can’t contribute when the Wizards need him most. Otto Porter Jr. is average career lows in efficiency and 3pt % across the board. The Wizards were able to perform so well against the Celtics and advance deep into the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2016-2017 in part because they sported a top-10 offense combined with a serviceable defense. Now, their offensive woes have been exposed due to a lack of visible ball-movement and heavy isolations by both Wall and Beal, and the defense has plummeted to bottom-3 in the league. The Wizards’ weaknesses have finally permeated their game plan as teams are able to adequately respond to their two major threats and lack of meaningful depth.

At the end of the day, the Wizards simply must play better if they hope to compete for a championship. If any window they have for maximizing their core is present, it is none other than right now. Still, as of two weeks ago, the Wizards were giving up nearly 124 ppg and had an awful 115.9 defensive rating, effectively making them one of the worst defenses in the league along with the Suns. With John Wall’s supermax contract kicking in after this year and continuing for the next 5 years, along with the significant amount of capital invested in Beal and Porter, the team is currently paying a floor of $100 million to their top three guys to produce. As these players will continue to get older and younger teams begin to rise in the Eastern Conference, the Wizards will not have the cap space nor the assets to make moves to better their team as it is. The Wizards have chosen to go all in on this roster for better or worse, but it is abundantly clear that now is their best shot at competing for a title, as the next four to five years will feature this aging core that, while supremely talented and skilled, have not had much to show in their playoff performances against fellow Eastern Conference powerhouses.