WIZKIDS are going to be in the playoffs this year. If John Wall played the entire year we would've been 7th seed. Add in Otto Porter we finally have an entire lineup.
Young, athletic team that plays fast paced basketball. Wall needs to cut down on his turnovers, but we have the pieces to be a playoff team.
PG - John Wall
SG- Bradley Beal
SF - Otto Porter
PF - NENE
C - Emeka Okafor
Bench
Martell Webster - 3 point shooter
Trevor Ariza - Defensive Specialist
Chris Singleton
Kevin Seperian - Could develop into a great big man. This is the year that will decided it.
Eric Maynor
GLEN RICE JR. JAN VESLEY, AL HARRINGTON, GARRET TEMPLE
Uh, Emeka okafor is out indefinitely with a spine injury and Chris singleton will be out the first 4-6 weeks of the season.
Despite this I still love the wizards. They're gonna struggle early, nobody is gonna deny that especially without Emeka Okafor who led the the wizards front court last year to a top5 defensive ranking. It's rumored he shouldn't be out for more than a month but the wizards are gonna play it safe. Nene is always hurt and not a great defender/leader down low. He's more of an offensive big.
John Wall is back and once again every one is saying he's improved his shot over the summer. Only time will tell. Wall needs to focus on staying healthy for an entire season.
Beal is a solid player in the lineup but he's by no means the all star caliber player he was rumored to be when he came out. He's steadily improving though.
Hopefully Porter will give the wizards a wing 3&D player that they've desperately needed. Webster and Ariza off the bench looks to be a good balance moving forward.
The story of the summer so far though has been that nigga Glenn Rice Jr from Georgia Tech I believe (maybe wake forest I can't remember). People have been saying that when him and Porter are on the floor they can't tell which one is the first round pick. Rice definitely has a chip on his shoulder and wants to prove everyone wrong. His rebounding and scoring are gonna be greatly needed on the Wizards sorry second unit.
The affectionately known "wiz kids" (Vesely, Singleton, Seraphin and Booker) have turned out to be almost complete busts. Only Seraphin has even shown a glimmer of promise, although I've read that Vesely has improved coming into this season and he's finally starting to play like he did in Europe. I hope this is the case or he will find himself back in Europe. All of these are expiring contracts and none of their options were picked up meaning they're gonna be battling for a contract all year so someone will hopefully break out, especially with the injury to Okafor.
Last but not least there's Al Harrington who was just brought in. He's the stretch 4 John wall has been wanting. There's no telling which Al Harrington well get though but one thing is for certain, when he's in they'll be playing 4 on 5 on defense. It'll be interesting to see if he gels with the fast paced offense.
The rest of the roster (Eric Maynor and Garrett Temple) is scrubs on scrubs on scrubs.
Overall the wizards should be a fun team to watch this year. They're a tad underrated this year due to the injuries that plagued them last year. They could easily have been in the playoffs last year as Matt said. They'll be battling for the playoffs this year, most people have them as a 5-8 seed. They run a fast paced offense with an electric John Wall at the helm. This season should be extra fun with guys like the wiz kids battling against old heads like Al Harrington and Webster/Ariza over who gets to stay in the league and who doesn't because let's be honest, once you get cut from the wizards you're career is pretty much over.
