Can the Wizards Really Contend in the East?

In addition to John Wall, the Wizards are going to need big seasons from Bradley Beal and Otto Porter. Before last season, people were ready to call Beal injury prone, but he played in 77 games and upped his scoring average to over 23 points per game and shot over 40% from three. Beal became the wing that Wall needed and if he can duplicate his success of last season, the Wizards have a chance.

Porter also had a career year last year with a career high in scoring, rebounding, and his shooting percentages. He shot 43% from beyond the arc last year and the Wizards will need that again. Porter provided good wing defense for the Wizards and he forms a nice trio with Wall and Beal. Wall’s strength is his penetration and kicking out to open shooters like Beal and Porter. Their offensive games fit together nicely and each of them can defend. They are a very nice core group to have moving forward.

The key to the Wizards season is Otto Porter. Porter showed flashes last season, but if they are going to truly improve as a team they are going to need him to become more of an offensive weapon. The Wizards relied too much on John Wall for their offense and in that game seven you could see the effect on Wall. If Porter is given the chance to become more of a playmaker, he could unlock so many things for Washington. Although the sample size is small, Porter was not bad as a pick and roll ball handler. According to nba.com/stats, only 7.8% of his offensive possessions involved pick and rolls, but of those possessions he scored 1.05 points per possession. That number was good enough to be ranked in the 94th percentile.

The Wizards are a very good team as constructed. They have three good young players coming into their primes in addition to solid bigs. They have a good starting five that fits well together, but it seems that they do not have that same talent that you find on Cleveland or Boston. I see the Wizards in the same place they were last year. A team that needs everything to go right in order for them to find themselves with a chance to get to the Conference Finals.

There is a silver lining for the Wizards in that their team has experience together and that is something that the Cavaliers and Celtics do not have. The Cavaliers are going to a new starting lineup in addition to having three new starters. The Celtics kept just four players from last year’s team. Consistency is worth something in the NBA and if the new pieces in Cleveland and Boston struggle to fit together I would not be shocked to see Washington in the Conference Finals playing for a spot in the Finals. In order for that to happen, they are going to need more luck than they had last year.

Statistics courtesy of basketball-reference.com

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