Bradley Beal and John Wall expressed a belief near the start of the 2017/18 season that the Wizards were the team to beat in the East, but the club ultimately finished eighth in the conference, and lasted just six games in the postseason. After their early exit from the playoffs, the Wizards are left searching for answers about what went wrong over the course of the season, as Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington details. Hughes spoke to Beal, Markieff Morris, and Ian Mahinmi about the club’s shortcomings, with Mahinmi noting that roster continuity didn’t really pay off for Washington in ’17/18.
“When you’re talking about continuity, it’s supposed to be better. You expect better. I feel like we didn’t do better than last year,” Mahinmi said. “It’s hard. I love those guys, but we have our issues. Unless we work those issues out, we’re gonna continue to struggle at times. We’re gonna continue to not be consistent. We definitely have to have good communication this summer. Before looking elsewhere we have look at each other and be honest.
“I feel like we might not have identified the real issues,” Mahinmi added.
As the Wizards look to identify their “real issues,” here are a few more notes out of D.C….
- Wizards center Marcin Gortat, never shy about sharing what’s on his mind, implored teammates Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre Jr. to spend the offseason bulking up, per Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. “Skill-set wise, [Porter]’s unbelievable. He’s got everything. He can rebound. He can shoot the ball. He can post up. He can pass. He can definitely defend, if he’s healthy,” Gortat said. “As I told him and I told Kelly, they’ve both got to improve in the weight room. They’ve got to get into the weight room.”
- Asked if he’d work on improving his shooting range in the offseason, Gortat dismissed the idea that he needs to modernize his game by shooting three-pointers, as Buckner relays. “I truly believe I’m a solid, good shooter up to 15, 17 feet. But I’m not going to shoot threes,” Gortat said. “No, I’m not going to do that. I want to go into the paint. Body people. Be physical. Get scratches. Bleed. That’s how I made a living in for 11 years, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not going to pop on the three-point line and shoot threes. I’m not going to do that. I’ve got one more year left. I’m going to try to play as best as I can.”
- The Wizards’ front office will have its work cut out for it this offseason as it looks to improve the roster, ESPN’s Bobby Marks writes in an Insider-only piece. Marks wonders if Washington has enough confidence in Oubre to consider the possibility of trading Porter, and notes that Gortat and Morris will be entering the last year of their respective contracts.
- In a pair of tweets, Marks breaks down how Jodie Meeks‘ suspension will affect his earnings and the Wizards’ tax bill. As Marks observes, Washington will be on the hook for approximately $7MM in tax payments for 2017/18.
- Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com takes a closer look at Ty Lawson‘s unexpected return to an NBA rotation role for the playoffs. Lawson spent the season in China before signing with the Wizards on the last day of the NBA regular season.
They need to sign DeMarcus Cousins if they want to be taken seriously. Judging off that Pacers-Cavs series the Pacers had no options behind Oladipo and the Cavs capitalized on that. You need at least 3 stars to win in the NBA and the Wizards only have 2, if they can get Cousins they’ll be right up there with Boston and Philly next season.
The team already has an attitude problem. Bringing in boogie would be a disaster.
Not really, Boogie and Wall were Kentucky mates. They would be a match made in heaven together and Cousins would give them a go to presence in the paint who can get a consistent 18-50 points down there.
Porter is the 3rd star. There’s nothing left to sign Cousins with.
Porter is paid like a star, but doesn’t consistently play like one
Porter Jr is not a star dude.
You can opine all you want, but sorry there is no path to the Wizrds getting Cousins. No signandtrade because they are way over the cap even already for next year. No way a team affords 4 max players or even very much after 3 maxes.
NO DAH. I fully agree.
Cousins just might think Wall’s presence somehow means he has permission 2 return 2 his Rookie Self. This could result in not even making the Playoffs. Yikes! Please don’t.
Gortat sorry cannot stop nobody sorry mf
I replied earlier. Wiz better last year with Gortat. Did Grundfeld make changes to get worse??? Prepared 4 Durant. My Mom said don’t spend $ B4 U hav it. Think that thot applies here. Oh Yeah, + never Assume.
Hope ownership will look at my thots in reply 2 a
comment 4 days ago.
Fans deserve a GM that is capable of viewing things as they ARE, NOT based on “wishful thinking”.