For the past few years the nightmares of Wizards fans have started with images of Gilbert Arenas miming shooting his teammates during lineup announcements and ended with Michael Ruffin throwing the ball skyward as Steve Buckhantz screamed, “Not possible!”
Since the glory days when Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler led the team to a series of first-round playoff losses to the LeBron-headed Cavaliers, the Wizards have failed to even compete for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot.
Each year, performance dropped until the Wizards were solid contenders for the NBA’s bottom spot. Luck with the draft hasn’t helped much either. In 2009, the Wizards traded the fifth pick in the draft, a pick that could have brought Stephen Curry or Ty Lawson to D.C., for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, who both underperformed and left promptly. In 2011, Washington took Jan Vesely with the sixth pick overall. Mr. Vesely spent this season averaging almost as many fouls per game as points.
The season began with starting point guard John Wall and center Nene Hilario sidelined with injuries. The result was an 11-game losing streak to open the season. The Wizards dwelled near the bottom of the league, but saw rookie shooting guard Bradley Beal, who is averaging nearly 14 points per game, start to come into his own. However, when Wall returned midway through January, the Wizards started to rise out of the cellar. Since Wall’s return, the Wizards have been two games over .500, and are ahead of 7 teams in the league standings. (https://lapress.org)
This late season push has not been Heat-level extraordinary, but has shown that the Wizards are not the team we believed them to be in November. The one downside of this departure from the bottom of the standings is that the Wizards will most likely be drafting outside of the top five in a very weak draft. Even worse for Georgetown students, hopes that we may be able to see Otto Porter Jr. play professionally at the Verizon Center are dwindling, given that Porter is projected to be taken fourth on most draft boards.
If the team can retain Wall and Beal and put other pieces in place, it is not far-fetched to believe that there may be a postseason run in the cards. Even after the horrendous start, Washington was not ruled out of the playoffs until a week ago. The time for the Wiz may not be so far off.
