The second round can’t become the new first round for the
Washington Wizards — that impenetrable ceiling the team has reasonable excuses for failing to shatter.
For the second straight year, the Wizards’ season ended May 15, at home, against the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards can be equal parts angry and disappointed in knowing that they were a John Wall broken wrist and hand, or a box-out on Al Horford, or a Paul Pierce three-pointer — or two — from preparing to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals.
“They didn’t really beat us,” Bradley Beal, a self-proclaimed “sore loser” said Monday of the Atlanta Hawks. “In my opinion we should’ve won 4-1.”
Beal will spend his offseason smarting over the defeat, motivated to take the next step in his burgeoning career. Wall, his back-court mate and the team’s two-time all-star, will spend the initial part of this summer letting his hand heal and will try not to get frustrated over what could’ve been.
But for owner Ted Leonsis, Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards, this can’t be another stand-pat summer if they are going to take the next step.
The Wizards can’t be satisfied anymore with winning the most regular season games since 1979 or any other nebulous accomplishment that serves as a reminder of the organization’s miserable history since its stars wore Afros, the team was called the Bullets and it played home games in Landover. Last decade, the Wizards couldn’t get past LeBron James and those annual first-round failures were easily explained by ill-timed injuries, mostly to Gilbert Arenas, who was healthy for only one of those series.
Since they were always seemingly so close (if healthy), the Wizards were encouraged to keep playing it relatively safe. They didn’t make much more than cosmetic tweaks to the roster, which meant the team never really improved, until it finally
regressed. A last-ditch effort to be bold couldn’t prevent the franchise from bottoming out and forcing Grunfeld to start all over.
Washington’s desires to be a place that Kevin Durant considers when he becomes a free agent in 2016 is well-documented. But sitting out another offseason and waiting to see how far this current roster goes could leave them trailing when Durant decides whether to stay in Oklahoma City, take his talents back home to F Street or somewhere else. Wall can’t allow himself to think that far ahead.
“If that happens, so be it, it’d be great,” Wall said of Durant. “All I think about is just focusing on the Washington Wizards, my teammates I have ahead of me right now that’s on the court.”
The Wizards have a prime opportunity to make this Wall-Beal collaboration special. If anything could be gleamed from their loss to the Hawks, it’s that the 20-something duo not only has the talent but also the heart required to be franchise cornerstones. You want your best players to be your toughest players, and Wall and Beal showed some incredible mettle. Wall played 2 1/2 games against the Hawks with five non-displaced fractures in his hand and wrist. Beal took a beating, running through numerous screens to erase all-star Kyle Korver and still had enough energy to post five 20-point games.
Wall and Beal have matured into leaders, accepting the challenge from teammate Paul Pierce to pursue greatness, and they should be ready to assume more responsibility in that area next season — regardless of whether Pierce decides to retire or pick up his $5.5 million player option to play one final season.
That Pierce’s game-tying attempt at the end of Game 6 got overturned was painful and deflating given that it might be the last one he takes in his Hall of Fame career. But the more pressing downside for the Wizards is that the East truly was there for the taking, with no super team set to represent the conference in the NBA Finals. Wall plans to be in Cleveland next week, but only to visit a hand specialist, not attend that series.
“I don’t care about watching those games,” Wall said. “I feel like we were on the verge. We were playing the right way. We were one of the hottest teams.”
The Wizards currently have $70 million committed to 11 players if Pierce decides to spend another season with Wall and Beal. So improvement might require having to step into the dreaded luxury tax for the first time in franchise history. Paying the penalty might not sound like an attractive option for Leonsis, but he did pay the amnestied Andray Blatche $8.5 million this season to play in the Philippines. And with the salary cap expected to explode before next season, the payout for a one-year run is negligible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...6759a6-fda5-11e4-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html
