Cleveland Cavaliers: Why They’re Not A Lock To Make The NBA Finals
By Mason McFee
The Wiz Kids
When Washington started the season 2-8, many questions arose:
Is Scott Brooks the right man for the job?
Do the Wizards even have a bench?
Are the Wizards wasting Wall’s prime?
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Can Beal and Wall co-exist?
Well, the Wizards have put all those questions to rest by acquiring Bojan Bogdanovic at the trade deadline, and signing Knicks waivee Brandon Jennings to shore up the Wizards’ biggest glaring weakness. I don’t know if it’s really been a question of if the starters can produce. Beal is shooting 39.6% from 3 fresh off signing a mega-contract extension, Otto Porter is the NBA’s leading 3PT shooter at 45.6%, and John Wall and Marcin Gortat are double-double machines.
Trade deadline acquisition from last season (Markieff Morris) has also been dazzling with a variety of scoring means – post-ups, fadeaway jumpers, dunks, drives, and decent 3PT shooting.
While having a good starting 5 is important when you reach the postseason, it’s even more important to have guys that can spell your starters, especially if a series goes 6 or 7 games…. unless you’re LeBron and you never sub out or get injured and those rules go out the window.
Now, the Wizards are 37-24, good for 3rd in the Eastern Conference; albeit with a minuscule lead over the lingering Toronto Raptors who are right behind them in 4th place; and the Atlanta Hawks not too far behind either. While this of course will almost certainly change by the end of the season, the Wizards are a postseason lock.
Speaking of those dinosaurs….