NBA
John Wall Believes The East Is Wide-Open Without LeBron
Many believe with LeBron James’ departure to LA that any team can come out of the East this upcoming season. James led his team to eight straight NBA Finals in the East from 2010-2018.
Domination is an understatement for what James has done to his competitors in the Eastern Conference. With LeBron gone this gives the perception that the East is wide-open for the first time in several years.
But is it? Last season, the Wizards finished 16 games behind the first-place Raptors, who landed one of the league’s top five players in Kawhi Leonard. Washington were also 12 games behind the second-place Celtics, who came within six minutes of representing the East in the Finals without their stars, Irving or Hayward.
Not to mention the Wizards were nine games behind the third-place Sixers, who are likely to improve with their young core of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Markelle Fultz.
Wall Believes They’re Ready
John Wall believes his team is now a contender in the East and should have been for the last few years. Here is what he said in Las Vegas at the USA Basketball mini-camp, via Bleacher Report.
“I think we have a better team now, and the East is more wide-open now that LeBron James is out of the picture.”
Wall is still one of the best point guards in the entire league. He’s arguably the best point guard in the Eastern Conference. At one time Wall and his backcourt mate, Bradley Beal, were known as the second best backcourt behind the Splash Brothers. Beal is a sharpshooter and scorer who can create his own shot.
Both have been affected by injuries over the past three years. Something that Wall actually pointed out when asked if he thought his Wizards had reached their ceiling:
“I think we could have competed the last two years if we didn’t have to deal with injuries. Falling to the eight seed, playing Toronto, a heck of a team, I felt like we should have beaten those guys, but they came out the better team at that time.”
The closest Wall’s Wizards have ever come to advancing out of the playoffs’ second round was against the Celtics two years ago.
“I felt like we should have won that series,” Wall said. “But they were the better team.” Wall said he physically feels “great.” He added, “I think we have a better team now.”
In April, after the Raptors had eliminated the Wizards in six games, Wall used the pulpit of a press conference to plead for his team’s management to bolster the roster surrounding him.
Wizards Off-Season Acquisitions
“I think the way the league is going, you need athletic bigs, you need scoring off the bench, you need all of those types of things.”
Wall told reporters then. It seems as if Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld was listening.
Grunfeld made many off-season moves, by first trading Marcin Gortat for the ever-defensive Austin Rivers. Washington then replaced Gortat with All-Star Dwight Howard. Then they finished their off-season by signing the very versatile Jeff Green.
Together, those additions represent a huge upgrade on both ends of the floor for Washington. Last year, Washington allowed opponents to 65.9 percent of their layups against them, the fourth-worst number in the league. Dwight Howard should improve a defense that couldn’t protect the paint.
While Jeff Green is one of the more creative scorers in the league, who will boost the offense. Green provides an athletic player who can shoot and drive to the rim. Wall commented the following on Green.
“[He’s] athletic and versatile. He can switch out 1 through 4. He guarded me when we played Cleveland.”
Picking up Austin Rivers after his best scoring year to date in the NBA with his 15.1 points per game last year is another plus. Rivers could be commander of the offense and keep the Wizards in rhythm while Wall and Beal are on the bench.
Time Is Up? Or Time Is Now
Four playoff berths in five years is a huge accomplishment, but every team reaches the ceiling at some point. Wall has a feeling about this upcoming season.
“You kind of know when that time is there, as a player, when that time is up.”
On paper, this team looks like a serious competitor, but Wall has yet to lead his team past the second round of the playoffs. Maybe this will be the year.
