A year can make an enormous difference in the perception of an NBA team.
Last summer, the Washington Wizards had the same backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal but they were faced with immense pressure of having to make the playoffs to save the jobs of head coach Randy Wittman and general manager Ernie Grunfeld.
Before the season began, Grunfeld made what many perceived as a panicky move and sent its first round pick to Phoenix for Marcin Gortat, who was on an expiring contract. But as the season progressed, something happened in the District that had not occurred in quite some time: Everything turned out spectacularly for the Washington Wizards.
Now? The top team in the Southeast Division no longer resides in the state of Florida. It’s these Washington Wizards.
Only Toronto can match or best the offseason continuity Washington enjoyed. With Cleveland’s rise to contention and the rather rapid descent of conference finals opponents Miami and Indiana, Washington is sitting pretty in the East’s upper echelon.
How did Washington get to this point?
The Gortat and Nene tandem stayed relatively healthy last season and provided veteran stability for the emerging Wall-Beal backcourt. Trevor Ariza (who is now gone, we’ll get to that soon) had a tremendous season as a shooter, spacer and defender. Martell Webster came up huge off the bench and Washington defeated Chicago to reach the second round of the postseason.
In a summer of heavy turnover a year ago, Washington replaced Earl Barron, Shaun Livingston, Cartier Martin, Emeka Okafor and A.J. Price with Drew Gooden, Gortat, Al Harrington, Eric Maynor, Andre Miller and Glen Rice Jr. The Wizards jumped from 29 to 44 wins, a huge 15-game improvement. Here is how Washington made that big leap in statistical terms:
| Wizards (League Rank) | Points Scored | Points Allowed | O Rating | D Rating | FG % | 3 FG % | Opponent FG % | Opponent 3 FG % | Rebounds | Assists |
| 2012-2013 | 93.2 (28) | 95.8 (8) | 100.2 (30) | 103 (5) | 43.5 (27) | 36.5 (10) | 44 (5) | 34.9 (9) | 43.2 (9) | 21.6 (19) |
| 2013-2014 | 100.7 (16) | 99.4 (9) | 106 (17) | 104.6 (8) | 45.9 (10) | 38 (5) | 45.8 (18) | 34.7 (5) | 42.2 (20) | 23.3 (8) |
The Wizards desperately needed to be more offensively efficient and did just that, improving their field goal percentage by nearly 2.5 percentage points while improving their 3-point shooting and moving the ball around better. Washington still remained a top-10 defensive team in both overall points allowed and points surrendered per 100 possessions.
And here’s the best part: They’re only going to get better.
The backcourt has an extra year of experience and the confidence knowing that they could succeed at a high level. Ariza wanted much more money than he was worth and Grunfeld recognized that, so Grunfeld shipped Ariza to Houston in a sign-and-trade. After the Nets and Clippers couldn’t work out a sign-and-trade of their own for Paul Pierce because of Brooklyn’s financial inflexibility, Washington improbably pounced and inked the future Hall Of Famer to a team-friendly two-year deal worth $11 million.
That Pierce contract saved the team a boatload of money in the process, relative to Ariza’s bloated deal, allowing Grunfeld to bolster bolstered the team’s frontcourt depth, which was badly needed after having to play Gooden and Harrington in far too many meaningful minutes last season. Now the team’s bench, in this writer’s estimation, is the second deepest in the Eastern Conference, behind Chicago.
Bench depth should be a theme of growing importance in Washington after the team’s reserves logged the sixth-fewest minutes per game last season and scored the second-fewest points per game among benches in the league, according to HoopsStats.com (ironically, the bottom five benches in terms of scoring, and seven of the bottom eight, made the playoffs last year).
Webster is a very capable 6th Man after shooting 39.2 percent from three last year and is joined on the wing by Rice and Otto Porter. Both young forwards made the Summer League all first team last month in Las Vegas. With Rice ascending and Porter healthy and unburdened by the lofty expectations placed on the former third overall pick, the depth here is strong.
At just over $4.6 million, Andre Miller is a bargain at the backup point guard position at a combined $6.3 million for next season, Kris Humphries and DeJuan Blair replace Trevor Booker and seriously bolsters its depth at the four and five positions.
“On paper, when you look at the kids they had and the guys that are coming back, you have to be excited,” Humphries told SheridanHoops in a Wednesday afternoon conference call with reporters. Humphries was excited about the team’s mix of players young and old and called the Wizards one of the league’s top up-and-coming teams that can run, rebound and space the floor.
In a Thursday call with reporters, Blair said he would try to bring energy and toughness to a young group that now has multiple veteran presences who have winning pedigrees. Blair said he knew that he was part of a really strong haul of offseason moves for Grunfeld and the Wizards.
“They did big things last year, but we made big moves and filled a lot of holes we had this offseason,” Blair told SheridanHoops. And with the big moves made in the offseason, Washington will no longer be sneaking up on the rest of the division or the conference.
Being a division favorite has both benefits and detriments. Washington is now expected to easily eclipse its 44 wins from a season ago and once again reach the second round of the playoffs at the very least. Humphries emphasized that on a playoff team with Washington, every late-game sequence, every possession and every single loose rebound becomes more magnified.
With Wall and Beal now more mature and Pierce’s leadership added to the starting lineup alongside veterans Gortat and Nene, it could be a while before Washington (for a change) is not among the best four or five teams in the Eastern Conference.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who loves advanced statistics and the way they explain what happens on the court. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.
I agree that Wiz should be ranked third in East, because of their depth and if they have better health than CLE & CHI, may do better.
However, a lot of misinformation is out there about Paul Pierce. The Nets didn’t want Pierce for several reasons and never made any offer for him after a tough decision was made in early July. Also, it was the Clippers, not the Nets who had financial inflexibility, as they wanted to avoid the Luxury Tax for this coming season. Nets decided they weren’t going to win a championship this year (neither will Wiz), and without Pierce now have the option to avoid the repeater tax for 2015-2016. Also Pierce would hurt Nets Chemistry for this season, for several reasons, and he wouldn’t take kindly to playing limited minutes. Also, Pierce can’t defend SFs any more, and never played him at that position after the New Year with Brooklyn. Wiz can’t use him at the PF position, and he will be a big dropoff from Ariza on defense. On offense and come playoff time he may be an asset because of leadership, but he may also hurt Wall’s leadership. Pierce played too much “hero” ball for Nets, hurting the confidence of other players like Deron Williams (who was hurting all season). Also, Pierce playing PF for Nets again would have hurt the ability to use Mason Plumlee at PF, as well as Andrei Kirilenko, who is still playing great defense. Some Wiz players also have a history of injury, so we shall see.