Team No. 4: Washington Wizards
In a perfect world, an offseason play to this degree would be too much fun. All arrows point to the Washington Wizards having a fully backcourt next season, with John Wall effectively issuing a warning to the rest of the NBA a few weeks ago.
The Wall-Beal combo has more than done its part in making the Wizards fringe, pseudo-contenders. It generally appears to have been the lack of trustable depth that hindered them.
This year, the Wizards fixed that problem, employing the No. 2 scoring bench in the league. Should all pieces remain, they’ll have one of the more underrated young cores in the NBA. But Wall’s return comes pressure. And it doesn’t appear as though Rui Hachimura and Thomas Bryant will be able to be that No. 3 guy just yet.
The big story of the offseason will be in what the Wizards plan to do about Davis Bertans. Players of his caliber are hot commodities, which means he’s poised for a major deal this offseason. The Wizards will have that bidding war to keep an eye on.
And that, in itself is where the pendulum swings. I reached out to a friend of mine on the topic for one reason: it’s one thing to have watched the Wizards struggle from afar, as opposed to embattled in it in person.
In his mind, the Wizards would be better off using assets and time on the younger core — think Troy Brown Jr., Isaac Bonga, etc — but if Washington is to surpass its 2017 form, it’ll need something it didn’t have at that time: a deep Playoff rotation. A chance to play near home and for a title feels right up Anthony’s alley. And it could be there for him in Washington.