



One month into the 2019-20 NBA season, the general idea of how the season will play out starts to come into view. For a team like Charlotte, it involves realizing that it may not be as much of a lost season as what was once predicted. For teams like Golden State or the New York Knicks though, it involves realizing that the season may be one of the worst in recent memory. By this point, fans of most teams know what to expect when they tune in every night. The Wizards are not one of those teams, and that’s a good thing.









TRIGGER WARNING: SADNESS





On February 5th, 2019, the news broke that John Wall had neglected to wear his Life Alert™ and slipped and fell in his home. The result was catastrophic, a ruptured Achilles tendon. Wizards fans had always trusted Wall as their fearless leader for the past decade, but their relationship with his health was far more tenuous. Already out for the season with a heel injury, the Achilles injury meant that Washington would essentially lose two competitive seasons. A cloud hovered over the team as they finished the season 32-50 with the 11th seed.





The offseason brought no reprieve for the concerns from media and fans, and the rumor mill was constantly churning. When Wall returns, he will be an athleticism-reliant player on the wrong side of thirty with various knee/leg surgeries and a declining shot, making his $45m/year deal potentially the worst contract in basketball. Bradley Beal was paraded around by the media as a potential trade target, possibly to combine with Wall to unload his contract, and the core of this perennial playoff squad was to be blown up. However, when Tommy Sheppard was hired to replace the dearly departed Ernie Grunfeld as President of Basketball Operations, he employed a slightly different strategy.





Instead of trading away stars for picks and prospects, Sheppard primed himself for a retooling instead of a full blown rebuild. The Wizards acquired a pair of three point shooting big men in Davis Bertans and Mo Wagner, the former from San Antonio and the latter from the LA Lakers in the three-team Anthony Davis trade, in addition to signing veteran point guard Isaiah Thomas to a minimum deal among others. The intention was clear: these are the kind of players that can thrive in a John Wall offense: Bertans and Wagner to space the floor and be recipients of the “John Wall Effect” and Isaiah Thomas to be a spark plug off the bench whenever the second best backcourt in

the league is off the court.





So the hope for the future is there, but what does that mean for the time being? The question that is often asked by fans of teams not quite in the mix, but could be relatively soon. Often it results in casual fans just not caring until the win/loss record is over .500. It’s an understandable stance, not having any interest if there’s no chance of a championship to come from it, but for Wizards fans it would be a terrible mistake.





The beauty of the 2019-20 Washington Wizards is the combination of a reliable star in Bradley Beal and an assortment of young talent with raw potential that lends itself to outbursts of career nights. The dependability of Beal is crucial in two ways. For one, it gives the casual fans a big name to latch onto with his season averages 30/7/5 essentially guaranteeing a stellar game every night. However, it also opens up the floor for the Wizards’ developing talent to thrive offensively, with the clear cut #1 of Beal drawing the lion’s share of the attention from the defense. The dichotomy of this setup has already given the Wizards some fantastic performances from their bench in several games this season already, but the most notable of which has to be what Mo Wagner did against Minnesota this past Friday.





Going up against a premier big man in Karl-Anthony Towns, Wagner rose to the occasion and made a mockery of the Timberwolves both inside the paint and beyond the arc. Mo scored 30 points on 13/15 shooting and a perfect 4/4 from downtown alongside 15 boards with a total +/- of +18, top on the team after Beal’s +31. In addition to his gaudy stats, which he posted all in a mere 25 minutes, he drew three charges in crucial moments that helped keep the Wizards in the lead. His performance may have been overshadowed by Beal’s 44/10 on 100% TS%, but it certainly was not forgotten by Wizards fans.





Wagner’s performance was a shining example of the opportunities for the little guy (metaphorically speaking of course) to make a name for himself whereas other teams wouldn’t even give him the light of day. Just last year, his rookie year in the NBA, he rode the bench for the Los Angeles LeBron’s and averaged a whopping 10.2 minutes per game over 42 games. He showed serious promise in his three campaigns at the University of Michigan, but would have had no chance to develop suffocating at the bottom of the depth chart of a playoff-hopeful team.





If not for the recent player empowerment movement inspiring players to demand trades whenever they hit a rocky stretch, Wagner would still be wasting away as the 11th man on the Lakers. Instead, the Wizards received Mo Wagner among other players and only had to part with a staple of the Ernie Grunfeld era: $1.1 million in cash considerations. Through this trade he has already managed to prove himself to be a solid rotational piece in only 11 games. Davis Bertans fits this description as well, either tying or breaking career highs in every counting statistic after

three years of riding the bench in San Antonio.





These performances end up being so special mainly because of the low expectations the fans have of the players coming into the season. Wizards fans probably couldn’t tell you who either Wagner or Bertans were prior to their acquisitions, but when they stuff the box score as a bench player it becomes dynamite. Even players who have been Wizards prior to this past season have been fascinating to watch. Thomas Bryant is the lead example there, putting up regular double-doubles and locking down the paint with his tenacious defense and rebounding alongside his trademark screams. They’re not as eloquent as as “Board Man Gets Paid,” but it’s the energy that we all really admire.





As much as we love the new Wizards, it is important to remember the context of these performances and temper our expectations. Too wildly unrealistic, and disappointment looms over an already depressed basketball fanbase. Mo Wagner isn’t going to be able to be a 35 minute player just yet, his four fouls a game will see to that, but his development is one to keep an eye on. Conversely, we can start to discuss Davis Bertans’ minutes as he’s attempting 7 threes a game, making his 42% 3PT look pretty good. Both have plenty of time though to improve upon their games and prove that they deserve to have a place to stay on Washington's roster.





We’re not even 15% of the way through this NBA campaign so far, but it’s already given Wizards fans plenty of ups and downs so far (undoubtedly with more to come). Young bucks balling out, Beal playing at an MVP level, and John Wall is dunking! Cautious optimism is advised, but feel safe knowing that through the highs and lows, the winning streaks and rough patches, that this is a team with a core that is built to be a playoff powerhouse in the Eastern Conference.