Remember the 2017 playoffs when the Wizards were one game away from facing LeBron James and the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals? With a near appearance in the ECF, expectations were high for the following season, but the Wizards struggled down the stretch and crawled to an eighth seed finish.



Coming into this season, Wizards fans expected no less than the playoffs after LeBron James took his talents to the sunny beaches of Los Angeles, leaving the Eastern Conference wide open for a supposedly hungry Wizards team.



But following a 15-23 start and the announcement of John Wall’s season-ending surgery, things are once again looking bleak for DC. The Wizards are being labeled as one of the most disappointing franchises in the NBA because of injuries, terrible coaching and management, and a lack of team chemistry.



Despite the injuries to Wall and Howard, the Wizards still have a playoff caliber roster. With an established all star in Bradley Beal, one of the top defensive players in the league in Trevor Ariza, and surprise players like Thomas Bryant and Jeff Green, you would think that they would be doing better in the Eastern Conference.



However, sitting only three wins out of a playoff spot in the lowly East, the Wizards will find a way to squeak into the playoffs again. Not because this team actually has solid talent or because they will get a coaching boost from Scott Brooks (the man who failed to win an NBA title with a Thunder team that had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all on the same roster).



No, this Wizards team will make make the playoffs simply because they are the Wizards and will always do the bare minimum to justify not blowing things up. Or at least enough to make a case compelling enough for Ted Leonsis to do absolutely nothing.



For a franchise that has always built up optimism just to crush every fans hopes and dreams, it would only be fitting for the Wizards to make the playoffs and lose in the first round thus keeping all of their bad contracts, losing out on a stacked draft class, and retaining the horrible management that got them into this cycle of mediocrity in the first place.



So to answer the question: Why will the Wizards make the playoffs this year? It’s because they are the Wizards, and are an inherently flawed franchise that needs to rebuild more than just its roster. #FireErnie



-Greg King



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