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WASHINGTON – Scott Brooks raised his fist, John Wall was typed in the chest and the 14,499 (announced) players who made their debut in Capital One Arena roared in the moments of Wizards' 125- victory victory. 118 on the Clippers.
It was a win for Washington, his sixth of the season. And a respite that is badly needed.
These are dark days in the land of wizards. Considered a conference candidate on the sidelines of the season, Washington stumbled. The losses were compounded by reports of dysfunctions, highlighted by a skirmish last week that seemed to affect all members of the team, including the coach.
ESPN reported that John Wall dropped an F-bomb on Brooks.
I guess Brooks – who played with Vernon Maxwell, who was coached by Rudy Tomjanovich and coached Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka – heard worse.
Yet the story of the separation of wizards is complete. And rightly so. Washington is a perpetual underachiever. Magicians speak a good game and save it rarely. Washington has not gone out of the second round since 1979. They were then the Bullets. Mitch Kupchak, a young striker, scored 15 points per game.
The Wizards have one of the highest salaries in the NBA – $ 131 million – and are far from one of his best teams.
WOO: Should wizards exchange John Wall?
Wall carries the most important target: he is the franchise player, and starting next season, Wall will earn an average of about $ 40 million a year over the next four seasons. And he was not great. Wall's percentage of shooting is in his mid-forties, his percentage is three points in his thirties, and there are times when he seems to be wandering through games. His shooting selection is suspicious, his defense has been worse and his leadership largely questioned.
But is John Wall really the biggest problem in Washington?
Is Markieff Morris, whose percentage of goals (43%) and percentage of three points (34%) have decreased compared to last season?
Is Otto Porter, the man of $ 26 million a year, that counts only 11 points per game?
Is it Austin Rivers, whose number has cratered everywhere? Does it mean Dwight Howard, the ballyhooed outlaw coach whose injuries have limited him to nine games this season? Is it about Ian Mahinmi, whose $ 64 million contract over four years is among the worst signed in the summer of 2016?
My point: It's not just a problem with John Wall.
In addition, does anyone really believe that Washington can get no matter what of value for the wall right now? He is a 28-year-old playmaker with a history of knee problems and whose contract will consume one-third of the surface of any team.
Could wizards interest Phoenix? Maybe Suns owner Robert Sarver is crazy, and he could be convinced that Wall-Devin Booker's backyard is the way to go in the playoffs.
Could Miami enter the mix? The heat does not seem to stop taking risks. Pat Riley seems determined to give his team a chance, and I'm sure in Miami, some think that a change of scenery and a few seasons in the Heat conditioner could do wonders for him.
Beyond that, does anyone take Wall on?
Do not think that the relationship between Wall and Brooks is damaged. Alterations with star players come with the territory. Doc Rivers was part of his large number of leading stars and had some failures with some of them.
"Oh yes, it's a ball, it's a lot of fun," Rivers said sarcastically, "I punished them the next day, I played them for 48 minutes, and I never played them." You know the old adage you must be as good as your problems, otherwise it is easy to punish.If you are, it is a more difficult thing. "
"I can laugh now because I'm not there, but I have been, and I know how hard they are. I had some bad ones, but you know at the end of the day that if you have a good relationship with that person, you'll be fine. But you have to deal with it.
And is fighting in practice?
"The practice fights are going well," Rivers said. "You have them with each other. Player against player, I've seen a lot. Most people never know anything – some good too, man. It happens. Sometimes it's good for your team, but most of the time it's not. "
"I've always thought words were sometimes worse than fights and what is being said. This is our job. You treat a lot. Many guys have expectations, individual expectations. As a coach, our job is to try to ensure that these expectations are met in one team goal. When it works, you have a very good cloakroom. When that does not work, you are sometimes tormented. "
And the fact that Wizards' problems are played out publicly?
"It's hard to say that it's not a distraction because we're talking about it, it's aired," Bradley Beal said. "That's what it is, all we can do is control what we can control, and that's how we play."
The most reasonable argument for dismantling the Wizards a month after the start of the season is that history has shown that this team has a cap. This is the sixth year of the Wall / Beal / Porter core and the results have been disappointing. The Wiz are able to surprise you with a playoff series – two years ago, Washington was a defeat of match 7 in Boston after defeating Cleveland in a final that could have been interesting for the conference – but too often in retreat. With young high-level teams at the top of the conference (Toronto, Milwaukee, Boston), the moment of the restart could be launched.
The question is whether CEO Ernie Grunfeld is responsible for doing so.
Grunfeld, in the year 16-16! –with the Wizards, enjoys greater job security than a federal judge, survived jagged seasons, a handful of reconstructions, a poor record set and a strange history of excessive spending. If Washington changes its list, it's fair to ask if Grunfeld deserves to supervise it.
SHARP: The problem with the wizards, is everyone
Publicly and privately, the Wizards are not ready to declare this group over. A win over the Clippers is far from creating a momentum – LA only came into play Tuesday morning at 3 am and set a 24-point lead over Washington, which was erased by a team of Gas Clips in second place. half-time – and the Wiz knows it. The program is no easier, with dates against Toronto and Houston and a return match against New Orleans looming in the coming week.
"We still have a lot to repair – it's only a game," Beal said. "I'm still not happy and I know [our team] Not happy with where we are. We have a lot of work to do, but we certainly take a lot of positives from [tonight]. Especially with all the negativity around us, we take all the positives we can have. "
"No one here likes the next man, it's just a matter of putting him on the floor. Tonight we did it and it was all the effort. We just have to keep going. "
The good news for the Wizards is that the NBA cycle regularly airs dramas. Washington's clashes have supplanted Golden State's, and Wiz issues were eclipsed on Tuesday by Markelle Fultz's current saga.
Chaining victories and staging is forgotten.
Keep fighting and changes, the most important ones, could be coming.
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