Ironically, his youthful exuberance and extreme effort is a better fit for this iteration of the Wizards, which is trying to establish a try-hard culture. While he may work out for Phoenix, it’s possible it would never have happened for him in DC. Oubre may be a guy who grew up a bit because he got traded. When he flashed, it was spectacular and fun, but a lot of the time, he was just over-aggressive and made poor decisions that resulted in a style of play with little passing, poor shooting, and undisciplined defense. ‘Style over substance’ applies perfectly to his three-plus seasons in Washington. Neither player is as good as Satoransky, however, and the Wizards defense with Thomas in the lineup has been historically bad. They replaced Satoransky with Ish Smith and Isaiah Thomas, who seem to be better stylistic fits with Brooks. Sure, he isn’t the type of lead guard preferred by Scott Brooks, but he’d already established himself as a competent, if not dynamic, point guard and he would have provided the team with professional-level guard play, which might have helped evaluate the rest of the roster. Sheppard, who played a large part in bringing Satoransky to the NBA, decided the guard wasn’t worth the mid-level offer he received from the Bulls, and traded him for a couple second round picks.īut, the Wizards could have kept him instead. The guard’s merits are still debated and he’s probably the most appropriate player to run the “what if?” scenarios because the decision to trade him was made by current general manager Tommy Sheppard, and it was equally plausible and probable that he remained. Wall didn’t follow Porter to Chicago, but Satoransky did. That goes for all the exes discussing here. In other words, his current performance may not say much about what he could have done two or three years ago. He’s sustained a few more injuries, and he hasn’t looked quite the same since straining his calf and participating in playoffs games while suffering from untreated compartment syndrome. On the other hand, Porter at this point isn’t the same player he was even a couple years ago. Was it coaching? Was it Wall? Was it a lack of aggressiveness? Was it health? As the season takes shape, Porter’s performance in Chicago might give us a read on where the arrow should have been pointing because while Wall isn’t playing for the Wizards, he also didn’t follow Porter to Chicago. He was and is a good player, but his usage and involvement in the offense was a multi-season running debate. We’ll call those players, the “I spent too much time on Twitter talking about them” group. If you’re active on Wizards twitter or message boards, you’ve undoubtedly stumbled across or participated in a heated conversation over some of the Wizards ex’s at some point. What we want to do is look at the impact each player might have had, if they were substituted for their current replacement in terms of the team’s overall play, record, and forecast. Variables beyond on-court production factor into that decision-making process, including the overall direction of the team, financial ramifications of retaining them, fit with the coaching staff, need to change the talent mix, age and the time horizon for the team’s return to competitiveness, player choice and much, much more. We’re not here to say the Wizards made a mistake if an ex is playing well or that they made the right choice if they’re having a bad season. Pretend if you want, but just like people lurk on their ex’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, fans are paying attention to what their team’s former players are doing.Īs the season progresses, we’ll periodically monitor several of the ex-Wizards, updating raw numbers and advanced stats. While “patience” is the buzzword with the current roster, it doesn’t apply to instant overreactions to ex-Wizards. Of the 11 players who received 500 minutes or more for the Wizards last season nine were either traded during the 2018-2019 season (Otto Porter, Kelly Oubre, Markieff Morris, and Austin Rivers), traded during the offseason ( Tomas Satoransky), or allowed to depart in the offseason ( Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis, Jeff Green, and Trevor Ariza). This dismantling included decisions not to bring back the majority of rotations players from last year’s roster. They assembled the league’s seventh youngest roster by dismantling who they were - a veteran-laden group that had grown stale. Ten games into their year of development, the Wizards’ emphasis is on patience with a young, inexperienced roster.
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