Wizards In Comparison To The Rest Of The East
By: Tyrone Montgomery Jr.
Headline Photo Credit: USA Today
They say time flies when you’re having fun. That is a common saying across this country and it is clearly evident and felt too. When you’re having a bad day, many people say something like this: “Oh, it’s been a very long day!” When things aren’t going your way, it’s almost like time is moving slowly. I’m sure we all have been on both ends of this. However, for the Washington Wizards, things are finally becoming settled and the fun is being felt at the moment.
We are approaching the second quarter of this 82-game season. It honestly feels like yesterday that the season just started. As it stands today, the Wizards are currently in 6th place in the East. They are beginning to pull away from being a .500 team as they are 10-7 currently riding a two-game winning streak.
Many people sleep on the East but this conference seems to get tougher every year. In the East, there are three tiers of dominance. The first tier is the true title contender tier. There are only two teams locked into that tier, the Celtics and the Bucks. The Celtics look like the best team in the entire league while the Bucks seem like the runner-up.
In the next tier lies teams that are playoff contenders. In this list are teams like the 76ers, Nets, Cavs, and Hawks. These teams can go on a nice run if given the right circumstances and find themselves in the NBA Finals.
The last tier are teams that are happy to make the playoffs and are hoping for the best. These teams includes the Knicks, Heat, Raptors, and the Wizards.
Washington is close to being in that second tier of teams. However, all of those teams have something that the Wizards are lacking. What I am referring to is a floor general.
The Bucks have Giannis and Jrue. They both can run the offense. The Celtics have a leader in Marcus Smart. The Sixers have Harden when he’s healthy and motivated. Brooklyn has Kyrie, KD, and Ben. Ben is a true floor general when his head is in the game. Kyrie and Kevin are former NBA Champions. The Cavs just added another dynamic player to that backcourt in Donovan Mitchell. Darius Garland is already a floor general. And the Hawks made a fantastic move in acquiring Dejounte Murray and it is showing by their record.
I love Monte Morris. He is extremely efficient and he plays hard every night. But the Wizards need to get a true floor leader/general on the court. Bradley Beal has shown improvement in his game as he has been facilitating a lot. However, he is a scorer. That needs to be his role. Hopefully, the Wizards can upgrade at PG this season. The good thing is that Kuzma, KP, and Beal have been very good this season and they’re only going to get better.
