The state of our Washington Wizards never became more clear than last night at around 9 p.m. They are extremely far behind from the pack of contenders. The Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony to team up with Amare Stoudemire in a blockbuster deal, only to further more shift the competitive balance of the league to the top and possibly cause a problem for the overall health of the Association.
Yes, it could be a heck of a lot worse for the Wiz. If they didn't strike gold with the first pick last June and John Wall, we would be discussing an entirely different and much worse situation. The thing is, it's still not good. The league has always been one of pure star power, and it couldn't be more apparent now. The Lakers and Celtics set the standard when acquiring multiple stars to go along their franchise player, and the Heat one-upped that with nabbing Lebron and Bosh this past summer in addition to Wade. You can not win a title in this league without three all stars. That is just the way it is now. Is it a good thing? You could argue both ways, but my stance is firm on the fact that it takes away from the competitive balance of the league, and completely dismisses the notion of parity that is so apparent in the other major sports.
The Wizards had themselves a pretty decent situation, but that all went to shit with a certain someone's off the court actions (see picture above). And maybe that was for the good, considering they were aging, injured, and never going to contend with the big boys. They have appeared to have gotten step one out of the way by getting their franchise point guard, John Wall. Wall is clearly a great talent, but he and the Wizards will not be great until they get other stars to go alongside him. Now the real question is, how in the world are the Wizards going to get stars to come to D.C.? That is not a question I can answer, mainly because I don't even see how it is feasible at this point. For at least the next 5 years, the Wiz will be looking up at the Heat, Knicks, Bulls, and temporarily the Celtics and Magic. That is a steep hill to climb. I hope Leonsis and Grunfeld have a plan, because nothing will move forward until they get step two moving along.
We knew all along the Wiz had work to do, but with another team in their conference making a realistic push to join the elite, it only emphasized the dubious state of the franchise, even just months after getting the first overall pick.
All we can hope for at this point is another miracle in May with those ping pong balls.
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