John Wall's Season Could Be Over
Well this news sucks. There was always the chance this was going to be the result of him going to see a specialist, but it’s another tough blow for a team and a fanbase that has had a pretty brutal 2018-19 season. With the Wizards currently 13-23 and 4.5 games out of the 8th spot in the East, you have to think Wall just goes ahead and gets the surgery right? No reason for him to push through it and make it worse which could put next season in jeopardy as well. Better to just get this taken care of now, realize this is a lost season and focus on the future. The spinzone here is that the Wizards are just 5 games back of having the best lottery odds, so if there was every a season to have a down year and tank, it’s for sure this season with the top 4 or so looking pretty stacked.
What would make me nervous as a Wizards fan though is this reality
Having your franchise player have major surgery on his feet, a player that relies on his speed and athleticism sure isn’t ideal, and it’s an even bigger problem when you’re about to pay him $169M over the next 4 years. That 15% trade kicker only makes finding a trade partner even more difficult, so in a sense the Wizards are a little stuck when it comes to Wall. They had to give him that extension, and while no one could possibly know this was in his future, it sounds like this isn’t a new problem so maybe the Wizards didn’t care either way. Wall’s been good enough to warrant that extension and it now may be their biggest hurdle as they try and rebuild and get back to being a contender in the East. Crazy this is basically Gilbert Arenas 2.0.
Given that this is a lost season, obviously the question now becomes what does this team to with Bradley Beal. He’s under contract for 2 more seasons after this, is only 26 and is entering his prime as a player. He figured out his injury issues of the past, played at least 77 games in each of the last two seasons, and has played in 36 games so far this season. If it’s me, unless you get some sort of godfather offer with legit young talent and high lottery picks, I think I’m holding onto Beal. Sure it may be killing him inside to be losing like this, but it doesn’t look like having him on the roster is going to really prevent them from being in on the Zion sweepstakes, so why not roll the dice and potentially pair a high lottery pick this year with Wall/Otto Porter/Beal? You can certainly do worse than that in my opinion. The Wizards made their bed when they gave Beal/Wall/Porter Jr their max extensions, and while things haven’t worked out this year those are still good young pieces. Maybe they need a new coach, but unless LeBron is willing to find a way to take on Wall’s contract, this is going to be their core moving forward whether fans like it or not.
At the end of the day though, it sucks to see John Wall might be out for the year. He’s one of the more exciting players in the entire league and he was having a pretty good season despite their record. They’ll now turn to guys like Tomas Satoransky, Troy Brown, and Ron Baker to fill that role, and as good as Satoransky may be in flashes, he’s certainly no John Wall. Brutal.