A 5-11 record is not the only thing on the Washington Wizards’ list of concerns.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the team fined point guard John Wall for screaming at head coach Scott Brooks during practice. “After Wall and his teammates had been challenged to raise intensity in that session, Wall fired back with ‘F–k you,’ to Brooks,” Wojnarowski wrote.
Candace Buckner of the Washington Post provided more details: “John Wall and Jeff Green also got into it and their player-on-player verbal altercation led to Coach Scott Brooks trying to intervene and that’s when Wall hurled an expletive at the coach.”
While Wojnarowski noted Wall proceeded to apologize to the coach and his teammates after the outburst, this is the latest drama-filled headline involving the Wizards.
Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported the team had a “volatile practice” that featured “verbal altercations among players and an exasperated Bradley Beal saying toward team officials: ‘I’ve been dealing with this for seven years.'”
What’s more, Wojnarowski reported the team has made the entire roster, including Beal and Wall, available via trade as its “season spirals.” He pointed out the front office wanted to build around the backcourt combination, but the limited trade value of the surrounding pieces has made that particularly difficult.
He also noted trading Wall wouldn’t be that easy either since a contract extension that will pay him an average of $42 million a year with a 15 percent trade kicker starts in 2019-20.
Fred Katz of The Athletic echoed that sentiment:
From talking with people around the NBA, the league is as down on Wall’s value as you’d imagine. Supermax deal ($170-plus million over four years) starts next year, and people are genuinely wondering about his locker room dynamic. Today isn’t helping that.It’s more than just the financial realities hampering the Wizards’ efforts, as Wojnarowski said of the team on the floor, “This is a group that doesn’t like each other very much, hasn’t played for each other, and the organization is realizing that they have gone as far as they may be able to go with them.”
From a pure talent perspective, Wall is one of the best guards in the Eastern Conference as a five-time All-Star and face of the franchise who helped guide Washington to the playoffs in four of the last five seasons.
He is averaging 20.9 points, 7.9 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.1 blocks per game as an all-around threat who is explosive in transition and dangerous with the ball in his hands.
That hasn’t helped the Wizards build a winning record this season, though, and things are trending in the wrong direction.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
