Washington D.C. has been the land of disappointment, for sports that is. I'm sure you guys all have your opinions on the political side, but we can discuss that another time. Maybe when the 4 years is up, then we can look back on the President's term as a whole and decide how we feel. But for now, lets just hope that he either turns it around and does a good job, or continues to make himself look like a fool so that we will forever be reminded of how not to run a country. Hopefully, an NBA Finals championship can help the city take its mind off of all the craziness going on, even if it's just for a few months. The Washington Wizards are a curious bunch. They are led by their head coach Scottie Brooks who seems to continue to have problems with having too much talent. Brooks had his one good Finals year run, and besides that has constantly found himself underachieving with his rosters. This season has been somewhat of a reversal affect. Brooks had his team actually looking better, and playing a better brand of basketball without their best player in John Wall. Look, all the individual stats are awesome. Wall is a one of a kind talent who can score at will, which is tough to find in a point guard. But his talents have yet to translate to team success in the playoffs. I'll probably get killed for saying such blaspheme, but I honestly think that their better play without Wall is the way to go heading into the future. But, they gotta roll with what they got right now. It's insane of me to think that any team could be better without John Wall, so I'm going to continue with the mindset that he will make them better and that his play will translate to postseason success. Especially if they get a favorable draw in the first round against the wounded Boston Celtics, a rematch of last year's 7 game battle. The roster for the Boston Celtics is very different than last season, but they still have Brad Stevens at the helm, which would give any team a significant advantage. But he can only do so much as a coach, the players have to go out there and play. The Wizards with health on their side, will have a favorable match up at pretty much every position on the court. Tomas Satoransky came in and covered for Wall in his absence, and in his 70 games on the court he put up an incredible 47% from three point land. Terry Rozier and Shane Larkin will have their hands full with those two guards. Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart will be able to bring their experience from last season, but there will be too much pressure on them to carry the scoring load for the Celtics. The shooters of the Wizards will come to play as they will build off of their 4th best three point shooting percentage in the NBA. As their scoring will go through the roof, the Wizards will take the series in 6 games, and hopefully they will wear all black prior to the elimination game again. Getting to the second round would be considered a success for Wizard's teams in the past, but it'll be just the beginning of something special. They will book themselves a date with the red hot Philadelphia 76ers. Although the 76ers have many significant statistical advantages, their youth and inexperience will be the driving force that allows the Wizards an opportunity to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Joel Embiid will do exactly what everyone has been afraid of, and get injured in the first game of the series. Marcin Gortat having to go against guys like Ersan Ilyasova and Richaun Holmes will be a breeze. Wall and Gortat will pick and roll them to death which will lead them to being the two leading scorers in the series. Scottie Brooks will come up with the perfect gameplay to limit Ben Simmons playmaking ability by constantly forcing him to get the ball out of his hands early in the shot clock. The 76ers lead the league in turnovers committed, while the Wizards are 7th in the NBA in turnovers forced. This recipe for disaster will be the doom for the 76ers, as they will go down in 6 games. The Toronto Raptors finally came through and defeated Lebron James, which now gives a new Eastern Conference team to reach the Finals. The Wizards will be playing with house money, as everyone in the basketball world will be picking against them. The last thing this group needed was doubters, which will only fuel their fire. Sharing the basketball will be key in this series for the Wizards as the Raptors are 24th in the NBA in steals. The Wizards are 5th in the NBA in team assists, which will lead to them shooting a lot of wide open three point shots. High volume shooter Kelly Oubre will catch fire over 7 games, and will average 4 three point shots made per game. The Raptors commit the 5th most fouls in the NBA, which will lead the Wizards to want to play fast and aggressive. Toronto will blow a 3-0 lead, and none of the players will ever be able to go on Twitter ever again because of cyber-bullying. With an opportunity to win their second championship in franchise history, they will have to do so against the Houston Rockets. The big men of the Rockets in Nene and Clint Capela don't affect many shots in the lane, as they are 23rd in the NBA in blocks per game. Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, and Mike Scott will dominate the short-range game as they will not be scared to shoot over the Rockets big men. This matchup is perfect for John Wall who is a great individual player, as he will face off against Chris Paul. Highlights of Steph Curry's handles will be a distant memory when Wall gets a hold of Paul's ankles on the biggest stage. Bradley Beal won't be able to guard James Harden, and vice versa. These two guys will both average 30+ points over the series and will give us one of the greatest individual offensive performances between two Finals opponents. Scottie Brooks will finally figure out that running isolations 40 times a game through his two best players isn't the way to win basketball games, and will allow his players to share the wealth. Bradley Beal will hit a contested jumper in Harden's face in Game 7, and the city of Houston will burn cop cars. John Wall will be hurt by the fact that he didn't win Finals MVP and he will demand a trade to the New York Knicks, where individual basketball is celebrated with 35 win seasons. The President will call John Wall a crybaby and a loser for wanting to leave D.C., and Twitter will say they wish it was him leaving instead. I couldn't find any cool highlights of any of the Wizards players, so here's some highlights of an All-Star reserve...
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Anthony VallesterosJust a man trying to make the most of his time on this planet. Categories
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