OverTime: So, The Washington Wizards, In Memoriam.

Photo courtesy of Strictly Buckets Sports.

It may be time to say goodbye to the Washington Wizards we know and love (to hate). As of right now, the Wizards are the eleventh seed in the Eastern Conference, three teams and three games behind the eighth seed and thus outside the playoff picture. Missing the playoffs this year would be only the third time since 2012, when the fateful backcourt pairing of John Wall and Bradley Beal began, that the Wizards would not appear in the postseason. But unlike the previous two seasons where they missed the playoffs - the 2013 season when Beal and Wall were getting acquainted and there was no expectation of making the playoffs and the 2016 season where Beal sat the most games of his career and the Wizards only missed the playoffs by a few bad games - this season feels final. This feels like it is truly the end of the Wizards, at least for right now. "But why?" you might ask. Well, allow me to tell you.

• John Wall, the All-Star point guard for the Wizards and truly one of the best in the league, tore his Achilles after slipping and falling in his home earlier this month. He's expected to be out for at least 12 months.
• And that's majorly inconvenient, considering the Wizards have ALL of their money wrapped up in Wall and Beal. For reference, next year the team is paying Bradley Beal over $27,000,000 and they're paying Wall $37,800,000. That's nearly 38 MILLION dollars to someone that cannot play until maybe the spring of election year. Again, for reference, those two contracts are nearly half of the Wizard's cap space for next season. That's almost as egregious an error as this missed call in Tuesday's game against the Pistons: 

• And, if the contracts weren't bad enough (which they most certainly are), the Wizards are relying on Thomas Bryant as their starting center. Now, even I needed a little bit of reference on this, so I hit up the always useful Basketball Reference, and here's what I found out:
1. No one, literally no one, can explain why Thomas Bryant, a child only two weeks older than me, is the starting center for a fringe playoff team in a depleted conference.
2. Bryant will be a restricted free agent this summer (we'll get to more free agency problems in a minute), which means the Wizards will have to decide if they want to actually sign Thomas Bryant as their starting center going forward.
3. The Washington Wizards are shelling out over $20,000,000 next season to Ian Mahinmi and Dwight Howard, two centers well beyond their primes, even though they have played less games combined than Thomas Bryant this season.

Actually, now that I take a look at Thomas Bryant up close, I'm okay with him being the starting center for the Wizards. He is definitely an upgrade over Dwight Howard or their previous center, and the butt of many of my jokes, Marcin Gortat.

• Okay, back to the bullet points. Here's the fun part. Just last week, before the trade deadline, the Wizards traded one part of their "big three" - Otto Porter Jr. - to the Chicago Bulls, for Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis. And while I really enjoy Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis, they are not a win-now solution for Washington. Parker, 23, and Portis, 24, have yet to hit their prime. Give them a few years and build around them and you'll have a very, very strong core. But as of right now, they aren't an ironclad solution.
• Speaking of ironclad solutions, allow me to introduce to you my favorite Wizard - Trevor Ariza. That's right, the four-year Wizard who left, went to Houston, missed EVERY shot he took in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, despite playing 42 minutes, then pouted about it in Phoenix, and who is now back in Washington! That Trevor Ariza. I want to talk about Trevor Ariza because, despite what you might think based on his WCF performance, he's actually been the exact kind of wing that Washington needs. Without Ariza on the court, the Wizards are ranked 20th in offensive efficiency. However, when Ariza is on the floor, the Wizards shoot up to 4th. FOURTH! That's only behind Golden State (obviously), Denver (who's in a renaissance), and Houston (where Harden is posting the single greatest offensive season in the history of basketball). With Ariza on the court, the Washington Wizards actually have the highest offensive efficiency rating in the Eastern Conference. So, why is this long-winded explanation on the bullet point list of reasons to say goodbye to the Wizards? Well, because Ariza, going on 34 years old, is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he's shown a keen interest in playing on the West coast. And the Los Angeles Lakers have also shown a keen interest in obtaining Trevor Ariza to throw on the wing across from LeBron James (heard of him?). If all goes right in both of their worlds, Ariza will be donning purple and gold once again (it should be noted, Trevor has already won a championship with the Lakers). Except this time, he'll be donning the jersey to play alongside the greatest player on the planet, and the Wizards and their offensive efficiency will be left out to dry.

So, where does this leave the Wizards? Not to overstate it, but pretty much with one foot in the grave and the other dragging close behind. The Wizards are financially bound for at least three more years to a point guard who will be returning from a torn Achilles sometime next year. They are totally reliant on Bradley Beal, who they've already put on the trade block, and Trevor Ariza, who cannot wait to be back on the free market. The team's young core needs at least a few more years to develop, but the front office wants to continue making strong pushes for the playoffs now. And while their success this season may or may not be an indicator of things to come, it is certainly an indicator that the Wizards they once were are dead and gone.