Is there any narrative more tired than the Wizards “being better” without John Wall? It feels like we’ve been drowning in clickbaity, half-baked thinkpieces about the subject for months now, and the star point guard only underwent knee surgery at the end of January.
The obvious answer: No, the Wizards are decidedly not a better team without their best player. The equally obvious next step in that logical sequence: The Wizards can’t even pretend to contend without him. Wednesday night’s loss to the defending-champion Warriors proved that for anybody who needed proof, as if the past few decades of NBA history hasn’t provided enough evidence of it.