Much has been made over the past month over the trade between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers centered around Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas. The Washington Wizards made much smaller moves during the offseason due to limited salary cap space, but that does not mean that they have not improved. Sure, they did not add a Gordon Hayward or Jae Crowder, but they are a prideful bunch that does not want to hear about how they are clearly a cut below Boston and Cleveland in the Eastern Conference.
Head coach Scott Brooks believes continuity going into his second year is "a great thing", John Wall likes the subtle additions to the team while maintaining the core, Bradley Beal concurs because he "hates change", and Otto Porter Jr. finds the ability to grow as a group and play to each other's known strength a "big advantage."
Although the Game 7 loss to the Celtics for another end to the season on May 15 continues to be a thorn in Washington's side, it is not like that desire for revenge or being slighted by pundits will make them want to give more than they did before. The team was going to play hard regardless of whatever was said about that or the impressive additions any other team made during the offseason.
“My competitive drive will be the same no matter what or who is on anybody’s team,” Wall retorted when asked about a potential increased hunger following the offseason moves by Boston and Cleveland. “Every day I come to work, I am competing against talented players and it’s competitive so I don’t care what any other team does. They make changes, they make stuff to make their team better, we did what we had to do to make our team better and all I’m going to do is compete when I get in between those lines.”
The fourth piece to the young core in D.C. is Kelly Oubre Jr. who Washington is still high on to turn into a legitimate force off the bench. Oubre has a swagger about him of ultra confidence that was on full display when asked if he was keeping note of the wild NBA offseason of superstars moving throughout the league.
“I’m not someone who has thoughts on much that doesn’t pertain to my life or me bettering my team or my situation,” Oubre explained. “That’s great for them and those organizations they got some gems and some great pieces, but over here in this Wizards camp, we know what we got. We have some great pieces as well and that’s the only thing I’m focused on.”
Veteran stretch big man Jason Smith also chimed in with a similar theme of not worrying about what other teams can do since one has no control over their management.
“For me, I am a guy that says, ‘you can only control what you can control,’” Smith shared. “There have been a lot of people moving this year. There has been some changes on some teams, but that's stuff you really can't focus on. That's stuff we can't control. The things that we want to worry about are the things that we are doing here at home.”
I'm sure everyone in the NBA takes note of the big moves made throughout the league, it is only human nature and curiosity to do so, but creating a storyline that it will motive Washington even further to play their best as if they would not have before is ludicrous.