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John Wall highlights the major hurdle the Wizards need to overcome this season
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- John Wall highlights the major hurdle the Wizards need to overcome this season
The Washington Wizards are just 2-2 in the current NBA preseason. However, many are impressed with what they have seen so far from the revamped D.C. team that they believe the Wizards are a playoff team.
Former Wizards franchise player John Wall agrees. He thinks that A.J. Dybantsa will benefit from playing with two All-Star and All-NBA players in Anthony Davis and Trae Young. However, he also cautioned that sometimes too many cooks can spoil the broth.
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"If they stay healthy, they'll definitely make the playoffs. It just depends on how you build that chemistry and camaraderie cuz you still have a lot of young guys that are still trying to get their next contract and establish themselves in the league. And that's the hard part of trying to figure out how everybody can get the right shots," said Wall.
Washington needs AD and Trae to be healthy
As Wall mentioned, AD is a Top 75 player and a former NBA champion, having won with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. Meanwhile, Young had plenty of big playoff moments with the Atlanta Hawks, but the main thing for him and Davis is that they have to stay healthy.
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AD played a combined 29 games in the last two seasons, while Young suited up in only 15 last season. But given how they've looked so far in the preseason, it looks like both will start the year with a clean bill of health. If they can stay that way the rest of the year, many – not just Wall- like Washington's chances this season.
The Wizards' starting five have been the go-to guys on their previous teams
So far this preseason, the Wizards head coach has started Davis, Young, and Dybantsa along with 2024 No. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr and 2024 No. 24 pick Keyshawn George. Given that all five have been the go-to guy on their former teams, whether in the NBA or college, Wall says the quintet needs to figure out the hierarchy.
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"Take a look at their starting five; all five of them want 15 to 20 shots a game. So somebody's got to take a backseat and let somebody else be the guy," he added.
That's why the Wall-Beal era failed
Wall talking about some guys on the current Wizards team needing to take a backseat to make it work is likely based on experience. Former Wizards forward Trevor Ariza recently said on the "Out the Mud" podcast with Tony Allen and Zach Randolph that the reason why the Wall-Beal era in D.C. failed was that neither wanted to take the backseat and they competed to be the No.1 guy on the team .
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"If they could've figured it out a little bit more, if they would've spent more time together, getting to know each other better, it would have been better. But they both wanted to be the guy. That's the part that's kinda weak about the situation because they both could be the guy," said Ariza.
It's hard to figure out the shot distribution in preseason because guys aren't playing their regular minutes. However, if these Wizards figure it out quickly, then the East may have gotten a lot tougher.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
