Maybe the Wizards blew it. Trading away John Wall for Houston's Russell Westbrook doesn't look like the best of deals nowadays.
A snapshot of the deal came Tuesday when Houston beat Washington, 107-88. Wall looked like his old self, before he was sidelined for nearly two seasons with a knee injury. If trading him over fears of his health was the reason, it proved wrong. Wall scored 24 points with the same explosiveness to the basket. He flat out punked the Wiz on one layup it was so magical.
Meanwhile, Westbrook played angry. Well, that's always been part of his game, but rage is not the same thing as aggressiveness. Westbrook threw the ball at the basket like a live grenade. There was no finesse to his game. Just a lot of adrenaline and anger, like bickering with Wall near the game's end.
Sure, Westbrook's numbers look fine at first glance – 18.1 points, 10.2 assists and 9.7 rebounds in nine games. Then again, his field goal percentage is 37.4 percent. The Wiz are 3-10 so he's not the missing piece many hoped.
Too bad there aren't takebacks on this one. Where's a Juwan Howard do-over when you need it?
Everyone thought Westbrook would be the final piece to putting the Wizards in the Eastern Conference finals. Instead, they're as lousy as ever. Sure, COVID has been a big problem for this team. A lot of minutes to reserves who don't deserve them, but other teams have the same problem.
It would be easy to blame coach Scotty Brooks for this mess, and maybe his judgment day is coming. But then, Brooks can hardly be totally to blame when the team barely practices anymore because of so many players with the virus.
Owner Ted Leonsis has the patience of Job and isn't a short-term decision maker. But Leonsis spent millions of dollars in 2019 on improving this team's health and wellness programs with no return. It still comes down to a young player being able to hit the corner jumper at the buzzer and this team has no chemistry or rhythm. No confidence, either.
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Bradley Beal is a scoring machine on a bad team. Most likely, he's trade bait in the future, a reward for putting up with this mess for so long. But if Wall returned to Washington like he played Tuesday, the Wiz would be a much better team than they are now.
See anyone walking over to Westbrook while he's fuming over a play? Or suggesting he not throw bricks off the backboard? How can someone averaging 10.2 assists take so many bad shots and play selfishly?
Wall loved Washington. Wiz fans loved him. It's just that after 10 years each thought they needed to go their own way.
They were wrong.
Rick Snider has covered Washington sports since 1978. Follow him on Twitter: @Snide_Remarks.