A Timeline on how the Wizards Missed Out on Two Great Stars

The Washington Wizards franchise has been under scrutiny for draft and personnel decisions for a while. Reasons as to why they decided to draft Jan Vesley the 6’10 PF out of Czechoslovakia in the 2011 NBA draft over the likes of, oh I don’t know, Klay Thompson, or Kawhi Leonard are still a mystery until this day.  Don’t get me wrong, the Wizards do currently have one of the more talented backcourts in the NBA, but wouldn’t things just be a little better if they had ended up with Stephen Curry, the reigning MVP of the league and James Harden one of the most explosive players in the NBA? I would think that would be a resounding YES!

Here is how Wizards’ GM Ernie Grunfeld up having the most explosive backcourt in the NBA. In the 2009 NBA draft the Wizards owned the 6th pick in the draft. Many mock draft’s had them selecting either James Harden, or a wing player. The day before, the Wizards made a blockbuster trade sending the 5th pick Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas, and Oleksiy Pecherov to the Timberwolves in exchange for Mike Miller and Randy Foye. The reason for that, Grunfeld says, is that he wanted “veteran” players and that he didn’t think anyone would help the Wizards roster with the 6th pick. Boy was he wrong, wrong, and wrong again.  The Wizards, with those “veteran guards,” watched as Stephen Curry was taken with the 7th pick to the Golden State Warriors and James Harden was selected 3rd to OKC. Had the Wizards stayed at 5, they could have had the reigning MVP on their team instead of two washed up veterans who haven’t done much in the NBA.

Let’s fast forward to 2012. The Wizards selected Bradley Beal with the 3rd pick in the 2012 draft. The U of Florida prospect had a very productive freshman year there and continued to show his excellent shooting ability with the Wizards. The Wizards now with the backcourt of Wall and Beal started to gain recognition around the league, and were seen as one of the brighter backcourts in the NBA (Good job Grunfeld.) The Thunder eventually lost to the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals and James Harden was becoming disgruntled and wanted out of OKC. He felt he was worth a max contract that OKC was not willing to give him. The team looked for trades and had their eyes set on guess who. Yup, Bradley Beal. The Wizards and Thunder engaged in trade talks and all it would have taken for Harden to be in D.C. would be Beal and Chris Singleton. But once again the blame falls on Ernie Grunfeld as he said that Harden didn’t deserve the money. Harden was later traded to the Houston Rockets we know the rest. Harden has become a 4 time all- star along with First team All NBA in 2014 and 2015. The Wizards current backcourt of Wall and Beal are not bad, but having Curry and Harden would be a whole heck of a lot better. With two stars in a city with a huge fan base the Wizards have would be electrifying. But instead Washington struck out on obtaining two of the biggest stars in the NBA. Our fan base is hurting seeing these other teams prosper. Dc, this could be us, but you played.