I’ve been a fan since Juan Dixon was drafted by the Wizards so forgive me if I come off as pessimistic. Years of Wizards fandom and rooting for Andre Blatche, Nick Young and Javale McGee has turned me into a bitter, hopeless fan. I actually had to stop following basketball since Wall’s injury so feel free to eviscerate my uninformed take, but here it is.

How can you look at the talent level in the league and sincerely believe Beal is the guy. Maybe 15 years ago Beal + Westbrook would have been good enough, but look at how talented the league is now: Giannis, Steph, KD, Lebron, Kawhi, AD. And right behind them are Jokic, Luka, Embiid, Harden, and maybe a couple others I forgot. Jokic, Luka, Embiid may never win a championship but each one of these guys “break” the game in a unique way so they are in the category of “can potentially carry a well constructed team to a championship with lots of luck”. By “breaking” the game, I mean they have ways to render obsolete the traditional way of playing basketball like Dame and Steph’s contested logo 3’s, Giannis coast to coast dunk with a single dribble, Harden iso, etc.

In terms of skill, Beal is probably as good or better than any of these players but for the simple fact he’s not tall, big, fast, or unique enough he doesn’t seem like he raises our ceiling any higher than the Gilbert Arenas or John Wall eras. I want to be wrong. I want to invest every fiber of my fandom into Beal and the current iteration if the Wizards, but two decades of mediocrity is turning me into a terrible fan.