Top Stories of the Week: The Wizards’ season begins with a loss

The NBA season has finally begun ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, things didn’t start out on the right foot for Washington, so let’s get right to it.

Wizards lose season opener to Atlanta, 114-99

It’s just one game, right? Markieff Morris scored 22 last night, but John Wall and Bradley Beal had trouble getting things going, and the Wizards lost 114-99 against the Hawks on the road.

The major turning point of the game was the fourth quarter when ATL turned on the jets against Washington’s second unit and never looked back. Another significant thing to point out is that Tomas Satoransky didn’t get to play very much in this game — Trey Burke and Marcus Thornton saw more time instead.

It’s a bit early before we have “Unleash the Sato” memes in what the pundits believe will be another lost season in the nation’s capital. But like many of you, I was disappointed that the Wizards didn’t utilize one of their major signings from the past summer.

Here are some other recaps from around the web:

• Peachtree Hoops (SB Nation NBA’s Hawks site)
• Wiz of Awes
• The Washington Post
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wizards analysis and outside links

• Michael Lee of The Vertical interviewed Wall and Beal recently. Wall wants to help get Beal to the All-Star Game this year, and that their “on-court tension” was blown out of proportion.
• Marcin Gortat isn’t worried about their relationship either, according to Scott Allen of The Washington Post.
• After all of the preseason Wizards analysis, I wrote something that should be clear: This season is a referendum on the John Wall Era in Washington. If the Wizards make the playoffs and have a run like they did in 2014 and 2015, then we probably haven’t seen the “window of opportunity” pass us by. But if the Wizards don’t do any better than they did last season and meet the pundits’ expectations of being 8th or 9th in the East, then it’s time to start thinking about moving on from the core.
• Speaking about preseason analysis, TNT’s Charles Barkley likes them. He’s part of the #DCFamily. That is not a fitting hashtag for the Wizards IMO.
• Scott Brooks has a rep as a player development guy. We’ll find out how true that really is this season as well, since they have four rookies and a roster that is still not past its collective prime.
• Kyle wrote about the Wizards’ three undrafted rookies who are on the roster right now. I wonder if any of them could become their version of Mystics swingman Tierra Ruffin-Pratt. She was an undrafted rookie in 2013, but became a starter in each of the last two WNBA seasons. In other words, do you think Sheldon McLellan, Danuel House, or Daniel Ochefu could become a starter at some point in the future as part of a competitive Wizards team?
• Markieff Morris was yesterday’s player of the game. He needs to be like that consistently this season.
• The Wizards’ first ten games won’t be easy and are a “slow start” waiting to happen. Well, they’re 0-1 already. Steven Callahan wrote about that and believes six wins are possible.
• Great FanPost and debate on Otto Porter’s trajectory. Do you think he’s a future All-Star or just a glue-guy starter?
• I already mentioned earlier that the Wizards didn’t play Satoransky many minutes against Atlanta. Adam Rubin of Truth About It has already launched the “Free Sato” movement.
• Eric Hobeck of The Washington Post wrote a piece on Washington, D.C.’s major sports league title drought, which is taking a toll on millenials. The last major sports title this city has seen was when the Redskins won the Super Bowl in 1992. It will be at least 25 years until we see another title again, for what it’s worth.
• Check out Ben Standig’s Wizards podcast on the Locked on Network here.

Mystics stuff

• Most of the Mystics’ players are overseas during the NBA season. You can check out what they’re doing here from the team itself. We’ll talk more about this in depth and revisit their summer next week.
• This is a formality, but Emma Meesseman was officially named to the EuroBasket qualifying roster for Belgium earlier this week in a 16-man roster. The Belgian women’s national team roster also includes veteran Sparks center Ann Wauters and Indiana Fever 2016 3rd round pick Julie Allemand. You can read the roster and initial analysis here from the Koninklijke Belgische Basketballbond/Federation Royal Belge De Basket-Ball (KBBB/FRBB). The first link is in Dutch, but if you prefer links in Français, it’s here.
• Meesseman & her Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg won the FIBA Europe SuperCup against French team ESB Villeneuve-d'Ascq (ESBVA) last week. Coincidentally, Meesseman played for ESBVA in 2013 when the Mystics drafted her.

We still have more posts coming up today and the weekend, so these can’t be the only links around town so I’m tricked already. If you have more links you’d like to offer as a treat, feel free to do so in the comments or in a FanPost.

Enjoy Halloween candy shopping ladies and gents!