Top Stories of the Week: The Wizards finish their strong preseason

I was out of town last week so I didn’t post links. But now, we’re less than a week from the NBA regular season, and we now have some more things to share with you.

So let’s make this real quick:

Wizards go 4-1 in the preseason

I get it, the preseason has little value besides testing bench lineups and warming people up for the regular season. But the bottom line is that Washington didn’t do too bad after keeping most of their core together and playing them from time to time.

With the exception of a 117-115 loss to the Heat last Wednesday, the Wizards were undefeated and looked in sync most of the time. Of course, there’s the possibility that the Wizards could crash and burn when the games start counting. But I have optimism that the Wizards will start this season strong and finish with their best regular season since the 1978-79 season.

Sheldon Mac is out for the season but Daniel Ochefu was cut instead

The Wizards reserve guard was sidelined for 6-8 months after tearing his left Achilles tendon, or the part on the back of his left foot. Ouch! He had surgery last Tuesday to repair the injury.

You would think that the Wizards would waive him immediately. After all, he only has a $50,000 guarantee this season. However, there is language in his contract that the Wizards would have to pay him $1.3 million if they did waive him despite injury.

Ultimately, the Wizards did cut a player, but it wasn’t Mac. They let go of Daniel Ochefu, who has since joined the Celtics’ G-League system. Ochefu hasn’t brought much value to the Wizards during his short time in D.C. and probably won’t see much playing time with Marcin Gortat and Ian Mahinmi taking most of the center minutes, I don’t think this is much of a loss for the Wizards.

Which Wizards have impressed us during the preseason?

Of the Wizards’ reserves, Jodie Meeks has done quite well in the preseason, as he scored in double figures in three of Washington’s five preseason games despite not playing more than 20 minutes in any game.

I was also happy with Tomas Satoransky’s performance during the preseason. He played more minutes than Meeks and dished five assists in each of Washington’s games. Furthermore. Sato was more willing to take shots than he was last season as he transitions into a wing player who can be a “second point guard” as opposed to being a floor general point guard which is what hewas more accustomed to in European play. Ben Mehic gave his take that it’s “put up or shut up time” for Satoransky last weekend. I’m glad to see that so far, he’s answering the bell.

Season previews and more

A lot of previews are out, so here are some that we were involved in and more:

• We gave our take on what the Wizards should do with their 2018 first round draft pick.
• ESPN’s Zach Lowe believes that the Wizards should target Clippers center DeAndre Jordan. Hmmm.
• SB Nation released its 2017-18 NBA season preview which we encourage you to checjk out. Jake Whitacre answered a Q&A for the Wizards’ section which you can read here. He thinks the Wizards will win 52 regular season games. It’s probably not as much of a pipe dream as you might think.
• Candace Buckner of The Washington Post wrote a column on Chris McCullough, who the Wizards are going to try to develop this season. It’ll be tough given that he’s a big on a team with a set rotation.
• Check out Tim Bontemps’ rankings of the Top 100 NBA players. John Wall is #13, while Bradley Beal is #30 and Otto Porter is #47. Markieff Morris is #82 and Marcin Gortat is #88. In short, the entire Wizards’ starting lineup made the Top 100, which is a testament to how good this team is at the top.
• Former Wizards star Gilbert Arenas will have a show on Complex with D.C. area based social media and former porn actress Mia Khalifa. It starts next Monday on YouTube.

And that’s it!

Have another link you’d like to share? Feel free to do so in the comments or as a FanPost. Enjoy the rest of your weekends!