October 10, 2018

Wes, The Big E, John & Nobody Else


Last year I wrote a blog post about how our current Wizards stand on the franchise leaders list. A few years ago, this wouldn't have even been possible (or it would have been a very short post). The franchise culture in Washington was just a revolving door ever since the Wiz shipped out Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and some others towards the end of the 2009-2010 season. Heck, even the three other players besides John Wall brought to Washington out of the 2010 NBA Draft (Kevin Seraphin, Trevor Booker and Jordan Crawford) are way way way long gone. There was a period there of incredible instability, which brought with it much losing and absolutely zero resale value for season ticket holders.

Eight years into the John Wall era, we are in a totally different spot. Maybe it's time to do this sort of a check before every season from now on. Or at least until John Wall leaves town, which seems like it's a good way off and which I want in absolutely no scenario whatsoever. I'll go with the same seven categories I discussed in last year's post. Here goes.

Games Played
Franchise Leader: Wes Unseld (984)
Current Wizards in Top 10: John Wall (10th; 541)
It's going to take a long time for John Wall to pass Wes Unseld for the number one spot on the franchise list here, if he ever even gets there. Right now, he's 443 games behind, which is more than five full seasons which is when John's current contract (OK, so technically the extension to his current contract) expires. But he should be able to make some noise this year. If John plays a full 82 this year, he'll end up on third place, 28 games ahead of Charles Jones. Barring injury, John should get there easily. He'll also pass Brendan Haywood this year for most games played as a Washington Wizard (not Bullet). Pretty fitting I think. Wondering about Beal? Give it two more years. He's down at 406 right now.


Minutes Played
Franchise Leader: Wes Unseld (35,832)
Current Wizards in the Top 10: John Wall (4th; 19,441)
Yes, John Wall is 10th on the all time franchise games played list but already 4th on the minutes played list. That means he's playing a lot more than the guys in the four through nine spots on the games played list. Two seasons ago, John logged about 2,800 minutes over 78 games. He'll need four more of those kind of seasons to get past Elvin Hayes into second place. But he will surely pass Gus Johnson for third place this year since he needs fewer than 300 minutes to pass the Honeycomb. Beal fan? Brad might crack the top 10 this year. If he spends as much time on the court as he did last year, he'll bump Antawn Jamison down to the 11 spot.

Points
Franchise Leader: Elvin Hayes (15,551)
Current Wizards in the Top 10: John Wall (4th; 10,216)
Two years ago, John Wall passed Wes Unseld on the Wizards/Bullets/Zephyrs/Packers all-time steals list. This year, he's going to pass Wes on the points list. John needs just 868 to move past Jeff Malone into the number two position on this list. Along the way, he'll move past Wes too. John's high for a season in total points is 1,805. Elvin Hayes is going to be safe for a while but maybe not more than three years. Brad is likely to join John on the top 10 list this year; a good season will see him sitting right behind Phil Chenier in eighth after passing both Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison.

Rebounds
Franchise Leader: Wes Unseld (13,769)
Current Wizards in the Top 10: Nobody
And nobody's making it this year. Nobody.

Assists
Franchise Leader: John Wall (5,003)
Current Wizards in the Top 10: Just John
John Wall has just a tad more than 5,000 assists. That's almost 1,200 more than anyone else in the history of the franchise. And for a while at least, that gap's only getting bigger. It's going to be a while before anyone catches John Wall on this list. If I write a similar post next year, we might see Bradley Beal on this list. If he matches last year's total he'll end up eighth at the end of this season.


Blocks
Franchise Leader: Elvin Hayes (1,558)
Current Wizards in Top 10: Nobody
This mark is going to stay in the Big E's name for a while. John Wall has the highest current total of any active player and he's got 367. He needs 40 to crack the top 10 over Etan Thomas. Last year he tallied 45 in just 41 games. I'm pencilling John into the 10 position sometime soon. He might even catch Gheorghe Muresan (443) and Marcin Gortat (449). Unlikely he's catching JaVale McGee at 470.

Steals
Franchise Leader: John Wall (927)
Current Wizards in the Top 10: Just John
There's a pretty good chance John Wall is going to end up first or second in pretty much every category on the all-time franchise leaders board. He's likely to widen this lead this year. Last year, Brad caught him a bit since John missed a bunch of games. If Beal matches his 2017-2018 output, he'll sit at eighth between Rod Strickland and Caron Butler.

That's how things stack up in the major categories. Two years ago, John Wall moved into the franchise leader spot for both assists and steals. It's going to be a while before we see that sort of thing again. For this season, the leaders in these categories all seem competition-free. Six days to tip off. Can't wait.

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