Wizards don’t have easy path to improvement

Bradley Beal came to Capital One Arena a day after the Wizards were eliminated from the playoffs with a better idea of how he felt about the exit.

Compared to last year’s Game 7 loss against Boston Celtics — where “every bit of emotion that you can think of” ran through him — Beal said this time he primarily felt disappointment.

Friday’s 102-92 loss in Game 6 marked the first time Beal and co-star John Wall were sent home in the first round of the playoffs. The Wizards, even with injuries, fell way short of preseason expectations.

And now — heading into an offseason with a core of Wall, Beal and Otto Porter already under contract for the foreseeable future — there are no easy solutions on how to fix these Wizards.

One of those steps, Wall said, will be to determine who just wants to be there.

“You can kind of tell when guys — when things going well everybody’s happy, everybody wants to be here,” Wall said. “But when things get rough that’s when you really figure out who’s your brother, who’s really in the war with you, who’s really in the fight with you.

“So, I think anybody can see from the outside or the inside looking in who really wanted to be here when things wasn’t going great for us but when it’s all happy-go-jolly and we’re winning it’s all fun and games but when you’re not you have to stick together because those are the only people you can call your brothers or your family is in that locker room.”

Wall’s comments won’t help dissuade the outside perception that this is a group who can’t stand each other. It’s far from the only example, too.

During the season, while out with a knee injury, Wall responded “lol” after center Marcin Gortat tweeted “what a good ’team’ win” following a victory in the point guard’s absence. In the playoffs, Wall and Gortat defended themselves after cameras caught them arguing on the bench.

Gortat has routinely dismissed the idea he and Wall don’t get along, doing so again during his exit interview on Saturday. “It was created by the media,” he said.

But plenty of problems persisted. Washington was dreadful against sub .500 teams, and they never found an answer why. On Saturday, forward Markieff Morris suggested the struggles were the result of immaturity.

Reserve center Ian Mahinmi said the Wizards often lacked a “genuine approach.”

“I love those guys, but we have our issues,” Mahinmi said. “Unless we work those issues out, we’re going to continue to struggle at times and we’re going to continue to not be consistent.”

The Wizards have clear basketball needs. Lack of depth was a major factor in their series against the Raptors, best shown by the fact point guard Tomas Satoransky shifted to the backup small forward when Porter wasn’t available for Game 6.

Wall said the Wizards need to add bench scoring and athletic bigs. Coach Scott Brooks emphasized the need for shooting. In today’s NBA, putting shooters around an explosive guard like Wall is key.

But the Wizards are well over the league’s salary cap and are projected to repeat as luxury tax offenders, limiting options on what they can add.

Washington isn’t the only team to face these challenges. Portland has run into a similar wall with guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. Toronto, too, had to decide last summer if it was worth bringing back guard Kyle Lowry after a string of playoff exits.

The other option, albeit unlikely, would be for Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld to trade Wall, Beal or Porter.

“The core has shown what we can be when we play great, when we play together, play as a team,” Wall said. “Everybody has improved and got better every year. The most thing we really can worry about is trying to add some pieces that fit right with guys that want to be a true professional, that want to really play and want to understand their roles and help the team out as much as possible.”

“They have trusted us to build around us,” Beal said. “I’m not really a fan of change and starting over again.”