NBA: Ranking the teams in the Southeast Division for 2017-18

1. Washington Wizards

There’s no question about it. The Southeastern Division is the Wizards’ to lose. They are unquestionably the most talented team and bring back the core of their 49-win team last season.

Free agent acquisitions Mike Scott and Jodie Meeks will help make up for some of the depth they lost this summer when Brandon Jennings and Bojan Bogdanovic signed elsewhere.

The biggest news out of Washington is the re-signing of emerging small forward Otto Porter Jr. Porter was signed to a max offer sheet by the Brooklyn Nets, which was later matched by the Wizards. A lot of people questioned this move, as he hasn’t yet proven himself to be a max player.

However, take a look at this shot chart and tell me he doesn’t have the potential:

He shot a white-hot 43.4 percent from the 3-point line last season. That marks the fourth time in his four years he’s improved his outside shooting percentage.

The real improvement is going to come from the continued ascending play of Porter, John Wall and Bradley Beal. Wall and Beal are one of the best backcourts in the entire Eastern Conference. Wall is coming off the best scoring year of his career and is solidly at the height of his prime.

Despite the elite guard play, the frontcourt remains the team’s biggest question mark. They have very little depth with Marcin Gortat, the injury-prone Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith as the only true centers on the roster. Gortat and Smith are on the wrong side of 30 and I’m not sure you want Smith playing heavy minutes. Markieff Morris played some center last season, but is best-suited at the power forward position.

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They should be able to take the division semi-easily, but their frontcourt play will determine how far they can go compared to the rest of the conference.