2010s Washington Wizards All-Decade team
By Ben Yokoyama
PG: John Wall
The most obvious choice in this article is the point guard position. Washington fans may be down on the injured John Wall, but he is the shoo-in for the Washington Wizards’ All-Decade team.
Drafted first overall out of the University of Kentucky back in 2010, Wall was supposed to change the direction of the franchise after forgettable 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons with 19 and 26 wins, respectively.
Though the change was by no means immediate, with Washington not surpassing 29 wins in each of his first three seasons (one being the shortened 2011-12 season, Wall led the team to at least a .500 record in five consecutive seasons. The Wizards made the playoffs in four of those five seasons.
In the last decade the Raleigh native has scored the 19th-most points and recorded the third-most assists behind Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul.
Wall did not have much competition for point guard of the decade for the Wizards. Other than Wall the Wizards cycled through handfuls of backups. Kirk Hinrich, Andre Miller, Ramon Sessions, Brandon Jennings, Trey Burke and Ty Lawson all had a go at it, but none of them stuck. This season Isaiah Thomas and Ish Smith are trying their luck with the team.
Garrett Temple hung around for four seasons, but former head coach Randy Wittman tried to use him as a point guard while he was better suited for the off-ball role and was primarily there for his defense.
Wall’s closest competition for point guard of the decade was a distant second and did not come until late in the decade. In the 2012 draft the team selected a Czech player in the second round and stashed him away.
By 2016 Tomas Satoransky had come stateside and became a serviceable and unique backup point guard. Before losing him to the Chicago Bulls in free agency in summer 2019, Sato averaged 8.9 points and 5.0 assists while starting 54 games in Wall’s place.