Bullets’ Identity Crisis Has Become Chronic

The main question that dogged the Washington Bullets at the beginning of their season is still the central one at the end.

Just who is this team?

Is it a team that has to have Bernard King score 30 points a night to be competitive? Is it a team that needs frontcourt help, or are John Williams, Harvey Grant, King and Pervis Ellison sufficient? Is Ledell Eackles a full-time shooting guard? Who plays best with whom?

Is this a team that could have won 40-plus games if it had had King healthy the last 20 games? If anyone had been healthy the last 20 games? Or was the first half of the year an aberration, and is this a team in need of still more significant change?

“I think we’re going to have to do one or two good things to improve,” Coach Wes Unseld said. “We made changes. We got Pervis. The big thing with Pervis wasn’t so much getting him as getting him to play, getting him to a point where he could be effective. I think we did that.”

Ellison averaged 10.4 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds, and was top 10 in the league in blocks at 2.07 per game. More importantly, he played in 76 games after injuries limited him to 34 his rookie season.

With the individual attention paid him, “Pervis’s IQ of the game has gone up tremendously,” King said, “and I think he would be the first to admit that. His understanding level has gone up and as a result he’s able to perform at a higher level.”

Grant became an all-around talent capable of being a solid complementary player. He flourished in the motion offense, shooting .498 from the field and averaging 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds.

“I had high hopes,” he said. “We all had high hopes. But after the all-star break we just couldn’t get in sync. It just wasn’t there a lot of games. Next year, if everyone comes back at the same time, hopefully we can put everything together.”

That referred to Williams and Eackles, who missed training camp last year and never really got into the flow. But Williams showed signs of coming around at the end of the season, returning to the starting lineup. Yet it’s possible that next year he’ll again be a man without a position, coming off the bench to fill whatever needs the team has.

And Eackles? He averaged 12.9 points in 67 games after holding out and missing the first two weeks of the season. He finally started the last four games, averaging 21 points. But the Bullets weren’t happy. Neither is he.

“I just think that Ledell had a wasted year,” Unseld said. “It’s easy to play now, when there’s nothing on the line. ... I’m almost under the impression that it’s more my fault than it is Ledell’s. Maybe I’ve been under the opinion that Ledell is a lot better than he really is.”

In addition, Washington has two contract situations to work out. Haywoode Workman and Greg Foster are restricted free agents. The Bullets would have lost the rights to Larry Robinson, but they signed him last Thursday and will have him in training camp next fall.

The Bullets have plans for Foster. They want him to come to free agent camp in July and they’d like to make him the focal point of their halfcourt offense.

Workman is intriguing. He surprised everyone by not only making the team but starting 56 games. He ran the offense and got transition opportunities. Yet the Bullets will be looking long and hard at point guards in the draft.

“I like this situation,” Workman said. “I know what I need to work on. As soon as John (Nash) gives the word, I’ll talk to Frank (Catapano, his Boston-based agent) and try to get something done as soon as possible. That’s the most important thing, some security, some type of stability to guarantee that I’ll be here a while, at least.”

Grant has made it clear that he would like his contract reworked.

Finances aside -- the Bullets likely will have more than $2.5 million to play with when the salary cap goes up next season -- they have to find an identity. There are all manner of disparate parts around that may or may not add up to a team.

“My starting guard (Workman) was in the CBA last year,” Unseld said. “My other starting guard (Walker) is probably a better small forward than he is a guard. My starting center was let go because his team didn’t want him after a year. What I’m saying is if I look at the pieces, no, we’re not good. But if we get all those pieces in and get them together, we can make it work, to a degree.”