Beal: Wizards are 'the best team in the East'

While the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics are widely considered the Eastern Conference favorites, guard Bradley Beal doesn't want the basketball world to forget about his Washington Wizards.

"I feel like we're the best team in the East, I really do," Beal said, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. "That's how we feel coming into the season."

The Wizards finished the 2016-17 campaign with a respectable 49-33 record, its best win-loss record since 1979 when the former Bullets won 54 games.

They were bounced from the playoffs in a competitive seven-game second-round series against the Celtics, falling short of an opportunity to battle LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the conference finals. Since Beal entered the league in 2012, Washington has yet to match up with a James-led roster in the postseason. He even stated that his side would've been better opposition for Cleveland than Boston.

"We love the matchup against them and why not?" Beal added. "I said it and J.R. Smith didn't like it too much, some of their other guys didn't like it too much. But I felt that way.

"It's not disrespect with them, I'm not saying we'd have won the series, but I feel like our competition level and matchups would've been better. I'd have loved to see it, but at the end of the day you tip your hat to them. They've been in the Finals for the last three years."

What the 2017-18 Wizards have going for them is that all their core pieces are still in place, while both Cleveland and Boston underwent major roster changeover this summer as a result of the blockbuster Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas trade. Beal remains in the backcourt alongside All-Star John Wall, Marcin Gortat is still the man in the middle, and Otto Porter returns on an exorbitant four-year, $106-million deal.

Their lack of depth was also addressed with the additions of Jodie Meeks and Mike Scott, who will see an uptick in minutes with Markieff Morris sidelined after surgery to repair a sports hernia.

Beal is at least cognizant to his claims being just words, as he and the Wizards will have to back it all up when it truly matters.

"I feel like we're the team to beat," he said. "But we've got to prove it."