What is wrong the Washington Wizards?
By: Jalon Dixon, Staff Writer
Photo Courtesy of NYPost.com
The Washington Wizards have had a very recent history of not living up to expectations. Every year is the same. A possible 50 win team that always comes into the season poking their chests out before burying themselves in their own drama. But this season it seems the underachieving has come a little earlier, after only five games.
Starting off the season 1 – 4, the Wizards are ranked in the bottom 10 defensively and have lost their games by an average of only two points with the only outlier being a 22 point loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Some losses sting more than others, but with the recent loss to the Sacramento Kings, Wizards’ superstars John Wall and Bradley Beal, seem to already show signs of doubt in the team’s potential success this season.
“We suck right now, that’s just how it is,” Beal said to NBC Sports Washington. “We’re not doing anything we’re supposed to do on the floor, on offense or defense.”
John Wall doubled down on this.
“Everybody on their own agenda. We showed glimpses when we do stuff as a team. We show how good we can be and then we go back to trying to do it individually, and that’s mostly on the defensive end. Not helping each other out, not team rebounding, and that’s what’s killing us.”
And this is all taking place without newly acquired free agent, Dwight Howard, even playing a single game.
With rumors of coach Scott Brooks being on the hot seat, he will easily be the one blamed for the lack of production on the court and the disfunction within the locker room if they continue this downward spiral.
With their inability to close games, lack of team continuity and no sense of an identity, the Wizards will continue through the season with a lot of questions needing answers going into next season. With Wall, Beal and Otto Porter all signed to max contracts, GM Ernie Grunfield is faced with a tough decision: blow this thing up and start a rebuild or attempt to restructure the team and continue attempting to win now.
Nonetheless, this season has still only just begun, so for now the team simply must continue to push towards the playoffs. But, the standards for this season has been lowered. At this point they need to at least be a low seed playoff team for this season not to be a bust.
