Washington Wizards: 3 reasons Scott Brooks should be on the hot seat

2. Defense, what’s that?

The league’s most known secret since the start of the year has been Washington’s defense, or lack thereof. And the Wizards have given up 150+ points in back-to-back games now.

Say what you want about Brooks, he’s got a pedigree for sure. And he’s done well with previous Wizards teams, and the Oklahoma City Thunder before that. But for whatever reason, this man cannot inspire this team to play even a semblance of competent defense.

Whatever the case may be: a lack of respect, an agreement on their direction for the season, or Brooks’ own capability to teach on that end of the ball; there’s no reason the Wizards should be this poor on the defensive end. Between Beal, Davis Bertans, and Troy Brown Jr, Washington has three guys who can guard multiple positions-effectively, too.

And there’s all the evidence that it’d be the difference maker for this team. In the three games the Wizards have held opponents to 100 points or less, they are 3-0 this season. Now, to play devil’s advocate, maybe asking today’s NBA to not score 100 points is asinine.

But that doesn’t mean they should be giving up 120+ on the regular. In fact, Washington has done that in 24 of their 46 games played. It’s just embarrassing at this point, even with the Wizards having a top-5 offense on the season, there are just no excuses for how bad this team is on D.

It’s very rare that a new head coach can come in and make a world’s difference in a team’s play, especially when you’ve got two top guys in Wall and Beal. But there’s only one way to find out if Brooks is the problem, and that’s addition by subtraction.