There was a lot about the 2019-20 season that wasn’t great for the Washington Wizards. Luckily, this season should be better.
I’m not going to mince words here. The Washington Wizards need to be better this season. Flat out. If they want to end their two-season playoff drought, and they do, the Wizards we saw last season won’t cut it.
Of course, the Wizards didn’t have Russell Westbrook last season. His presence alone should help elevate this team. But he’s not the only one bringing something new to the table for the 2020-21 season. Deni Avdija has done nothing to quell any excitement there was when he fell to the Wizards on draft night. Solid preseason outings from Rui Hachimura and Thomas Bryant also bode well for the new and improved Wizards.
Make no mistake; this is now Bradley Beal‘s team. For the first time, the Wizards have built a squad around the budding superstar by design. While he led the Wizards in each of the last two seasons, that wasn’t exactly the plan. Now, with John Wall in Houston instead of on the bench or in the backcourt, Bradley Beal is running the show. With a little bit of All-NBA help.
Here’s what we can expect the Washington Wizards to be better at this season.
The Washington Wizards will have a quicker pace
Last season, the Wizards played with the fastest pace since the 1978-79 season. That season, the Wizards made it to the NBA finals. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite as lucky last season.
Despite running at the seventh-highest clip in the NBA — 102.7 possessions per game — the Wizards will likely play even faster next season. Mainly due to the arrival of Russell Westbrook.
While the Mike D’antoni system should get most of the credit for the Houston Rockets’ blistering pace last season, it couldn’t be run without guys like Westbrook. The Rockets finished second in pace last season (103.7).
But it’s not just Westbrook. Rookie Deni Avdija joins the Wizards as another player — along with Westbrook, Beal, Hachimura, and Troy Brown Jr — who can grab a rebound on the defensive end and immediately push the ball the other way. Behind Westbrook is Ish Smith, who did a great job helping the Wizards keep their pace up when Beal sat last season. These WIzards are ready to run.
All in all, this team has the weapons to run teams off the floor. What was a fast and productive offense last season (seventh in points per game) should get even faster this season. As Jerome Robinson put it “(The Wizards’) pace is going to be unbelievable.”
The Washington Wizards will be better on the boards
The Washington Wizards had more than one weakness last season, but one of their biggest holes was on the boards. During the 2019-20 season, the Wizards ranked 28th in total rebounding and dead last in rebound percent.
However, there’s reason to be hopeful that the Wizards won’t get bullied on the boards all season. For one, Thomas Bryant should be better this year. He was hampered by injury throughout the regular season. In 38 games before the season was suspended, Bryant averaged 6.8 rebounds per game. A marginal increase over the 6.3 he averaged the season prior despite having a larger role on the team. In the bubble, however, a healthier Bryant showed he could be better. During those final eight games in Orlando, Bryant averaged 8.9 rebounds per game.
Bryant’s new frontcourt backup, Robin Lopez, is a rebounding upgrade, as well. Although his raw averages from last season aren’t great (5.1 rebounds per game), Lopez led the NBA in box-outs per 36 minutes.
Russell Westbrook, one of the greatest rebounding guards in NBA history, will also help in the rebounding department. Westbrook’s rebounding rates from last season are nearly identical to those of Troy Brown Jr and Rui Hachimura.
- Westbrook: Offensive: 5.1; Defensive: 18.1; Total:11.5
- Hachimura: Offensive: 5.7; Defensive: 17.0; Total: 11.1
- Brown Jr: Offensive: 4.5; Defensive: 19.6; Total: 11.7
Although neither are prolific rebounders in the NBA, they among the best on the Wizards. Hachimura and Brown ranked second and fourth, respectively, in rebounds per game for the Wizards last season.
The Washington Wizards will be better defensively
The Washington Wizards have been lambasted for their atrocious defense last season. And they deserve to be! They were bad last year, really bad. No matter how you look at it — defensive rating, points per game, opponent’s field goal percentage — the Wizards were the bottom of the barrel. And then they didn’t go out and get defensive stoppers in the draft or free agency?
I guess the Wizards are confident that they can fix things without actually making many changes. And maybe they’re right. Maybe they already made the biggest change they needed to last season. If you only look at the games played after the Isaiah Thomas trade, the Wizards posted a defensive ranking of 111.8. If they did that for an entire season, the Wizards would have ranked 18th, tied with the Dallas Mavericks. That’s not incredible, but it’s much better than league-worst.
Although not a defensive stopper, Russell Westbrook will offer more resistance than Thomas, Ish Smith, or Shabazz Napier did while running the point last season. Lopez isn’t a premier shot-blocker, but you could tell, even in preseason games, that he provides a defensive presence in the lane that was missing last season. Avdija also adds length on the perimeter and showed solid defensive flashes throughout the preseason despite being a 19-year-old rookie. In the two games vs. Detroit, the rookie showed solid defensive IQ in transition and the half-court.
Don’t expect these Wizards to be a top-five defense this season, but somewhere in the top twenty or top half of the league is more than doable.
The Washington Wizards will get to the foul line more often
Wizards were seventh in NBA last season in free throw attempts per game. They averaged 24.6 from the charity stripe during each contest. But much like with pace, where the Wizards will go from a fast team to one of the fastest, the Wizards will also be improving their top-ten free throw rate from last season.
Although the Wizards ranked relatively high in free throw attempts per game, that number was largely inflated due to one man’s efforts: Bradley Beal. Beal averaged 8.0 attempts per game and was shooting more than that towards the end of the season. He finished ninth in total free throws despite missing 15 games.
His new backcourt partner, Russell Westbrook, should help the Wizards get to the line even more often next season. Despite sharing the floor with James Harden, who led the NBA with an absurd 11.8 free throw attempts each game, Westbrook still found a way to get to the line. His rim-attacking style of play almost guarantees he will.
Last season, Westbrook averaged 6.7 free throw attempts per game, and although that’s a good bit less than Beal, it’s more than double any other Wizard still left from last season. Alongside Harden, Westbrook helped the Rockets enjoy the fourth-highest free throw rate in the NBA. It’s a physically taxing way to get points, but they’re called free throws for a reason—the more trips to the line, the better. It means easy points for the Wizards and foul trouble for opponents. The definition of a win-win.