Washington Wizards: Time is running out for the Wizards to turn it around

The Washington Wizards cannot keep going on like this. Where’s the sense of urgency?

The Washington Wizards have the worst winning percentage in the NBA (0.200). They have the fewest wins in the NBA (three). Yet, for some reason, they don’t seem all that worried.

In what should have been seen as a must-win game for the Washington Wizards as they slowly slip further and further down the standings, the Wizards found themselves in familiar territory vs. the Atlanta Hawks — a 15+ point deficit. Unsurprisingly, the Wizards weren’t able to climb out of that hole and lost 116-100, dropping their record to 3-12. The Wizards have now lost four consecutive games, their second four-game losing streak of this young season.

Yet, the Wizards weren’t panicking after the game. Coach Scott Brooks wasn’t even surprised, saying, “I had a feeling this could possibly happen tonight,” only to follow it up a few breaths later with a vote of confidence in his team.

The Washington Wizards need to figure things out fast…or else.

Unfortunately, he might be the only one left that is still confident in this group. The Wizards have thoroughly underperformed this season. There are a number of reasons why they aren’t where they want to be or should be — Russell Westbrook is dealing with a quad injury, Rui Hachimura missed time with pink eye, Thomas Bryant tore his ACL, half the team has been in COVID-19 protocol, etc. — but it doesn’t change the fact that the Wizards are still in dead last, with no real reprieve in sight.

What makes this all the worse is seeing John Wall look a whole lot like his former self in a Houston Rockets uniform. But have no fear, Wizards fans! According to Scott Brooks, Westbrook is “gonna play better,” but “it’s gonna take some time.”

I’m not sure if Scott Brooks has checked out the schedule lately, but the one thing the Wizards do not have (besides wins) is time. The season is already more than 20 percent over. And it’s not as if the Wizards will be able to hit the ground running once everyone returns from COVID-19 health and safety protocol. Davis Bertans and Rui Hachimura both looked rusty in their returns vs. the Hawks. Hachimura went 3-9 from the field, while Bertans missed all seven of his field-goal attempts. Even when everyone is at full strength, the Wizards will need another few games to really start gelling. In a way, they’re in the midst of starting the season over again without the luxury of a full season to figure things out.

There are only 57 games left if the Wizards end up playing a full 72 game schedule, and it’s a big if considering the six games they were forced to postpone. With each loss, it looks less and less likely that this team can actually turn it around in time for any future success this season to actually matter.

The early-season struggles are frustrating. But what’s more frustrating is how seemingly unconcerned the team seems to be. For all the post-game quotes that sound something like ‘we must do better,’ or ‘everybody’s pissed off,’ this team remains on the losing end of things. Something has got to change. But the message from the owner all the way down seems to be ‘Wait. Things will work themselves out.’

The Wizards could go in a few different directions from here. They could explore a Bradley Beal trade and blow things up. They could look for Brooks’ replacement and hope a new coach fixes things. Or they could tough it out and blindly believe that what has been a disaster will become a contender somehow, some way. Scott Brooks thinks they should go with the latter. We’ll see how that turns out…