Dear Coach: Notes for Wes Unseld Jr. from a Washington Wizards fan

2. Throw away the entire notion of the three-guard lineup

Just trust me on this one. No one deserves to feel that pain again.

3. Let (and encourage) Rui Hachimura to cook

Really, moving the ball more could solve this entire problem, but more on that in a second.

In the regular season, Rui Hachimura’s true shooting percentage was a solid 54 percent. That was fourth among Wizards who averaged 20 or more minutes per game, behind hyper-efficient scorers like Thomas Bryant, Davis Bertans, and Bradley Beal. The other bigs (Gafford, Len, Lopez) are up there too, but none averaged 20 minutes per game thanks to the three-center rotation.

However, Hachimura’s number of shot attempts per game (11.4) is almost half of Bradley Beal’s (23) and eight fewer than Russell Westbrook’s (19). Something has to change, coach.

Take a look at the playoff numbers. While the sample size is small, Hachimura’’s true shooting percentage jumped to 70(!) percent. However, he averaged two fewer shot attempts than he did during the regular season as the backcourt continued to dominate the ball. Meanwhile, Westbrook’s true-shooting percentage dropped to 46. percent

Now, part of this is Hachimura’s fault. Wizards fans will tell you that he passes up open looks and can be afraid to shoot the ball from deep—but that’s why you are here, Coach Unseld. It’s going to be up to you to not only create those open looks for him but to empower him to shoot them. He showed vast improvement between years one and two. Year three is an opportunity for him to make a leap as a reliable third option on this team.

Maybe he sets more screens and works as a dangerous roller. Maybe he operates out of the elbow like Blake Griffin learned to do. I’ll leave the details up to you, but I’m sure part of it starts with moving the damn ball.