We’re seven games into the Washington Wizards’ regular season and a few things are starting to clear themselves up. Deni Avdija is the starting small forward. Bradley Beal cares about defense – though, what does that mean, anyway? – and Delon Wright is already out for six weeks at least.
The Wizards currently sit at 3-4. There was energy on the court for about three games, but those same defensive lapses have leaked out since Wright has gone down with a hamstring injury. There’s plenty to unpack, and frustrations to iron out, but I’ll leave that to Wizards Twitter.
Here are the three things I’m most interested in after the Wizards’ first seven games.
1. Monte Morris is an Offensive Wizard
I postulated in the preseason whether or not Monte Morris might be the best fit for Bradley Beal’s career. It’s still too early to say anything definitive about it, but the early returns on offense are promising.
Through seven games, Monte Morris’s numbers look like this per game:
Assists: 5.6 (which would be a career high)
Turnovers: 0.9
3P%: 42.1
All great. But then there’s …
TS%: 51.4 (which would be a career low)
This is because of the 13 long twos he’s taken, he’s only hit three. The midrange game is back, but Morris needs to stay away from those 18-footers for now.
When he’s on the floor versus when he’s off the floor, the team is 23.8 points better per 100 possessions ( per Cleaning the Glass). He’s a small guard and despite his defensive weaknesses (he’s giving up 5.1 points per 100 possessions to the opposition), his offensive output is outpacing those defensive shortcomings.
That’s a positive sign for someone who came into the season with little fanfare and middling expectations.
His assist percentage is relatively low for a point guard (he ranks in the 33rd percentile according to Cleaning the Glass). But when you adjust that against his usage rate, he jumps all the way up to 77th percentile. This means he doesn’t need the ball very much to churn out assists, a necessary skillset next to a backcourt mate like Bradley Beal.
No, he’s not the “playmaker” that John Wall was, but he’s going to make the right play most of the time. There’s more he could offer by getting to the rim, but his pass-first mentality works for me for now.
The numbers were even better only a couple of games ago, but with Wright’s absence, Morris has had to carry a larger load and is feeling it on the defensive end.