We’ve reached the 25% mark of the 2022-23 NBA season. The Wizards are one game above .500, good for 7th in the Eastern Conference, and are 1-3 in their last four games. Their starting lineup is one of the best in the league and the team is somehow simultaneously intriguing and wildly underwhelming.
Here are the three things I’m most interested in after 21 games.
1. The Wizards Bench Needs Help
The caveat here is that Delon Wright has been out the last 17 games. He’s not only a linchpin of the bench but arguably the Wizards’ best perimeter defender, so there’s reason to believe the bench will improve once he returns.
A mostly bench lineup of Jordan Goodwin, Will Barton, Rui Hachimura, Kyle Kuzma, and Daniel Gafford is a -8.1 per 100 possessions (per Cleaning the Glass) — and the defense isn’t to blame. This lineup is holding opponents to 93.1 per 100 but is only scoring 85.
The version of this lineup with Wright in place of Goodwin is +42.9 per 100 possessions. Granted, the sample size is almost one-third of the Goodwin lineup, but it’s noteworthy that a unit full of “scorers” like Barton, Hachimura, and Kuzma is anemic on the offensive end.
Substitute Kispert instead of Hachimura? It gets even worse, with a net rating of -12.1 per 100 possessions. Like the other lineup, the defense is great, but they just can’t seem to score.
Things will improve as the team gets healthy and Coach Unseld tightens his rotations. Here’s to hoping that happens sooner rather than later.