The Washington Wizards have been incredibly disappointing to start the season. They have only won 11 games through the first third of the season, a number they were expecting to be much higher.
The Wizards came into the season expecting to have two All-Star caliber players and a handful of quality role players to compliment them. Instead, they have three players putting up All-Star caliber numbers and have seen a few role players play surprisingly well.
Kyle Kuzma has had a breakout season, seeing the best numbers of his career as he continues to refine his game. Jordan Goodwin has also been amazing this season as he is one of the best defensive bench players in the NBA this year, yet he is still not on a full NBA deal.
These players, plus the elite shooting of Corey Kispert and the resurgence of Kristaps Porzingis leads to many questions, not the least of them being:
How are the Washington Wizards not an elite basketball team?
They have had their weaknesses early on, but most of them are mental errors, not many of them are due to a lack of personnel or skill. The Wizards make boneheaded plays at an alarming rate.
This mixed with bad inbound plays and halfcourt sets heavily reflects on Wes Unseld Jr’s ability to coach an NBA team at a high level, and it’s not good. It is still early to judge his ability to coach as sometimes players can take a while to figure out a system.
For example, most players on the Golden State Warriors don’t start playing well in their system until about halfway through the season. Steve Kerr, head coach of the Warriors, runs a famously complex system with lots of movement of both the basketball and every player on the court.
Maybe the players on the Wizards are still learning the system that Unseld Jr is trying to implement. This could make sense as the Wizards have had their fair share of roster changes over the last two seasons and have also had a cluster of injuries.
The more likely scenario is the unfortunate fact that the gameplan is not well put together. Here are three things that the Washington Wizards can do to improve their game plan through the rest of the season.