The Washington Wizards have an extremely talented roster including three All-Star caliber players and numerous role players capable of scoring. Despite this they have a middling offense. Why is this?
There are a few factors behind their poor offense. Iffy team construction, horrible coaching, and way too much isolation plays that don’t work out all contribute in their own way. Each of these issues have become sort of a scapegoat where when they get pointed out, they are usually the only thing blamed. In actuality, they are all bad on their own, but the combination of the three makes all of them exponentially worse.
Even outside of those three areas, there are a few spots in the Wizards offense that they don’t take advantage of. If they were able to add some depth to their offensive approach, they would be a far more interesting team on offense.
The Washington Wizards don’t shoot the three as often as they should.
For a team with multiple high-quality three-point shooters, the Wizards don’t really shoot the ball all that much. Maybe that’s why they have numerous players shooting around 40% from distance this season. Corey Kispert and Monte Morris are both shooting above the 40% mark while Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, and Delon Wright are all within a few percentage points of that marker.
Despite this, the Wizards rank 20th in three-pointers made with 760. A far cry from the 1,107 made by the Golden State Warriors.
Even worse, the Wizards are 23rd in the league in three-pointers attempted. With a team filled with talented shooters, they have more than most teams, this is unacceptable. They need to be finding shooters in the corner far more often.
All season long, they have posted the worst shooters in the lineup in the corner. Even when they put players like Corey Kispert and Delon Wright in the corner, the stars fail to find them. This is a huge area for improvement and could lead to plenty more points being scored.
The fastbreak has also been an area for concern with the Washington Wizards.
With players like Deni Avdija, Delon Wright, and Jordan Goodwin the Wizards are sure to have a great fastbreak offense, right? No. Somehow, despite having multiple rotational players that would thrive in a fast-paced offense, the Wiz do not score in the break.
The Wizards rank 26th in the league in fastbreak scoring with a measly 11.7 points per game coming in transition. It’s not for a lack of opportunity as Delon Wright is one of the best players in the league at creating turnovers and they also have a handful of other elite defenders on the roster.
This is a probably the greatest area of improvement for the Wizards going forward as numerous players on the roster need fastbreak opportunities to succeed. Deni Avdija, Jordan Goodwin, Kyle Kuzma, and even sharpshooters like Corey Kispert and Delon Wright are all far better when the Wiz play with pace.
With the personnel at the disposal of the Washington Wizards, it’s a shame they don’t take advantage of some of their stronger points. If they took more threes and ran the ball more, they have the talent to run a top offense in the league.