The Washington Wizards struggles have been hard to overlook this season and in large part due to the extra eyes the team's busy offseason brought to the team's rebuilding process.
Sitting at the bottom of the NBA standings, not much has changed for the Wizards looking back to last season.
In fact, instead of taking a step forward, Washington looks like they've regressed up to this point of the season; at least in terms of the team as a whole.
Obviously, the sophomore leaps of Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George have been a positive for the team up to this point, but outside of the Wizards young playmakers, the early season woes have been a major disappointment for the fanbase hoping to see the team improve this season.
Whether the early struggles are tied to the team's inexperience, lack of talent or simply the inconsistent play from their veteran leaders is unknown.
However, the one thing that is known is how poor the team's perimeter defense has been to start the year.
Sam Vecenie magnifies Wizards' lackluster perimeter defense
On a recent episodeThe Game Theory Podcast, Sam Vecenie shared his thoughts about Alex Sarr's start to the season.
When discussing the French product's defensive ability, Vecenie took the time to take a not so subtle jab on the Wizards lackluster perimeter defense suggesting the players in specific who have weighed the team down on that side of the court.
" I do think that he [Sarr] is substantially hindered by how bad their [Wizards] guards are on defense," Vecenie said. "Like Bub Carrington, Tre Johnson, CJ McCollum...those three guys particularly standout to be who've struggled on defense."
Sarr has played exceptionally well on both sides of the floor this season and although he's still had some up-and-down moments, compared to his rookie campaign, the Wizards coaching staff is more than happy with where he's at in his development.
Nonetheless, Vecenie's scouting report about the team's defensive lapses could be one of the bigest reasons for the team's struggles throughout the first quarter of the season.
Underwhelming defensive play has been a major concern for the Wizards up to this point and if Brian Keefe's squad isn't able to gain consistency on that end of the floor, not only will the Wizards continue to struggle, but Sarr could continue to have issues silencing his critics, even with unfair evaluation.