The Wizards Finished February 3-9, Are Looking To....Not Suck As Much in March
Since I last blogged about the Wizards, two very bad things happened and one fairly good thing happened:
The bad: They lost back to back games against the Timberwolves and the 76ers. Two of the bottom 3 teams in the league. Combine those rosters and you still don’t have a playoff team. And the Wizards lost to both.
After the Minnesota game, the whole team should have had to walk home. They should have been doing suicides until they puked their guts out. They should have confiscated all the cell phones before getting on the plane and made everyone sit in silence. You can’t go into Minnesota and lose by 20. Got outscored 86-57 after the first quarter. John Wall had never looked more frustrated in his life. The coaching was asinine, his teammates weren’t trying, everything was terrible. Minnesota had won a dozen games all year and they were making jokes and yucking it up on the bench. Truly embarrassing.
The Sixers game somehow wasn’t much better, despite losing by “only” 8. Again the Wiz failed to have any sort of offense, putting up only 81 points. Wall still put up his 21 and 11, as he is one to do, but man, it was just a pathetic game.
The good thing that happened since those two games was Bradley Beal came back from injury, helping the Wizards end the losing streak by beating Detroit. He is on a minutes limit, but just having him out on the court, even if his shot was a bit off, helped open up the floor. When he’s injured, there’s no true lights out shooting threat. Just shows how poorly this team was put together. Also doesn’t help Marcin Gortat’s game has gone to shit. You can tell he’s busting his ass out there, but something is off with him. I do think he will figure this slump out, but it’s been a bit frustrating watching him struggle. Doesn’t help Wittman has no idea how to utilize him and Wall whatsoever. They were one of the best PnR duos in the league, and for whatever reason Wittman has moved away from that. Both him and Wall have voiced their displeasure over it, but at the end of the day they say they have to do what Wittman says…and Wittman’s offense is basically zero creativity, forced shots, and not nearly enough 3’s.
Top 4 “Dead Zone” offensive teams in the league (pct of poss that end in long 2, and eff on em). These coaches suck. pic.twitter.com/79rg5kGpmh
— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) February 26, 2015
What looked so promising after the 19-6 start has crumbled. Wittman has led this team as high as he is going to lead them. They have plateaued with him as coach. He made them better on defense and changed the culture in DC, but isn’t the guy to take them to the next level. And now we are at the point where the players are frustrated with him, the opposing coaches have figured out how to confuse him, and the Wizards are suffering because of it. They are looking like they’ll hold onto the 7th seed and then have a long offseason of decisions to be made. I expect both Ernie and Wittman to be gone before the start of next year. For now I’ll just keep enjoying watching Beal and Wall and look forward to a big FA signing in 2016.