The Washington Wizards’ schedule has been so difficult that my handy prediction system predicted they will lose 16 games in a row. The Wizards are now on a 14-game losing streak, and they are unlikely to win either of their next two.
In the event that they drop both, they will tie the franchise record of 16 straight losses. They have a good chance of pulling away from the Charlotte Hornets at that point because they are ahead in the game.
Should you desire the highest level of amusement and possess the ability to postpone happiness, you may support the Wizards’ defeat to Charlotte and subsequent losses during the month of March. Why?
For the Wizards have ten extremely loseable games remaining following that one against Charlotte. Should they be able to
The Wizards’ intense competition to keep from tying the losing streak record against the Pistons’ frantic attempt to share the humiliation on March 29 may make for an extremely intriguing game. Although it seems unlikely, I wouldn’t mind watching a matchup with those types of stakes this season.
Nevertheless, according to the projection engine, the Wizards’ season-long record of 15 victories would be the poorest in team history.
The Wizards are ranked as follows in terms of team strength metrics:
Schedule-adjusted strength of score margin → 29
Points allowed per 100 possessions (defensive rating) → 29; Offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) → 26
The Wizards are the best team in terms of pace, which you can tell if you watch the games because that’s the kind of information that the play-by-play guys should bring up once to give the fans a hint as to whether the game will be more half-court or up-and-down, but they mention it nine times before the half.
The Kings-Lakers beef had suspicious refs and poison?
Now, moving on, former Wizards assistant coach Dean Oliver formalised what he called the “Four Factors” that influence who wins and loses in basketball before going on to teach in the NBA. The four metrics are: ball handling (measured by turnover percentage), rebounding (measured by rebounding percentage), free throws (measured by free throws made divided by field goal attempts), and shooting from the floor (measured by effective field goal % to account for the three-point shot
Here’s where the Wizards rank through 60 games:
Four Factors — Offense
- efg — 18
- tov% — 18
- oreb% — 29
- ft/fga — 29
Four Factors — Defense
- defg — 28
- dtov% — 14
- dreb% — 30
- dft/dfga — 15
- The lesson here is that not much is being done well by the Wizards. On offence, making shots and avoiding mistakes are the most important things. They’re below average in all areas, and they struggle to get to the free throw line and recover their own misses.Making the opposition miss and grabbing the rebound is what counts in one defence. In each category, the Wizards are last.
- Since Wes Unseld Jr. was replaced as head coach by Brian Keefe, Washington has been just a little bit more competitive. After taking into consideration variations in schedule intensity, the differential comes out to roughly 0.7 points per 100 possessions.Any coach would struggle to put together a respectable offence that centres on Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole. In comparison to the league average, Poole’s efficiency this season is -15.5 points per 100 possessions. It’s -10.3 for Kuzma. Ranking 26th in offensive efficiency is inevitable when you combine that inefficiency with high usage (24.6% for Poole and 28.7% for Kuzma).
In my plus points metric, which compares a player’s effectiveness to the league average over the same number of possessions used, Poole and Kuzma are ranked last and fourth from last, respectively. Their
- The idea behind taking him off the bench was to give him a bigger on-ball role in the offence so that he would feel more at ease and perform better. As a bench player, he has actually continued to have touches per minute that are lower than his season average with the Wizards, far lower than his touch rate in Golden State, and significantly lower than his touch rate in his first ten games with the team.His effectiveness hasn’t altered either. As a starter through 52 games, his offensive rating stood at 100. It’s 101 in six games when not on the bench.
I agree with David Aldridge of The Athletic that Poole shouldn’t be written off just yet. After this season, he will receive a large salary for the next three, thus they must
- Aldridge, however, shares the view of other observers that the causality is incorrect. In other words, because Poole wasn’t being touched during an on-ball roll, he wasn’t terrible. His badness caused his touches to decline.The fact that Poole wasn’t actually an on-ball player in Golden State contributes to the flaw in the “he should be on-ball but these idiot Wizards coaches are screwing up” diagnosis. Washington gave him a go in a comparable role.and he was a huge failure. They attempted to give him less authority, but he kept failing. on an attempt to get him to play better, they are now testing him on a bench role.
Regretfully, I don’t believe there is an in-season fix for Poole’s dismal performance this year because Unseld and the coaching staff are not the origin of the issue.
