What Went Wrong For The Washington Wizards In their 2018-19 NBA Season?
What’s wrong with the Washington Wizards? The easy answer to that would be injuries, but their decline goes further than that. The Wizards, with all their talents, should not be treading water near the bottom half of a weak Eastern Conference.
The Wizards entered the 2018-19 season with two All-Stars, a highly paid small forward, and a center looking for redemption. This was their year.
But as it turns out, what’s on paper doesn’t always translate to success.
The year started off rough for the Wizards as they opened their first 10 games with a 2-8 record, including a five-game losing streak. As the season progressed, the trade rumors began to swirl regarding John Wall and Bradley Beal. That’s how bad things have gotten in D.C.
How can a team, viewed in the offseason as a threat to the Boston Celtics, not be one of the top teams and start looking to be sellers instead of buyers?
The feeling is that changes must be made. Will the Wizards be willing to let Wall go for younger talent to pair with Beal in the backcourt? Will they keep Wall and ship Beal out? With Howard staying put, the Wizards will have to make some tough decisions. To avoid their past failures, the Wizards must get on the same page as a team or they will be doomed to repeat their issues from 2018.
Here are three things that went wrong for the Wizards in their 2018-19 NBA season.
3. Injuries
In all fairness, the season was lost the moment John Wall went down. While teams like the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics can survive without one star, the Wizards are not built like that. When your top player misses half the season, what’s expected to happen?
And to make matters worse, the presence of Dwight Howard was viewed as the move to put the Wizards atop of the Eastern Conference standings. But no such luck. Howard only played nine games and the Wizards were stuck relying on players such as Thomas Bryant to hold down the paint. But the issues didn’t stop there.
With Wall and Howard’s injuries, the Wizards were forced to ship Otto Porter out of town and took in the cheaper contracts of Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker, which is a great move if the Wizards were looking towards the future regarding their dismal cap situation.
2. Defense, Or Lack Thereof
Defense wins championships in any league. For the Wizards, ranking as the third worst defensive team in the league, is one of the reasons for their poor showing in 2018. Now, if they were healthy with Wall and Howard, their stats would reflect that. But sending out a lineup with a slower Jeff Green, Portis, and Ariza, not forgetting to mention Tomas Satoransky, they were doomed.
In 2017-18, The Washington Wizards finished the year ranked 15th in defense, 10th in rebounding, and sixth in three-point percentage (defensively). Fast forward a year and it all fell apart. In 2018, the Wizards ranked 29th in defense, 28th in rebounding, and 27th defensively defending three ball.
1. 2018 Schedule
The beginning of the 2018-19 season is when the Wizards lost their footing. In their first 37 games, the Wizards walked away with 14 wins. The big issue with that is, they were healthy then (minus Howard). But still, a lineup that featured Wall, Beal, and Porter should not have stumbled out of the gate like that.
To be taken as serious contenders, you must beat some of the best and destroy the lesser teams. Even with Howard gone, there’s no way the Wizards with Beal, Wall, and Porter should have taken teams like the Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, and Chicago Bulls lightly. With one of the best backcourts in the NBA, it appeared this team was never on the same page.
The Wizards dug themselves into such a hole, that even being in the East, they were not able to climb out of it.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
