The Washington Wizards are currently last in the league in offensive rating and by quite a wide margin. Their 90.8 offensive rating is nearly 5 points per 100 possessions worse than the Charlotte Bobcats, the next closest team.  If that number were to hold up, it would be the lowest offensive rating in league history (the stat began being record in 1973-1974 season).

Due to the rust that the lockout has caused league-wide, the Wizards should improve slightly as the season goes on.  However, in a season that has 7 teams on pace to qualify for the worst 100 offensive season in league history, the Wizards have been playing epically bad basketball.

Whenever a team is this bad on the offensive end, it usually a combination of a lack of talent and poor execution. The Wizards, with a roster full of low basketball IQ players, are no exception. It’s to the point where it’s tough to accurately scout the one player Washington fans should be optimistic about, John Wall. Wall’s progress as a prospect has stalled and it looks as though his teammates may be part of the problem with his development.

While one could fill a 1,500 word post with examples of poor execution, selfish play or bad shot selection from the Wizards this season, we’ll just take a look at a few possessions where Washington starts out in a great position and ends up with a failed result.

This first play is a pick and roll between John Wall and Ronny Turiaf that’s defended by the Sixers’ Jrue Holiday and Nikola Vucevic. The Wizards are immediately put in an advantageous situation because Jrue Holiday goes over the top of Turiaf’s screen. The Wall-Turiaf tandem is tailor-made for a defense to have the on-ball defender go under thanks to Wall’s struggles shooting off the pick and roll (He’s currently at just 27.3% on jump shots coming off pick and rolls).

With Vucevic’s slow lateral foot speed, he doesn’t have a chance of staying with Wall. Wall easily splits the trap and forces Marreese Speights to have to rotate over, leaving an easy kickout pass to Trevor Booker on the left wing.

Booker should straddle the three point line and give Wall the option for an easy kickout pass. This would force Philly’s Jodie Meeks to defend both Booker and the Wizards player stationed in the corner.  When Meeks closes out, the Wizards will have an uncontested corner three.  If Meeks closes out too aggressively, Booker can then pump fake and drive past him. Instead, Booker dives to the paint, changing the angle of John Wall’s pass and giving Meeks a chance to intercept it, which he does.

Here is a video of the play. Watch the angle change as Booker dives to the paint, giving Meeks a chance to intercept the ball and changing a 2 on 1 situation in favor of the Wizards into a fast break opportunity for the Sixers.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6IbVhL71ls&w=560&h=315]

The second scenario again involves a pick and roll, this time with Nick Young handling the ball and JaVale McGee setting the screen and diving into the paint.

Trevor Booker is in the paint, and Rashard Lewis is standing in the corner. Wall, standing at the top of the key, should be Young’s outlet valve, rotating over to give Young a clear pass if he’s trapped. Lewis should then slide over to his left and Booker should curl over to the corner three slot.  Not only will this movement opening up the paint for McGee, but Young will have pressure-release if trapped, and station the Wizards players to swing the ball around the three point line against a scrambling Sixers’ defense.

Instead, Wall, Booker, and Lewis remain virtually still and don’t start moving until Young is already trapped.  There’s no spacing in the paint, which allows Vucevic and Meeks to double team Young out in the corner, with no clear passing lane to Wall.

The play once again results in a turnover. Here’s the video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NIkWpAXnMw&w=560&h=315]

Flip Saunders is likely to be a casualty before any player movement occurs, but many of the Wizards core players (Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee, Nick Young, and Jordan Crawford, primarily) had questionable basketball IQ’s long before they stepped onto an NBA court. It’s not uncommon for a top overall pick to come into a team that lacks talent, but is uncommon to belong to a team as dysfunctional as this current Washington Wizards team. Only time will tell how it affects Wall’s development going forward.