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.

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The Cavs are off to a somewhat surprising 3-3 start and a key piece of their improved play has been the spark 4th overall pick Tristan Thompson has given them off the bench. The “other” rookie along with 1st overall pick Kyrie Irving, Thompson has produced to the tune of 8.3 pionts, 4.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in just under 20 minutes per night, good for a 16.8 Player Efficiency Rating(PER).

The success Thompson is having isn’t indicative of a giant leap in his skill set, however.  The strengths and weaknesses in Thompson’s game are largely the same as scouts saw in college. Sebastian wrote on him here and my other affliation, DraftExpress, also profiled him.

This is both good and bad depending on the perspective of the observer.  Good in that it shows his strengths provide him with an effective role in the NBA already. The bad being that he still has a ways to go in order to fully tap his potential as a player.  While he’s obviously not finished developing as a player at 20 years old, progress is something fans are always impatient to see.

Let’s take a look at which part’s of Thompson’s game have translated to the NBA.

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One of the major story lines during the first week of the NBA season has been the arrival (and play) of Spanish sensation, Ricky Rubio.

Rubio landed in Minnesota with great expectations. He has long been in the NBA spotlight (we started profiling him at DraftExpress when he was 14 years old), and his strengths and weaknesses largely remain the same as when he was drafted 5th overall two years ago.  Nothing that we’ve witnessed over his first three games (including one preseason) has given us any sort of new revelation on his game, but it has now been displayed to a much larger audience with and against NBA players.

I’m going to take a look at two areas of Rubio’s game that can help the Timberwolves right away; transition and pick and rolls. That isn’t to suggest that Rubio is a complete player in these areas. After all, one can’t expect a 21 year old point guard playing his first games in the NBA to be without flaws. However, it is clear Rubio’s exceptional court vision in transition and in pick and roll sets are going to be positive additions to the Timberwolves team.

Here is a quick look at Rubio in transition. In the photo, we see Derrick Williams streaking down the lane with Wesley Johnson flanking him. Oklahoma City’s Eric Maynor is in position to stop the ball while another defender, Daequan Cook runs with Anthony Tolliver. This leaves Thunder beard aficionado James Harden to have to defend both Williams and Johnson.

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Evan Turner’s rookie season was a tough one and his role change offensively played a part in that.  The 2010 National Player of the Year as a junior for Ohio State, Turner went from a ball dominant point guard being used primarily in pick and roll sets for the Buckeyes to a largely spot-up role player for the Philadelphia 76ers, a role that put even more of an emphasis on his set shot.

The results were not pretty.  Turner had a tough time extending his range out to NBA three point territory, making only 14 three pointers in 78 games.  As a whole, his 0.8 points per possession on jump shot attempts were in the bottom third of the league, and he shot only 40.2% on no dribble jump shots, limiting his usefulness as a spot-up player.  Turner struggled to find a comfort zone on the offensive end last year, which caused both his confidence — and his minutes — to fall.

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