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.
Last year, we took a look at players coming to the NBA after playing at least as season overseas. When an international guy gets drafted, I usually wait on his buyout news before assuming a player is coming, but when someone as smart as Jonathan Givony (the man behind Draft Express – he called a guy from Qatar being drafted) tells you that it’s “100 %” he’s coming over, then you take that as fact. That’s why we are looking at Jan Vesely the day after the draft.
Vesley comes to the Washington Wizards with a reputation as a high flyer, calling Blake Griffin “the American Jan Vesely” but outside the big dunk highlights, nobody really knows much about him. In this scouting report, we are going to look at a few strengths and weaknesses outside the big dunks.
Strengths
Post Offense
Vesely is a player who offensively is very comfortable posting up with his back to the basket. In the 92 post up possessions that Vesely had over the course of the season, he posted a PPP of 1.022 (good for a top 14% finish among international basketball players) on 65.4% shooting.
One of the biggest reasons for his success in the post is his ability to establish very good position down low:
Jan Vesely does a fantastic job of using his body and his butt as a tool that lets him be physical with his defender and get his body on the block. Position is so important when posting up, if you start too far away, you aren’t going to be efficient as a post player. When Vesely gets the ball so deep in the post, it makes all of his moves so much easier.
After a bucket by the Washington Wizards with about 40 seconds left, the Detroit Pistons found themselves in a situation where they were looking to take a lead with the game tied. However, after a drive and kick jumper, they went from being tied to being down 2 points in four seconds flat, thanks to a John Wall fast break dunk. Wall was able to get out on the break due to a poor decision by Austin Daye.
We pick up the Pistons’ possession as Tracy McGrady dribbles the ball at the top with 10 seconds left on the shot clock. McGrady attacks the rim, and when this happens Will Bynum slides to the corner. This leaves Austin Daye as the man responsible for getting back on defense. Initially, he makes the right play by sliding towards the top of the key, replacing McGrady.
Boxing out a shooter at the foul line is of the things that happens so much in a basketball game that players tend to just go through the motions instead of doing everything as hard as they are supposed to. Most of the time, it doesn’t come back to hurt the team simply going through the motions. However, eventually it does, and against the Wizards, it cost the New Jersey Nets two points:
Towards the end of the third quarter, Avery Johnson threw out his small lineup, featuring Travis Outlaw at the 4 and Anthony Morrow at the 3. With John Wall at the foul line, Outlaw and Morrow were faced with the challenge of boxing out a bigger Trevor Booker. Normally when faced with a bigger man in the middle, the side with two players tend to “pinch” the bigger offensive player by having both guys boxing him out. That is what the Nets do here.
A team’s performance after a timeout may be the best way to judge a coach’s Xs & Os knowledge, and his ability to draw up plays. The Clipboard Awards is a competition where I choose the top three post-timeout plays each night, adding up the scores over the course of the season.
Play 3 (1 Point) – Flip Saunders/Washington Wizards
This play starts with John Wall bringing the basketball up along the sideline. As that happens, Josh Howard sets a backscreen for Nick Young.
Young curls the screen at the block and sets a backscreen for Trevor Booker, who uses it to flash to the block.
A team’s performance after a timeout may be the best way to judge a coach’s Xs & Os knowledge, and his ability to draw up plays. The Clipboard Awards is a competition where I choose the top three post-timeout plays each night, adding up the scores over the course of the season.
Play #3 (1 point)- Flip Saunders/Washington Wizards
Coming off of the jump ball, John Wall brings the basketball down and as that happens, Kirk Hinrich comes off of a backscreen set by Andray Blatche
After coming off of the backscreen, Hinrich sets a screen on the block, allowing JaVale McGee to post up on the ball side block. As this happens, John Wall enters the ball to Blatche.
The Wizards game against the Sacramento Kings had a really bad finish involving a lot of bad basketball, especially on the defensive end. One of those bad plays (in my opinion) was the final Kings’ possession in the 4th quarter where they got a wide open lay-up, tying the game and sending it into overtime:
Without a doubt, the main culprit on this play is John Wall. There is no way that Pooh Jeter should be driving on him like that at any point of the game, let alone on the final play of the game. That being said, partial blame does need to go to JaVale McGee. With the remaining Wizards’ defenders on the hips of the Kings’ three point shooters, McGee needs to be the man responsible for help defense if Jeter gets ball Wall (which does in fact happen). The main problem that I have with McGee is his defensive positioning. He is denying DeMarcus Cousins the ball strongly, and this deny leaves him up high and puts him in a position where he can’t help. I would have much rather seen him playing behind Cousins (but still defending him), ready to help on any dribble penetration. Doing so gives up the pass to DeMarcus Cousins in the post, but Cousins really struggled with his driving from a distance (fell and threw up a shot at the same time on his previous attempt), so if Cousins makes the catch, I am less worried about that than an open lay-up.
If you did not know that Kevin Seraphin was a rookie, after you saw the mistake he made down the stretch of the Wizards’ game against the Lakers, it had to be obvious. Seraphin does a fantastic job showing on the screen and getting back to the rim to get his hands on the basketball. However, after that he allows Derek Fisher to get his hands on the basketball, knocking it loose:
The reason why Fisher was able to get his hands on the ball was because Seraphin brought it back down to an area where Fisher could reach it. The overhead angle really shows Seraphin’s mistake:
The last time the Philadelphia 76ers were in Washington playing the Wizards, they fouled up three late in the 4th quarter and paid the price for it. As if it was meant to be, Doug Collins and the Sixers found themselves in almost the same exact situation in Washington against the Wizards. Once again, Doug Collins stuck to his guns, and once again, it backfired. Unlike the last time in Washington, it wasn’t a problem with strategy. It was poor execution from Jrue Holiday.
This time, the Sixers were up three with 8.0 seconds left and Evan Turner at line. Turner misses both free throws (this wouldn’t be his biggest mistake of the game – more on that later), and John Wall starts the basketball up the court.
As John Wall brings the basketball towards half court, Jrue Holiday comes running towards him. With 5.5 seconds left and a three point lead, there is no reason Holiday should be out there defending Wall. This was the first give-away that the Sixers were going to foul. John Wall even said it was after the game:
“I could tell how he was walking up to me that he was going to foul me,” Wall said. “Luckily I got the call and got to shoot three free throws.”
Even though Doug Collins’ decision to foul up three points resulted in a buzzer beater, they still had a chance to come away with the win in overtime. Trailing by one with 7.1 seconds left Collins got Lou Williams the basketball in the lane, but a better defensive play by Andray Blatche helped secure the victory for the Wizards:
As the basketball goes to the trigger man, Tony Battie and Thaddeus Young come and set a nice double screen for Lou Williams.
