The Wizards have lost eight straight and their last two outings were particularly ugly. They were blown out by Detroit and New York by a combined 48 points. Head coach Brian Keefe took ownership for the poor performances.
“I’m the leader of this team. I’m the head coach of this team,” Keefe said, per Varun Shankar of the Washington Post. “So I’ll take the responsibility for the last two nights, not playing up to the competitive disposition that we should be playing with, especially defensively. That will be addressed as a group, and we will get better. But that wasn’t … what our standards were, and we have to own that and we have to look at ourselves and we have to get better.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Hawks forward Jalen Johnson is listed as questionable to play against Golden State on Wednesday due to left lateral lower leg inflammation, Lauren Williams of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. Johnson missed the Hawks’ win at Sacramento on Monday. He’s averaging 19.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game this season after signing a five-year, $150MM extension prior to the season.
- Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. has been upgraded to questionable for the team’s road game against the Clippers on Wednesday, beat reporter Dan Savage tweets. Carter, who signed a three-year extension last month, hasn’t played since Nov. 3 due to left foot plantar fasciitis.
- Heat forward Jimmy Butler missed four consecutive games due to a sprained right ankle. He was dominant in his return against Philadelphia on Monday, pouring in 30 points while adding 10 rebounds and five assists, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. “We know what the expectation is when he’s healthy,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “… He really set the tone by imposing his physical will on the game.” Staying on the court has been the issue for Butler. He has missed 20 or more regular-season games in three of the last four seasons, which is why the front office showed reluctance during the offseason to discuss a maximum-salary extension with him.
Keefe may take responsibility for the Wizards performance, but the way the team is constructed and how certain players are playing as individuals rather than team players is the reason for the poor perfromances. Poole and Kuzma are very skilled players, but they seem more interested in getting their own stats padded than helping the rookies that were drafted this past year.
Sarr, Bub, George and Coulibaly have a chemistry when they are all on the court together or in some combination that is absent when you have both Kuzma and Poole on the court at the same time. There is a disconnect there, I think the Wizards organization is accepting of that fact in order to tank at the current point of them rebuilding but its obvious to see if you watch the games. There’s not enough minutes to put the young guys into situations where they can get valuable experience needed when you have to give so much time to guys like Poole and Kuzma. Poole with a -33 +/- against Detroit, Kuzma chucked up 28 shots against Atlanta. I get you want to tank, but at least try to put the young guys in situations where they can learn rather than just handing it off to a vet who constantly takes high volume shots with nothing to show for it.
What will happen with Jimmy Butler? Is it going to be the Wolves all over again? Would a team trade for him? I can’t imagine any team giving up more than a first for who knows what you are going to get . The Jimmy that works and competes or the one that is “injured”. (Maybe I am wrong and he is really injured but putting up 30-10-5 the day coming back seems like he was just taking a few days off while “injury management” is the claim.)
Wizards simply don’t possess enough talent at this current time. Maybe in a few years, that might change, but you are asking guys like Kuzma and Poole who were known to give it their all on the defensive end. Everyone knows they are tanking for Flagg/Bailey anyways.