
The Wizards have gotten off to a shaky start to the 2016-’17 season, holding a 2-7 record through its first nine games.
After making off-season moves to acquire the likes of Ian Mahinmi, Trey Burke and Tomas Satoransky, Washington now finds itself immensely behind in the Eastern Conference, ranking at 14th place as of today; It’s early, but they’re also ranked 27th in the association.
Experts and analysts have pointed to numerous problems the team possesses, such as John Wall’s ejections, the lack of production from Bradley Beal and the team’s frontcourt depth.
Wizards starting center Marvin Gortat believes there’s a different issue at hand:
“What can we do? Well, we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to compete,” Gortat said (via Candace Buckner of the Washington Post). “We need energy. We need effort. We’ve got to make shots. I think there’s a lot of things we can do better. I think right now, as far as I know, I think we’ve got one of the worst benches in the league right now.”
Well, Marcin Gortat happens to be correct. The Wizards’ bench unit is in the bottom five in the league in points per game, something that is unsurprisingly beginning to worry some team officials.
After spending the offseason revamping its bench, the news of its second unit disappointing early on is coming as a huge blow to Wizards fans who hope to see their team play past April this season.