Washington Wizards have been up and down since the turn of the new year. They’ve won 18 games and lost 21 since January 1st. Then they lost 11 of 13, traded wins and losses towards the end of February and then they won five straight. It seemed like they were back to their winning ways of earlier in the season but then they got into the heart of their West Coast road trip. They now have lot two straight over the weekend, as the Los Angeles Clippers beat them 113-99 and yesterday they lost 109-86 to the Sacramento Kings.
Then Wittman had the above comments after the loss to the Kings. Not having too many kind words for the offense and what exactly is going on with the team.
It seems like there is an obvious disconnect on the team between Wittman and the Wizards players. The guys just don’t seem like they are fully sold on Wittman and his philosophies just based on watching how they play. He likes to slow it down, they want to speed it up, be flashy and attack the rim.
Part of that reason is Wittman has primarily focused on the defensive end for a good majority of his career as a coach and his offense hasn’t really performed too well historically. What he should do is take a step back and let the team dictate the offensive pace. When they are lead by a player like John Wall, who can easily take the reigns of running the offense, this team could do a multitude of things very well.
They can execute the pick and roll with Marcin Gortat and Nene to perfection, allow guys like Bradley Beal and Paul Pierce to perform on the perimeter and the mid range game along with John Wall doing what John Wall does. Make plays. It’s really simple but if Wittman isn’t getting that defense up to snuff, well then defense won’t lead to offense.
