In the 2024 National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season, the Washington Wizards had the second-worst record. The starting five for the Wizards was Tyus Jones (12 points per game), rookie Bilal Coulibaly (8.3 ppg), Deni Avdija (14 ppg), Kyle Kuzma (22.5 ppg), and Marvin Bagley III (11.5 ppg). Former Golden State Warriors star Jordan Poole, who was traded to the Wizards at the beginning of the year, did not even start for part of the second half of the season. What went so horribly wrong for the team?
Many would blame the Wizards’ bad season on the coaching. The year started with questionable head coach Wes Unseld Jr., but he was later relieved of his head coaching duties in the middle of the season. The Wizards then brought in interim head coach Brian Keefe, who might be even more questionable. While basketball is a team sport, many experts attribute most of his struggles to Poole. He had a cold streak starting in February when he was only averaging 14 points per game, which is lower than his projections. Poole began to heat up at the end of the season and earn back his starting job, but the Wizard’s midseason struggles could be due to him.
With all this talk about how the Wizards did so badly, what did they do good? ESPN had the Wizards ranked as the fourteenth-best offense in the league, and small forward Kuzma is performing at a career level. Young star power forward Coulibaly has also been playing very well. The Wizards front office also got to business before the trade deadline, giving the team much draft capital. By trading Bradley Beal and Daniel Gafford in a separate trade, they secured two first-round draft picks outside of their automatic yearly one, giving them a total of three first round picks for the 2024 NBA draft. In that same Beal trade and a trade involving Mike Muscala and Danilo Gallinari, they also secured two second-round 2024 draft picks. Regarding draft capital, they are in a great position for the future. If they hit on these picks, the Wizards may be a team to look out for in the next few years. Sadly, however, that does not mean right now.
The Wizards got most of their wins throughout the season in the front-office trading. Putting aside all their losses, what kinds of teams have they beaten? The Wizards have beaten the Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets (twice), Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, and the Sacramento Kings. Other than the Heat, Pacers, and Kings, all these teams are below a .500 win/loss ratio. So, for the most part, the team has not had the most impressive wins in the very few wins they had. On the bright side, because the Wizards are so bad, in their game against the Bulls on March 25, the tickets went as low as 2 dollars. To put that into perspective, the Boston Celtics’ tickets are going as low as 44 dollars. That is 22 times the amount Wizards fans have to pay!
The Wizards may have a bright future ahead of them, but in reality, at this moment, they are the worst team in the league, and many things have to change. Maybe they will win more than 15 games next year?
