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Overall
Win/Loss Record (as of November 30th) : 1-12, fifth place Southeast Division
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19
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This
Month:
30
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Team
Statistics and League Rank (as of November 30th)
Points
Scored: 89.8 (30th)
Points
Allowed: 96.4 (12th)
Team
FG%: .396 (30th)
Opponent’s
FG%: .440 (14th)
Rebounds
per game: 43.6 (8th)
Opponents
rebounds per game: 44.7 (27th)
Turnovers
per game: 16.5 (26th)
Opponents
turnovers per game: 16.4 (8th)
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Individual
Statistical Leaders
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Worst
Player of the Month: Take Your Pick
Save
for the two game heroics effort of Nene, the Wizards entire roster has been
lackluster at best. The two veterans
that were brought to bring veteran leadership, Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza,
have been completely ineffective as neither one of them can buy a
bucket. Bradley Beal, the third
overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, has failed to live up to expectations
shooting just .330 from the field thus far.
And those three have been the ones carrying the Wizards thus far—the
rest are not even worth mentioning.
Even if John Wall returns, it is doubtful that the Wizards will
reach .500 as anticipated.
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First
Player of the Month: Nene
He
has only played just two games thus far, but Nene has been the Wizards’
bright spot thus far leading the team in scoring and shooting a team high
.556 from the field. His rebounding
was rather weak just averaging three per game, but it is still early in the
season and that can change rather quickly.
Hopefully he can last longer than he did last season before falling
injury as not only their sole consistent offensive option, but the Wizards
have a lot riding on him—52$ million over the next four years to be
exact. The Wizards took a gamble in
taking an aging big man who is injury prone and with a huge untradeable contract. Hopefully they will get some return on
their rather huge investment.
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Analysis:
Upon heading into
the season there was a small glimmer of hope in the Nation’s Capital—the
Wizards spent the entire off season cutting out off the dead weight and infusing
new talent that would bring a more professional and mature environment. These moves were made to finally get
Washington out from the bottom and on its way to the postseason which the
team has not made in six or seven years.
Unfortunately, this new roster has not lived up to expectations as the
Wizards started this season with a twelve game losing streak and only managed
not to be winless for the month at the very end of November. Now whatever optimism that was held before
the regular season has all been snuffed out as it seems that this will be
another long and hapless season for the Washington Wizards. Fortunately, however, when one looks over
their schedule, the situation does not look as bleak as there are many
positives to take from this month giving Wizard fans yet again some hope that
things will turn around for them.
For starters,
despite going winless for most of November, the Wizards have shown grit and
determination and overall played together as a team. They have yet to turn on each other as it
often happens with struggling teams and compared to last season’s debacle,
the Wizards have played smarter and entered each game with the same strong
and focused effort win or lose. Add
the fact that the Wizards have been playing hard and focused without their
leading scorer and assist man John Wall gives fans added incentive to pull
for this struggling team and stand by it through these this rather tough
period. Before, fans would have been
apathetic and completely dejected watching their team get beat down game
after game; now, there is growing support for this maligned team as fans
witness how hard they team is playing and their team’s unwavering
determination to keep pushing for that first win. Looking at the past box scores for
November, it is easy to see why someone can continue to root for this team
even in the worst of circumstances.
So far, save for two
games that they got blown out by the Charlotte Bobcats (11/13/2012) and the
San Antonio Spurs (11/26/2012), most of the Wizards losses were by margins of
ten points or less. That is pretty
remarkable considering that November’s schedule consisted of teams that
qualified for the playoffs last season such as the Boston Celtics who won
their games against the Wizards by a total of nine points. The same went for the Indiana Pacers as
they scraped by the Wizards in their first game by four points (11/10/2012)
and their second by just seven (11/19/2012).
Three of Wizards’ loses took overtime for them to be beaten—this first
was by the Celtics (11/7/2012), the second by the Atlanta Hawks (11/21/2012)
and the third by the Charlotte Bobcats (11/24/2012)—all by a total of nine
points. When they had finally earned
that win against the Portland Trailblazers (11/28/2012), it was as if all the
hard work, pain, and struggle finally paid off and the Wizards finally
received their just reward.
Credit Randy Wittman
for his creative use of his roster trying to the find right rotation to keep
his Wizards team competitive despite lacking the talent or firepower. So far he has tried a plethora of
combinations switching starting lineups with every game and ironically such
moves have yet to cause any team to have chemistry problems; however, unlike
most teams, the Wizards have essentially bought in and they have been
rewarded by having the most evenly minute distributed roster in the league
with 10 players playing more than 20 minutes per game. So there is no one player to count on for
scoring and clutch plays—it’s a complete team effort from the starting
whistle to the final buzzer. Wittman
certainly does not play favorites when it comes to divvying up the minutes
and it seems as if his players respect him for it looking at their continuous
soid effort on the floor. It will be
interesting to see how the rotations will work once John Wall returns to the
lineup.
They will need Wall
up and ready as soon as possible as the Wizards will be entering a rather
tough stretch starting with the New York Knicks on the road (11/30/2012), the
Miami Heat at home (12/04/2012), and the Atlanta Hawks on the road (12/07/2012). Fortunately, for Washington, they will be a
few winnable games ahead as they will face other struggling teams such as the
Houston Rockets on the road (12/11/2012), the Los Angeles Lakers at home (12/14/2012),
two games against the Orlando Magic (12/19/12/28), two more against Detroit Pistons
(12/21, 12/22) , and one versus the Cleveland Cavaliers (12/26) at home. Hopefully the Wizards will manage to split
some of these games as they use the momentum from their first win as they push
forward through the season. They have
gotten a major monkey of their backs finally ending their franchise record 12
game losing streak at the start of the season and there is nowhere else to go
but up. Hopefully John Wall will be
back soon, but even if he is not, the Wizards will certain continue with
their gritty player win or lose.
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Friday, November 30, 2012
SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for November: 30. Washington Wizards
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