Washington Wizards Aim To Continue Improvement

The Washington Wizards have to be feeling good about their team, despite what the record says. Playing the first part of the season without your two best players being healthy definitely matters. Now that they are on the right track, they have to continue to show improvement in order to take solace in the fact that they will be missing the playoffs again.

The biggest improvement needs to happen on the offensive side of the ball. While they have picked up the defensive intensity, there are too many games where the Wizards fail to create space from their opponents by going through long scoring droughts. While there is a great chance that the Wizards will not acquire a dominant scorer at the trade deadline, there are still a few things they can do to remedy the situation.

Limiting turnovers should be a big concern for this Wizards team, and John Wall is a major part of the turnover problem. Some of the turnovers can be attributed to rust, some to not being in complete sync with teammates, and most because of carelessness.

Since returning to the lineup, Wall is averaging almost three and half turnovers per game. He has to value the ball more, which in turn will at least give them a shot at an offensive attempt. The Wizards need to work on limiting turnovers, as they are near the bottom of the league in turnovers per game. A team that struggles to score at times can not afford to be at the bottom of the league in this category.

Another area to improve upon during the second half of the season should be bench production. After starting the season fairly well, A.J. Price has struggled as of late. Part of the bench’s struggles probably can also be directly attributed to the struggles of Jordan Crawford. The Wizards need to find a way to get Crawford going or get him gone.

Too many minutes are being placed upon the shoulders of players who are in essence, still working their way back from injury. The Wizards are probably not going to make it to the playoffs no matter how hard they push, but they still have plenty to play for.