Standing the East: 14th

Win/Loss Record: 3 / 16

This week…

• Wizards go 1-2 this week getting their 3rd win of the season

• Core Squad: Who’s has ACTUALLY improved?

• Zaz’s First Quarter Management Grade

• Wizards Weekly Headlines: Lakers are monitoring Washington

• Upcoming Schedule: Only 2 games

Weekly Recap

^{Wizards get 3rd win of the season after beating Pistons 126-107}

Well, the Wizards notched their 3rd win of the season against the worst team in the league….we’ll take it!

Kuzma led the way in-front of his home state crowd with 32 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. Deni and Gallinari both had 16 points followed by Tyus Jones and Landry Shamet who each had 12 pts.

Coulibaly has cooled a bit on the offensive end of the floor but continues to put up decent defensive stats including two steals in this game.

Jordan Poole continued to disappoint in this game adding only 10 points on 3 of 9 shooting, committing 4 turnovers and getting swatted by Ausar Thompson on this play….

@espn

Ausar swatted Poole’s shot 😳 #nba #basketball #pistons #wizards #ausarthompson #jordanpoole

^{The Magic dominate Wizards to win 139-120}

Orlando has now beaten the Wizards 4 out of 5 times in 2023. Remember when we used to see the Magic on the schedule and assume it would be a win…well not anymore.

Kuzma led the way again with 23 pts followed by Avdija who had 22 pts on 9/12 shooting. Poole had a better game, contributing 19 points and only committing 2 turnovers.

The Wizards led by 7 points at one point in the 1st quarter but after they lost that lead they could never recover. Franz Wagner led the way for the Magic with a season high 31 points.

^{Wizards lose again to the Magic 125-130}

This game was a little more balanced but ended with the same outcome. Kuzma again led the way with 27 points followed by Gafford with 18 points and 3 blocks. Poole went cold again, going 3 for 12 ending with only 5 points.

Our ray of hope is that Bilal Coulibaly bounced back with a great game going 6/7 from the field ending with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals.

How do they compare to last season?

Every week it seems harder and harder to find a silver lining around this Wizards season. That’s why this week we are gonna try and find some stats that show the arrow pointing up for some of our core guys…but you got to take the good with the bad.

^{Kyle Kuzma: Better but not by much}

Kuzma has consistently led the Wizards in scoring game after game this season but when you look at his stats compared to last season his improvement has not been as drastic as you would think.

His minutes are down compared to last season which should be factored in. Overall he PPG is only up by 2.4 points. His FG% is up by 2.6% but his 3p% had dropped by a few percentage points.

Bigger picture, Kuzma’s assists per game are up from 3.7 to 4.6 and TO game are down from 2.5 to 3.0.

What is not showing up in the stats is that he has take more or a leadership role on this team and brings it every night.

^{Deni Avdija : Signs of life}

Deni’s numbers are showing signs of life especially given the fact that his minutes have stayed consistent since last season.

He is averaging 3.1 more points per game, his FG% is up by 8.9% and his 3p% is up by 8.8%. He is also dishing out the ball better averaging 3.7 assists compared to 2.8 last season. Say what you want about Deni, but he has improved in overall efficiency so far this season.

^{Corey Kispert : Struggling}

Unfortunately Kispert’s numbers are down across the board. His FG% is down by over 5% and his 3p% is down by 5.2%. His minutes are up which may be a factor but we are hoping to see him improve over the rest of the season.

^{Daniel Gafford : Slightly Down}

Daniel Gafford, despite getting more minutes is not seeing the offensive improvement we would have hoped for. His average points per game are slightly down by 0.8 while his FG% is down by 3%.

On the defensive end, his numbers a solid. The Landlord is averaging 2.1 blocks per game compared to 1.3 last season and his steals are up as well. He is also averaging an additional 2 rebounds per game which is not too shabby.

First Quarter Grades: Wizard’s New Management

A quarter into the season and time to grade the Wizard’s new management team. Michael Winger and Will Dawkins were hired in the offseason to guide the Wizards through a rebuild. They were successful in unloading injury-prone Bradley Beal’s expensive contract, albeit not getting any first-round picks. Getting Kuzma at four-years, $102 million also seemed like a good deal. But other than that, it’s hard to find any positives. The Porzingis trade yielded no first rounders and the Poole trade has proven to be a disaster. In fact, Poole is showing his value is much less than his 4-year /$128 million contract by the minute. We now have reason to believe that they actually acquired Poole to be a franchise cornerstone. Did they Poole could be a leader on a contender? 

On the coaching front, they picked up Wes Unseld’s Junior’s 4^th year. It’s pretty clear that Unseld has fallen out of favor with the fanbase based on our fanbase monitoring, and the Wiz of Awes article referenced above will tell you what you probably already know about his coaching and development decisions.

Grade: C-

Wizards Headlines

Upcoming Schedule

• Wednesday, Dec. 6th @7:00pm EST: Wizards vs 76er (Home)

• Friday, Dec. 8th @ 7:30pm EST: Wizards vs Nets (Away)

Have a great week!