What’s Wrong With the Wayward Wizards?

On Thursday, the Wizards concluded a stretch in which they played six games in nine days, including a four-game road trip.

It did not go well. Washington went 0-6, derailing any momentum it might have had to start the season. The team’s best effort came on Thursday night, when it took the Pistons to double overtime. But the Wizards ultimately lost, 144-140, despite getting 30 or more points from Trae Young, Anthony Davis and Alex Sarr.

Their record is now 4-9, good for 12th in the Eastern Conference with the Rockets and Grizzlies coming to town early next week.

“Great growth by our team,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said after the Pistons game.

But one goal for the Wizards this year was to earn fewer moral victories and more actual victories. That starts with playing competitive games, and Thursday was perhaps the best example of that — Washington gave an Eastern Conference contender all they could handle. But losing a sixth consecutive game when three of your best players have big nights is certainly demoralizing. Here’s a look at what’s working and what’s not at this point in the season.

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Anthony Davis

Davis has played like an All-Star in the 11 games he’s appeared in, missing two with an ankle sprain. The 6-foot-10 center is one of only two NBA players averaging 25 or more points, 10 or more rebounds and a steal and block per game — the other is Victor Wembanyama. Davis leads the team in points and rebounds; his 32% 3-point shooting percentage is a tick below his career high and his 84.6% mark from the free-throw line ties a career best.

On Thursday, Davis had 30 points and 15 rebounds on 62% shooting, putting together another terrific night.

Davis is eligible for a four-year contract extension worth $275 million, and he’s playing like a man who wants to get paid. The 15-year veteran will turn 34 in March and has said he will wait until the end of the season to decide on his long-term future with the Wizards. But his solid play could interest contending teams and make things interesting for Washington around the trade deadline.

Trae Young

It’s been a rough start to Young’s first full season as a Wizard. After signing a four-year contract extension worth $212 million in June, he hasn’t looked like the same player that was a four-time All-Star in Atlanta. It’s early, but Young’s contract could age like Bradley Beal’s disastrous deal in D.C.

Thursday was Young’s best performance as a Wizard, albeit with some issues. He had 37 points on 34.5% shooting and hit 50% of his threes. He hit a three at the buzzer to force the game into overtime but had some questionable offensive possessions throughout the game, especially in crunch time.

“If we continue to play like this, I can see ourselves winning a lot of games,” an optimistic Young said Thursday.

He’s shooting just 40% from the field and less than 32% from three, both career lows. Known for his ability to get to the basket and shoot from deep, Young isn’t putting pressure on the rim the way he has in the past. Entering Thursday’s game, just 12% of his shots had come near the hoop, according to Cleaning the Glass, a basketball analytics website. Young’s best statistical season was 2021-22, where 22% of his shots came at the rim.

He’s also averaging nine minutes of possession per game and holding the ball for more than 50% of his floor time, despite him and Keefe both saying he would be used off the ball more this year. Kyshawn George has the team’s second-highest possession per game at 4.7 minutes, while All-Star point guards Stephen Curry and De’Aaron Fox are at 4.1 and 4.2 minutes, respectively.

AJ Dybantsa

The rookie has certainly had his moments, like scoring 21 points in Monday’s loss to the Pistons while showing off some of the talent that made teams tank for his talents.

Through nine games, Dybantsa is averaging 15 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists. It’s hard to see any reason for alarm so early into the 19-year-old’s career. His 23% 3-point percentage is far lower than he shot in his lone season at BYU, but that shouldn’t be a cause for concern. Kevin Durant, Dybantsa’s favorite player as a kid, shot less than 29% from three as a rookie and became a 40% career shooter from deep.

On Thursday, Dybantsa hit a jump shot from the free-throw line to send the game into double overtime. But it was one of just two baskets he made on the night, finishing with just 5 points on 20% shooting.

Dybantsa is still adjusting to the NBA, and his player efficiency rating shows that. The all-incompassing metric measures a player’s productivity and accounts for positive contributions such as field goals, threes, steals, blocks, etc., as well as negatives such as fouls and turnovers. The league average is 15, and Dybantsa’s is just 10.6. For context, Dybantsa’s fellow top picks, Darryn Peterson (No. 2 overall to Utah) and Cameron Boozer (No. 3 to Memphis) have PERs of 14.5 and 14.4, respectively.

Coaching and Defense

It has certainly not been a good stretch for Keefe. He was hired in part for his player development background, which includes working with Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, among others. While his ability to develop young players has paid off with some of the Wizards’ young core, recent results have been disappointing — especially with a fairly healthy roster.

Keefe’s lineups with Davis and Sarr sharing the floor were somewhat panned and proved ineffective early in the season. But the approach may have turned a corner last night, as both big men scored 30 points.

The Wizards’ transition defense has been an issue throughout the season, but — somewhat surprisingly — Washington’s defensive rating is 19th. Given the fact that the unit ranked last in the league a year ago, improvement was given. But early this week, Davis didn’t hold back when asked what was wrong with his team’s defense.

“Everything,” he said after a loss in Detroit. “We’re not rebounding. We’re giving up open threes. We’re fouling. We’re not guarding the ball. … Transition. It’s everything right now.”

As it stands, the Wizards have one of the league’s worst offenses and a mediocre defense. We’re less than a month into the season but time is already running out if Washington is going to fix some of these foundational issues.

“We’re a new team,” Keefe said earlier this week. “We’re growing and learning. We have to take all this evidence that we have, use it, look at it, teach, coach. Those are things we’re doing. Just got to [be] more consistent.”