Washington Wizards 2022-23 Season Preview
I don't know, Bradley Beal is still good?
Welcome to the start of our 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.
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Stats
Net Rating: -3.8 (24th)
Offense: 110.9 (22nd)
Good
Washington was a good team at taking care of the ball, only turning it over 13.5% of the time, ranking 11th in the NBA. Alot can go into this, but taking care of the ball is a part of the game that coaches can really emphasize or ignore - a good example of this is Bo Ryan vs Steve Kerr. Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin teams just never turned it over or took risks passing, whereas Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors teams take risks all the time and commit sloppy turnovers. So controlling turnovers when you have a poor shooting team can be vital to creating more scoring chances.
Bad
Rebounding is an interesting stat, especially offensive rebounding since this can shed some light on philosophy and effort - but the Wizards ranking 29th in the NBA only grabbing back 23% of their misses is not good. The benefits of this is stopping teams in transition, which we will get to on the defensive side of the ball.
Ugly
Their shot profile on offense was pretty poor for an NBA team looking for success and identity, ranking 24th in Loc eFG% - or in simpler terms they didn’t take shots from the most efficient locations. They took the 4th most from mid range, and were 22nd at the rim with 23rd from 3. Combine that with poor shooting from every location, your offense will always be subpar.
Defense: 114.7 (25th)
Good
Stopping teams in transition has two main areas of success, not crashing the boards and the effort to sprint back. The Wizards did not crash the offensive glass like we mentioned above, but they also ranked 6th in transition defense which is a huge plus for a poor defense.
Ok
Compared to the shots the Wizards offense takes, their defense ranked 10th in defensive Loc eFG% - allowing teams to shoot from the worst locations on the floor. Clearly the staff and the Wizards know what those shots are supposed to look like, so creating more for their offense is key.
Ugly
Your defensive system will never find success if you foul your opponents, but never turn them over. Ranking 22nd in FT rate, and 30th in the NBA in TOV% - the Wizards defense is going to need to improve.
Film
Chin
Perhaps the most run set throughout the NBA & NCAA, chin is a basic set that is designed to force defenses to make a bad pick and roll coverage. The play starts off with a screen on the wing for the player coming off the ballscreen to catch a pass.
Once the pass is made the point guard comes off a backscreen from the big who then sets a ballscreen.
This backscreen is designed to force the big man’s defender to sag off or help in the paint so the ballcreen can be “naked” or no coverage.
Quick Flare
A set that Stephen Silas brought with him from the Mavericks to the Rockets, running a quick flare for the point guard looking for a shot or driving opportunity is a simple action several teams have been adding to the playbook.
Horns Flex Spain Empty
Horns Flex is an extremely common look to run with good spacing to create easier scoring chances.
The Wizards tweak this action to fake the Flex and have the player who would come off the screen flash to the 3 point line.
After this flows into Spain pick and roll on one side of the floor that is empty.
Delay
In the preseason film so far, the Wizards have been running more flow offensive actions, one of these is out of Delay where the natural spacing allows for more clearer reads. They can look for the initial pindown option, with an opportunity for a slip:
This can flow into a handoff or a ballscreen as well:
Elbow
A way that the Wizards are running actions out of Flow is to play out of the elbows. They can simply pass the ball to the elbow and then run split action or play the other way.
One way they get into this is to run a quick hand off on the wing and then throw it to the Elbow - it ads a little more movement before the basic action.
Strong Elbow
They will also flow into this Elbow action after Strong or Stagger action by having the second screener flash to the Elbow.
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Coach Pyper