Underwhelming Wizards season capped off by loss to Houston Rockets
April 9, 2023 marked the unceremonious end of another disappointing Washington Wizards season. The Wizards lost 114-109 to a tanking Houston Rockets team that immediately fired their head coach, Stephen Silas, after the game’s conclusion. Houston finished the season with a 22-60 record.
The Wizards finished their 2022-23 campaign with a 35-47 record, good enough for 12th place in the Eastern Conference. This is identical to their record and standing in the 2021-22 season, a staggering display of their commitment to mediocrity.
The Wizards finished in the bottom third of the league in both offensive and defensive rating, 22 in offense and 21 in defense.
The franchise has stagnated since its former cornerstone John Wall tore his Achilles tendon in 2019. Before then, Washington was a mid-tier playoff team that could have potentially contended for an Eastern Conference Finals if they improved their roster slightly. After Wall’s injury, however, any hope of contention was lost.
Since the 2018-19 season, Washington has made the playoffs once and has not made it out of the first round. Despite this, the franchise’s upper management refuses to commit to a full rebuild.
The Wizards’ current franchise star, Bradley Beal, 29, who was John Wall’s co-star from 2012-2019, signed a 5-year, 250-million-dollar extension in 2022. The shooting guard has seemingly committed to Washington despite previous complaints about the team’s direction throughout the past three years.
Beal’s situation is a microcosm of the Wizards' season. They are committed to competing according to their roster decisions and monetary commitments, but continue to miss the playoffs. Washington also has Kyle Kuzma and Kristaps Porzingis as Beal’s pseudo-co-stars.
This trio of 20-plus point per game scorers is supposed to be the franchise’s core, but they did not prove to be enough to get the team to the playoffs.
With the 50 million dollars they are paying Beal, the 36 million dollars they owe Porzingis next year, as well as an impending contract extension for Kuzma, they seem to be locked in to this core.
The Wizards are stuck between a rebuild and a playoff push. Beal, Kuzma, and Porzingis are all above 27 years old, so their timelines do not line up with the younger talent on the roster.
Center Daniel Gafford and forwards Deni Avdija and Corey Kispert have promising potential, but none of these three players seem to be future cornerstones for the Wizards. This combination of raw young players and “win-now” oriented players has stagnated the franchise’s progress in either direction.
Rookie shooting guard Johnny Davis, who the Wizards drafted tenth overall in 2022, is supposed to be a future franchise star, but has not had much of a chance to prove himself yet. Davis only appeared in 28 games and was relegated to the G-League multiple times, but he still showed flashes to end the season. In his last three games, he averaged 14.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.
The most glaring issue with the Wizards in regards to their young talent and roaster building is the midseason trade of power forward Rui Hachimura. Hachimura, 25, was the Wizards’ best young player. He averaged 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist.
Though inconsistent, Hachimura showed the potential to be a key piece for the future of the Wizards. On January 23, Washington traded Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kendrick Nunn, two second-round picks, and two pick swaps.
Washington’s front office has traded its first-round picks from 2013 to 2019, and Hachimura is yet another draft pick they have given up on too early.
This reveals a clear issue with their player development that has contributed to their stagnation. With a revolving door of young talent that never pans out, there is no true foundation to build on, should they choose to rebuild.
Despite the Wizards’ issues, head coach Wes Unseld Jr. is optimistic about the future of the team and how they can improve in the 2023-24 season.
“These failures turn into lessons, we've learned a lot of lessons and now we have to learn how to take some steps forward,” he said at the April 9 postgame conference.
Whether his optimism has any merit is for the future to decide; the Washington Wizards have a long way to go before they can compete in the Eastern Conference again.
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