Wizards Defense on Historically Bad Run

At 1-5, the Washington Wizards are tumbling towards the same sort of pained irrelevancy that has defined the team for the past two seasons, if not more. After overhauling much of their roster this offseason, and adding rookie guard Tre Johnson in the draft, the seemingly widespread expectation was that D.C. would at least be better than they have been positively plagued the team heading into the year.

Though it's only been six games, the team's rough go thus far suggests a deeper issue; whether it be with the suits and ties on the sideline or the team's ongoing cast of veteran supporters meant to ground their developing rookies, something has to change if Washington wants to move forward.

A Defensive Non-Factor

On a much more basic, on-court level, the team's biggest inhibitor by far is their plain inability to stop opposing teams from scoring at will. In their last contest alone, the Wizards allowed the visiting Orlando Magic to chalk up 125 points in what became a blowout home loss.

In return? Washington scored just 94. That's an entirely different problem, but even when the Wizards are scoring at a high rate themselves, whoever they're playing almost always outruns them still. Take the team's earlier loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, for example, in which the Wizards' season-high 134 points weren't enough to overcome a 139-point effort from Philly.

To boot, Philadelphia didn't even have one of their primary, starting scorers in Paul George. Washington's defense is simply historically bad, and the statistics that prove it appear even worse.