Hezonja continues to improve his offensive game under Coach Brian Cardinal.
As another season comes to an end for the Washington Wizards, the team has once again missed the playoffs by a few games. While on paper this might seem like a disappointing season, the reality is that no one has expected this team to compete this well for this season. Most experts predicted the Wizards would finish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. However, this team battled hard throughout the year, and GM Chan was extremely proud of this team's effort despite coming up short for the 8th seed in an extremely competitive Eastern Conference.
The Positives:
- Mario Hezonja continues to settle in on this team, and has been a dynamic offensive option for this team. He has accepted his role as the 6th man this year, and was very impressive in that role. Hezonja is expected to given a bigger role on the team next season.
- The team was very good at forcing turnovers, and playing the passing lane. This team worked very hard, and often created a lot of chaos with their aggressive brand of defense. Hopefully with another year under the belt, these guys can ramp up that defense even more.
- Ike Anigbogu continues to prove he belongs in this league, as he had another very efficient season as a part time starter. While he's going to be entering into restricted free agency, sources close to the team expect the Wizards to commit into a long term deal to resign this young big man.
The Negatives:
- The offense was way too inconsistent throughout the year, and even after the addition of veteran scorers such as Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant, the team still had trouble putting up points at times.
- Inconsistency from the younger guys were also quite frustrating for the coaching staff, as guys like Aaron Holiday, Devon Reed, Dillon Brooks, Ben Moore, and JeQuan Lewis have shown flashes at times, but were all too inconsistent to be handling a big role right now. Perhaps with this season under the belt, these young players will improve in the off-season, and become more comfortable with this team's system.
- While this team has lots of talent, however the lack of a true franchise player is definitely putting the team in a tough spot right now. The dreaded "treadmill" team situation could be happening here. Expect the Wizards front office to be working hard on the phones, and perhaps try to change the roster a bit in order to find themselves a future franchise piece.
This off-season will be huge for GM Chan, and the Washington Wizards. They currently owns the 11th overall pick in the CSL rookie draft, and sources close to the team has said that GM Chan wants to acquire more draft picks in this draft, as he has quite a few targets that he feels can help mold the future core of this team. Free agency will also be quite an interesting situation for this team. Time will tell if this Wizards team can take that next step.
