At 5-5, the Washington Wizards are off to a bland start this season. Center Marcin Gortat didn’t mince words when talking about it.
“Sorry for my language, but we are in a s—hole. We’ve gotta get out of that hole and start to win some games,” he said via Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. “We’ve gotta show up, show up at the game as NBA players who want to compete and play hard every possession. Take pride in what we do. That’s the most important thing.”
Gortat added that “We definitely owe a huge apology to our fans for our performance. That’s not who we are and that’s not who we want to be in the future.”
If Gortat is looking for some good news, he only needs to look back one season. A year ago, the Wizards sat at 2-8 after 10 games and ended the season at 49-33, advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. At 5-5, things could be worse.
One thing that does need to change, though, is the team’s defense.
Despite the respectable record a season ago, the 2016-17 Wizards ranked 20th in defensive rating. Through this season’s first 10 games, the Wizards are in the exact same position.
The lack of defense is really what kept this team from being a true title contender a season ago. The goal of every team should be to consistently improve, but that’s especially true for a good team looking to become great. Even if Washington’s 10-game record is better, the fact that it’s suffering through the same struggles on defense is problematic. If that doesn’t improve, this Wizards’ season figures to end in similar (or worse) fashion to the last one.