Why are the Wizards playing so well?

[MikeTheKid]

It's honestly rotations...brooks have perfected our rotations or either he gets a lot of input from wall...but that been a major improvement during the run...we get the right guys in at the right times and get the wrong guys out when needed

Took the words right from me, I think Brooks has solidified a rotation to work with, a very short rotation but it works. Let Kieff be the go to guy to start the 2nd quarter with a good rest in the 1st. Keeping KO and Porter in for god spurts for defensive switching. Smith being the only big guy for now scares the hell outta me but hey a work in progress.

[Mojo Amok]

Right now, the long jumpers are falling. Against bad defensive teams, the Wizards are cooking them because the shooters have been on fire. Chief Kieff is actually making jumpshots.

It's effective until it's not effective. What I mean is...once the team goes to a team-wide shooting slump (which they will do...no one on this team is consistent really, except for maybe Wall) then we'll see the team struggle again. Unfortunately, there's no inside presence to get buckets when they need it. Crunchtime offense usually involves a heavily contested Wall or Beal jumpshot.

In conclusion, they are playing well because their making their shots. Hope it lasts.

The shooting is more like what pushes it over the top, but it's really that the defense has picked up that established the consistency.

They're 7th in the NBA in defensive efficiency over the last six and a half weeks.

http://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/#!?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=12%2F14%2F2016&DateTo=1%2F31%2F2017

They've also had some emphatic wins with only two or so of the main guys actually shooting well statistically (Atlanta game, for example, with the bench mob efficiency being more when the game was over).

Over that same 6+ week stretch, EFG% is third and TS% is 5th, so it's a respectable sample size of good shooting anyway and not particularly likely to be an outright fluke in the big picture.

Obviously a team-wide shooting slump would be hard to work through, but that's true of every team and a large number of the teams with a high percentage of their scoring coming from the paint aren't even particularly good offensive teams to begin with:

http://stats.nba.com/teams/scoring/#!?sort=PCT_PTS_PAINT&dir=-1

Denver is an exception, Milwaukee is good and then there's a few average offensive teams scoring a good bit in the paint. Barely any of the top offenses have anything approximating a go-to inside scorer for that matter.

[tontoz]

It started with 3 guys (Wall/Beal/Porter) having breakout seasons. They were playing like All-Stars before we started winning. I think they sort of pulled the other players along with them, sort of a reverse gravity. Eventually Oubre started playing better, then Jason Smith to give us something from the bench. Improved play from Morris this month is what really put us over the top.

I think Brooks deserves a lot of credit.

[nate33]

I think it's three main things, which have already been mentioned:

1. Defense. The team has grown comfortable with the defensive scheme, and the scheme is perfectly suited to the length, athleticism and interchangeability of the roster.

2. Rotations. Brooks has figured out a way to stagger the starters so that there are rarely times when the bench has to create offense on it's own. He now has Wall stay on until the end of the 1st and 3rd while Beal and Morris come out early. He then starts Morris at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th to serve as the primary option for the 2nd unit. If things don't go well, he'll quickly insert Beal to help out. He has also figured out that Burke is a SG so he is almost always paired with either Wall or Sato so he doesn't have to handle PG duties.

3. Markieff Morris. While Wall, Beal, Porter and Gortat have been consistently good all season long, the catalyst for the recent winning streak is Morris. He's gone from being a bench-caliber PF to a quality starter. The team is now average or better at every starting position. There are no weak links.

[dobrojim]

great balance - in a given game, we have a pretty decent cadre of players who can each
go off and the others usually don't completely disappear while that is happening.

3 guys who are no surprise to score 25-30 in a game: Wall, Beal, OP. 2 other guys who
can get 20, MM and Tat although Tat usually doesn't score that high but almost always
gives you great efficiency.

[AFM]

After the first month, they had a team meeting where they all pledged to go on No Fap for the rest of the season. Ejaculating, especially if the orgasm is held off, known as 'edging', lowers your free testosterone levels. After 7 days of no orgasm, a spike in testosterone levels is clearly seen.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12659241/
The mental acuity, increase in strength, endurance, and agility have all been scientifically proven. It is pretty easy to tell in the past when John Wall had sex the night prior. He was extremely careless and sloppy with the ball. I am sure if you look up the dates for any of his 9 TO games, and cross reference them with when he got laid, you will see a clear pattern.

[J-Ves]

I think the Wizards are "for real", meaning this isn't just some hot streak but is indicative of how good they actually are, but as other posters have said this team is built on a house of cards. Any significant injury to a starter would sink the ship

[leswizards]

The Wizards started the season 2-7. At which point, Gortat said the Wizards had the worst bench in the league. The team has been 26-13 since that comment. However, the Wizards real turn around began after the 20 game of the season when they were 7-13. They have been 21-7 since.

The reason that they have been playing much is better is everyone on bench and Morris has started playing much better. In the first 20 games, Morris and Smith each had 10 and 12 games were their ORtg's were below 100. In the past 28 games, Morris and Smith have only had 6 and 9 games with ORtg's below 100. That is a huge increase in offensive efficiency.

[payitforward]

The reason we are winning now is because it is our turn.

Deep in their hearts, the other teams (who may not be able to admit it to themselves) know that it is our turn. And that's why we're winning.

You may wonder why it's our turn. Perhaps you do wonder just that. But this is a mystery, a question to which no one knows the answer.

If a person did know the answer, knew why it's our turn, that person would also know why right now is our time, but no one can know that. So, if a person did know that, then he (or she [or it]) would be in great danger. I would fear for that person's safety.

We would have to find that person and counsel him (or her [or it]) to announce that in fact that reason, that cause, was altogether unknown. A mystery. And he (or she [or it]) would be wise to sit silent hoping that the world somehow forgot about him (or her [or it]).

For these reasons & many others, it is important that you never again bring up this question. SSSH! It's much too dangerous.

[dobrojim]

the real reason we're winning so often is because we're consistently
outscoring the other team when the game is over.



Like Don Meredith use to say, "It's unlucky to be behind at the end of the game"

[Ruzious]

If I said why, I'd have to k... well, I'm not going to give it away.

[papidulo]

Serious question to shore up the bench at the trade deadline: Is it possible to trade Nicholson to the Mystics for Ella Delle Donne?

[sfam]

I think it's three main things, which have already been mentioned:

1. Defense. The team has grown comfortable with the defensive scheme, and the scheme is perfectly suited to the length, athleticism and interchangeability of the roster.

2. Rotations. Brooks has figured out a way to stagger the starters so that there are rarely times when the bench has to create offense on it's own. He now has Wall stay on until the end of the 1st and 3rd while Beal and Morris come out early. He then starts Morris at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th to serve as the primary option for the 2nd unit. If things don't go well, he'll quickly insert Beal to help out. He has also figured out that Burke is a SG so he is almost always paired with either Wall or Sato so he doesn't have to handle PG duties.

3. Markieff Morris. While Wall, Beal, Porter and Gortat have been consistently good all season long, the catalyst for the recent winning streak is Morris. He's gone from being a bench-caliber PF to a quality starter. The team is now average or better at every starting position. There are no weak links.

I think they're trying to make Sato and Burke a homeless man's version of Wall (Sato) and Beal (Burke) - meaning they both are being put in a position to start offense or the high screen and roll. Burke is playing lots better off the ball. He's comfortable finding his spots, and his passing has improved as well.

[deneem4]

I think it's three main things, which have already been mentioned:

1. Defense. The team has grown comfortable with the defensive scheme, and the scheme is perfectly suited to the length, athleticism and interchangeability of the roster.

2. Rotations. Brooks has figured out a way to stagger the starters so that there are rarely times when the bench has to create offense on it's own. He now has Wall stay on until the end of the 1st and 3rd while Beal and Morris come out early. He then starts Morris at the beginning of the 2nd and 4th to serve as the primary option for the 2nd unit. If things don't go well, he'll quickly insert Beal to help out. He has also figured out that Burke is a SG so he is almost always paired with either Wall or Sato so he doesn't have to handle PG duties.

3. Markieff Morris. While Wall, Beal, Porter and Gortat have been consistently good all season long, the catalyst for the recent winning streak is Morris. He's gone from being a bench-caliber PF to a quality starter. The team is now average or better at every starting position. There are no weak links.

I think they're trying to make Sato and Burke a homeless man's version of Wall (Sato) and Beal (Burke) - meaning they both are being put in a position to start offense or the high screen and roll. Burke is playing lots better off the ball. He's comfortable finding his spots, and his passing has improved as well.

This whole team is a clone of each other

Wall-sato
Beal-burke
Porter-oubre
Morris-Nicholson
Gortat-smith

[nate33]

This whole team is a clone of each other

Wall-sato
Beal-burke
Porter-oubre
Morris-Nicholson
Gortat-smith

Yes. Almost exact clones:

[BigA]

After the first month, they had a team meeting where they all pledged to go on No Fap for the rest of the season. Ejaculating, especially if the orgasm is held off, known as 'edging', lowers your free testosterone levels. After 7 days of no orgasm, a spike in testosterone levels is clearly seen.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12659241/
The mental acuity, increase in strength, endurance, and agility have all been scientifically proven. It is pretty easy to tell in the past when John Wall had sex the night prior. He was extremely careless and sloppy with the ball. I am sure if you look up the dates for any of his 9 TO games, and cross reference them with when he got laid, you will see a clear pattern.

So, based on this, what do we conclude about Nicholson? That he's edge fapping 4-5 times a day?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

After the first month, they had a team meeting where they all pledged to go on No Fap for the rest of the season. Ejaculating, especially if the orgasm is held off, known as 'edging', lowers your free testosterone levels. After 7 days of no orgasm, a spike in testosterone levels is clearly seen.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12659241/
The mental acuity, increase in strength, endurance, and agility have all been scientifically proven. It is pretty easy to tell in the past when John Wall had sex the night prior. He was extremely careless and sloppy with the ball. I am sure if you look up the dates for any of his 9 TO games, and cross reference them with when he got laid, you will see a clear pattern.

I'm sure booty or no booty figures into the Wizards' recent success some how some way.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The Wizards started the season 2-7. At which point, Gortat said the Wizards had the worst bench in the league. The team has been 26-13 since that comment. However, the Wizards real turn around began after the 20 game of the season when they were 7-13. They have been 21-7 since.

The reason that they have been playing much is better is everyone on bench and Morris has started playing much better. In the first 20 games, Morris and Smith each had 10 and 12 games were their ORtg's were below 100. In the past 28 games, Morris and Smith have only had 6 and 9 games with ORtg's below 100. That is a huge increase in offensive efficiency.

Started 2-8. Since, 27-12.

That is 54-24 or, about 56-26 win pace.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

On a serious note, this team has a chip. Chippiness and offensive efficiency, consistently high intensity from Wizards players, attentiveness to sound defensive principles....

Great coach, too

[J-Ves]

We have an above average starting PG, SG, SF, and C. Our starting PF is below average on the season but has been above average the last 6 or so weeks. All of our starters have a positive defensive impact except Beal and Wall, Beal and Porter have all had a positive offensive impact. The bench is terrible but has improved in recent months especially on the defensive side of the ball. The only guy who I consider unplayable in the rotation is Burke. He is objectively the worst player on the team who have played significant minutes and that includes Thornton.

Read on Twitter