Washington Wizards Need To Solve Their Internal Issues…Quickly

The Washington Wizards are currently 6-6. In the past, a .500 record would’ve been good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Now that the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and others have all made improvements, .500 might not be good enough to sneak into the playoffs.

Regardless, we all thought the Wizards would compete for a top spot in the East prior to the beginning of the season. Right now, they don’t look like a top team. In fact, they looked rather mediocre.

The star players — John Wall and Bradley Beal — haven’t shown up when the team needs them most and the big men have been bullied all season long.

Randy Wittman spoke to the media after a blowout loss and called his team “soft”. The player he was calling soft was likely Marcin Gortat, who recently retweeted #NegativePixels regarding Wittman.

They’re all playing the blame game. Some are pointing the finger at Wittman, some at John Wall, some at the bench, some at the bigs, and so on.

The problem is, nothing gets done when the blame is tossed around. Everyone has to accept blame. Quite frankly, everyone is to blame.

Wall can say that he should’ve been in the game to start the fourth quarter, but Ramon Sessions has been just as good off the bench.

There have been times this season where I’ve actually hoped Sessions would get in for Wall. The All-Star point guard is having the worst season of his career.

He’s turning the ball over more than four times per game, which is more than he did during his rookie season.

Remember how out of control Wall was during his rookie season?

Well, he’s in his sixth season. He’s 25-years-old. He’s coming off an All-Star year. He should accept responsibility for the team’s struggles too.

Gortat (and all of the bigs, really) has gotten bullied since the season began. He’s been dreadful defensively and he still struggles to finish in traffic.

Kris Humphries failed to register a single point in two straight games. Jared Dudley is still in awful shape for a professional basketball player. Drew Gooden is Drew Gooden. They should accept responsibility for the team’s struggles too.

Wittman might be the least to blame. He didn’t construct the roster. Ernie Grunfeld is the one who signed two injured free agents — one who’s yet to play a single second for the team. He should accept responsibility for the team’s struggles too.

Everyone should accept blame.

The roster has looked the same, for the most part, since 2014. Wall, Beal, Otto Porter, Gortat and a number of veterans have all been here since the beginning. Is it really time to start pointing fingers? Instead of wasting energy playing the blame game, the Washington Wizards should focus on improving.

Wall should focus on not turning the ball over. Beal should focus on making shots in crunch time. Gortat should focus on rebounding and playing with more physicality. There’s no time to play the blame game.

Whatever their issues are, the Washington Wizards need to figure it out quickly. Other teams are rollin’ while the Wizards are pointing fingers. If they fail to figure it out they’ll find themselves wasting a year of their respective careers.