

THE CONTEXT

After having success in the 2015 playoffs with Paul Pierce at the four, the Wizards tried to give their offense a boost by playing small and spacing the floor last season. Bigs Marcin Gortat and Nene played just 111 minutes together last season after playing more than 10 times as many (1,189) the year before.

But their defense, which had ranked in the top 10 in each of the previous three seasons and was at its best with the two bigs playing together, took a big step backward. Overall, only five teams regressed more defensively than the Wizards, who allowed 3.6 more points per 100 possessions last season than they did in 2014-15. Washington had the league's biggest increase in opponent effective field goal percentage, dropping from fifth (48.1 percent) in '14-15 to 21st (51.5 percent) last season.