Randy Wittman is fed up.
He is the coach of the 0-9 Washington Wizards, a team with far and away the worst offense in the NBA — they are averaging 90.9 points per 100 possessions this season, that is 1.4 points worse than the historically bad, seven-win Charlotte Bobcats of last year.
Neither John Wall nor Nene are coming back soon and Wittman went off on his team in his post game press conference Monday night, following another loss (96-89 to a struggling Pacers team). From CSNWashington.com.
“I’m looking down the whole roster,” he said, “and if I had a cell phone I’d be calling the waiver wire trying to find another body. I mean, I’m just searching right now -- searching for people to give me consistency….
“It’s just so inconsistent top to bottom,” he said. “I’d love to have an eight or nine-man rotation. That’s my dream. And I’m playing 12 and 13 [players] every night. You can’t do that in an NBA game. You have to develop a [starting] group and a group that comes in. I’m having a tough time doing that….
“We were turning down shots to take worse shots,” Wittman said. “I know somebody in here is going to ask me, ‘Why do they do that?’ I don’t know. I don’t know.”
What Wittman needs is somebody who can knock down an outside shot consistently. Well, he needs a lot of things — right now, this team has no identity on offense. Most of their shots come off the pick-and-roll but nobody fears the roll man on this team. Plus they just pack the paint.
The biggest issue is a lack of shooters — in the last two games they are 9-for-60 from 16 feet out to the arc and 9-for-33 from three. That is 19.4 percent from beyond 16 feet.
Washington traded to bring in veterans like Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza to give the team consistency, to set a professional tone, to prevent things like this stretch. Bradley Beal is a rookie, you expect him to be up and down. Yes, there are injuries, but John Wall isn’t the fix for outside shooting woes. The guys on the roster have to step up in the short term.