It’s almost time for the Super Bowl, and the Washington Wizards are still winless on the road. The Wizards lost their 24th straight road game, 92-102 Monday in Dallas.
Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 24 points, and Tyson Chandler added 18 points and 18 rebounds. Jason Kidd narrowly missed a triple double with 11 points, 11 assists, and nine rebounds.
Rashard Lewis and Nick Young led the Wizards (13-34) with 18 points apiece. Rookie John Wall had 17 points and 10 assists. Yi Jianlian added 14 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. Yi got Washington within four points with two free throws at 95-91 with 3:13 remaining, but the Wizards would get no closer.
The Wizards led by 12 at one point in the first half but only shot 39.5 percent for the game.
Former Wizards Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson were non-factors for the Mavs, with three points between them. Former Wizard Caron Butler didn’t play because of an injury.
There is no shame in losing to the Mavericks (32-15) in Dallas. But the Wizards should not be 0-24 away from Chinatown.
How can the Wizards be so much better at home (13-10) than on the road? The disparity in records doesn’t make sense because the Verizon Center crowd isn’t known for being particularly enthusiastic, and Washington ranks just 20th in the NBA in attendance.
It’s harder for NBA teams to win on the road than teams in other sports because basketball players need fresh legs and play more minutes than other athletes, but long road trips don’t explain the Wizards going winless on the road. The Wizards have a young, athletic lineup so endurance shouldn’t be a problem.
Are the Wizards partying too much on the road? Do they have a careless attitude? Is it immaturity? Coaching? Low expectations? All of the above?
Youth is partly to blame for the Wizards’ road woes. The Wizards are so inexperienced, with an average age of 25, that they don’t know how to win. That’s partly an indictment of the front office.
A common sports radio debate is whether teams should build with young players or veterans, through the draft or through trades and free agency. But why should teams have to make a choice of one or the other? There’s no law saying you can’t combine the different methods to get the best results.
The Wizards are too young, and are in danger of perpetuating a culture of losing and having players that don’t know how to finish games.
It’s true that the team won’t be turned around overnight. Washington has been mostly bad for the past thirty years, since the Bullets won the NBA championship.
But it’s still admirable to try to win as many games as possible instead of writing off the season as a lost year and building solely for the future. D.C. fans deserve better.
Though most of the Wizards arrived in Washington less than a year ago, they are the same old Wizards. It would have been prudent to mix in a couple of veterans with winning experience on this team (besides Kirk Hinrich), and balance out the roster with more big men. The team has an excess of small forwards and power forwards that play like small forwards.
Playing for the best draft pick is for losers. The Wizards are on pace for 22 wins. With a few solid veterans to play replacing certain young players who won’t be factors in a few years anyway, Washington could have more like 30 wins. What’s the difference, you say? About eight wins. And winning is the name of the game.
While that wouldn’t be enough to make the playoffs, the object of the game is to win, and the Wizards would be more experienced for next season. It’s honorable in sports to put your best effort forward. When you don’t give 100 percent from the top on down, it’s tantamount to not trying. Whoever said the future is so much more important and valuable than the present?
The success or failure of any sports team starts at the top. Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has to take some of the blame. Leonsis has been a big supporter of building for the future through the draft. It worked for the Caps, although the jury is still out on whether they will have playoff success. The Caps got lucky by drafting Alex Ovechkin number one overall, but would they have advanced past the first round last year if they had more veteran leaders?
The Wizards also got lucky by drafting Wall first overall, but it takes more than one player to build a team. Wall has filled up the stat sheet, but a truly great player should lead his team to some road victories even if he is playing hurt.
Building through the draft without making major trades and free agent signings can be a long process. Just ask the Chicago Bulls. After Michael Jordan retired, Bulls management intentionally let the Bulls hit rock bottom. For six straight seasons Chicago failed to make the playoffs.
Two years ago, when Gilbert Arenas was injured, the Wizards took a cue from Agent Zero, who said early in the season, “If this is one of those years we don’t make the playoffs, we’re one of those teams that’s in last place the whole year — you know that’s what happened to San Antonio and that’s how they got Tim Duncan. If that happens with us, it’s for the better.”
The Wizards won 19 games. Then they traded away the fifth pick for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, neither of whom are still with the team.
This attitude of hoping for the best draft picks fosters a losing mindset. The Bullets already tried that around 1990 after most of the 80s playing, you guessed it, just like 2005 to 2008: right around .500 with a bunch of playoff appearances. It took the franchise a decade and a half to recover.
Those mediocre teams in the 80s were viewed as failures because the Bullets had won the NBA championship in 1978 and appeared in the finals three other times in the 70s. In the 80s, the Wizards were remarkably consistent, winning between 39 and 43 games each year except once, making the playoffs 7 out of 10 years.
So the Bullets tried to rebuild and went for the lottery. The idea was to have a bad record, then get lucky and draft a Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, or Shaquille O’Neal. Sometimes it works. In the Bullets’ case, it didn’t. What resulted was the team missing the playoffs 15 of the next 16 seasons. Thanks, Gilbert, but trying your best to win is a better option. You left Washington with this attitude and the current Wizards from the top on down are sustaining it.
Leonsis isn’t Daniel Snyder. And for that, apparently, Leonsis is immune to criticism. Responding to emails and building web sites is great, but winning is better. Leonsis has been living off his reputation of being the anti-Snyder for years. The Caps will need more than a couple of good seasons for Leonsis to be crowned such a brilliant owner.
The media in Washington is soft on Leonsis and easy on all of the teams that aren’t named Redskins.
That’s partly why Wes Unseld remained the Bullets coach for 7 years with a .369 winning percentage.
And it’s partly why the Wizards are 0-24 on the road and nobody cares. The fact is that many of the current Wizards won’t be here in a couple of years. Since that is the case, a few of those players should be replaced by veterans with a winning attitude.
In the NBA, championship teams are built not only from the draft but also through trades and free agency. The two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers acquired their three best players in trades: superstar Kobe Bryant, center Pau Gasol and forward Lamar Odom. Ron Artest was signed as a free agent. Point guard Derek Fisher was drafted by L.A.
The 2008 NBA champion Boston Celtics were also put together through trades. The Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo in trades while Paul Pierce was homegrown through the draft.
Since Leonsis took over the Wizards after longtime owner Abe Pollin passed away, Washington has been active in trading for players and signing free agents. But few of the moves have had a major impact except for the deal that sent the albatross of Gilbert Arenas and his contract to Orlando for Rashard Lewis. That benefits the Wizards because Lewis’ contract runs out before Arenas’ deal does.
The Wizards also got Yi, Hinrich, Josh Howard, and the rights to Kevin Seraphin, Hamady Ndiaye and Trevor Booker via trades in 2010. Washington signed Hilton Armstrong and Cartier Martin as free agents in 2010, so in all, including number one overall draft pick John Wall, 10 of the 14 current Wizards were acquired by the team in the last year.
It’s fine to get young players, but you need to mix in some players who have winning experience. The strategy of having all young players is a veiled way of essentially losing on purpose in order to gain a better draft position. Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Losing results in more than just numbers in the loss column. It results in an attitude, or a lack thereof. Right now Washington is accepting losing. The Wizards are masters of moral victories. Listen to this quote from coach Flip Saunders after the loss to Dallas:
“We’re doing things based on where we’re going to be next year and in two years,” Saunders said. He mentioned Kevin Durant winning 20 games his rookie year and then the Thunder’s improvement after having Durant and Russell Westbrook play together for two years.
“And sometimes you have to go through some growing pains. Is it tough at the time? There’s no question. Is it tough on your fans? There’s no question, but you hope that they understand. Our guys don’t quit.”
It’s nice that the Wizards aren’t quitting, but sports is a results-oriented business, and if the Wizards don’t improve soon on the road, then Saunders should not be back to see the Wizards’ hoped for revival. At 0-24 on the road, Saunders is part of the problem. He’s most suited to be a coach of a veteran team, as he has shown in the past with Minnesota and Detroit.
Saunders is a player’s coach, and the young Wizards need more discipline, direction, and defense. Defense is an attitude. Who do you want running your team, the players, or the coach?
Do you think the Wizards would be 0-24 on the road if Jerry Sloan were their coach? You could take Wall off the Wizards and Sloan would still have four road wins with this team. Washington needs to play better defense.
Whatever the reasons (translation: excuses), the Wizards should not be 0-24 away from home. Take a look at other NBA teams that have a similar home record to the Wizards’ 13-10 mark:
- Phoenix and Houston, like the Wizards, each went into Monday’s action with a 13-10 home record. Both the Suns and the Rockets have nine road wins.
- New York is 13-9 at home and 12-13 on the road. If anything, the Knicks should be the ones with a big disparity between home and road records because of the vocal Madison Square Garden crowd.
- Charlotte is 12-11 at home and has eight road wins. Milwaukee is 11-10 at home and also has eight wins on the road.
- Four teams have worse overall records than Washington, but all of those teams have at least two road wins.
The Wizards’ 0-24 road record is the third-worst start in NBA history. Washington goes for number 25 Tuesday in New Orleans before heading home for four games. Then on Feb. 13 the Wizards visit Cleveland in what might be their best chance for a road win.
At least Leonsis has one major change planned for the future. Changing the uniforms will be a start.
Someday, the Wizards will aspire to making the playoffs. Then their goal will be to win the NBA championship.
But a good first step would be giving 100 percent effort, from the players all the way up to the owner.
Feel free to post comments at the bottom of this article.
To subscribe to Mike's articles free of charge, click on the "subscribe" button at the top of this page.
Comments
Cavs vs Wizards in NBA finals this year? Maybe more like 2075
saunders needs to be replaced.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!