Washington Wizards: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18

Weakness: Defense wins championships

Without a doubt, the Wizards have one of the most dynamic offenses in the league as of today. Unfortunately, their defense is still an issue.

It would be hard to say the Wizards found no success under Randy Wittman, but this is also partly why Scott Brooks was brought aboard to hopefully address this issue. Each year the team has steadily declined in the way of defensive rating, which is a measurement of how many points a team allows per 100 possessions.

Last year was one of their worst in this aspect in franchise history, including all the years they were the Washington Bullets. In fact, it was their 10th-worst with a 109.3 rating.

Surely you can not point the finger at one player or one instance for this metric, as it is a team effort. To say the bench is solely to fault would detract from the starting five having to improve. For the Wizards to remain competitive and be true contenders, this should be their top priority under Scott Brooks. Otherwise they are settling for mediocrity and playing a tit-for-tat with opponents on a nightly basis.

Overall, they ranked 20th of 30 teams in the league by defensive rating, per Basketball-Reference while they pushed the pace and were ranked seventh in the league by offensive rating.