Washington Wizards: 3 takeaways from the first month of the season

2. Offense needs to utilize every player’s abilities

The Washington Wizards are evolving as a team. They need to realize they can spread the wealth a bit more on offense. When Beal’s shots aren’t falling they can still run a pick-and-roll with John Wall and Marcin Gortat for a different result. At times, this team tends to rely too heavily on one guy to score when they have a variety of options to work with. There should be very few games where Gortat has single-digit shot attempts, especially when most attempts come on offensive rebounds.

There’s also Kelly Oubre Jr. and Otto Porter Jr., two of the up-and-coming wing players on the squad. Both players are shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range on the season, a blessing if used correctly. Porter is averaging 15.5 points per game while Oubre is averaging 11.1 points per game.

Running Oubre as the first option off the bench when Beal or Porter need a breather could help improve things as well. Oubre is averaging just 8.7 shot attempts per game in 2017-18.

Their offense tends to stall at inopportune times and the fourth quarter has largely been their Achilles’ heel this season. They average 25.1 points per game in the fourth quarter this season, ranking 19th in the NBA. It’s something they need to improve if they want to go deep in the NBA Playoffs this year.