Washington Wizards: 3 standout stats

Field goal percentage on open shots

This statistic might be the most alarming one for this year’s Wizards. The reason it’s most alarming is because there isn’t really an easy fix for it. If your players aren’t making open shots, there’s no coaching fix that will help.

On the other hand, percentages sometimes find ways to adjust to normal by the end of the season. That’s why the following stat will be an interesting thing to monitor for the rest of the season:

• Field goal percentage on “open” and “wide open” shots in 2016-17:  46.8 percent
• Field goal percentage on “open” and “wide open” shots in 2017-18:  43.6 percent

While these numbers aren’t too far away from each other, keep in mind in the 2016-17 NBA season the Wizards took 3,558 shots that were registered as either “open” (closest defender 4-6 feet away) or “wide open” (closest defender 6+ feet away), per NBA.com.  3.2 percent of that many shots is 113.9 shots, which would be a total of 227.8 points in a season if they were all 2-pointers — which they most definitely wouldn’t be.

This is why this stat is so important. A team will find games they should have put away tough to win if they can’t make their open shots.