Washington Wizards: The inability to defend the forward position

The last couple of games have been home to some of the worst defensive performances the Washington Wizards have played all season. A lot of the blame falls on the shoulders of their forwards.

The Washington Wizards are unquestionably bad at defending the forward positions. Whether big or small, shooter or driver, Otto Porter Jr., Kelly Oubre Jr. or Markieff Morris, the Wizards are unable to defend well against opposing forwards.

If we take all of the points starting small forwards have scored against the Wizards in the last nine games and average it out, the Wizards are giving 20.3 points per game against the position. While that number isn’t very good by any means, the more alarming number comes from their offensive rating.

If we follow the same formula and find an average offensive rating for opposing small forwards in the last nine games, we’ll arrive on the alarming number of 125.2. That is an atrocious offensive rating against any single position. It isn’t like the Wizards are playing against LeBron James every night. (Ironically the last time the Wizards played the Cavaliers, they did pretty well against him.)

While the power forward position is slightly better, the same formula would yield numbers like 15.9 points per game with a 105.7 offensive rating. This means that teams over the last nine games on average are getting 36.2 points per game from two positions on the court.

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With a sample size as large as nine games, it may be time for Wizards fans to start wondering what the heck is going on with their forward defending. One of the more obvious answers might be the play of Markieff Morris. Of players who are averaging over 20 minutes per game, Morris ranks dead last with a 105.2 defensive rating on the Wizards roster. Even if you discount the minutes restriction, Morris still has the fourth-worst defensive rating on the team (behind Chris McCullough, Tim Frazier and Jodie Meeks).

To compare that defensive rating to others around the league, of 139 eligible players who average 20 minutes or over per game and have played in at least 25 games, Morris ranks 66th. This would put Morris in the 47th percentile defensively amongst forwards in the league.

Morris, who has shown glimpses of good defense in the past, seems to be moving with slightly less enthusiasm out there than usual. Look at the play below:

Look how Markieff Morris is flat-footed, slowly getting sucked out of the paint giving Giannis Antetokounmpo enough space to work around him. Anybody who goes up against Giannis knows to drop off of him when he has the ball, protect the rim and make him beat you with his shot.

Markieff had no awareness that there was no help defense on either side of him and still allowed himself to get drawn out to the perimeter. On top of that, Morris puts little to no effort into trying to contest his shot and ends up giving the softest bump for a 3-point play. Let’s look at another play:

Morris might still be stuck behind that pick days later. Even after he was surprised by the pick, he made little to no effort in fighting through it and covering his guy. He instead allows the mismatch between Tomas Satoransky and Giannis and gives up an easy bucket inside.

While guarding guys like Giannis is no easy task, there’s something to be said for the amount of effort that goes into defense. It’s clear that Morris specifically isn’t interested in making hustle plays and obstructing opposing offenses.

When looking at the small forward position specifically, the Wizards have a tale of two sides. Over this last nine-game stint, Otto Porter Jr. has the best defensive rating on the entire team with 99.2. He’s consistently making it hard for his opponents to get clean shots off with his long wingspan.

But then there’s Kelly Oubre Jr., who is averaging the fifth-most minutes per game on the Wizards this year. During the last nine games, Oubre has the ninth-best defensive rating (108.6) out of 12 Wizards. The entire Wizards bench team has been abysmal this season, but the reason Oubre’s rating hurts the team more is because he’s on the court longer.

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If Oubre and Morris aren’t going to be able to hang with opponents defensively, the Wizards’ depth chart might be even smaller than it was last year in the playoffs, and that won’t bode well going against the teams above them in the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.

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