The Washington Wizards were off to a strong start this season, having won eight of their first fourteen games. This placed them fifth out of fifteen teams in the Eastern Conference. 

At that time last season, the Wizards had an impressive 10-4 record. This success, however, did not continue through the rest of the season, as it seems they are continuing this trend falling  to ten and ten, in eighth place. The Wizards finished the 2021/22 season 12th in the east with 35 wins and 47 losses, not even qualifying for the play-in games, which longtime Wizards fan, Steven Ohlhoff expresses, “was terrible.”

This begs the question: will the Wizards keep up their momentum and continue to improve, or will their season go downhill like in years past? Junior James Wilson believes, “they should finish this season in the playoffs and be better than last year.”

Contributing to this improvement is the fact that Kristaps Porzingis and Bradley Beal have been healthy so far this season, especially after Beal recovered from his wrist injury. Beal and Porzingis are two of their best players, so having them this season will make the Wizards significantly better. 

Kyle Kuzma has also been doing well this season, averaging 18.5 points and 8 rebounds per game. Ohlhoff likes that, “All three of those guys can get 20 in a given night and all at the same time.”

Delon Wright is another player who has benefitted the Wizards with his defensive and offensive talent. Unfortunately, Wright injured his hamstring at the end of October and is expected to be out until mid December. This is tough for the team since Wright was doing well as their starting point guard. Other injuries have also contributed to the team’s decline.

Luckily, this setback has not stopped the Wizards from going on a four game winning streak, partially thanks to point guard Jordan Goodwin— a 2-way player for the Capital City Go-Go— who was an unexpected spark for the Wizards. He has played well consistently, averaging 6.6 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. 

Goodwin was pulled up to play for the Wizards after Wright was injured, and no one expected him to do as well as he did. Wilson explains, “Jordan Goodwin is the only player on the team I had never heard of coming into the season, yet he’s come out of nowhere and been amazing on both sides.”

There is a lot of talent and depth on the Wizards this year, but they still have facets of the game that they can improve on. Most notably, finishing close games is something that they have struggled with for a while. 

The Wizards have been known for choking at the end of games, giving up as much as 15 point leads. Six out of the Wizards’ seven losses were by ten points or less. Although they are getting better, they need to continue to improve in this aspect of the game if they want to be the best they can be. 

Since they are less than a quarter of the way through the season, there is still a lot of time for improvement. It is up to the players and coaches whether they push themselves and get better throughout the season, or stay average like every other season. Either way there are high hopes for the Wizards this year and fans are excited to see what they can do.