#3: The Washington Wizards Must Have Time To Rebuild Team Chemistry

Clearly, the core of this team, which includes John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter Jr., Kelly Oubre Jr., and Markieff Morris, have been together for four years. Wall, Bradley and Porter have been together for five, but the Wizards front office has continued to make adjustments to the bench.

An Achilles heel for the Wiz Kids has always been their lack of bench depth and talent. On paper, Washington has arguably one of the best starting five’s in the East. However, their bench has never played at a high level for a long period of time.

With the exception of last season when Wall missed a significant amount of time due to injury, the Wizards have never been able to survive without one of their star players. This summer Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld did a solid job of adding bench depth.

Acquiring Rivers from the Los Angeles Clippers was a brilliant move because it provided the team with a playmaker and a scorer who can create on his own. Not to mention the former Duke product could be a starting guard on another team.

Factoring in the Bench Chemistry

Often times in the past, bench players on the Wizards have struggled to play with confidence or take over a game. Last season, Tomas Satoransky elevated his game in the absence of Wall and averaged 7.2 points per game. It’s clear that Satoransky has a future in D.C., but having Rivers on your bench, who averaged 15.1 points last season, will help down the road.

In addition to Rivers, the team signed Green, who is averaging 10 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Green is a player who can handle the ball (in moderation), grab rebounds and cause mismatches for the defense.

The addition of Green will allow the Wizards to play small-ball as the season goes on. Last, but not least, the team probably won’t gel until Howard returns to action. Outside of his cheesy poem on how he became a Wizard, Howard will definitely impact this team in a positive way.

However, it will take some time, but keep in mind that the team parted ways with Marcin Gortat who was a huge staple in the Wizards’ culture. The Wiz kid’s parted ways with Gortat in order to add Rivers and free up cap space (and to end the beef with Wall). Losing the 6-foot-11 big man is clearly coming back to bite the franchise but once Howard returns things will change.

Patience is a virtue and much of it will be needed as the 1-6 team attempts to climb back into the Eastern Conference standings.

Next Up: Reason #2