The Washington Wizards’ 2023-24 season got the ended it deserved — a blowout loss to the Boston Celtics’ bench mob made to look better with a phony fourth quarter “comeback” that trimmed the final margin to a mere 10 points.
Describing the loss as coming to Boston’s “bench mob” isn’t a dig. The Wizards also were playing their version of a bench mob. Much like the teams at full strength, Boston’s bench mob is better.
In the obligatory Recitation of Woes, the Wizards were missing Tristan Vukcevic (ankle), Marvin Bagley III (knee), Bilal Coulibaly (wrist), Richaun Holmes (toe), Tyus Jones (back), Jordan Poole (illness), Landry Shamet (calf), and Kyle Kuzma (ankle).
The Celtics sat the entire top six of their rotation: Derrick White (ankle), Jayson Tatum (rest), Kristaps Porzingis (rest), Al Horford (rest), Jrue Holiday (knee), and Jaylen Brown (rest). When the playoffs begin, all six will play.
The loss brings to a conclusion the most futile season in franchise history. The team finishes 15-67 — the fewest wins in any season for any iteration of the Wizards, including 1961-62 when they were the expansion Chicago Packers. It’s 10 fewer wins than the Covid-shortened season, and five fewer than lockout-shortened 2011-12.
This season, the Wizards finish with a winning percentage of 18.3%. The franchise’s second worst mark: 22.5% from those 1961-62 Packers.
If changing coaches from Wes Unseld Jr. to Brian Keefe made a difference, it was relatively small — at least in terms of record. The Wizards were 7-36 with Unseld at the helm — a 16.3% winning percentage. With Keefe in charge, they were 8-30 — a 21.1% winning clip. Astute readers may notice that 21.1% would still be the worst winning percentage in franchise history.
A few more tidbits about this year’s team in relation to franchise history:
Realistically, the team offered little reason to hope for significant improvement next season. That’s to be expected because this year was Step Zero of the rebuild — the Tear Down.
What the players showed over 82 games is that only a handful of guys have even a semi-serious chance of filling significant roles when (if?) the team improves to the point of being competitive: Deni Avdija, Bilal Coulibaly (maybe), and maybe Tristan Vukcevic.
None of them look to be franchise-level building blocks, though all three are young enough to think they could possibly rise to that level if they work hard enough and smart enough. The team will add high draft picks this year and next (for sure), and possibly in 2026 as well if they no one has a star-level breakout.
Barring some extraordinary luck, it’s going to be a long rebuild. The process (not The Process) can still be fun because it typically involves stretches of watching young players try hard, work hard, and improve. Observing the incremental gains and seeing how a team eventually coalesces can be rewarding, even if it falls short of title contention.
Enough soapboxing. Numbers from last yesterday’s game are below.
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