Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat expressed his frustration with his team’s result in the start of the season. A bad record of 2-7 sends a signal for a lot of homework to do.
“We need energy. We need effort. We’ve got to make shots,” Gortat said as quoted by NBA.com on Saturday night after his team was beaten 96-105 by Chicago Bulls. He then closed the statement, “I think we’ve got one of the worst benches in the league right now.”
Based on statistic, the five starting lineup of the Wizards have 101.2 offensive rating and 100.7 defensive rating. But the entire team have only 100.1 and 104.8. The Wizards bench players recorded minus-11.2 net rating, while their starter has a plus-3.0 rating
According to Washington Post, the Wizards bench are the fourth-worst in the NBA behind the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers. By far, they have the lowest scoring average with 25.3 points and second lowest average in assists with 4.7 per game in 25.3 minutes playing time.
In the off-season, Washington Wizards allocated more than $30 million to improve their bench, but they were still unable to increase their players’ depth. Since the beginning of the season, Washington Wizards started off 2-7 and struggling to win every single game. Gortat’s frustration with the bench player is a locker room conversation that reflected majority of team’s frustration.
In the game against Bulls on Saturday, the Wizards starter Gortat, Sheldon McClellan, Markieff Morris, Otto Porter and Tomas Satoransky who replaces John Wall scored 77 combined points. While their bench only scored 18 points as the Chicago Bulls defeated them 106-95. This shows how terrible their team depth is.
Chicago Bulls deflected the Wizards offense in the Saturday’s game and dominating the game. Their small forward Jimmy Butler led the scoring with 32 points and 9 assists. While in the front court, Robin Lopez provided sufficient protection with 7 defensive rebounds from 13 rebounds.
Watch the highlight of the game between Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls on Nov.12, below:
