The Athletic: ‘We’ve utterly shifted our targets’: How the Wizards was a greater crew

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WASHINGTON — Coach Brian Keefe would have you ever consider that the Washington Wizards’ much-improved play currently has stemmed from a gradual, workmanlike construct.

“I think we were showing at times early in the year flashes of playing pretty good,” Keefe mentioned in an interview with The Athletic. “I think I even would say this in the media. We just weren’t really consistent with it.”

Keefe isn’t inaccurate. Alex Sarr, for instance, has protected the rim effectively all season lengthy, and now he’s defending the rim for longer stretches. Bub Carrington, as an illustration, labored in the course of the offseason to enhance his jumper, and he’s now sinking tightly contested 3-pointers. CJ McCollum persevered by way of a gradual begin to the season and has reemerged as a deadly scorer. The record goes on, and it consists of constructive steps taken by gamers similar to rookie capturing guard Tre Johnson, third-year wing Bilal Coulibaly and veteran heart Marvin Bagley III.

But Keefe’s idea, which adheres to the Wizards’ inside narrative of “stacking days” of diligent follow {and professional} habits, doesn’t go fairly far sufficient to clarify why they’ve received 5 of seven video games since Dec. 26, together with a 120-112 victory Tuesday evening over the Orlando Magic.

Heightened accountability has performed a major function, too. In interviews with The Athletic in latest days, a number of Wizards gamers mentioned they consider a players-only meeting Nov. 16, within the rapid aftermath of an embarrassing 129-106 loss at dwelling to the Brooklyn Nets, helped spark the turnaround, tightening bonds inside the crew and reaffirming gamers’ tasks to 1 one other.

“It was needed,” Carrington advised The Athletic. “It was mandatory. But on the finish of it, all of us regarded one another within the eyes as males and mentioned, ‘What we’re exhibiting the world ain’t us, and it’s actually as much as the blokes on this room to vary it.’ And I really feel like we’ve moved accordingly, for certain, after that dialog.

“I think we’ve completely shifted our goals and our mindset as far as our approach when it comes to the game,” Carrington added. “We’re focusing on just straight winning plays. We’re preaching to everyone, ‘Block out your other agendas, block out all the things that don’t really matter. Let’s just focus on winning the ballgame. Let’s focus on being the best Wizards we can be.’ And it’s been working well for us.”

The mid-November loss to the Nets dropped the Wizards’ report to 1-12, with 11 consecutive losses.

There have been some massively lopsided video games since then — a 146-101 defeat on Dec. 4 at dwelling to the Boston Celtics and a 141-115 dwelling loss Sunday to the Minnesota Timberwolves come to thoughts — however the general upward development towards a softer schedule is unmistakable, in quantitative and qualitative phrases.

Washington has compiled a 9-13 report after the loss to Brooklyn and, arguably extra essential for a gaggle of predominantly younger and inexperienced gamers, has proven extra struggle and extra resolve than at any time since beginning its teardown rebuild with the commerce of Bradley Beal in June 2023.

Bagley was one of many vocal gamers in the course of the Nov. 16 assembly.

“We just had to make a decision on how we were going to present ourselves as a team, how we’re going to compete every night,” Bagley advised The Athletic.

“We weren’t meeting that standard at the time. I think that meeting was well-needed. I spoke up and said my piece, and guys in the locker room spoke up as well, and we had a good talk. I think we came out closer as a unit, and it makes us understand each other more and want to go out and compete for each other. You can see it.”

It’s not going to be good on many nights, not with a gaggle as younger because the Wizards. When a crew allots minutes to so many younger gamers concurrently, lapses in focus and on-court errors are sure to occur. There can be video games just like Sunday’s loss, by which Washington trailed Minnesota by double digits for almost all of the sport.

Forty-eight hours later, although, Wizards gamers carried out like that they had chips on their shoulders. The Magic are one of many league’s most bodily groups, however on Tuesday evening, the Wizards had been the aggressors from the leap.

Coulibaly set the tone on the sport’s opening sequence, poking the basketball away from Paolo Banchero, accumulating the free ball and dunking on a quick break. A short time later, instantly after McCollum missed a 3-pointer, Sarr hustled to gather an offensive rebound and drew a foul on Banchero within the course of. Washington compelled a complete of 19 turnovers, and Orlando by no means recovered absolutely regardless of a late-game run by a gaggle of reserves.

The players-only assembly was one in all two main sparks for Washington.

Another occurred after the early-December loss to the Celtics. In a recreation by which virtually each Wizards participant carried out poorly, with out the mandatory effort, one participant’s efficiency appeared extra lackluster than anybody else’s.

Wing/ahead Cam Whitmore didn’t hustle again on protection and continued to play with tunnel imaginative and prescient on offense. Whitmore was benched — not as a punishment however as a reaffirmation of crew requirements similar to enjoying with effort, being aggressive always, enjoying with physicality (particularly on protection), enjoying good basketball and enjoying unselfishly. Keefe, his assistant coaches and crew officers couldn’t proceed to evangelise these aims with out holding Whitmore accountable.

To be clear, Whitmore was not the explanation the crew misplaced to Boston or had been enjoying badly. His play was one in all many causes.

But his benching, which occurred a number of weeks earlier than he was identified with a blood clot in his proper shoulder, had trickle-down results. Perhaps it additionally despatched a message to the crew.

Whitmore’s minutes needed to go someplace. His benching and accidents to different gamers led to extra enjoying time for Justin Champagnie, a fifth-year ahead who had gone undrafted out of faculty and performs as if his profession will depend on the end result of each possession. Champagnie embodies the trouble crew officers wish to see; he’s solely 6 ft 7, however he’s the crew’s most tenacious, simplest rebounder pound-for-pound.

Rookie Will Riley, one other hustle participant, additionally has earned a rotation spot. For a time, rookie guard Jamir Watkins, one of many crew’s most lively and most bodily defenders, additionally earned minutes.

The all-out effort from Champagnie, Riley and Watkins had a carryover impact on their teammates. Carrington has discovered his groove. Coulibaly, now wholesome after a number of early-season accidents, has amped up his vitality. And Sarr has been extra lively than he’s been since Washington drafted him almost 18 months in the past.

The finish end result has introduced out the most effective within the Wizards for now, and all of the stacked days have began to pay modest dividends.

“We’re playing really good,” Coulibaly advised reporters after Tuesday’s victory. “We’re playing fast. We’re getting stops.”

And they’re incomes wins. The Wizards are having enjoyable, and deservedly so. This is what accountability accomplished accurately seems to be like.

—The Athletic’s David Aldridge contributed to this report

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Josh Robbins is a senior author for The Athletic. He started masking the Washington Wizards in 2021 after spending greater than a decade on the Orlando Magic beat for The Athletic and the Orlando Sentinel, the place he labored for 18 years. His work has been honored by the Football Writers Association of America, the Green Eyeshade Awards and the Florida Society of News Editors. He served as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association from 2014 to 2023. Josh is a local of the higher Washington, D.C., space. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshuaBRobbins