The Washington Wizards are SPIRALING, What Can Be Fixed? Greg Finberg Joins The Show

The Washington Wizards are SPIRALING, What Can Be Fixed? Greg Finberg Joins The Show

10 games in, the Washington Wizards obviously have plenty of problems on an eight-game losing streak, but what’s the biggest one? We’re going to try to find that out today. Greg Finnberg joins the show. Stick with us here on Locked on Wizards. You are Locked On Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. DC family, you’re locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. We’re part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one podcast network in the nation. Alongside the DC Sports Content, creating honorable Dele Yubie. I’m Ben Shro. I cover all things DC sports for 1067, the fan, and the team 980. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Today we are joined by our pal from Bullets Forever and the host of the Wizards podcast, Greg Finnberg, a fan favorite amongst the Wizards fan base for sure. Uh Greg, we were joking about it off air before this, but between the Wizards and today the Commanders embarrassed again. Um defense is very hard to come by come by for both of our teams right now. I mean, yeah, the Commanders, I don’t think they actually got a stop defensively. It just felt like you knew that Joe had no no game plan and and really had no ability whether it was personnel-wise or game plan wise to stop Detroit. It seems like that’s the case with the Wizards on most nights. Like you know that they’re going to give up 115 120 points. So we’re going to get into that. Um it’s never great when one of your teams is doing it, let alone two. Um and it’s not like the Caps are are really streaking like they did last year. Obviously we know about the NAT, so not the the most fun time, but it’s why we’re here to talk about it. So, can’t wait to talk. Yeah. No, no D in DC like Greg mentioned. And what are the odds that we lost to Detroit in football? And we’re probably going to it’s going to be a tough match up tomorrow against the Detroit Pistons. And right now, the best team in town is the DC Spirit. So, it’s tough right now. It It is. It is. So, last night in the loss to the Mavericks, it was the more competitive Wizards team that we saw against the Mavericks previously where the Wizards got the one win they had. But it’s now eight losses in a row for this Wizards team and the majority of them have been pretty non-competitive. It was good to see them compete a little more yesterday on the defensive side of the basketball, albeit Dallas one of the worst offenses right now in terms of offensive rating and efficiency in the entire NBA. So many problems right now uh on the defensive side of the basketball. But uh Greg, you touched on this in your pod yesterday, the Wizards podcast if you guys want to check that out. Uh and we, you know, we got the cover uh the coverage of it yesterday. Van Todd uh asked the question of the blunder at the end of the game there. Head coach Brian Keefe uh telling Keshan George to foul when they did not need to. They could have had a chance to get a stop on defense. They ultimately didn’t do that. They foul. And he said after the game, I I messed up. I misjudged the clock. I just wanted to get your take on that whole situation and maybe get a little bit more into what you’ve noticed from Brian Keefe over the first 10 games of the season here. I mean, yeah, like you mentioned, I think half I did I think 25 minutes last night on my pod. I think 12. I spent just like analyzing the the play and just like trying to figure out what Brian Keefe was thinking in the moment because when I recorded it was before he had come out and said to Bejan’s question like I misjudged. I told Keshan to foul. That’s on me. You know, it’s great that he can take accountability for it. Um and it’s it’s one thing if if Keshan was the one that fouled and he shouldn’t have. Like that’s understandable, but but for your head coach to not know time and situation, to not know the difference in the game and shot clock, I don’t know if he forgot that after the offense shoots uh and if they miss, they get their own offensive rebound. The shot clock resets to 14, not 24. So like there was 23 seconds, I think, at the time on the game clock and it reset to 14 on the shot clock. Brandon Williams took a seven foot jump shot, didn’t make it, got tapped out to Naji Marshall for the rebound. So, 23 seconds left, 14 on the game clock or on the shot clock when it resets. That’s a 9-second difference. That’s plenty of time. You have a timeout as well. You’re down 108, 105. All you have to do is get a stop and then you can go down and instead of having to make a shot and then foul, all you got to do is make a three. You could even go for a quick two. There’s so many different things that you can do. But I guarantee you in that situation, if you ask a 100 NBA head coaches, “What are you doing?” They’re not fouling. They’re playing that out. And Brian Keefe, he admitted it. That’s great. But it’s unthinkable. I think you called it unfathomable, Ben, for an NBA head coach to just lose track of the situation, especially when you have a young team. Like, like I mentioned, if Keshan found him there, that’s a really bad play, but he’s in a second year. Like Bob, Alex, they’re all young guys. If Trey had done that, it’s like bad play, but you can learn from it. But for a guy like Brian Kee that’s been around the game for decades at this point, he’s supposed to be the guy navigating this young group through these situations. in clutch time and he completely sold it. He sold the game. You know, would the Wizards have won? They still needed to get a stop. They still needed to make a three or at least tie the game. Then they would have probably had to win it in overtime. Like there are these hurdles, but for your coach to not understand that, it’s just like how how does that happen? And how do you I like I get it. He he took accountability for it. That’s that’s great. But it doesn’t matter at a certain point. And I think it’s compounded right when fans are already, you know, annoyed at his rotations. Um had his seeming inability to adjust. It seems like Brian Keefe can’t adjust to any type of adjustment. Like we see like Champenny doesn’t play the first five games for the most part. Now he’s kind of like a starter. Um and even last night he was a plus. I think if I pull up the box score, he was one of the few players that that was a plus in a big group of people that were minus. Champenny was a plus 11 but played 12 minutes. Um, so it gets to a point where where you’re kind of just sat there like, you know, that’s a really bad mistake, but when your rotations are bad, when your adjustments are non-existent, and then you can’t even figure out time and situation, what what are we doing here? Especially on a young team that needs that coach to step in. I just I I’ve run out of ways to describe it. It was, you know, head scratching at the time and I mean, clearly it was it was on him. So, he took accountability. hopefully he’s better moving forward, but you just can’t you can’t have that in the NBA. You can’t have that. Yeah. No, 100%, Greg. I agree with you. It’s frustrating because Ben and I always preach that JC all he does is play winning basketball and if he can’t impact the game scoring, he’s definitely going to go out there and get rebounds. Like a game recently where he had 11 rebounds at 6665. I mean, he just goes out there and hustles. I was going to ask you your thoughts on the minutes of Malachi Brainham getting minutes early on. We didn’t see much of it compared to the last four or five games this season, but now he goes up and given the assignment of guarding some of the Mavs players. Just your thoughts on that. And I think the game before was Jir Watkins against Cleveland where he had the assignment of guarding Donovan Mitchell. I’m glad you brought up Brandon. like I I he was actually one of the the few players that that I I thought played well last night and and even when he he played I know he played against New York but only four minutes but against Boston like he played the final 17 minutes of a blowout loss and he had 10 points and three boards I thought he was pretty solid. He shot above 50% in all three of his appearances this season. Um, the biggest thing is is that he wasn’t even a consideration for the first five to six games and now he’s not a staple of of the rotation, but like it’s just weird seeing him not play the whole first half and then get inserted in the third quarter uh against Boston and then even against, you know, a team like Dallas, you know, he’s playing a couple minutes in the first half. It’s it just kind of everything goes back to Keith and the rotations and like I get it. You know, you have a young team, you’re moving pieces around. He’s had some injuries obviously with Bal being out. Keshan missed a game. I get that. But he has seemingly no grip on on the rotations 10 games in whereas most teams do. Like like I mentioned, you’re seeing Champenny start but really not play much in the second half. And when he doesn’t start, he’s not a part of the rotation. And then you got a guy like Brandham that comes in. He’s played okay, but is he part of the rotation? Because next game if he doesn’t play, I wouldn’t be surprised. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if Anthony Gil gets some minutes tomorrow. Who knows? Um, but the point of Brandham is like I think he’s played well. Uh, but it’s hard for a guy like like Brandham to get that um, you know, synergy or chemistry with that group of guys or or to kind of build that momentum for himself when he doesn’t even know what his role is. He doesn’t know when he’s going to play. Like you should be ready like he has when you’re you’re called upon. I would just prefer that through 10 games you have a steady eight nineman rotation versus just going into games not knowing who’s going to play and who’s not going to play. I don’t think that’s the optimal approach. All right, Greg. 46 field goals per game the Wizards are allowing right now that is good for worst in the entire NBA. How much of this do you chalk up to an issue with Keith and his rotations or just the personnel simply not being built to compete on that side of the basketball? Uh, I mean, we we talked about the Commanders early and I think this is actually a good example because yeah, Joe Wit has been bad. I think he’s been awful. He’s their defensive coordinator. If you look at the personnel out there, the injuries, like that’s not a winning defense. Uh, but at the same time, they should be getting at least one stop per game. Um, you know, no matter the personnel, they’re NFL players. It’s the same thing with with the Wizards. The personnel is bad. And and whether you think that’s by design, which you’re probably right, or because it’s a young team or whatever, outside of Balok Labali and Keshan George, I’m not sure they have, you know, really any any good ball defender on ball defenders. Like Alex Sar has been awesome in rim protection. I tweeted out today, Sar has nine straight games with two or more blocks, which is the longest streak in the NBA. I believe he has seven blocks over his last two games. He’s not the problem. Neither is Bal. Neither is Keshan. If Keshan stops fouling, then he certainly isn’t the problem. Uh but apart from those three guys, I don’t think there’s anybody on this team that I’m like, “Yeah, I would trust him with the game on the line. I want him in my closing lineup.” Cam Whitmore has some good defensive games, has some bad ones. Champenny is an all right defender, but I would consider him to be great. You have three truly good defenders on this team. Um so based on that, it’s tough for Brian Keefe to put together a winning defense. At the same time, I don’t think this defense should be bottom of the league bad. Like Ben mentioned, giving up the most field goals a game. Um, and it’s also, if you watch, like the stats are one thing. They’re they’re giving up 128 points per game, which is one of the worst lines at this moment in NBA history. Um, that’s one thing, but if you actually watch the games, like there are so many, you know, examples of guys just out of out of place, out of rotation, missing assignments, back door cuts. that’s on coaching. Um, so I think it’s twofold. I think the personnel is bad and it’s hard to blame Keith for that, but I’ve also had some questions about the defensive buyin and the effort level. I’ve seen on that end the IQ of these players being in the wrong spots and missing assignments. So, you can blame Keith, you can blame the, you know, the rosters, like it it doesn’t really matter. The defense is is way worse than I think it should be. Um, and ultimately I, you know, when you have a young roster that that’s going to probably fall on the head coach. Um, so I get it. I think it’s warranted the the the, you know, the push back that fans have had about the defense because there is no resistance. Like you play against a team like Milwaukee in the first game, you know, Giannis is going to have 35, 10 and 10. Um, they’re playing KD in a couple games, he’ll probably have 30. It’s just like they know what they need to do and they just can’t do it. Um, so I don’t know who you would assign the blame to, but I don’t think it matters. You know, the defense is atrocious no matter who you blame. Yeah, 100%. You want to see the team compete on the defensive side of the basketball. And there’s some short bursts where they really do it well and they force the other team to shoot poorly, especially from behind the arc, but obviously defending the perimeter has been a huge problem for this Wizards team. And uh hopefully there are some fixes that we can see moving forward. Is this hindering development? We’re going to tackle that when we come back from the break here on Lockdown Wizards. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win. Not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks, EFTs, options, futures, and crypto allinone platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood Legends advanced tools. Or take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more from yourself, expect more from your money. 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Download the Game Time app and create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s code L O C K E D O NA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go with game time. Yeah, Greg, you mentioned before we went into break Keshan George’s foul trouble, and that’s a common theme that we’ve seen so far early on this season, and obviously he’s an aggressive defender, but should this be a thing that Wizards fans should be concerned about? Because during those crunch time moments, we want him to be out there. But when you’re an aggressive defender like Keshan, that might be a problem where those calls are going to be always called on you, especially when you’re going up against guys like Cooper Flag or just young scorers in this league. How worried should Wizards fans be about potentially Keshan George being out because of foul trouble every single game? I think it’s a fair point. Like he’s averaging nearly I think it’s 4.7 at the moment. Like nearly five fouls per game. He’s fouled out two times through the Wizards first 10 games. I think he’s played in nine of those. So, you know, pretty much, you know, a fourth of his games he’s fouling out to begin the season. That’s not good. Um, I don’t think he would have fouled out last night had Brian Keefe not told him to foul. So, take it for what you will, but the aggression is good. Like, I I like his his defense. I like how he pushes up on on his matchup and he makes it difficult for them. I think the the key for him, and it was the key for Denny Odia when he was here as well, was just like don’t bail them out. like he’s always in the right spot, but he reaches, he overextends, and and he he fouls. And and it seems like to this point he hasn’t learned from those mistakes. And it took Denny a while to learn as well. But you’d see a lot of times like Denny would put his hands up on defense. Like I’m literally here, I’m not going to foul. If he makes it, he makes it. I think Keshan’s got to learn from from that because by the end of of Denny’s time in DC, he was an awesome defender. He wasn’t fouling as much. And I think that development trajectory is what you’re looking at for someone like Keith who is always seemingly playing good defense and he’s he’s there. He’s in the right spot. He just he does too much. And I think over time he’ll learn from that. So I’m not concerned. Like if you listen to any Brian Keith’s press conferences like he’s been asked multiple times he continues to maintain. He’s not concerned. So I I agree with Ke on that part. I’d rather him be aggressive uh than be a bad defender. Obviously he’s got to be smarter. It’s only his second year. He’s 21. like he’ll learn with time obviously, but once we’re in like game 60 and if this is still an issue through, you know, his first season and through a good part of this season, then maybe you can start to get concerned. But if I’m a Wizards fan, I’m like, “Yeah, he’s fine.” But he’s one of the real only players on this team showing any ounce of defensive energy and actually playing hard on the defensive end. So, if he’s going to foul, like, that’s not ideal. But I’d take that effort and in that type of defense over a lot of what you’re seeing from most of the other guys that are playing meaningful minutes for this team. Greg, one thing that stands out to me despite being pretty non-competitive in a lot of these games is that Alex Sar has really blossomed here in year number two and to quite the offensive threat for this team. He’s looked great in the paint. He’s continued to protect the rim really well with the stat you brought up with the multiple blocks in nine straight games. He seems like kind of a testament to what this rebuild really is in terms of player development for a guy who improves year-over-year for this organization so far. So, it kind of begs the question to me, despite the team being non-competitive, how much does it really hinder development? Is it kind of a fine line thing like some guys don’t develop certain ways because they’re not being competitive, but some guys can overcome it? How do you view that? I think I think if if this continues, you’ll just see it take longer for them to put it together. I think it’ll take longer for this group to kind of realize this is what it takes to win games and sustain that throughout a season. Um, I mean, you we were talking before I pulled up the the Thunder because I think a lot of people I think Ben you mentioned the Pistons and maybe you’ll get into that in a second, but you know, a lot of people say, “Well, Will Dawkins is from that Thunder tree and they have a lot of guys from the Thunder and it’s like that is the the kind of pinpoint where you you want your rebuild to eventually get to the point where you’re just the best team in the league and everyone’s chasing after you.” Um, and like like Thunder the Thunder rebuilt, but they went 44 and and 28. I don’t I don’t know if that was in the shortening season, but then the next season they won 22 games and that was the 72 game season. So, they probably could have won more. Then they won 24 games and then they won 40 games and then last year what did they win like 68 games, 67 games? I’m not sure. But they were never as bad as the Wizards have been. Like they they never lost 15 games or 18 games. Like that wasn’t where they were at. They were always competing. And even when they were losing games, like I remember the Wizards at that time were trying to compete with like Guzma and Beiel and and even Porzingis and like the Thunder when they weren’t even contending, they would push them to the brink. They beat the Wizards on several occasions when they weren’t even trying to contend because they were well coached and they were learning those winning habits. Even when they got to the playoffs that first year, they couldn’t beat Dallas because they just didn’t know what it took. So, I think it might be a point where it’s not going to meet it’s not going to mean the Wizards don’t get to that point. U it just might take them longer to figure that out because it’s not easy to win games in the NBA, let alone enough to make the playoffs and to be a good seed. Um and when you’re losing games like like most of these fourth quarters are just non-competitive. Like it’s you can you can turn the game off and you’re like they probably just lost by 20. They were down 15 entering the fourth. It’s non-competitive. Um, and before that Dallas game, there were four games in a row where they were trailing by 15 plus points entering the fourth quarter. And a certain point in the fourth quarter in those four losses, they were down by 20 or more points. Two of those were 30. So, it gets to a point where yes, it’s concerning, but I think it’s not going to mean that they don’t get to the pinnacle if that’s the, you know, the ceiling. It just might take them longer to to reach that point, which is obviously, you know, you would like to avoid that if possible. Yeah, I was going to bring up another guy, Greg. Cam Whitmore. Best arguably his best game as a Wizards so far. 19 points. And one thing that I loved about it was not just the points, but the zero turnovers because right now this Wizards team leads the league in turnovers. I think they’re dead last. I think right now I don’t like because that Cleveland game he had five minutes played and throughout the beginning of the season it’s like up and down and there were minutes where Jir Watkins was getting it and Malachi Brainham and Wishes fans are just concerned and he has quite the fan club as we’ve seen in our comment section. So from right now for where you stand with Cam Whitmore, do you see a possibility where he cracks a starting lineup or do you think we’ll see more games like it was against Cleveland where it was five minutes a game or more like that performance that he had against Dallas? I mean it’s weird with Cam cuz like I mentioned before last night his minutes had gone down. It was like 16 then 11 then five against Cleveland. Um and he played 29 last night like you mentioned Abdullah at 19 points which is a Wizards high for him. He did it efficiently as well. seven to 13 for the field. Made three of his six three-point attempts and and like you said, it was under control. Didn’t turn it over. Yeah. You know, picked his spots, I think, when to be aggressive and and when to to kind of pull it out, which is what Brian Kee has probably been stressing to him. But, I mean, to your question, will he start? Like, there’s been multiple injuries or illnesses at his position, you know, with Middleton who’s missed a couple games. Bal has missed seven so far. Keeshan George has also been out. Um and and Brian Keefe went to Champenny instead of him and even Bub Carrington got inserted back into the lineup and you didn’t see Cam Whitmore start. So I would assume if you asked Keefe, he’d just say I like Whitmore off the bench and he kind of likes that scoring burst, which I actually think is probably best. It’s the same with Kiss as well. Um you know those are two guys at the forward position when you’ve had two injuries there and they haven’t started over a guy like Champagne who wasn’t even part of the rotation. So, I think Keith’s thinking is like, well, I want to keep my bench unit intact, and I’d rather just take a guy like Champenny and put him in with the starters because I think he and his play style could probably fit any group versus a guy like Whitmore that maybe needs more space and more freedom to work like he has with the bench unit. So, I don’t think he’ll start anytime soon unless they have unfortunately more injuries or more illnesses or whatever. Um, because I think Keef just likes him off the bench more. All right, let’s take one more quick break. Can we come back? I kind of want to play a little bit of buy or sell here with our guy Greg Fimber. We’ll be back on the Lockdown Podcast Network. 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I think our guy domo might have posted one of them referencing Alex Sar’s BPM was a top 20 level in the entire NBA right now. And if he’s playing at that pace, it’s almost like an argument that this guy’s playing at an all-star level right now and maybe he’s not going to get that recognition because this Wizards team is as bad as it is right now. So, buy or sell, Alex Sar um is an allstar player in the 2026 27 campaign. That’s tough. I would sell it because if we’ve seen anything, number one, even when the Wizards are good, it’s hard to get their, you know, players into the All-Star game. It’s a popularity contest. Number two, I also don’t think they’re going to be that good next year. I think they’ll be better than this year. Uh, but I think it’s going to take some time and maybe they’ll win more games, but we’ve seen in in, you know, recent years like Trey Young was averaging like 25 and 13 and wasn’t an all-star because the Hawks just weren’t that good. Um, you saw it. I mean, Bradley Be was averaging 30 points and they didn’t get him in the All-Star team because the Wizards were a 35 win team. Um, so if they win 35 games next year, I think people would probably be like, “Oh, like that’s an improvement.” Um, so I think Sar will be good enough. Like I think if you compare his numbers to some guys even this year, if he keeps this up to make the All-Star team, you could be like, “Well, you can make a case that SAR is having a better year.” But you always have to factor in, you know, are their teams good? I think in in recent years that’s actually that’s become more important to voters especially in the media not as much fans. Um but you also have to factor in the popularity contest that that just is what the NBA All-Star game has has become. Um so I think if you’re talking like numbers wise like I think next year he probably should deserve to get in. Will he get in? That’s another story and and kind of based on trends I’d sell it. Um but he’s been awesome. I I definitely am buying Alex. So, I said in the preseason because a lot of people were like, “Who who do you think is the best player on this team?” And I got I got some push back because I’m very bullish on Sar and I was even after the summer league start and last year because it’s so rare for a guy that’s 71 to move the way he does. Like he has guard skills. He can handle the ball. He can run in transition. Um he can make threes like you’ve seen this season. He can body down low, but he’s also an unbelievable shot blocker. Um he’s a really great on ball defender. and switch one through four realistically and you’ve seen not one through four, two through five. Uh but he kind of has it all. So am I buying SAR? Yes. Am I selling the the Allstar? Probably just because of how it’s trending. Yeah, unfortunately I agree with Ben here. I think Alex Sar is really good, but I think the wins total popularity contest is going to affect him for being an all-star next year. But yeah, I think Ben or sorry, but Greg, Ben always preaches his shot diet and how it’s gotten so much better this season compared to last season because last season there were times where we just shoot a lot of threes and just not go inside, but his mid-range shot, that fadeaway shot is getting really, really nice. And his touch around the rim is great as well. I want to transition to a different guy. I know his stock is at all time low right now, Greg, but Bub Carrington hasn’t been the best start for a sophomore campaign. And it’s kind of crazy cuz I’ve seen some Wizards fans on social media saying that he should be demoted to the G- League, which in my opinion is too much of a stretch because again, I think that could shatter a young guy’s confidence, but how much of it is on the coaching staff for putting him in this position? Is it more on Bub? Because I think this pass game against the Mavericks finished with nine points, but again, very inefficient and the five turnovers. It’s just his role here in Washington. Like, is it going to be figured out sooner rather than later? Because I still think he’s only 20 years old. He’s still freaking young. I still think he has a chance to be a really good player in this league. Yeah, the the stuff with Bob is tough cuz like you can’t you can’t sit here and say that he’s playing well. That’s just that would be a false statement. He’s playing really bad actually. Um it’s just how much do you want to buy into that? Like again it’s it’s a 20-year-old point guard. He’s a young 20 at that. Um he’s realistically only in his first year playing point guard. He played a little bit last year without P, but P was a ball dominant guard even when Bub played with him. So, you got to factor in a bunch of that stuff. He’s young. He’s only in his second year. He’s he’s learning a new position. Um, I also don’t think the coaching staff, like you mentioned, has done him any help. Like, he was your starting point guard the beginning of the season. Like, that was you you tra you traded Jordan Pool for the cap relief, but I think a big part of that was like, okay, like now we don’t have a ball dominant guy taking away all these opportunities. now we can have Bub as our point guard and they moved off of him in you know what was it six games in because he hadn’t been playing well like I I get that but but you’re not trying to win games it’s it’s like well how are you going to be this proactive and and say well you know he’s not getting the job done and we’re going to pull him but you’re allowing a guy like CJ McCullum to play through the first eight games and be one of the worst players on the team and CJ’s been great the last two games like maybe if you kept Bub in that role he would have figured figure that out. But you have him as that starting point guard. Then you yank it away from him because he’s not playing well and then you got him off the bench for two games, you let him start and then the next game he’s back on the bench. It’s like how do you expect him to find a rhythm to find his role to learn this position when you know he’s starting as your point guard for a bit and then he’s coming off as like this volume score off the bench and and you’re you know playing some point guard, playing some non-point guard with people he doesn’t play with often. like it’s on him as well because there were even last night he had four turnovers in nine minutes and he’s getting in the air and making pretty bad passes. There’s a couple times on pick and rolls where I I just think he premeditates it. He’s like, I’m coming off this screen and I’m just going to throw the lob to Bagley. Like there were multiple times where it just got there was nothing there. He threw it into two Mavericks because they were blanketing Bagley instead of saying, oh, I’m open. Let me take the mid-range, which he did last year. So, I think it goes both ways. Bob certainly isn’t there yet, but I don’t really understand why this front off or not front office, but this coaching staff was so eager to rip those keys away from him because he wasn’t playing well as a a young point guard learning the position. Like, did you did you expect him to come in here and dominate? Like, no. We we expected him to play better and he’s not there. But at a certain point, the coaching staff needs to say, “Hey, like this is the guy we want to be as our point guard. We’re not trying to clearly win games. I mean, you see how we’re blowing all of these leads. Just let him play point guard. If he’s bad, he’s bad. But give him a longer runway than six games to prove it. That that would kind of be my my point there. On the idea of the coaching staff here, Greg, real quick, buy or sell. This is Brian Kee’s last year as the Wizards head coach. Don’t do that to me, Ben. Um, it’s just, you know, food for thought because, you know, we had the conversation where you don’t don’t really expect the team to be that much more competitive next year. Maybe they’re a little bit more improved and they and they make a push uh to get over the hump from where they are now. Uh, but with that being said, do you feel like they move on from him at this moment? Yes. I don’t He’s under contract. Like I understand that, but I just I don’t I don’t know how you can look at this season and say, “Yeah, like let’s run it back with this guy.” You know? I I I think the development has been great, but at a certain point, how much of that do you stock up to Brian Keefe? Like I think the head coach can only do so much. You know, he you have a bunch of other coaches that that should probably be getting credit for the fact that Alex Sar looks the way that he does this season. Keshan George and his improvement. Trey Johnson’s looked solid in the beginning of the season. I think you can move on from Brian Keefe without moving on from the development that you’ve gotten. Um, and if you certainly look at his coaching decisions and the the poor rotations or or questionable rotations to begin the season, the seeming lack of adjustments, you know, he has a good game plan. We saw that with Wes Enzo Jr., But to go from, you know, these 10point leads to these 20 point deficits in the span of a quarter. I have a thread on Twitter where I’m just kind of documenting it. There’s been multiple times where it’s a 15 plus nothing run and you got a Kev timeout at 70 and then a Kev timeout at 150. And it’s like these adjustments aren’t working. And you factor in the blunder he had at the end of the game. It’s like is this guy the best guy to take this group through? And if you don’t think that’s the case and you’re trying to maybe compete next year, I think you get somebody else to to lead the way. I think Brian Keef has done an okay job. Certainly a good job with development, but it seems like coaching wise, adjustments wise, you know, late game time and clock situations where coaches are needed. He’s missed the mark to this point. And so obviously he has 72 more games to prove it. They’re not I don’t I don’t think they’ll they’ll fire him mid-season. Uh, but if you ask me now, I I’ I’d be surprised if this continues that he’s back next year. And if he is, then I think it would be the wrong decision. Yeah, especially since there are some guys out there like Mike Malone and Taylor Jenkins that Wizards fans are just salivating over to become the next head coach here. But Greg, before we end this show, do you think the Wizards break their 16 game skid record of last season or do you think they find a way to break it these next couple of games? And if so, what game do you think it will be? Uh, well, you talked about this earlier. I think Brooklyn, like if you can’t beat Brooklyn, you got some real issues because like, and it’s funny saying that from a Wizards perspective because they’re also really bad and they also only have one win. Uh, but the Wizards are home. They’ve played competitively against a lot of teams. Um, it’s actually I was looking at I think they haven’t won a home game since like April 3rd of last year or something like that. Like it’s been it’s been a while. They’re 0 and5 now at home this season. So, it’s it’s not like it’s been like the the easiest road for them, but you know, if you lose to Brooklyn, that’s 11 straight losses and then you’re probably worse than every other team you’re going to play the next couple of games anyway. Um, I would I would say it’s going to end. Like, I think they’ll they’ll beat Brooklyn. Um, but like I mentioned, if you can’t beat Brooklyn, I think you got a lot deeper problems than just being a tanking team. That’s for sure. And I’ve heard, sorry to cut you off, man, before you head out. I’ve heard that Brooklyn fans are saying they whiffed on all five first round picks. So, we’ll just have to see. Oh, man. All right. Always a pleasure. Greg, thanks for coming on as always, dude. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. You guys are great. The show is great. Make sure you guys keep listening to these guys. They’re doing great work, especially the the coverage, you know, on site, too, has been has been awesome this season. So, again, thanks for having me on, guys. Appreciate that, my friend. That is Greg Finnberg, host of the Wizards Podcast. He writes for Bullets Forever. Be sure to check out all of his stuff. uh one of the top guys you can follow along with in the Washington Wizards season. Well, thank everybody for making Lockdown Wizards your first listen every single day. For your second, check out the Lockdown NBA Fantasy Basketball Podcast hosted by Josh Lloyd, the best fantasy basketball show you can find. We’re part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. And for our guy Greg Thinberg of Bullets Forever, for my co-host Abdullah Aubie, I’m Ben Strober DC Family. We sign off. [Music]

Washington Wizards head coach Brian Keefe’s shocking late-game blunder against Dallas exposes deeper problems plaguing the franchise’s eight-game losing streak. With the worst defense in the league, allowing 46 field goals per game, the Wizards face mounting questions about coaching competence and player development.

Greg Finberg from Bullets Forever breaks down Keefe’s critical clock management error, plus the rotation chaos affecting Malachi Branham, Cam Whitmore, and struggling point guard Bub Carrington. The conversation explores Alex Sarr’s breakout performance as the team’s lone bright spot, Kyshawn George’s foul trouble concerns, and whether non-competitive fourth quarters are sabotaging the rebuild trajectory. Finberg analyzes why the Oklahoma City Thunder’s patient approach succeeded while Washington’s current path risks extending their timeline, and addresses whether Keefe will survive beyond this season despite his contract.

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