NBA Power Rankings week 8 – OKC Thunder cling to middle, trade market opens up

Offense: (112.0)  4th
Defense: (116.6)  30th
Net: (minus -4.6)  23rd

Games Week 8: (0-2) Lost to Hornets, Grizzlies
Games Week 9: (4 games): Mon. at Pistons | Weds. vs Bulls | Fri. at Raptors | Sat. at 76ers

If you love offense then the Wizards are your team — BUT if you like defense or for that matter any semblance of a two-way game then the Wizards are the last team to follow. Granted, every fan base is probably circling the dates with Washington knowing they’ll get to witness a potentially highest scoring game of the season for their squad.

Case in point, in their last 10 games win or lose they’ve allowed opponents to score an average of 125.3 points. The lowest total of those 10 games was 112 points and in six of those games, Washington allowed opponents to score between 125 and 150 points.

And therein lies the dilemma about this Wizards squad. Imagine how much energy is saved by only playing on one end of the court. The problem is if the Wizards get hot shooting and your squad is having a cold shooting night the games can fall to the Wiz. And, that’s not a stretch because Bradley Beal, Davis Bertans and a few others can accumulate tons of points quickly.

This past week Bertans was particularly hot posting a career best 32 points hitting eight of his 12 triples attempted versus the Hornets (the Wizards still lost). And that game isn’t an outlier since  Bertans is producing 15.4 points per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the perimeter on 8.5 attempts per game.

Will the Wizards want to hang onto Bertans or is he someone they could possibly trade to collect a draft pick(s)?