Wizards Need to Answer Alarming Question

The Washington Wizards must figure out who they are and who they wish to become.

Feb 12, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole (13) celebrates with Wizards forward Alex Sarr (20) after making a game-tying basket against the Indiana Pacers in the final seconds of the fourth quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The Washington Wizards are using this season to figure out which players they want to keep moving forward and how they want to play when on the court.

Bleacher Report writer Grant Hughes believes that the Wizards can use the final two months of the season to help establish an identity for themselves.

"The Washington Wizards aren’t going to win many games between now and the end of the season, but they can still make the most of the next two months by establishing an identity," Hughes writes.

"That’s a tall order for a team with a lot of young players in prominent roles. Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly and the rest of the youth corps are mostly just trying to keep their heads above water. But the Wizards can use what’s left of the season to settle on their preferred pace, defensive principles and level of competitiveness," he continued. "These young Wizards might be overmatched, but they also have nothing to lose. Jordan Poole is certainly playing with a level of freedom worth admiring."

"Hopefully, these low stakes will allow the Wizards to play aggressively without fear of errors. The alternative—coasting to the close of a dead-end season—could establish a culture that’ll be hard to shake, perhaps even delaying the team’s eventual return to relevance."

It's hard to come up with an identity when the players mostly consist of people that won't be in the building when the team is good again. However, the core of the roster is beginning to form, and they can define how they want to play as a unit moving forward.

Knowing how head coach Brian Keefe likes things, defense will be a big part of the team's identity, but there needs to be more. They have a lot of athletes and they can work more in transition on offense, but that doesn't give the Wizards an identity per se.

An identity is about style of play and a mentality, and it takes time to develop that before even attempting to execute it. The Wizards should take these final 28 games to build who they want to become in the future.

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