Inside The Wizards

Wizards Still Searching for Identity

The Washington Wizards are learning a lot about themselves as a team.

Jeremy Brener

Dec 28, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly (0) drives to the basket past New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (8) in the fourth quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Dec 28, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly (0) drives to the basket past New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (8) in the fourth quarter at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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The Washington Wizards are a young, rebuilding team that is learning how to play with one another, and that comes with its fair share of challenges.

One of those challenges is figuring out an identity because it's not something that can be decided in a day, a week or even a month.

“We’re such a young team right now that we're still trying to find our identity on offense,” Wizards guard Jordan Poole said. “It’s not going to be heavy hitting nights consistently, but one thing that we can bring is effort in defense and be gritty. Teams are just gonna have to find ways to come in and we're gonna have to compete. We're gonna have to make it tough on them every night and if we can find ways to get into close games at the end, we're going to use this experience to try to close games out.”

The Wizards aren't competitive in every game, but lately they have been more competitive than they were in the month of November.

The Wizards lost every game in November by at least nine points, but in December, they found a way to win three games (including one against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets), and took the New York Knicks to overtime in their last game.

If the Wizards can continue to fight and compete, they will have more teams on upset alert as the season goes on. And during that time, the more they play with each other, the easier it will be to find and identify an identity for them to roll with.

The Wizards are back in action tomorrow night as they host the Knicks for the second contest of a two-game series. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET inside Capital One Arena.

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Jeremy Brener
JEREMY BRENER

Jeremy Brener is an editor, writer and social media manager for several Fan Nation websites. His work has also been featured in 247 Sports and SB Nation as a writer and podcaster. Brener has been with Fan Nation since 2021. Brener grew up in Houston, going to Astros, Rockets and Texans games as a kid. He moved to Orlando in 2016 to go to college and pursue a degree. He hosts "The Dream Take" podcast covering the Rockets, which has produced over 350 episodes since March 2020. Brener graduated in May 2020 from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism minoring in Sport Business Management. While at UCF, Brener worked for the school's newspaper NSM.today and "Hitting the Field," a student-run sports talk show and network. He was the executive producer for "Hitting the Field" from 2019-20. During his professional career, Brener has covered a number of major sporting events including the Pro Bowl, March Madness and several NBA and NFL games. As a fan, Brener has been to the 2005 World Series, 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 NCAA National Championship between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tar Heels. Now, Brener still resides in the Central Florida area and enjoys writing, watching TV, hanging out with friends and going to the gym. Brener can be followed on Twitter @JeremyBrener. For more inquiries, please email jeremybrenerchs@gmail.com.

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