NBA Power Rankings: The Wizards are much better, but they still have issues to solve

It seems like just yesterday that the Washington Wizards were a disaster on wheels, failing to live up to their considerable potential again and lilting toward a forgettable, useless season. Six weeks ago, Washington was 9-14, losing ground on the Eastern playoff race. Since then, the Wizards have gone 16-6, launching themselves into a legitimate fight for the No. 3 seed in the East.

There are two questions here: are the Wizards’ earlier problems (namely, a remarkable lack of depth) fixed, and is Washington playing over its head? The answers aren’t entirely encouraging.

Back in early December, I wrote about the Wizards’ offensive problems. John Wall was showing out, Bradley Beal was healthy and scoring well, and Otto Porter was much improved in all facets. But Markieff Morris was shooting a horrible percentage while taking a heavy share of shots.

That has changed: Morris is still taking a lot of shots, but his effective field goal percentage is a respectable .482 on the season. (When we last checked in with the Wiz, it was .438, one of the worst in the league. It’s now just in the bottom fifth among frequent shooters, per NBA.com.)

Perhaps the most interesting change the Wizards have experienced has been the demotion of Marcus Thornton, who has fallen completely out of the rotation. Tuesday marked his 11th straight DNP-CD. Scott Brooks is riding his starters harder and giving the limited extra minutes at two-guard to a combination of rookies Sheldon McClellan and Tomas Satoransky, along with veteran Trey Burke. For his part, Satoransky, has been playing much better in spot minutes.

Marcin Gortat was never the problem, and he’s continued to play solid two-way ball as Ian Mahinmi remains unavailable. Brooks is opting to go small when Gortat sits in most cases. (The other options — Andrew Nicholson and Jason Smith — are not tenable, though Smith has played better of late.)

In addition to Morris finding his stroke and Thornton disappearing, Kelly Oubre’s development has been a huge boost to the Wizards’ offense. He’s shooting 46 percent from the field and 41 percent on threes in January, per Basketball Reference. For the first time in his career, he’s a positive force on the court. For a shallow team, that’s huge.

All of that combined with continued excellence from Wall, Beal, and Porter has turned the Wizards into a much stronger offensive team. Since December 13, the Wizards are averaging 111 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com, the fourth-highest mark over that span. The defense hasn’t improved — it remains middle of the pack — but the offensive surge has pushed Washington into the playoff bracket. The Wizards are rolling.

The schedule has been somewhat soft. The Wizards have gone 9-2 in their last 11, with an average opponent winning percentage of .480. Only three of those games (a split against Boston, plus Memphis at home) have been against truly good teams. Another handful have come against squads bouncing around .500. But the Wizards are winning those games, something they certainly didn’t do in November. So in that sense, the improvement is real.

The lack of defensive improvement is a concern. The Wizards are largely winning due to offense, despite a roster built to stop opponents (at least for the starting lineup). The turn to small ball might be causing that, but that doesn’t erase the problem. When you look ahead and try to imagine the Wizards slowing the Raptors’ vicious scoring attack in the playoffs, it’s not pretty.

But this is much better than what Washington faced six weeks ago. A tough path in the playoffs is much more exciting than a 35-win washout.

And now, this week’s NBA Power Rankings according to Rating +.

The crawl for the No. 8 seed in the West (I refuse to call it a race) features some really unbalanced teams. Over the past 15 games, the Pelicans, Blazers, and Timberwolves have been excellent defenders with awful offenses. The Nuggets have had a smoking offense with a horrific defense. The Kings have just been completely mediocre with spurts of decent play.

The Wolves might actually be the best team of this bunch. But they lost so many close games early in the season that their win-loss record just doesn’t match their Rating +, where they are marginally better than the Pelicans, Nuggets, and Blazers.

New Orleans built a defense-first squad around Anthony Davis this summer, and that’s paid off. But losing Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon has made the Pels unable to score effectively — there’s too much offensive responsibility on Davis, who is playing out of his mind nonetheless. With the right addition, New Orleans could run stagger off with the playoff spot.

Defense is much tougher to fix with one player, so I remain skeptical of the Nuggets’ chances to clean up that end. Given all that, Portland looks like the actual best bet to grab No. 8. Their defense has been cleaned up significantly since Al-Farouq Aminu returned, and while the offense now lags, having Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum is a boon.

Sacramento is only two games out at 17-27. I cannot get over this.

It’s true: the Warriors have a Rating + of 0, which means that they have the No. 1 offense and the No. 1 defense in the league. Those blowout wins over good opponents suggested that while they won’t win 73, Golden State is every bit as powerful as last year’s squad. If the defense holds up with Kevin Durant handling so much paint duty, I’ll be fully convinced.