Basketball is rejuvenating itself in The District. It started when the Washington Mystics became one of the WNBA's most exciting young teams last season. Now, the Washington Wizards are showing the same excitement, aiming for a playoff appearance this season.

The squad has two major problems blocking their path to that goal. The good news is that time and mentality can easily fix those two problems. If they want to reward the loyal fans with playoff hoops, then they need to address these issues.

Rebounding

This shouldn't surprise anyone who has watched the Wizards over the past three seasons. Since the start of their rebuild in 2023, they have never ranked in the top half of the league in rebounds per game. Some teams still find success without being good rebounders, such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, which won 57 games while ranking 27th in rebounds per game in 2024.

However, every successful playoff team at least ranks in the top half in rebounds. In 2024, the Boston Celtics ranked second in rebounds per game. In 2025, the Thunder ranked 11th in rebounds per game. Then the New York Knicks ranked seventh in rebounds last season. The clear trend is that to be a championship-caliber team, you have to at least be above average on the glass. The Wizards are nowhere near above average right now.

Through four games, the Wizards rank 18th in rebounds at 43.3 a night. Almost in the top half of the league, but the advanced stats show they are one of the worst rebounding teams in the association. Opponent offensive rebound numbers show that. The Wizards are the third-worst team in the league at this number, allowing 15.3 offensive rebounds a night.

This translates to teams generating easy second-chance points, which is a huge reason they recently lost to the Charlotte Hornets. They rank fifth-worst in the league, allowing 20.8 second-chance points per game. It is extremely hard to win as a team if you are doing that.

Rebounding is all about effort and physicality. This team is extremely big, yet it doesn't show on the glass because it isn't physical. Justin Champagnie is the team's best rebounder, and he is one of the shortest players on the roster. He rebounds so well because he is physical, and everyone else on the roster needs to take note and do what he does on the glass. Fixing that one problem could potentially leave the Wizards undefeated right now.

Three-Point Shooting

This problem was a shocker, since the rebuilding teams did that decently well. Last season, the Wizards were average in three-point shooting, knocking down almost 36 percent of their long-range attempts. To start the season, though, they are shooting a fourth-worst 29.4 percent from three-point range.

This number isn't coming from bad looks either; it is surprisingly coming from many of the team's best shooters missing open attempts. Kyshawn George, for example, has really struggled to shoot from distance to start the season. So far, he is shooting below 25 percent from distance on nearly five attempts a night.

Tre Johnson has also struggled shooting-wise to open the season, only shooting 33.3 percent from distance as well. Johnson is supposed to be arguably the best distance shooter on the squad. That was what made him stand out as a prospect, the fact he can shoot from anywhere. You can put him all the way out in Rockville, and he would still make the shot in Capital One Arena. We haven't seen that, though, except in one game this season.

Multiple players are to blame for this poor shooting start, but George and Johnson are the main culprits. Both are missing wide-open shots they usually make in their sleep. This slump has also left the team with only two wins instead of four. While the defense has been good enough to keep them in games, the shooting is what could have separated this team from the middle of the pack at the start of the year and propelled them into one of the league's best teams.