Every once in a while I feel the need for a rant on a subject that isn't worth a whole column or which, in some cases, may feel too mean-spirited or premature for a column.  But watching the Wiz absolutely drives me nuts. First, they are as lazy a defensive team as I havee ever seen. My son, a Wiz fan, said, "What's wrong with them? They can put guys on the floor who all have good games __McGee, Blatche, Wall, Young..."  My answer was to watch every play of a game vs the Bulls with him and note the defensive intensive of the two teams. With the Bulls, I'd watch the Chi defense and say, "Picked up the man with the ball near half-court and made him stop his dribble...Force the dribbler to go in a direction the Bulls prefered....Denied the pass into the pivot...Blocked off on the defensive board...Fought through a screen.,.." And a hundred other things, including the things the Bulls did right on offense __movement away from the ball, setting screens, proper floor spacing, etc."  Then when the Wiz played defense I'd say, "Not one player on defense is moving his five. No man with the ball has been contested high THIS QUARTER..." Then once the analysis was established, my son got it: "We'd just say 'uncontested....uncontested....uncontested...." As the Bulls ran their offense with no Wiz player doing ANYTHING to prevent Chicago from running its plays anyway they wanted. Not one pass into the pivot denied. Nobody forced to change direction.  "I didn't know they were THAT awful," my son said. On defense, they are just stealing their paychecks. The irony that the game was semi-close only shows how much b etter they could be if they tried.  But that's only half the problem. The Wiz have two of the very worst shooters in the NBA and those guys are second and third on the team in shot attempts: John Wall and Andre Blatche.  There's an "advanced stat" called True Shooting Percentage which incorporates three-pooint, two-points and free-throw shots. Usually, big men, because they get lots of dunks and inside shots, and point guards do well. For example, Magic Johnson, John Stockton and Steve Nash rank 8th, 9th and 11th in history in TS% at .610, .608 and .605.  Here are the TS% of the stars for the current division leaders.  *Miami: James .583, Wade .574, Bosh .558.  *Celtics: Allen .626, Pierce .620, Garnett .574 (Shaq .655).  *Spurs: Ginobili .576, Parker .568, Duncan .520 (not what he used to be.  *Bulls: Noah .571, Boozer .554, Rose .536.  *Lakers: Odom .600, Bynum .599, Gusol .591, Bryant .554.  No player with 1,000 minutes this year has a TS% under .500 for any of these teams except the Lakers who have a couple of oldtimers barely under that level.  You get the picture. Offensive stars, guys who should be getting plenty of shots, are .550 to over .600 and almost nobody is allowed on the floor who isn't over .520. Here are the Wiz.  The idea that they are "good offensive players" can't possibly be right. They can't shoot. You may think they can. But they can't. Wall will p;resumably improve. But he's also a league-leader in turnovers. I'd hate to be Ted Leonsis trying to rebuild this mess.
Washington Post Sports Columnist Tom Boswell will be online Monday, March 7 at 11 a.m. ET to take all your questions about baseball, the Redskins, the Wizards and more.