The Washington Wizards were by no means expected to still compete and become championship contenders after Bradley Beal left. But, their backslide may show a lot of concern, especially on the defensive side of the court. Their latest outing against the Dallas Mavericks exposed these huge holes. Bilal Coulibaly outlined his dismay after the Jordan Poole-led squad allowed Mavs star Luka Doncic and Tim Hardaway to score a lot of buckets on them, via Neil Dalal of Hoop District.

“Defensively we're not playing for each other, we're not in the rotations, we're not respecting what we're supposed to do,” was the harsh truth that Bilal Coulibaly dropped on the Wizards.

The defense allowed the Mavs to erupt right from the get-go. Dallas notched an insane 41 points during the first period of play which led to a blowout. Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole tried to shoot the Wizards out of this problem. But, their combined 38 points were just not enough. Luka Doncic spearheaded the Mavs in building an insurmountable lead. The game ended with the Wizards falling short by 13 points.

As of the moment, the Wizards have the fourth-worst-rated defense in the league. They currently hold a 117.4 defensive rating. The only teams who are worse than them are the Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and Charlotte Hornets. All of this means that there is work to be done to bridge the respect between the coaching staff and players. Will the Wizards players be able to execute and accept schematics in the future or will this go downhill?