John Wall cites Wizards’ lack of depth as reason for playoff exit

It’s no secret that the Washington Wizards had one of the most ineffective and inconsistent group of reserves/bench players in the NBA this season.

The Wizards had one of the best starting fives in the league — which was evidenced by how frequently they jumped out to first-quarter leads against the Celtics, yet still lost the playoff series — but their lack of depth, especially in the backcourt, was a huge issue.

Washington did attempt to rectify the problem by acquiring Brandon Jennings and Bojan Bogdanovic just before the trade deadline, but it didn’t result in the immediate upgrade that they had envisioned. While Bogdanovic had his moments at Verizon Center and caught fire a few times there, he was often invisible on the road. And Jennings didn’t provide the offensive spark the team had hoped he would, and he was a huge liability on the defensive end. John Wall and Bradley Beal were forced to play nearly 40 minutes each game, and appeared to wear down a bit as fatigue took a toll late in the series.

Wall apparently was aware of the lack of depth on the roster, and understandably so. The Wizards’ bench was outscored 48-5 by the Celtics’ reserves in Game 7, which ended up being the deciding factor that kept them out of the Eastern Conference Finals. Wall apparently took note of it, and appeared to send a message to the Wizards’ front office with some observations about what the team needs to do going forward.

“We need to help our bench,” he told ProBasketballTalk’s Dan Feldman. “Just to be honest, that was our downfall in each series that we had in the semifinals — our bench got outplayed … It starts from upstairs – just building the right bench guys and building the chemistry. That’s all it is.

“I think that’s where [the Celtics] won the game at. I heard Marcus Smart say after the game that I had no legs. He’s basically right … It’s just their bench guys came in and played well. I think Kelly Oubre could’ve played a little more. I wish he would’ve played a little more than Jason [Smith]. But coach makes the decision, and we stick behind him 100 percent.”

It’s clear that Wall wants the Wizards to be active in free agency this summer, and given his contract situation, he does have some leverage. We’ll soon see if the front office believes the bench is as big of a glaring weakness as Wall does.