Everyone is at fault for the Wizards' terrible start

It appears the Washington Wizards' annual meltdown came early this year.

The Wizards find themselves a blocked layup away from an 0-7 start after bragging all summer about being "right there" with the best in the East. They're allowing 122 points per game, they can't rebound to save their lives, their bench somehow got even worse, the players are openly dragging each other through the press, and longtime fans are calling for a rebuild.

No one's blameless for Washington's embarrassing start. Franchise player John Wall is splitting the locker room and he's lazier than ever on defense, head coach Scott Brooks is scapegoating Otto Porter while running a scheme that doesn't fit his roster whatsoever, and general manager Ernie Grunfeld is paying the price for over a decade of mismanagement.

Why John Wall is at fault

Leadership starts at the top, and Wall has a history of ducking responsibility while blaming the supporting cast.

Wall, along with Bradley Beal, tore into teammates for playing to their "own agenda" following an embarrassing loss to the Sacramento Kings.

"We got guys who's worried about who's getting shots, where the ball is going on the offensive end. We should never worry about that. No matter if we're missing or making shots, we got to be able to compete on the other end and if you can't do it on both ends of the floor, you don't need to be playing," Wall told Candace Buckner of the Washington Post.

It's rich for Wall to dismiss concerns about the offense when he's pulling the strings on every possession. According to NBA tracking data, Wall holds the ball for 7.4 minutes per game, which is more than the other four starters combined (5.6). Wall leads the team in usage despite posting an anemic 52.3 true shooting percentage, and he's launching 4.6 threes per game despite shooting 22 percent from downtown. His assists have also dropped to a career-low 7.1 per game.

Meanwhile, Wall is contributing to the problem that he described on defense. His peripheral stats look strong (2.3 steals and 1.3 blocks) but he's getting torched on a nightly basis. Stephen Curry hung 51 points on Wall in three quarters last week, and the tape shows that Wall's been porous all year. He's switching needlessly at the point of attack, which is leading to breakdowns when Washington inevitably fails to guard on mismatches.

Take the sequence below for example. Wall calls out a switch to stay put on the perimeter instead of just trailing Frank Mason's harmless cut, which sets off a cascade of errors. Jeff Green is forced to pick up Mason, which leaves his man Willie Cauley-Stein to flash to the high post without any resistance. Kelly Oubre is slow to sort out the double switch, allowing Cauley-Stein to simply waltz into the lane for an easy two-handed dunk.

It's uncertain if Wall's inactivity is a product of laziness or injury. Once known for his blazing quickness, Wall is the slowest player on the team by average speed for a second-straight year. The burst is still there but he mostly stands still when he doesn't have the ball. He had surgery on both knees in 2017 and only played in 41 games last year after undergoing a second procedure on his right knee. Either way, it's a huge concern for Washington moving forward, as Wall's $170-million extension hasn't even kicked in yet.

Why Scott Brooks is at fault

Brooks was once lauded for his ability to manage difficult personalities, but he's become the very problem that he was hired to solve.

Look no further than Brooks' decision to throw Porter into the doghouse. Porter's a pivotal piece who led the NBA in 3-point percentage after the All-Star break last season, but he's gotten off to a miserable start. Brooks' response has been to elevate Oubre and repeatedly criticize Porter instead of diagramming more plays to help his $106-million wing scorer snap out of his funk.

After getting himself ejected during a four-point loss to the Toronto Raptors, Brooks hinted that Porter had his minutes cut that night because he didn't play hard.

Six days later, Porter finished with four points on 2-of-6 shooting in a loss to the Kings, and Brooks singled him out for worrying about shots.

After allowing 136 points in regulation to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, Brooks moved beyond Porter and threw shade on his whole team in a conversation with Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

Brooks is also making matters worse on defense, as his switch-everything scheme is producing disastrous results in the paint. Washington allows the eighth-most shots from the restricted area and it's second-last in defensive rebounding because Brooks willingly creates mismatches that leave his guards boxing out against bigger forwards.

On one of the rare instances where the Wizards actually executed their scheme, they still conceded an easy bucket. As seen below, Wall, Green, and Markieff Morris successfully navigate two switches up top, but Buddy Hield still manages to blow past Wall to get into the paint. Green rotates to force the miss, but that frees up Cauley-Stein to collect the first rebound. After he also misses, Marvin Bagley III catches Wall napping and swoops in untouched for the tap-in.

In all fairness to Brooks, he's operating with a limited roster. Dwight Howard, who's missed the team's first seven games with sore buttocks, could help solve the team's rebounding woes. However, it's hard to argue that Brooks is getting the most out of his players when just about everyone except Beal, Oubre, and Morris are struggling at the moment.

Why Ernie Grunfeld is at fault

The depth issue ultimately falls on Grunfeld, who's somehow still trucking along in his 16th season as general manager despite failing to deliver 50 wins or a single conference finals appearance during his tenure.

Grunfeld's job this summer was to address the Wizards' depth. Washington's guard rotation was so thin last year that they signed Ty Lawson out of the Chinese Basketball Association on the eve of the playoffs to serve as their backup point guard. The roster also lacked viable bigs, as Wall made abundantly clear throughout the offseason.

Washington ended up swapping Marcin Gortat for Austin Rivers, who's currently shooting under 40 percent and averaging half his stats across the board as compared to last season. Gortat hasn't been much better, but the idea that Rivers would blossom into the team's sixth man hasn't yet materialized, and the move only further buried Tomas Satoransky in the pecking order.

The frontcourt signings in Green and Howard have also yet to produce. Howard remains sidelined due to injury, although he's reportedly expected to make his season debut Friday, while Green has been the same empty-stats journeyman that he was in all his previous stops. The Wizards have been outscored by 11 points per 100 possessions with Green on the floor, and he's shooting 15 percent from deep.

Brooks is once again being forced to rely on Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith, who serve as everlasting reminders of Grunfeld’s ineptitude. Mahinmi and Smith (signed in 2016 with the cap room earmarked for Kevin Durant's failed homecoming) are delivering a combined 9.3 points and 9.4 rebounds while being collectively paid $21 million a year.

The good news is that Washington still has another six months to turn it around. The team famously started 2-8 during the 2016-17 season and finished the year one game short of the conference finals. Porter can't slump all season, and Howard should stabilize the paint upon his return.

The bad news is that the Wizards are the same dysfunctional team that's too flawed to go far in the playoffs. Owner Ted Leonsis has to think long and hard about the future of a team led by Wall, Brooks, and Grunfeld, because they all share blame for this awful start. Wall's salary doubles from $19 million to $38 million next season, and the roster is capped out for the foreseeable future. This is as good as they'll ever be, and they're not even that great.