Top Stories of the Week: Wizards preseason begins

Happy start to October everyone! Here are the top stories of the week!

Wizards split first two preseason games

The Wizards now have their first two preseason games in the books. First, they lost in overtime to the New York Knicks, 124-121 last Monday. Though Kelly Oubre was the leading scorer, it looked like the Wizards also feel into some old bad habits. At least Ian Mahinmi made his first NBA three.

Then on Friday, the Wizards won their first preseason game after playing their starters for longer stretches to get a 121-114 win against the Miami Heat.

What can the Wizards do to improve when the season officially starts?

The Wizards are still very much a work in progress. We’ve unleashed a lot

• Jake Whitacre has started the “Daily Digits” column, which goes over a key statistic about a player or the overall team’s performance. Besides the daily digits, he wrote that the Wizards’ mantra should be “We could make it work.” I don’t want to emphasize the word could, because Jake was Marie the Cat in one of his previous lives.

• I am more of a “see things as I go” type of guy, which can work for me, or not. But besides the piece about Ian Mahinmi’s three point shooting, I wrote something about the Tomas Satoransky and Austin Rivers backcourt needing to work out for the Wizards to get the results they want this season.
• On Thursday, we released our Wizards season preview along with every other SB Nation NBA team blog.

And more stories!

Here are some more stories around the web:

• Troy Halliburton of Truth About It wrote about the Wizards’ woes against the Knicks in more depth, and Markieff Morris’ issues with Mitchell Robinson. Morris was ejected in the middle of the first preseason game due to an altercation.
• Bradley Beal isn’t the only new dad on the Wizards’ roster this season. Austin Rivers is as well. Zach Rosen of WashingtonWizards.com has more.
• Candace Buckner of The Washington Post has a column on Chasson Randle, who’s on the Wizards’ training camp roster.
• And here’s NBA.com’s preview of the Wizards and their prospects this season. Is 2018-19 a make or break season? I lean toward yes, even if the Wizards decide not to make any fundamental changes ( like trading Bradley Beal or John Wall) until well after 2019. Often, we see that teams blow up when it’s too little, too late.

Alright, that’s all .I have after the first week of the Wizards’ preseason so far. Enjoy the rest of your long weekends!