The highlight of the Washington Wizards’ end-of-season media availability last weekend belonged to John Wall. But hours before the point guard’s critical State of the Wizards address, Coach Scott Brooks had his turn in front of the microphones. He shifted from the disappointment of an inconsistent 43-39 season and not being able to take the Toronto Raptors to a seventh game in the playoffs to his delight in the growth of young players.

Overall, Brooks reviewed the season with muted optimism. He reminded the room that despite Wall missing 41 games due to injuries, the Wizards still had a chance to rise to the sixth seed on the season’s final day. But Brooks and his franchise player shared one critique. Much like Wall, Brooks wants the Wizards to catch up with the rest of the league — though in quite contrasting ways.

Wall, whose offense mostly happens at the rim and in the midrange, wants to run alongside an athletic big man. Brooks wants to rain down threes from long-distance shooters.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well and I thought we would be a better shooting team off our bench,” Brooks said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well from the three consistently. Some guys just didn’t have good shooting years or didn’t finish the season shooting the ball well. That’s part of growing. That’s part of being a good player in this league is being consistent for the entire season. We got to find that. We definitely have to find that whether it’s within the group here or we have to add a piece here, a piece there, but we definitely need to get some better shooting.”

This past season, Washington ranked 21st in the league with 814 made three-pointers. A year ago, that number would have been good enough for 12th overall. But as the range of the game continued to stretch deeper, more than a third of the league’s teams launched at least 30 attempts per game. Spacing the floor no longer can be brushed away as a fad. Instead, the style of play has been embraced as a tenant of the modern NBA.

While the 2017-18 Wizards hoisted more three-pointers than in Brooks’s first season (756), the effort paled in comparison to the leaguewide uptick in deep shots. Several factors led to the Wizards’ regression.

The team relied on creating offense within the arc and attempted the fourth most midrange looks — an antiquated shot in today’s NBA.

All-star guard Bradley Beal played the most minutes of his career but finished the regular season by taking 22 fewer threes than he did a year before. Even so, Beal’s 530 attempts led the team and outperformed his closest teammate by 161 shots.

Kelly Oubre Jr., who finished with the second-most attempts, started the year with a revamped and reliable three. But for the final 31 games, Oubre struggled mightily and shot just 27 percent from the three-point line.

“Consistency, man. I fell off crazy these past couple of months with my jump shot,” Oubre said. “It’s not that I’m not a good shooter. I’m honestly a great shooter. It’s just the fact that I’m undisciplined. You know, I have to get back in the gym and just put the reps in and put the time in. And slow my mind down and make sure that every jump shot that I shoot is perfect, and every play that I make is perfect. And just continue to get better in that aspect.”

While Oubre’s offensive woes impacted the bench, the player brought in to boost shooting depth, nine-year veteran Jodie Meeks, never made a dent in the team’s three-point production.

Meeks’s 210 attempts from the arc ranked as the second-lowest among the seven seasons in which he has been healthy and performed as a regular rotation player. Meeks concluded his first year with the Wizards while serving a 25-game suspension for violating the NBA/NBPA anti-drug program and thus, did not play in the postseason. Meeks holds a player option and if he decides to return to Washington, he would miss the first 19 games of the season.

With the potential early absence of Meeks, the Wizards would lack a shooter on a roster that desperately needs more. Brooks know, however, if the team expects to improve then it must keep up with the three-point trend.

“We have to figure out ways that we can improve the group,” Brooks said. “Shooting is important, let’s face it. You have to be able to score the basketball, especially with all three-point shooting teams. You can’t just take long twos and expect to keep the score close when they’re shooting threes and making them.”

Read more: