(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

To satisfy your Wizards fix, DCist is teaming up with Kyle Weidie and Rashad Mobley of Truth About It, who will take turns penning a column on Washington’s professional basketball team every week throughout the season. You can read Kyle and Rashad on all things Wiz here.

Last night, your Washington Wizards set an all-time franchise record for the worst start to the season on the road. They’ve come up short in all nine games they’ve played away from the Verizon Center. Oh, and that ninth loss came courtesy of the Toronto Raptors in an embarrassing 127-108 blowout. Notice how I called the Wizards “your” team — just like when one parent denotes “ownership” of a bad child to the other. Exactly.

Okay, okay, a 5-12 record over the first 20-plus-percent of the season is not exactly a reason to disown the Wizards — if 45 wins over the previous two seasons combined didn’t drive you away, you’re sticking around, and for good reason. No one said rebuilding would be easy. In fact, the Wizards should really consider themselves lucky. Not many teams would have been able to clear dead-weight salary (Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and DeShawn Stevenson) so quickly and land the No. 1 overall pick in John Wall. Lumps that point to the Wizards being in the NBA Draft Lottery yet again next summer aren’t easy to swallow, but what choice are you left with?

Are you going to take your fan talents to another team? (Actually, since Washington is an uber-transient city, don’t answer that question.) So why even watch a Wizards team that looks to be the league’s laziest on defense, a team that often loses focus in pregame shoot-around that translates to poor effort in actual games? For the emotional highs and lows, that’s why.

When you’re in a relationship, it’s good to have a fight every now and then with your significant other — to experience a wide range of emotions (within reason, of course). Doing so helps clear the air from time to time, maintain a healthy balance and helps to keep perspective…ideally. Well, the Wizards are not much different — same highs and lows, just a lot more dysfunctional than your relationship (or not).