This season has been a roller coaster ride thus far, but I feel as though we finally know where it is headed: nowhere. There was some hope that the playoffs were in reach, but once Wall went down, trades had to be made and the team is just not as good now. The Wizards were 3-7 in the last 10-game stretch with a 2-4 record after the trade deadline. Now with 2 straight losses following the all-star break, the Wizards find themselves in 11th place and 4 full games behind the 8th seeded Pistons. The playoffs aren’t happening this year, but we knew that once the trades were made. Honestly, the home loss to the Hawks 7 games ago was probably when we all should’ve known that a playoff push was going to be a long shot. I’m going to wait to talk about how the offseason should be handled until we get to the end of the season because of course you never know what can happen the rest of this season. So, just bear with me for a few more 10-game updates.
Portis and Parker
I have seen some good and some bad out of the both of these 2, but both have pleasantly surprised me overall with their play. Jabari Parker has had a very interesting stretch since he joined the Wizards. Over the last 5 games, he has been averaging 11.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, but he also averaged 3.6 turnovers a game that stretch. He has played way more defense than I had anticipated considering last summer he said teams “don’t pay players to play defense”. So, the spotty yet respectable defensive effort I’ve seen from him has been a nice surprise. Unlike the other forwards the Wizards have had throughout this year, Green, Ariza, Oubre, and Porter, Jabari has shown the ability to pull down a rebound and push it himself which is a huge plus. The Wizards have stated a desire to play fast for a couple years now and having a forward that can handle the ball and push the pace to score or create helps a lot. However, 3.6 turnovers a game is a ton for someone playing off of the ball, and I hope he can improve upon that number. Even Bradley Beal, who has had the ball in his hands an extreme amount lately for good reason, only averaged 2 turnovers a game while dishing out 7.4 assists in the last 5 games. On top of being able to push the ball, Parker has shown the ability to score very well at times and play above the rim.
He has put up 20 points twice in the last 5 games, but has also put up 0 and 4 on a couple other nights. He has talent but is very inconsistent.
I honestly have liked a lot of what I’ve seen out of Bobby Portis. From what I’ve gathered, he is one of those guys in the NBA that just plays really really hard, and I respect the shit out of him for it. On top of that, he has very good size for his position at 6’11” 250 lbs and can hit the outside shot efficiently. In the last 5, he has averaged 13 ppg and 7.8 rpg while shooting 45% from beyond the arc. He plays hard defensively, attacks strong on offense, and lets it fly when he’s open, and I have enjoyed the addition of him thus far.
Bradley Beal
Beal is an absolute Beast. In this stretch where the team went 3-7, he averaged 29.9 ppg and 7.1 apg on 52% shooting from the floor. Quite frankly, he is showcasing his talent but also his need for help. After every game, I make very quick, little notes on my laptop highlighting the players and the things that popped out to me or headlined a certain game. These notes are made so that I can look back and remind myself of some certain things to mention after each 10-game stretch and look for common trends. The only thing I see popping up consistently in almost all of the games is something simple along the lines of “Bradley Beal goes off” or “Bradley Beal is really good”. A good example from the last 10-game stretch is right here:
That is all that needed to be said. “Beal goes off again”. He had 31 points on 13/21 shooting in that win over the Bulls. After dropping 35 in last night’s loss to the Pacers, Beal extended his streak of consecutive games with over 20 points to 14 which is a new career high for him. This came one night after dropping 46 on 16/25 in a road loss to Charlotte. He has been outstanding lately, but the team just has not. However, at the end of the day, they are playing relatively hard even though they cannot stop anyone from scoring and at the same time, they are trending towards getting a better draft pick. What more could you ask for right now as a fan?
Keep your Eye on Moving Forward…
1.Dwight Howard is nearing a return to the lineup possibly. He is reported to be ready for light workouts again but has no clear timeline to rejoin the team in games. It is good to see that he is recovering well from his surgery, and hopefully he can get back out there and get comfortable playing basketball again. This will be important to an extent because it is my guess that he will choose to pick up his player option after this season. He has had a windy road the last handful of years and has spent most of this year injured, so his best chance of guaranteed money is picking up his $5.6 million option in D.C.
2. Tonight, Thomas Bryant was moved to a reserve role, and Bobby Portis got the nod in the starting lineup. Both turned in good games, but Bryant received way more minutes and turned in a superb outing tonight. He played 31 minutes, scored 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and hit 2/4 shots from behind the arc tonight. It is easy to see that he loves to play ball, so I am extremely glad that he came out motivated tonight and played an amazing game even though he was moved to a reserve role for the first time in months. Bryant has so much potential, but he is still learning. If you can recall from the screenshot of my notes earlier, you definitely saw “Bryant has trouble on Pick and Rolls”, and that means defensively. He does not know when to commit to an attacking guard, when to jump back to the big, or how to play angles. Defense is a challenge for him right now, but he has already improved a ton.
3. A decision soon needs to be made regarding Jordan McRae’s two-way contract. The quick gist of it is that when a player is on a two-way contract, they can only spend 45 days with their NBA team affiliate. When those games are used up, they cannot play with the NBA team until their G-league team’s season is over. McRae only has a handful of games left he’s allowed to play, and for the Wizards to be able to play him as much as they want, they would need to convert his contract to a standard NBA one. However, they are only $153,000 away from the luxury tax line, so with the playoffs slipping further and further out of reach, it is very unlikely he gets a standard NBA contract. In a recent 4-game stretch with the Wizards, it is worth noting, he scored 15, 9, 12, and 20 in each of those 4 games. So, he does have a lot of talent and may earn that contract one day.
4. I really hope the minutes of Bradley Beal, Troy Brown, and Devin Robinson all change as the season draws closer to an end because the Wizards aren’t making the playoffs. Even when healthy, Troy Brown has not been playing much at all recently. I would love to see him stick with the Wizards, not the Go-Go, and get minutes while with the Wizards. This is a perfect time for him to be given a chance to play valuable minutes, and the kid has talent. It is not like the Wizards would be experimenting with someone they shouldn’t; he is their first-round pick.
I also wouldn’t mind seeing Devin Robinson, 23-year-old PF from the University of Florida, receive some minutes as well. He is raw and developing but is tall, long, can jump out of the gym, and can shoot from the outside. In at least the last 5 games of the year, I would love to see what he could do with an extremely minor role of maybe 8 minutes a game.
With Bradley Beal, I hope his minutes will be toned down just a tad once we are completely out of the playoff race. Now is not that time, but he played 83/96 minutes in the 2 games of the Wizards back to back this weekend. That is relatively understandable because as a coach and a player, you must believe you have the chance to make the playoffs still. However, even with him playing that much and scoring 46 and 35, they still lost both games, so losses will come. The playoffs will become further from sight, and that is when his minutes should not continue to be above 40 on regular nights. I want to be CLEAR though, now is not that time. It is their job and their duty to do everything that they can do to win games and push for the playoffs, but I’m just stating that they won’t be able to do it.
The rest of the season will be tough to watch, but make sure you keep turning on the games every once in a while too! It will hopefully be a good time to see some young guns like Troy Brown, Chasson Randle, Thomas Bryant, and Devin Robinson improve! I will be watching every single one and will be here for any newsworthy updates as always! Until next time!
Boo On The Bullets 