Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Managing Bradley Beal’s Injury, Drew Gooden’s Role, Lineup Changes

Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: May 4th

We’re back with another edition of Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday.

Since we’re in the middle of the NBA Playoffs, we’ll focus on Washington’s series against the Atlanta Hawks.

The questions come from Twitter and Reddit.

I don’t think Nene’s impact, or lack thereof, will determine how much playing time Kris Humphries will get against the Atlanta Hawks.

Drew Gooden has stolen Humphries’ minutes, and at this point, I can’t see how Humphries will get them back.

Gooden is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now. Not only is he scoring points, rebounding and surprisingly playing competent defense, but he’s helped transform the Washington Wizards’ offense.

With Gooden on the floor, the opposing team has to pick their poison. When John Wall drives, the defense has to either collapse and leave Gooden open, or stay on Gooden and hope Wall fails to finish at the basket. Of course, the answer seems obvious: Collapse on the All-Star point guard and allow 33-year-old Gooden to make the open perimeter shot.

Unfortunately for opposing defenses, Gooden is drilling shots from the outside.

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Seriously, this might be the most randomly awesome thing that’s happened in Washington Wizards history.

Gooden has become the ultimate “No, no, no, no, YES!” player. Every shot he takes seems like it’s going to go in. Reminder: It’s 2015. It’s Drew Gooden. It’s actually happening.

Gooden was practicing in Bethesda, Maryland not too long ago, hoping some desperate NBA team gave him a call.

When Nene went down with injury, Ernie Grunfeld picked up the phone and gave him that call.

Gooden shares an agent with John Wall, Nene and Martell Webster, so many of us–including myself–assumed Grunfeld was doing him a favor. But man, I was wrong.

While he’s capable of stepping out and knocking down the perimeter shot, Humphries can’t do what Gooden has been doing lately. It wouldn’t make sense to yank him out of the lineup. Nene is going to remain in the lineup, regardless of how bad he’s been. Instead of playing him with the starters, Randy Wittman should consider staggering his minutes so he plays some backup center minutes.

Humphries is the odd-man out. He hasn’t done anything wrong, but the Washington Wizards have too many bigs. You can’t play them all, as Coach Wittman likes to say. If the Bulls to advance to the conference finals, though, Humphries might be useful. His size could be utilized against a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers or Chicago Bulls.

Basically, to wrap it all up, Nene’s potential impact outweighs Humphries’ impact. I don’t know whether or not it should be that way, but it is.

Let’s hope Angry Nene makes an appearance against the Hawks, though. He’s a lot more fun to watch than regular Nene.

Since they are most likely going to keep starting the game with Pierce at the 3 and Nene at the 4 what can Washington do defensively during this time to slow down Carroll while still making sure to lock down Korver. -via VCU Redskins

I’m not sure there’s a way they could counter Atlanta’s perimeter shooting without changing their lineup.

There’s a reason why Atlanta started Game-1 the way they did. With Nene and Marcin Gortat on the floor, the Washington Wizards are a step slower than the Atlanta Hawks. Once Wittman made the switch to Otto Porter and Drew Gooden, the Wizards started to get stops and the offense became more fluid.

Pierce got beat by DeMarre Carroll multiple times backdoor in Game-1, so the simple answer might be just to limit the amount of easy looks he gets.

The Hawks are one of the best offensive teams in the NBA for a reason. Next time you watch them play, just take a look at their spacing and the players they have on the floor.

Virtually everyone in a Hawks uniform could knock down the outside shot.

Carroll played out of his mind in Game-1, and although he’s obviously capable of shooting, he did shoot 39 percent from 3-point territory during the regular season, which is nearly 10 percent worse than his percentage in this year’s playoffs.

With Carroll, as long as it’s contested, you can live with him hitting shots. Stopping Kyle Korver will be an even greater test.

Washington should consider pulling Nene out of the lineup even quicker than usual.

They can’t allow Atlanta to get into a rhythm early, and the only way to stop them is to put Otto Porter in and play small.

Should we rest Beal for Game 2 since Game 3 is not until Friday and we already stole home court advantage from the Hawks? -via Prince_Kaamil

Without Bradley Beal in the lineup, the Washington Wizards would have an extremely tough time beating the Atlanta Hawks.

According to Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post, Beal walked without a noticeable limp and appears to be ready to go for Game-2. With that said, should the Wizards consider resting him? I don’t think so.

The Wizards don’t have much depth at the shooting guard position, otherwise my answer might’ve been different.

If he’s good to go, then resting him wouldn’t make much sense. He was in a great amount of pain when he twisted his ankle, but Beal seemed to recover well. I think people overreacted a bit when they saw Beal crying on his way to the locker room, but he’s an emotional person.

He seems fine, though.

Next: How Otto Porter Shined, Nene Struggled In Game-1