Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Can the Wizards Be A Dangerous Playoff Team?

Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: February 29, 2016

It’s Monday!

The Washington Wizards are coming off an impressive victory against the LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers. After the game, we were joined by Jared Dudley in a special edition of our podcast — Taking Care of Wizness.

Our week concluded on a positive note and the Wizards will take on the lowly Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.

Let’s keep rolling.

Thanks for submitting questions. If you want to be featured in next week’s edition, give us a shout: @WizofAwes.

The fact that Garrett Temple still starts over Braley Beal is mind-boggling.

Wittman says its tough to start a player who’s on a minutes restriction, but assuming that number is around 30 (it hasn’t been officially reported but that’s our best guess, it’s very easy to play 7-8 minutes a quarter and get there.

Given that most of the Spurs starters play only 30 minutes per game, Wittman can’t say the blueprint isn’t available. Beal is much better with the starters and that 5-man unit is 4.2 points per 100 possessions better than the one featuring Temple, per Basketball-Reference.com.

What’s hilarious to me is the Washington Wizards might be the only team in the league who’s starting shooting guard is also featured in the garbage time lineup. As far as when it’ll happen, my prediction is within two weeks we’ll see a shift.

Until then, enjoy Temple missed 3’s.

Frankly, I don’t think John Wall is capable of those types of scoring outbursts as often as he thinks. To be a truly dominant scorer, you have to excel at one of two things: either shooting lights out from deep or taking an inordinate number of free throws.

Look at the scoring outbursts from James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, etc. and you’ll see both of those factors shine through. While Wall has improved his accuracy from deep, he still does so in sparse quantity and he currently ranks 36th among guards in free throw rate, despite his attacking mentality.

Part of the problem is Wall’s lack of handles in the half court set but maybe the reality is he just looks to pass more than shoot. We’ve seen him at the rim several times getting ready for a layup only to kick it out for an open three. He’s an unselfish player who wants to get others involved. When he goes into aggressive scorer mode, he sometimes gets careless with the ball and with shot selection.

Yesterday was a microcosm of what could be possible if everything clicks right for the Washington Wizards and they sneak into the top 8 (well, the top 7 since they’d get waxed by a healthy Cleveland team). The ball was moving tremendously, guys were knocking down open shots, and it was a team effort both defensively and on the glass.

After Washington lit the NBA on fire in the preseason, I thought that this is what would become a regularity. Unfortunately there have been speed bumps but nonetheless, the Wizards have three main things going for them: health from Beal and Nene, Porter’s continued development and confidence, and Markieff Morris‘ inclusion as another rim protector.

If they can avoid Cleveland in Round 1, I don’t see any team in the East that the Wizards can’t beat. Only exception might be Boston because Brad Stevens would be coaching laps around Wittman enough to make us all a little dizzy.

To your second point, there are a few free agents that could spark this team to newer heights but obviously no true difference makers like Durant.

The Wiz of Awes staff have thrown around names like Harrison Barnes, Hassan Whiteside, Al Horford, Nicolas Batum, and DeMar DeRozan. I’m particular to Barnes because he’s got the least revealed about his game and outside of the Warriors tank of destruction, he could be a 20 point scorer and elite defender given the right opportunity.

John, you should know better than that.

Grunfeld is capable of doing exactly what he’s doing; taking a team from the lower tiers of the NBA and bringing them to the middle. If the goal is to make the playoffs and build a little goodwill, then he’s your guy. If you want a championship contender, you have to look elsewhere.

Ernie’s greatest strength has always been the ability to clean up his own mistakes. In terms of this season, that was the mandate to play small and fast without players capable of doing so. Trading for Morris eliminated the need to play Drew Gooden but cost the team a 1st round pick in the process.

There are moves to made to preemptively avoid mistakes and he hasn’t shown the ability to do so. From 2009 to 2011, the Washington Wizards had a grand total of 7 possible rookies on their roster (5th pick in 2009, Wall, Crawford, Seraphin, Booker in 2010, Vesely, Singleton in 2011) of which only one remains.

It’s hard to become great in the NBA if you’re unwilling to make use of the biggest advantage any team has: young talent on cheap rookie contracts.

Next: Chatting with Jared Dudley

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