There’s a hole in the middle: 4 center solutions for the Washington Wizards
By Ethan Smith
The injury bug is back in D.C. and the Washington Wizards suddenly find themselves short-handed. How can they fill their hole in the middle?
Last season, Dwight Howard came to the Washington Wizards and played in only nine games while dealing with a number of injuries.
In retrospect, the Wizards were sitting pretty last season with just one injured center. In their loss against the Orlando Magic, the Wizards had zero healthy centers on their roster.
Thomas Bryant will be out for at least three weeks with a stress reaction in his foot. He’ll be re-evaluated in three weeks. Moritz Wagner sprained his ankle late in the Wizards loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and has yet to play since. Then there’s Ian Mahinmi who we haven’t seen since last season. Mahinmi has missed all of this season as he rehabs an Achilles strain.
The Wizards already have one of the NBA’s worst interior defenses. They give up 52.7 points in the paint per game, the highest number in the NBA, per NBA.com. And that was before they lost all their healthy centers.
With Bryant, Wagner, and Mahinmi all out, Davis Bertans becomes the tallest player on the Wizards’ roster. At 6’10, he stands two inches taller than both Rui Hachimura and Isaac Bonga, the next tallest Wizards currently available.
Wagner could be back relatively soon depending on the severity of the sprain, so the Wizards could be getting one body back sooner than later. But even when he returns, the Wizards will still be thin at the five. Here are a few options they could consider to fix their frontcourt problems.