Thomas Bryant and Moritz Wagner have missed a combined 13 consecutive games for the Washington Wizards, who have a gaping hole at center.
Despite their three recent victories over the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat, the Washington Wizards have a lot of holes on their roster.
No, literally. The injury report for the Boston game featured seven players, and that has not been unusual for the Wizards lately. Then Garrison Mathews suffered an ankle sprain before halftime. So, they went into Orlando with nine men healthy, and it was an absolute blowout loss. Surprise, surprise.
Among the players sitting with injury, Thomas Bryant and Moritz Wagner who may be missed the most. The 123-89 loss to the Orlando Magic was a reminder of what’s missing in the middle. Bryant and Wagner can’t come back soon enough.
THE Summer Signing
After being waived by the Los Angeles Lakers prior to their 2018-2019 campaign, Bryant joined the Wizards last season and quickly earned the starting slot.
Washington took a gamble on the big man’s restricted free agency, eventually signing him to a three-year deal worth up to $25-million.
And since, he’s cemented himself as a piece of their future core.
In his 18 games with Washington this season, Bryant is averaging all career-highs: 13.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.0 block per game. Even with a shaky outside shot (28.6 percent this year on threes), he’s a large contributor to the Wizards’ top-tier offensive scheme.
However, Bryan’t hot start has come to a screeching halt as a foot injury has kept him out of the lineup for over a month. The Wizards have won as many games with the big man as they have without him (six), but one can’t help but wonder how they would have fared with their starting center available.
Potential Prospect
Moritz Wagner joined the Wizards via the Lakers, as well, just in a different format of acquisition.
He was packaged with Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones as apart of the three-team Anthony Davis. In Washington, Wagner has displayed flashes of promise, often over lengthy periods of time. At 22, his career with the Wizards may just be getting started.
Wagner, like Bryant, contributes heavily to the Wizards’ offensive ceiling, as he’s become a very natural three-point shooter. Wagner is shooting 39 percent on the season, having made 22-of-56 attempts from deep. Plus, his shooting ability helps draw bigs out of the paint and opens things up around the rim.
Here’s Wagner going for a career-high 30 points and 15 rebounds in a November win over Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Per Basketball Reference, Wagner is averaging a double-double per 36 minutes: 20.5 points and 10.5 rebounds. He joins Luka Doncic as the only two players under 24 to be posting those numbers this season (minimum 20 games played).
Only in the second year of his rookie deal, Wagner’s time with Washington has started out on the right foot, injuries aside. Getting him back on the court and healthy is the next step. Per head coach Scott Brooks, Wagner was to be reevaluated three weeks from December 31.
That puts his potential return off until late January. Washington will need him back as soon as physically (no pun intended) possible. In the meantime, they’re finding creative ways to get by.
Playing Small Ball
Per NBA.com, the Washington Wizards were dead last in the NBA in rebounds per game for the month of December. Bryant and Wagner missed almost the entirety of that stretch.
And they’ve given up some big games to opposing centers recently, too.
Since Bryant went down with injury, Washington has faced (and mostly lost to): Nikola Jokic (14 points and 10 rebounds), Nikola Vučević (20 points and 12 rebounds), Hassan Whiteside (23 points and 21 rebounds), and Serge Ibaka (23 points and 10 rebounds).
And some of those names are coming back for more in the upcoming slate of games.
Coming Up Next
Over the next six games, Washington will face the Utah Jazz (Rudy Gobert), Toronto Raptors (Ibaka), the Detroit Pistons (Andre Drummond) and Miami Heat (Bam Adebayo).
Bryant’s length along both the perimeter and within the paint are missed. In the month of December, Washington ranked dead last in Defensive Rating (117.2).
In January, they’ve improved to 113.3, but that’s over a span of just four games. They’ll need their starting center back to help maintain this defensive progress.
In order to be competitive and in a position to win games; they’ll need Bryant and Wagner both back, healthy. Once the frontcourt rotation is healthy, Washington will get back to playing some traditional lineups instead of near-constant small ball. Hopefully that helps turn the defense around, and turn losses over to wins.
If Bryant misses the upcoming slate of games, it’ll make it that much harder on the Wizards to pull out wins. And before you know it, we’ll be looking ahead to the draft lottery instead of the upcoming games.