Washington Wizards week in review: Week 12 notes

The Washington Wizards went 2-2 including a win against the Boston Celtics. Here’s the weekly column to review all things Wizards!

Every week, we’ll be reviewing the good, the bad, and the buzz around the Washington Wizards organization and fandom. Many of our articles will be linked here in case you’re behind and want to play catch up. The team has been especially fun to watch recently, winning some big games without their best available player, Bradley Beal. There were some big wins, sure, but also some let down losses, some emerging trade rumors, and plenty of roster shakeups. Without further ado, here is your Washington Wizards Week in Review!

Big Wins and Players Coming Back

On Monday, the Wizards bested the Celtics behind Ish Smith‘s 27 points, all to the chants of “MVP” by Wizards fans in Capital One Arena. You can read the full recap here. It was a big win for this young team, down eight players to injury, and with big wins over the Nuggets and Heat shortly before, they were suddenly the most fun mediocre team in all of NBA basketball.

They beat the Atlanta Hawks with some big plays down the stretch from Ish Smith and some nice contributions from Jordan McRae. Here’s the recap. Ish was clearly the man of the hour for a bit here in the DMV, and fans were riding high on the potential of this team when the starters inevitably returned.

Speaking of returns, we had quite a few this week. As mentioned above, there were a TON of banged up players this past week for our WIzards, but we had a few returns this week. Dāvis Bertāns returned for the Friday win against the Hawks. Bradley Beal & Thomas Bryant returned today for the afternoon game against the Utah Jazz. Definitely a boon for a team that is still without Garrison Matthews, Rui Hachimura, Moritz Wagner, and of course John Wall.

Speaking of Wall, there was news this week that he had begun doing 3-on-3 work. Lest we forget, Wall is an elite-level player and the Wizards are absolutely going to be a totally different team when he comes back, whenever that may be.

Letdown Losses & IT3’s Continuing Struggle

Isaiah Thomas is perhaps the one player that is currently getting no love in Washington. Despite a giant opportunity with so many injuries, his shooting woes have not improved at all, averaging only 9.2 points on 31.4% shooting over the last 5 games. With the trade deadline looming, the “revitalizing” Wizards need him to perform well to drum up some trade buzz.

The Wizards also suffered some key losses this week right when it seemed they might be turning the corner. The first loss this week came against the Orlando Magic, where Ish Smith shot just 4-for-13. Troy Brown Jr, who’s been playing the best ball of his young career, and Admiral Schofield did their best to keep us in it, but to no avail. You can read the recap of the game here.

The next loss came earlier this afternoon against the Utah Jazz. Despite our best efforts and Donovan Mitchell being out for this one, we couldn’t keep Rudy Gobert in check. We blew a 15-point lead in Beal and Bryant’s return to drop a seemingly winnable game. Here’s the recap of that one.

The Trade Deadline Looms

The biggest buzz in Washington Wizards fandom is the upcoming February 6th trade deadline. It’s a little less than a month away and several Wizards players are presumably on the block in anticipation of being playoff contenders next season when John Wall returns.

Dāvis Bertāns is the number one name on the docket, with the fandom somewhat split over the prospect of trading the sharp shooting Latvian Lazer or keeping him to play besides Wall. While many fans seem to want to keep him, there is an interesting and expanding market for his services and Wizards fans need to come to grips with the fact that we are not title contenders right now, perhaps even with Wall. In a poll conducted on Twitter by Wizard of Awes, 107 people voted and 72.9% of them wanted to keep the big man, while 27.1% were pretty vocal in their desire to trade him. 

Another big trade piece would be Isaiah Thomas, though the market for his services is much smaller and less clear. At this point it might be best to trade him for whatever we can get just so we can make space for some of the younger guys to play and get shots, like Garrison Matthews and Troy Brown. If Ish Smith begins to play well again, he might be a part of that conversation as well as the Wizards will undoubtedly look to unload veterans for picks and young talent, if it’s out there and available.

That’s the week in review for you, hope you enjoyed it! Next week we’ll have just two games, one against the Chicago Bulls and one against the Toronto Raptors. Should be fun! Check back next Sunday to see how we fared!