Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: Lineup changes, G-League questions and more!

1. Can Rui and Bertans Play in the Same Lineup?

Facebook Question: “How do we utilize both Bertans and Rui both playing in the starting 5? I say put Rui at the 3 and Laser at the 4” – Nile T.

A great first question regards to the Wizards’ two power forwards. As we know, Rui Hachimura and Davis Bertans have both been two of the more productive players on the Wizards roster this year.

Rui has been able to use his slashing and midrange game to feast on defenses as a starter, and Bertans has been able to drill three after three with the second team.

Now, as far as Nile’s question goes, having them both in the same (or starting) lineup is going to be a bit of a task for a few different reasons.

The main issue is going to be the defense. As we all know, this Wizards team has been a historically bad defensive team this season. Rui and Davis are two of the better offensive players on this team, but the same can’t be said for their defense.

Rui Hachimura, as a rookie, is clearly still developing on all ends, but sliding him into the 3 spot might become difficult at the moment. He currently is having some issues sticking with 4s, so sliding him down to guard 3s – who are even faster – may be a problem.

One thing that Rui needs a lot of improvement in is his lateral quickness. He seems to get beat side to side a fair amount and this would only get more difficult if he was guarding quicker small forwards at the 3. This is not to say he can’t improve on this, but it not his strength right now.

I actually find Bertans to be a rather underrated defender, however, I think he is pretty limited in how many different positions he can guard. He will almost always be better off defending 4s. He is a bit too thin to guard 5s, and not fast enough to guard 3s.

By the eye test, I do think that Rui has the ability to guard multiple positions and I think he and Bertans could eventually play together with Rui at the 3.

But that will all be contingent on Rui’s development as a defender.

Offensively, the two would actually complement each other fairly well on the floor and could develop a nice little inside-out, two-man game.

Again this is not to say that this won’t happen eventually. If it does, it will most likely be Rui at the 3 and Davis at the 4.

To me this question will all depend on Rui’s growth as a defender and how he can improve his quickness.