If the Washington Wizards are going to make a surprise playoff run, one of these guys could be key.
The road to the playoffs for the Washington Wizards will be a tough one. And it will start in Orlando.
As the season restart date – July 30 – gets closer and closer, so does the start of that journey. Unfortunately for the Wizards, they’ll start in a hole, trailing the Orlando Magic by 5.5 games and the Brooklyn Nets by 6.0 games with only eight more “regular season” contests to play.
Since they only need be within four games of either team to force a play-in scenario, they still aren’t technically out of it. However, they can’t afford to have any sub-par performances when they get back on the court.
From here on out, every game is essentially a must-win. Maintaining focus and intensity for a final playoff push will be even more difficult this year. The Wizards will be battling a few months of rust and will only be seeing the NBA’s best in Orlando.
The league’s eight worst teams stayed home.
If the Wizards want to shock the world and make the playoffs (after being projected as one of the NBA’s worst squads) they’ll certainly need Bradley Beal, Davis Bertans, and Rui Hachimura to step up. A John Wall return would certainly help, but that almost certainly won’t happen.
But beyond the obvious, the Washington Wizards will need a few other players to step up. Beal can’t do it all himself, and the team has usually struggled when he is forced to shoulder the entire scoring load this season.
Here are three possible secret weapons that could propel the Wizards into the playoffs…
Secret Weapon: Isaac Bonga
The Washington Wizards have made a lot of noise this season as one of the NBA’s more high-powered offense. They have scored 125 or more points in 15 of there 64 games this season.
They are not, however, known for their defense. The Wizards are dead last in the NBA in defensive rating. They have gotten better on that end since trading Isaiah Thomas who proved to be a human turnstile, causing a catastrophic domino effect on the entire defense. However, they are still far from elite.
While they are a defensive mess collectively, there are a few who stand out individually. Most notably, Isaac Bonga. Per 100 possessions, the Wizards give up about nine fewer points when Bonga is on the court vs when he isn’t, according to stats from Cleaning the Glass. Such a swing ranks him in the 96th percentile among all players.
The Wizards’ turnover percent also increases by about 3.4 percent with Bonga on the floor. That boost ranks him in the 99th percentile among all active players. Very few players, if any, seem to have as strong of an impact on their team’s defense as Bonga does on the Wizards’.
If the Wizards want to win in Orlando, they’ll need to get some stops. They’ll need Isaac Bonga.
Secret Weapon: Garrison Mathews
One of the major reasons the Wizards offense has exploded this season: the three-ball.
Even with Bradley Beal on the roster, the Wizards weren’t a great three-point shooting team either of the last two seasons. In 2018, they ranked 23rd and 21st in three-point attempts and makes, respectively. In 2019, they were one of the league’s worst three-point shooting teams, making just 34.1 percent of them.
This season, they’re the third-best three-point shooting team, making over 37 percent from behind the arc.
Of course, Bertans immediately comes to mind as the catalyst for this improvement. But he’s not the only contributor. When healthy, Garrison Mathews has been able to light it up from deep, too.
As a two-way player, Mathews doesn’t get nearly as much run as many of his Wizards counterparts. However, he did get to show what he can do in late December and early January.
While seemingly the entire Wizards team was injured, Mathews averaged 22.5 minutes over a four games stretch, almost double the 12.5 minutes per game he’s averaging so far this season.
In those four games, Mathews averaged 15.75 points, scored in double figures thrice, and made 11 of his 22 three-point attempts.
But Mathews didn’t get it done exclusively from deep. He also managed to get to the charity strip quite a bit. In his 28-point performance in a win against the Miami Heat on December 30, the first of this four-game streak, Mathews got to the line 13 times. The only Wizard with more free-throw attempts in a game this season is Beal.
Since Mathews hasn’t played a bunch this season (18 games), it’s tough to get a good read on him. For what it’s worth, his per 36 numbers from behind the three-point line (41.3 percent on 7.3 attempts) are better than fellow rookie Tyler Herro’s (39.1 percent on 7.1 attempts).
The Wizards bench unit has already been one of the most productive in the NBA. If they can find a way to incorporate Mathews – especially alongside Davis Bertans – then good luck to the rest of the NBA.
Secret Weapon: Troy Brown Jr
One guy who doesn’t get enough credit, by Wizards fans and at large, is Troy Brown Jr. One reason is because it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what Brown is best at on the court. He seems most comfortable, and most productive, as a facilitator. However, the Wizards seem committed to making him a three and D wing, although his outside shot needs to improve for him to really excel there.
While there might be some confusion about where Brown can be most productive, there’s no debating that Brown is productive. And luckily for the Wizards, Brown is productive all over the court.
While Isaac Bonga’s impact is felt primarily on the defensive end, and Garrison Mathews is a shooting savant, Brown can do a little bit of everything. His trainer, Joe Abunassar, aptly described him as a swiss army knife.
He’s one of the team’s best rebounders, can shoot respectably from outside (34.5 percent this season), is unselfish, and is a strong on-ball defender. Now, just put it all together.
There are times when you can see Brown’s potential, but his play has been consistently inconsistent since he was drafted in 2018. He won’t turn 21 until July 2020, so there is still a lot of room for development. It’s unrealistic to expect he comes to Orlando having figured everything out, but if he could have a few performances in Orlando like the ones he had against New York and Denver, the Wizards could steal the wins they need to be a playoff team.