Washington Wizards: 3 Players that need to step up with Ish Smith out

Garrison Mathews needs to step up for the Washington Wizards

Despite his two-way status, Garrison Mathews has carved out quite a role for himself this season. Mathews’ has emerged as the standout among a litany of players that needed to prove something this season, a group which included Isaac Bonga, Jerome Robinson, and Troy Brown Jr. Those three have all faded out of the rotation; Bonga and Robinson each have only one game in February with more than 10 minutes, and Brown has been a DNP in three of the Wizards’ last four games.

Meanwhile, Mathews has become an integral part of the Wizards’ offense and has even shown some improvement on the defensive end since his rookie season. That is when he’s not trying to tackle people.

Mathews has started in all four games that Smith has missed due to the quad injury. The Wizards are 4-0 in those games. Mathews may not have been the reason the Wizards won any of those games, but they’re certainly not winning in spite of him. Making Mathews a starter is one of the few lineup decisions Scott Brooks has made this season that makes sense.

With Ish Smith out, the Wizards have one less secondary scorer. That’s where Mathew comes in. There aren’t many leftover shots after Beal and Westbrook get their fill, but Mathews needs to make his opportunities count. Generally speaking, he does. He has the third-highest true shooting percentage among active Wizards players, behind Alex Len and Moritz Wagner. Mathews needs to maintain his high efficiency as the Wizards try to stay afloat for the next few weeks.