Washington Wizards: Time To Sit Nene For Playoffs

The Washington Wizards had a devastating loss in Game 2 against the Atlanta Hawks. Although the series is still well within reach, as it’s tied at a game apiece right now, they’re undoubtedly asking themselves questions about their game plan leading up to their round two hometown debut.

For many fans, the questions started in the second half of Game 2, and they were surrounding some of the roster moves made by the Wizards. Most of the questions were regarding the use of Nene Hilario. Fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment that Hilario was still in the game.

Some even suggested that putting Kris Humphries in would be a good idea.

Ha! Humphries? In the playoffs? That’s ridiculous! At least that’s what I thought when I read this tweet, and what many other Wizards fans would say, despite the obvious poor play from Nene. But let’s think about how ridiculous it is. Is it really more ridiculous than letting someone who has made none of their attempted shots in the entire series get a good chunk of playing time? Maybe not.

And yes, that’s a real stat. Nene has gone 0-for-9 from the field since the series against the Hawks started. His total for points is just two, because of a pair of free throws he was able to sink.

It’s not just point production, either. Nene hasn’t really produced any stats in this entire series. In fact, when we watch him play, he looks very rambunctious. He’s aggressive, but aggressiveness only looks good when you’re being productive with it. The way Nene is playing — although still aggressive — is being very obtrusive to the Wizards’ offense. He often appears to be more in the way than anything else.

In this video alone, the first two plays showcase exactly what I mean. It starts off with Nene flooding the key, looking to make a defensive stop, but he stops and doesn’t even attempt a block. He becomes just another body taking up space in the key. On the second play, Nene rolls to the basket, noticeably imperfectly, and Ramon Sessions actually has to dribble around Nene in order to score. Things like this happened all throughout Game 2, as we saw Nene get in the way all game long.

So, what’s the case for other players getting Nene’s playing time?

Well, Kris Humphries certainly hasn’t done anything wrong in this playoff series, but obviously that’s because he hasn’t played a single minute. He did get a chance against Toronto, and he did okay. In five minutes played, he scored two points, a pace of 0.4 points per minute. Nene’s pace this series is 0.05 per minute, putting Humphries pace at eight times better than Nene’s.

Per game this year, Humphries averaged eight points, and if he could replicate this in the playoffs, it would already be a step above what Nene is doing.

Another candidate that has already taken some of Nene’s minutes is Drew Gooden. Gooden has done well in the past few games, and is averaging 10.5 points per game in the last four playoff games. Gooden has gotten a good chunk of minutes while Nene sits, but I think it may be time to move Gooden to the starter spot, and give Humphries a shot at being the go-to reserve.

Gooden has shot above 50 percent in the last three playoff games also, only adding to his resume. His contribution on the court can be noted by the team’s net points with him on the floor. Since the playoffs started, there has only been one game where Gooden’s overall time on the floor resulted in negative net points for the Wizards. This one game was their one loss in the playoffs so far. I do not feel like this is any sort of coincidence whatsoever, and the correlation between Gooden and wins is eye opening.

Although the use of Nene has been speculated by many and head coach Randy Wittman has been scrutinized for some of his playoff tactics, the Wizards are 5-1 in the playoffs right now. However, I feel that if they want to go to 6-1, he must look at the efficiency of his players, and simply put, Nene is not efficient.

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