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Washington Wizards: Nene Needs To Have A Bigger Season Next Year

By Josh Wilson

May 13, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Washington Wizards forward Nene Hilario (42) grabs a rebound over Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) during the second half in game five of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. The Hawks defeated the Wizards 82-81. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
May 13, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Washington Wizards forward Nene Hilario (42) grabs a rebound over Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) during the second half in game five of the second round of the NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. The Hawks defeated the Wizards 82-81. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nene had a bit of a rough year with the Washington Wizards last season. His year was so rough, in fact, that he was put on the trading block, and no one really wanted to make a move for him. This makes for an obvious point: Nene needs to have a much better year in 2016.

J. Michael put out a column stating that the Wizards are going to be satisfied with their decision to stand by Nene, and within it, pointed to the fact that more than just Nene was a failure on the play where Al Horford got a dunk in to win game five over him.

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While this is true, it was just more than Nene that messed up on that play, let’s be honest, his postseason was much less than impressive. Again, don’t get me wrong, Michael. I agree with you, Nene was all too often getting the bad end of the stick as a result of picking up his teammate’s slack. Casual fans had a tough time realizing this, and simply put the blame on Nene.

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Despite this, let’s look at just Nene’s statistics from the playoffs. He averaged just less than eight points per game and 1.5 assists a night. Luckily his rebounds weren’t as horrendous at more than six per game. It wasn’t as if minutes were an issue, as he got nearly 30 a game throughout the postseason.

Things got bad in the postseason for Nene. Some may not remember, but Kris Humphries was a legitimate candidate during the postseason to replace Nene in the lineup, as suggested by the plenty of “Twitter coaches” that want to replace Randy Wittman.

Again, let’s take this defensive assignments that were messed up out of the equation, and look at his offensive contribution. Not much to be happy with there either, as for the first two games of the Atlanta Hawks series, Nene averaged just one point per game, which was when the Wizards needed Nene most.

More often than not in this year’s playoffs, Nene scored less than 10 points.

I’ll keep this unbiased though, Nene did offer up several games where he was a huge part of the offense, scoring 12 points multiple times, and 17 in Game 3 against Atlanta.

Although that’s peachy, it still offers up a disturbing sign of inconsistency that I am not pleased with as a fan.

Throughout the season, it was much of the same, as points for Nene ranged from zero and two up to 20-plus points. Still, not much consistency from the power forward. I like the nights where he contributes a lot, but I wish we knew which Nene was going to show up to each game.

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    • So, what does Nene have to do this season? Be more consistent, would be my hope. This is going to require him to immerse himself more on the offensive side of things, and make sure he’s a part. He can’t wait for the ball to come to him, he’s got to make it known that he’s an open target, and also crash the boards for second chance shots.

    All too often I felt like Nene was a bystander letting the rest of the Wizards to the offensive work, which was unfortunate because if he immersed himself, he could be a great role player in the offense.

    Additionally, he does need to make sure he’s not blowing defensive assignments. As much as we can say game five wasn’t all his fault, at bare bones, he still blew his assignment, which is always going to be a huge no-no. Finding scapegoats for Nene is not how we should handle his slip up.

    Last season, Nene averaged just 11 points, which is quite low for him. Additionally, his 5.1 rebounds per game was his lowest ever in his career (taking 2006 out of the equation, when he just played one game), and that’s a real shame. This certainly could be because of age, but there’s no doubt that it’s necessary for Hilario to improve next year.

    The Wizards are looking to make deeper runs in the playoffs, and they will not, and should not, wait for Nene.

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