Wizards In An OK Spot
Being riddled with injuries and having a tough schedule thus far, the Washington Wizards aren’t in as bad of a spot as it may seem.
The ongoing narrative for the Washington Wizards’ disappointing season so far can be condensed into one word: injuries.
With guys like Nene, Drew Gooden, Alan Anderson, and Otto Porter all missing significant time, and with no return in sight for Bradley Beal, Randy Wittman has been forced to get creative with his lineups, sometimes even having no choice but to put Jared Dudley at center.
From this first chunk of the season, we know that the Wizards cannot win games without John Wall playing well, and even when he does, they sometimes lose. The load can’t completely be dumped on him on a nightly basis, though. So, all things considered, how bad is it that the Wizards are worse than .500 almost halfway through the season?
Related Story: 25 Best Players to Play for the Washington Wizards
Well, not that bad. One main reason is that Washington has faced the third-toughest schedule of any team so far this season. That will begin to change, and with injured guys slowly trickling back into the lineup, the Wizards should be able to climb back into a playoff spot.
They are three games out of the eighth spot in the East, and should be able to catch up to teams like Charlotte and Orlando, who haven’t been playing great ball as of late.
Nene made his triumphant return in a loss against the Cavaliers on Wednesday night, and while he only played 11 minutes, there were some positives that came from his time on the floor.
First, judging solely from the eye test, the rebounding is significantly better with Nene on the floor. He almost always has a body on someone when a shot goes up, and even when he doesn’t come up with the board, he prevents a lot of offensive rebounds for opposing teams. That was evident as he continually boxed out Tristan Thompson against the Cavs.
The Wizards are in the bottom three in rebounding right now, per NBA.com, and Nene being back in the lineup will absolutely help fix that.
Nene will also be able to help the Wizards’ interior defense. Washington is currently allowing opponents to shoot 60 percent within five feet from the rim, which is 24th in the league. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise given the lineups the Wizards have been forced to play, and another big body in the second unit will help tremendously.
One more way Nene can help, is taking some of the offensive burden off of Wall. Before getting hurt, Nene was scoring eight points per game on 57 percent shooting. It doesn’t seem like much, but that field goal percentage is the highest of any Wizard currently, and they could use the efficient scoring. He was 3-for-4 with seven points in his 11 minutes on Wednesday night.
This isn’t to say that Nene is the answer to the Wizards’ struggles, but given the fact the schedule will inevitably get easier, Washington can absolutely put themselves in a position to make the post-season once everyone, especially Beal, is healthy.
There’s no doubt a fully healthy Wizards team could compete for a top three or four spot in the Eastern Conference, and while that may be out of reach now, the team could still give a top-seeded team some trouble in the postseason if they can creep into the seventh or eighth spot.
More hoops habit: The NBA's 50 Greatest Players of All-Time
The Wizards have a lot of ground to make up, but it could be a lot worse than three games out of the eighth spot with a relatively easier last majority of the season left to go.