The Washington Wizards lacked depth, and it came to bite them in the 2017 NBA Playoffs. There are plenty of free agents out there this off season, but who would be a good fit?
Now that the 2016-17 NBA campaign is over, front offices will be looking to see who’s available this offseason and what players might take them to the next level. At the focal point of this incredibly thorough question is the Washington Wizards.
They’re a team that needs to get a little bit better to be considered a contender, but doesn’t have much cap space to do so (especially if they re-sign Otto Porter Jr.).
So what can the Wizards do with little cap space to work with?
Well, for one, they can work on their depth. During both the regular season and the playoffs, the Wizards bench didn’t show up. The team lost leads and took major hits on both sides of the court whenever the starters rested. Look at some of the bench’s total plus/minus numbers from the regular season:
- Brandon Jennings: +31
- Bojan Bogdanovic: +26
- Kelly Oubre Jr.: -42
- Jason Smith: -15
- Ian Mahinmi: +31
Now let’s compare that to the starting unit in the regular season:
- John Wall: +248
- Bradley Beal: +334
- Otto Porter Jr.: +192
- Markieff Morris: +184
- Marcin Gortat: +201
That’s a startling difference in plus/minus. Most teams have a gap between their starters and their bench players, but the most alarming factor is that not even a single player coming off the bench is remotely close to any of the starters.
Usually teams competing at the top have a go-to scorer coming off the bench to keep the team afloat when their stars are resting. The Wizards just don’t have that player.
This will be one of the biggest holes the Wizards will need to shore up this offseason. They need solid scoring options and playmaking off the bench so John Wall and Bradley Beal don’t watch the leads they worked so hard to build disappear within minutes. Here’s a look at five players who might be affordable scoring options available this offseason.