Washington Wizards starting lineups: Locks, fringe, potential break-ins

Washington Wizards starting locks

This group should start the majority of the Wizards games as long as they’re healthy and could form the nucleus of one of the league’s most dangerous offensive units.

Bradley Beal – Guard

The Wizards’ best player last season, by a country mile, was Bradley Beal. Everything the team does on and off the court should be centered around what keeps Mr.Beal in Washington and starting him every night is the easiest place to start.

Beal finished second in the NBA in scoring per game at 30.5 points. At only 27 years old, the one-man offense has room to improve, and a scoring title is not out of reach this season.

For a team that finished off such a poor season having a player of Beal’s quality penciled in every night will give the team as good a chance as any to improve in the standings. While Beal is a no brainer in the lineup, his new backcourt running mate, Russell  Westbrook, is not far behind.

Russell Westbrook – Guard

Westbrook, last season, was one of the league’s most divisive players. He averaged 27.2 points per game on his way to an All-NBA selection but went into the offseason with next to no trade value.

However, the reason for Westbrook’s declined valuation around the league has less to do with his actual play and everything to do with his contract situation. The 32-year-old former MVP has three years and close to $132 million remaining on his deal.

Outside of a few of the greatest players of all time, it’s exceedingly rare for a player through their age 32 to 34 seasons to produce at an elite level. That being said, Westbrook has set the bar so high that even a continued decline would see him easily be the Wizards’ second-best player.

Westbrook should partner with Beal to form the NBA’s highest-scoring duo, and if his presence leads to easy buckets for Beal, then his acquisition should pay off handsomely, especially in year one.

Davis Bertans – Wing/Forward

The next lock to start on the Wizards might not actually start all that much, but he should end up playing the third-most minutes a game. Last season, Davis Bertans enjoyed a career year for the Wizards and made himself a very rich man because of it.

His 15.4 points per game were second on the team and his three-point shooting was absolutely stunning. On 8.7 three-point attempts, 7th in the league, Bertans shot 42.4-percent, 6th best in the league, and made a claim as the NBA’s best high-volume three-point shooter.

It’s rare for a player to blend that type of volume and efficiency from beyond the arc and makes him a near-lock to be a part of any crunch time lineup. However, Bertans has suffered multiple ACL tears and the Wizards were right to manage his minutes by only starting him four times last season.

That should change this year after the Wizards handed him a five-year $80 million contract. Players don’t get paid $16 million a season to ride the pine and the Wizards need his shooting to create driving lanes for Westbrook and Beal.

The Wizards have three locks to start just about every game and the trio will form a devastating offensive nucleus. The players that are on the fringes will have to earn their spot in the lineup based upon how well they cover up the trio’s deficiencies.