The Washington Wizards didn’t make an adjustment in the first round of the NBA playoffs; they created an entirely new identity.
During the regular season, all four of their lineups that saw over 100 minutes featured two big men in the group of Nene Hilario, Marcin Gortat, Kris Humphries, and Kevin Seraphin.
Washington’s starting unit of Gortat, Hilario, Paul Pierce, Bradley Beal, and John Wall was by far their most played group at 596 minutes. There’s nothing wrong with this – that group of five had +7.4 net rating and was solid on both ends of the court.
How head coach Randy Wittman revamped his substation pattern for the postseason has made the Wizards a more dangerous outfit. The starters are still getting significant run, but what’s making the difference is rotating through to smaller, more athletic groups as the game goes on.
The foursome of Wall, Beal, Otto Porter, and Pierce saw 14 minutes together across 82 games. In their four-game sweep of the Toronto Raptors, they’ve already totaled 43 minutes and have put up a massively successful +35.4 net rating.
Wall is one of the most dangerous weapons in all of the NBA, and he’s finally being unlocked. When being defended one on one, there’s not a single player in the league that can stay in front of him. Now, he’s being given the proper amount of space to work with. When Wall played with the group listed above, 30.6 percent of Washington’s points came via the three-point line, up from 18.5 percent before the playoffs commenced.
The Wizards decided to join the modern world of basketball and Wall is the perfect vehicle for it.
The style of play is completely different, but this reminds me of how Steve Kerr made better use of Klay Thompson in Golden State. No matter how good a player is, if he isn’t being put in the proper context, it’s hard to see what he can truly accomplish. It turned out Thompson was a higher-level player than anyone realized. It’s at a different level, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the same is true of Wall.
This was the easy part for Wittman – the Toronto Raptors were a dumpster fire and an easy target to go small against. Whoever they played at the power forward position didn’t create any mismatches.
The NBA playoffs are about matchups, and if Wittman will stick with this identity when things get tougher in the next round remains to be seen. The Wizards are most likely going to face the Atlanta Hawks, who feature Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver at the small and power forward positions, in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
This is a much tougher task for Pierce and Porter on the defensive end.
Guarding DeMar DeRozan is about individual defense and baiting him into bad, contested mid-range jumpers he’s all too happy to attempt. With Korver you have to be attentive off the ball, fight through screens, contest jumpers and be in sync with teammates on the fly to deal with Atlanta’s motion-based offense.
Amir Johnson and Patrick Patterson aren’t bad players, but Millsap is an entirely different animal. He can score in a variety of ways and also creates for others with his excellent passing.
How Washington’s two wings are able to handle their defensive responsibilities as the competition stiffens will be crucial going forward if the Wizards want to take another step as a team.
The Eastern Conference is once again wide open with the Cleveland Cavaliers dealing with injuries and suspensions, Atlanta struggling with the putrid Brooklyn Nets, and a myriad of questions surrounding a talented yet divided Chicago Bulls squad.
There’s a path here for the Wizards, a genuine opening on the road to the NBA Finals. Now we find out if Washington stumbled into something potentially special or was it just the product of a bumbling opponent not capable of offering any resistance.
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All stats in this story were via NBA.com