The Washington Wizards' Bench Is Bringing Them Down

If NBA games were ten minutes long, the Washington Wizards would mow through the league. Their starting lineup is a well-balanced cocktail, and explosive in every way it needs to be. When the opening tip goes up, the Wizards have five guys on the floor who produce in their respective roles while still complementing one another's strengths.

John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Markieff Morris, and Marcin Gortat logged 1,347 minutes together during the regular season, far more than any other group in the league; Minnesota's starting five finished second, and played 467 fewer minutes together. That Washington lineup also outscored opponents by margins you typically see from a legitimate championship contender, and were the biggest reason the Wizards won 49 games this year. As expected, that success has carried over into the postseason, where the Wizards' starting lineup once again leads all five-man units in minutes (92) with a dominant net rating (+10.6). You are waiting for the "but" part.

Here it is: all season long, Washington ran into a brick wall whenever head coach Scott Brooks subbed guys off the bench, and that problem, too, has stuck around for the playoffs.At the start of the season, the Wizards bench was the byproduct of crummy luck and some panic-mode personnel moves. Sitting square in the middle of that Venn Diagram was Ian Mahinmi, an unnecessarily expensive free-agent acquisition. The 30-year-old big man had surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus during the preseason, and it's been an uphill slog for him ever since. He played his first game on November 26, then didn't play his second until February 8, and he still has yet to provide a meaningful moment for his new team. (A calf injury has prevented him from stepping on the floor in Washington's first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks.)

Kelly Oubre Jr., Andrew Nicholson, Tomas Satoransky, Marcus Thornton, Jason Smith, and Trey Burke rounded out the rest of Brooks' rotation, but most of them don't have what it takes to support a good team off the bench, and at least two of them probably shouldn't be in the NBA at all. According to NBA.com, Washington's reserves were outscored by 5.8 points per 100 possessions before the trade deadline. Only the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers benches were worse. Gortat trashed them in public. Something had to change.

After the All-Star break, Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld traded a first-round pick, Thornton, and Nicholson for Bojan Bogdanovic's understated scoring touch. It wasn't the life raft they needed, but it wasn't bad, considering the team's win-now aspirations. To upgrade at backup point guard, they signed Brandon Jennings after he was waived by the New York Knicks. Like that, Washington's bench had life. They weren't world-beaters, but that added offensive punch allowed them to hold even with opponents down the stretch. They ranked tenth in net rating among all benches in the league for the second half of the season.

Apart from Bogdanovic's crucial 14-point spark off the pine in Game 5, however, the Wizard reserves have once again been a millstone around the team's neck. According to NBA.com, they're getting outscored by 9.1 points per 100 possessions, which ranks 13th among the 16 playoff teams.

The question now is what, if anything, can Brooks do to mask the stink. His first solution is to stagger Beal and Wall, ensuring at least one of the two is on the floor at all times. Brooks tries to stick with this principle, as he did in Game 5, but Washington has still gone 17 putrid minutes without either on the court in these playoffs, according to NBAWowy.

The most notable gaffe came in Game 4, when the Wizards started the fourth quarter of a tie game with Porter, Oubre Jr., Jennings, Bogdanovic, and Smith on the floor. It didn't take three minutes for the Hawks to go on a 12-4 run before Brooks subbed four starters back into the game. Washington lost by ten points.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but staggering two offensive stars isn't as simple as it looks. For one, Brooks has to weigh the cost of deploying an inconsistent bench against the benefit of maximizing his best group. It's why Brooks did his best to avoid splitting up Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook back when he coached the all-universe duo in Oklahoma City. Players need to rest, and so Brooks prayed his bench could sustain or even extend the leads his stars provided. That makes sense, right?

But the Wizards are not the Thunder, and some starters just don't make sense beside certain reserves. Take Wall and Jennings. The two point guards played together for 55 minutes during the regular season and have already shared the floor for 27 in the playoffs. It's been an unimaginably horrible span, with Washington getting outscored by a gruesome 35.2 points per 100 possessions. These numbers are dramatic due to their sample size, but it's not like more time would allow these two to suddenly turn around and be effective together, either.

Jennings is a bad defender who picks up unnecessary touch fouls, gets beat on back cuts, and doesn't always know or execute the correct pick-and-roll scheme. For every corner three he creates off a smooth drive-and-kick, he wastes another two possessions with nonsensical shot selection. On the whole, he's like a firecracker that went off in your hand.

There are some signs of life on the bench. Oubre Jr. will be fine, even though Washington outscores Atlanta by more than 10 points per 100 possessions when he sits and is getting outscored by more than 20 points per 100 possessions when he plays. That's not great, but Oubre is 21 years old, elastic and bold, and has a smooth three-point stroke that should eventually scare defenses. Bogdanovic is best when reacting off action ignited by Beal and Wall, but he can attack a rotating defense by moving the ball, driving a closeout, or knocking down an open shot. Defense is another matter, but Washington acquired him to score, and when he's playing off better talent, he can do that.

Right now, though, the Wizards must either hold their breath whenever they go deep into their bench, or shorten their rotation even more than they already have. That's a real burden on the starters, especially considering the pace at which Washington needs to play if they want their offense to be successful. And it will get worse if Washington survives this series, because teams like the Boston Celtics or Cleveland Cavaliers can expose defensive holes that Atlanta's shoddy offense hasn't.

Assuming the Wizards advance, there's a chance Oubre Jr. cleans up his mistakes and continues to knock down open shots. Maybe Morris will stop hacking the crap out of everybody and foul trouble won't be a problem. But Washington will still need more consistency from Bogdanovic and Jennings, and Smith's status for Game 6 is unknown after he left Game 5 with a bruised calf.

The playoffs are all about star power, and Washington has that in its backcourt. But the need to adjust on the fly is critical, too, and if for whatever reason Washington's reliable starting five starts to flounder, as it did after the All-Star break, where will Brooks turn? It's a question the Wizards will try and hold off on answering for as long as they can.

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