Washington Wizards Mailbag Monday: December 28, 2015

This is the last Monday of your 2015. You can either dread the fact that it’s Monday or you can embrace it and do something bold. Oh yeah, the Washington Wizards have won four games in a row too. Life is beautiful, really.

To those who’ve participated in any of the mailbags this year: thank you. To those who haven’t, you can always become a better person by doing so. Hit our line: @WizofAwes. We take all questions, as long as they’re Wizards related.

Thanks for all the wonderful questions this year, folks.

This will be the final mailbag of the year.

The questions come from Twitter and Reddit.

Should Kelly Oubre start over Porter at the 3 solely as a 3 and D guy? -via TFDBLol

My colleague Oz Baig certainly thinks so.

Right now, I think you can make a case for it. Oubre fits along side the starters better than Otto Porter. He’s been hitting shots from deep at an incredible rate, he’s a better on-ball defender than Porter and he’s more athletic. The thing that separates them right now is outside shooting.

Porter is back in Randy Wittman‘s lineup and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s lost his spot as the team’s starting small forward. If he’s not hitting shots from deep, there’s really no point in making the switch. If it’s not broken, why try to fix it?

If Oubre can stay out of foul trouble, he’s going to remain the starting small forward for the Washington Wizards. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Wittman makes the switch back to Porter just for size purposes, though.

Regardless, who would’ve expected this to even be a thing at the beginning of the season? Oubre — a 20-year-old rookie — as a starter?

It’s going to be a decision made by how each player is performing. Currently, there’s no reason why Oubre shouldn’t remain the starter.

Could Jarell Eddie play as an undersized PF, getting Kris Humphries‘ minutes? -via oldmajorthepig

We were all pretty surprised to find out that Eddie is the greatest shooter of all time on Saturday night, but I was even more surprised to see how big he actually was. Eddie is a legitimate 6’7″ and he’s more than capable of playing both the shooting guard and small forward positions.

Eddie is just trying to find a permanent home in the NBA and he’s not going to complain about playing power forward for the Washington Wizards if that’s what he’s asked to do. Is is something that Wittman should explore? He probably should.

Imagine a lineup with John Wall, Bradley Beal, Oubre, Eddie and Jared Dudley. That’s the super small ball lineup that will either light the other team up from deep or give up 80 points in a quarter. It’s worth a shot, though.

But, in all seriousness, we won’t be seeing Eddie play the power forward position often this season — if at all. Otto Porter played the four along side Eddie on Saturday night and we’ll likely see more of that going forward.

@WizOfAwes With Beal's inj hist why don't Wiz limit his minutes? Is a max deal inevitable since someone will offer one forcing Wiz to match? — Chris Dachi (@cdachi) December 28, 2015

The Washington Wizards didn’t draft Bradley Beal only to part ways with the 22-year-old after four seasons. They believe he has the potential to become a future All-Star and he’s not going to go anywhere. With that said, they should absolutely explore trades for Beal. Why? Because he’s had four stress reactions in as many seasons. That’s concerning.

But, knowing the Wizards like we all do, you can expect Beal to return on a minutes limit and eventually go back to playing 35+ minutes every game, because Wizards. He shouldn’t play more than 30-32 per game, but he’s inevitably going to.

And yes, the Wizards will absolutely match any deal Beal gets. It would surprise me if we even get to that point, though. Beal will likely sign the four year max extension from Washington after their pursuit of Kevin Durant ends.

@WizOfAwes How will the rotation shake out once beal, neal, Anderson, & Nene return? Does starting lineup change? Also what happens w/ Otto? — frank (@frank_is_myname) December 28, 2015

Once everyone returns to the Washington Wizards’ rotation (if it ever happens), Wittman will have one of the deepest rosters in the NBA. The players who’ve stepped up in the absence of the players you mentioned — Garrett Temple, Oubre, Dudley and others — have all earned more playing time.

Nene will return as the team’s primary backup center because Wittman doesn’t have any other options. Neal will probably get spot minutes behind Beal, and we’ll also get to see him play along side Wall and Beal.

Anderson has yet to play a single second and it would be bizarre if Wittman places him in the rotation immediately. He didn’t even participate in training camp. So, for now, you can consider him out of the lineup for the remainder of the season.

Porter will either replace Oubre in the starting lineup or he’ll become the backup small forward. He’ll also get some time as the stretch four.

It will probably end up looking something like this:

Wall, Ramon Sessions Beal, Neal, Temple, Eddie Oubre, Porter, Temple, Anderson, Eddie Dudley, Porter, Humphries Marcin Gortat, Nene, Humphries

@WizOfAwes do you see the wiz keeping Jarell Eddie for the rest of the season? — Justin Hamm (@jahamm19) December 28, 2015

It’s so difficult not to jump the gun on Eddie, right? I mean, he was the best shooter in the world not in the NBA. Now he’s in the NBA and his jumper is still wet. It’s easy to get super excited and claim that Ernie Grunfeld found the new Danny Green, but he’s only played 15 minutes for the Washington Wizards.

If he continues to shoot the ball well from deep, there’s no reason not to keep him around. He’s on a minimum deal and the Wizards, like every other team in the league, need shooters. Anderson is out for at least another month and it will take him even longer to get into game shape. So why not keep Eddie Money (h/t DJ Statman) around?

That’s it for this week’s Mailbag Monday. For the previous editions, click here. Thanks for participating. 2015 was a solid year and we hope that 2016 is filled with even more wonderful questions. Feel free to his us up: @WizofAwes. We’re always accepting questions.