Washington Wizards: Nene is Gone, and You Should Appreciate Him More Than Ever

Washington Wizards: Nene is Gone, and You Should Appreciate Him More Than Ever by David Statman

The Washington Wizards lack shooting and it could be a legitimate concern during the 2016-2017 NBA season

Basketball is a game of adaptation. Teams that refuse to evolve typically get left behind in the dust.

Now more than ever, the NBA has been dominated by teams that focus on “versatility” – an effective, but cliche buzzword that everyone associates with winning teams.

While “small ball” has taken over the league, the basis of it really doesn’t apply to size.

Successful teams have players on the floor that can play on both ends of the ball.

The big men are capable of spacing the floor and they could also switch onto guards, and defend the paint adequately.

The Miami Heat, led by LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, dominated the league by acquiring stars that can impact the game in all facets.

Bosh isn’t a typical small ball four, but he can hit the three, defend pick and rolls and protect the paint. James is obviously capable of doing virtually everything on the court, and to a lesser extent, so is Wade.

Then the Golden State Warriors came along and took over with elite perimeter shooting and defense.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson became household names, but without the team’s historically great defense, the Warriors would have just been another version of Mike D’Antoni‘s Phoenix Suns teams from the mid-2000s.

The Washington Wizards tried to implement a similar style this past season, adding Jared Dudley, Gary Neal and Alan Anderson to their roster last summer.

Dudley was a knock-down 3-point shooter and Neal gave the team a legit scoring option off the bench.

Washington played at the fifth highest pace in the league after changing their offensive approach.

But by altering their style, the Wizards lost their defensive identity.

The Marcin Gortat and Nene frontcourt combo locked the paint down and anchored a top-10 defense for a couple of years.

That all went out of the window once Dudley became a starter, though no fault of his own.

Dudley was a serious threat from deep, but he lacked the size to defend bigger forwards and didn’t help much on the glass either.

Wanting to regain their defensive identity, the Wizards added Ian Mahinmi to their team this off-season. Before signing Mahinmi, the Wizards traded for Markieff Morris, who helped the team become better defensively down the stretch last year.

With that said, Washington did lose some shooting by focusing on regaining their defense. And that, considering how the game has changed, could be a problem.

Washington was essentially tied with the Sacramento Kings as the 10th best 3-point shooting team in the NBA this past season.

However, the team’s best 3-point shooters by percentage – Dudley and Neal – are no longer on the roster.

The Wizards did not replace the shooting they lost this summer, but instead opted to add players with size. The offense has been so reliant on 3-point shooting, though, that it could seriously hurt the team’s offense next season.

Taking last year’s stats into account, the players that are currently on the roster heading into next season (excluding Marcin Gortat, Tomas Satoransky and Mahinmi), have a collective 3-point percentage of 33.5 percent.

The league average was 35.4 percent last year. The previously mentioned percentage (33.5) would have put the Wizards at 28th overall.

The Washington Wizards will depend on the development of their players for outside shooting, but it’s a risky road to take. We know Bradley Beal will continue to hit from deep, but the team will also count on Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre.

Porter shot a respectable 36.7 percent from deep last year, and hit an incredibly 45 percent of his threes after the All-Star break.

Realistically, we should expect his 3-point percentage to increase next season, but he won’t hit nearly half of his threes like he did during the second half of the season.

Oubre, on the other hand, is more of a question mark.

He made less than 32 percent of his threes during his rookie year.

Oubre, who’s been working on his 3-point shot this off-season, shot a brutal 25 percent from three during summer league.

Washington will also hope to get some help from Tomas Satoransky, who made 40 percent of his threes last year with Barcelona.

As I pointed out before, though, the 3-point shot is deeper in the NBA and the defense is obviously a lot better than what he’s accustomed to seeing.

Jarell Eddie was considered one of the best 3-point shooters not in the NBA prior to signing with the Washington Wizards last year, but he’s also inexperienced. He made less than 32 percent of his threes last year too.

The Wizards wanted to get back to playing defense and rebounding, so they added plenty of big men this summer, but they might have lost some offensive firepower as a result. Dudley might not have seemed like a key loss, but the Wizards will certainly miss his outside shooting.

Andrew Nicholson and Jason Smith aren’t necessarily known for their 3-point shooting. Next season, both bigs will inevitably take threes. For Scott Brooks‘ sake, let’s hope that doesn’t end like the Kris Humphries experiment did.

We’ve seen how well shooters perform with John Wall on the court. Players like Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster and Dudley all had career seasons in D.C. Washington is banking on their internal development, but it’s definitely a risk. If that improvement doesn’t occur, the Wizards could end up being one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA next year.