Washington Wizards Player Grades: Week 18

Celebrate again! The Washington Wizards are winning!

Sure, it hasn’t been pretty (and occasionally it’s been utterly horrifying), but the Wizards were able to arrest their freefall into utter oblivion with a pair of victories to give themselves their first winning week in quite a while. And yes, they lost to the Bulls, the only top Eastern Conference team they were able to claim any sort of supremacy over. And yes, they nearly had an all-time collapse against the Heat.

Wins are wins. Wins are wins. Wins are wins. Repeat this to yourself until the panic subsides.

Let’s grade.

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

John Wall: 16.3 PPG (43.9 FG%), 4.0 RPG, 9.7 APG, 2.3 SPG, 1.3 BPG

After a poor first week after the All-Star break, John Wall picked up his game a bit this week while continuing to hand out assists like it’s nothing.

All things considered, Wall’s 2014-15 season has been tremendous, but he’s taken a step back in one area: 3-point shooting. Wall was a wonderful surprise from beyond the arc last season, shooting a career-high 35%, but that mark has gone down to 28.7% this year – still an improvement over his first few years, but far from ideal.

Wall has only made three or more triples in a game twice this season (both coming in the last month), a feat he achieved 13 times last year. While the Washington Wizards continue to struggle to find offense from downtown, it would be nice to see Wall regain the confidence he showed from long range last season.

Grade: B+

Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Bradley Beal: 12.7 PPG (35.9 FG%), 4.0 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.7 SPG

It’s really, really nice to see Bradley Beal on the court, finally recovered from his latest bout with stress problems in his legs.

At this point, it’s just a matter of the Big Panda getting his sea legs back. It was assumed that Beal would be on a minutes limit after his return, but Randy Wittman has thrown that out of the window – he played 32 minutes in his first game back against Detroit, and additionally played more than a half hour in each of the Washington Wizards’ next two games.

Brad certainly looked tired in his first couple games and was short on a lot of his jumpers, but he finally found a little bit of a rhythm against Miami.

Hopefully, Beal will be able to ramp it back up going forward.

Grade: C+

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Paul Pierce: 13.3 PPG (48.4 FG%), 3.0 RPG, 3.0 APG

Paul Anthony Pierce was sculpted by nature into the perfect killing machine, a cold-blooded sniper who shows no mercy and brooks no resistance. And since the first month or so of the season, Pierce has been absolutely deadly from long range.

Pierce shot 50% (10-20) from beyond the arc this week, and the Washington Wizards have needed every single one. Pierce’s 3-point shooting percentage is nearing the big 4-0, just another number that quantifies just how valuable the 37-year-old still is to this team.

Every single Wizards lineup with Pierce (min. 30 total minutes) has been a net positive this season.

Grade: B+

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Nene: 13.7 PPG (46.7 FG%), 5.0 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.3 SPG

Nene is the Washington Wizards’ answer to the Incredible Hulk. His natural anger gives him incredible, rim-destroying powers. He is a man to be feared, a man to be respected, a man to be loved.

But like all great superheroes, Nene must always remember to use his abilities for good. Otherwise, things like the Bulls game happen. As Bradley Beal put it, “you don’t know if you’re going to get the Nene that’s going to put people in headlocks or the one that’s going to give you 30.” This week, we got both!

Nene topped 20 points in both of the Wizards’ wins this week, but when DC needed him to step up against a Bulls frontcourt he has so brutally and joyfully obliterated so many times, he let his emotions get the best of him and fouled out without scoring a single point.

Both Good Nene and Bad Nene are terrifying for overlapping reasons, and the Wizards are always gonna have trouble winning when Bad Nene’s on the court.

Grade: B-

Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Marcin Gortat: 14.0 PPG (60.6 FG%), 15.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.7 BPG

Marcin Gortat continues to turn in excellent performances every night – I wrote last week that he’s been easily the Washington Wizards’ best player since the All-Star break, and he’s did nothing to change that this week.

The Polish Machine has turned in a run of seven straight games with double-digit rebounds, with five double-doubles in eight games since the break. That’s impressive, but it’s even more impressive when you consider he’s generally putting up these numbers in about two and a half quarters a night. Against Miami, Gortat had 14 points and 17 rebounds, and didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

That’s unconscionable. Get it together, Randy.

Grade: A