Washington Wizards 2015-16 Player Grades: Week 16

Earthbound by their two-big frontcourt, the Washington Wizards kept their brutal slide down the Eastern Conference standings going this week.

As of this writing, the Wizards are three games under .500, sitting in 10th place in the East – behind the Hornets and just a smidgen ahead of the Knicks and Magic.

Believe me, I was ready to go into this piece guns blazing with some #NegativePixels. But then something happened: the Wizards went back to pace-and-space Saturday night in Houston, and while they didn’t shoot great (11-32 from 3) they scored 123 points and won.

As the great Herm Edwards once said, “We can build on this!”

That was an encouraging night of basketball, and a reaffirmation of what the Washington Wizards’ identity should be. With enormous tests at Oklahoma City and against Golden State this week, they need an identity more than ever.

Let’s grade.

John Wall: 15.5 PPG (31.3 FG%), 4.8 RPG, 11.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.5 BPG

For the third straight year, John Wall is an All-Star.

Not many Washington Wizards have done this: Gilbert Arenas was the last one. I think making three straight All-Star Games qualifies Wall for status as one of the NBA’s very best players – and it raises a worrying question.

In his fifth year, at 25 years old, and having made three straight All-Star Games, there’s no dispute anymore that Johnathan Hildred Wall is decidedly in his prime. And while he’s reached this point individually, the team has failed to grow along with him.

The obvious fear is that the Wizards are wasting Wall’s prime, that a team based solely around him can never truly succeed, that Ernie Grunfeld is a dope, and that Wall is destined to be like Kevin Garnett, toiling away in obscurity until a big-name team swoops in and whisks him away to be a piece on a title contender.

This is actually probably happening.

Oh God, oh God, this is the darkest timeline.

Grade: C-

Garrett Temple: 10.3 PPG (33.3 FG%), 3.5 RPG, 2.0 APG

The Wild Inconsistency of Garrett B. Temple continued this week, specifically concerning his 3-point shot, which is either Trevor Ariza Dope or Jarvis Hayes Trash.

In all games this week except the Denver game, Temple shot a combined 3-16 from 3-point range, but against the Nuggets, he went off. Temple tied a career-high with five made threes, blasting in his fifth 20-point game of the season.

All the ups and downs have stabilized into Temple shooting a very pedestrian 33.5% from 3-point range this season, although his 8.5 points per game are easily a career-high. He’s shooting exactly 30% from the corners.

Grade: C-

Otto Porter: 10.3 PPG (50.0 FG%), 4.8 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.3 SPG

Otto Porter is theoretically a fun player and a great piece, but it’s too bad that he has hip dysplasia like an aging greyhound.

Stymied by the same nagging injuries, Porter was limited to just 15 minutes against Denver and 12 minutes at Houston, and showed few signs of the steady scoring option who hit 40% of his threes in the preceding month.

I’ve said it before with Bradley Beal, whom I still believe should come off the bench – Otto Porter needs to have his minutes limited, somehow.

His body has the structural integrity of the Hindenburg. Porter still probably has to start since there aren’t many viable small forwards on the roster, but what’s the harm in tossing Kelly Oubre a few minutes, for God’s sake?

Grade: C-

Jared Dudley: 11.8 PPG (55.2 FG%), 3.8 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.5 SPG

Randy Wittman has caught a lot of heat from Washington Wizards fans over the years, some deserved and some undeserved. But I can’t remember a move he’s made that has so immediately caught the ire of fans than starting Nene over Jared Dudley over the last couple weeks.

You could see from a mile away that it was going to be a disaster, and it absolutely was.

The Nene/Marcin Gortat frontcourt has worked in the past, it cannot be denied. But the idea that the Wizards would so readily abandon everything they’ve attempted to change about themselves this year was worrying – and it didn’t even produce any on-court results.

Surprise, surprise: Wittman put Dudley back into the lineup at Houston, he scored 16 points and the Wizards won the game. Don’t ever do that again, Randy.

Grade: B+

Marcin Gortat: 11.0 PPG (60.0 FG%), 10.0 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.8 BPG

Through all the gossip and rumors and blown leads and players-only meetings and Ernie Grunfeld’s enormous head, the Polish Machine has continued to quietly put up numbers, even with the brief reunion of the Nene-Gortat frontcourt ruining his spacing.

Marcin Gortat turned in three more double-doubles this week, giving him 19 in 25 games played since the beginning of December. And while his defense has been spotty and his rebounding a bit too weak at times this year, he couldn’t have been at fault for any of the three games lost this week.

Can’t blame Gortat for John Wall getting ripped the heck up by Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry and Emmanuel Mudiay (?!) this week.

Move along Marcin, I’ve got nothing bad to say about you right now.

Grade: B