Wizards are only 2 wins behind us & playing VERY well. 20w-7L in last 27 games

[chambers]

We love the fact that we've destroyed them for the most part for the last few seasons, and that they have/desire this fake rivalry with the Celtics (whilst also calling our players dirty)....

But Washington are starting to look like a real NBA team.

They have gone 20 wins 7 losses in their last 27 games.
Made line up adjustments and gone a bit smaller with Oubre so they can switch.
Otto Porter Jr is killing it and has shown his versatility.
Very good Bball breakdown video on Wizards dramatic improvement and line ups...
Coach Niock calls them his darkhorse to make the ECF if they garner home court in the first round.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-f0a3DJmzo

What are people's thoughts on this sudden breakout stretch for them?
I'm suprised that Brooks has developed an offense like this. He never did this in OKC. I guess he just figured his two stars going iso was a better option.

[saltlover]

This was brought up in the season long thread a couple days ago, so I'm just going to repeat myself:

The rotation has been really tightened.  Their starters are playing an incredible amount of minutes -- curious to see if they can maintain these minutes, or maintain their performance if they play fewer.  Wall and Gortat are both above 1600 minutes on the year, and Porter will be his next game.  All of their starters are above 1400 minutes -- only IT has played that many on Boston.  Morris has played the 5th-most minutes, and is only 5 minutes behind IT for the year.

Wall is on pace for the second-most minutes of his career.  Everyone else is on pace to set a new career high, some by several hundred minutes.  I think they're going to have a really rough March when it starts to catch up to them.

[bdm860]

We love the fact that we've destroyed them for the most part for the last few seasons,

The C's owned them last year, sure, as they were 4-0 against them with only one close game (but Beal missed a game, played only 9 mins in another).

But this year the C's are 1-2 against them, with both losses being by double digits.

And they were 1-2 in 2015 (all 3 games were in December before Isaiah came to town though).

Definitely not accurate to say the C's have destroyed them the last few years.  Of course I like to think the C's would destroy them in a playoff series, and I'm not scared to have the C's face Washington, but so far Washington has played the C's well and it could actually be a close series that could go either way.

I know salt's not a believer in their ability to maintain this level of success deep into the playoffs, but I wouldn't overlook them or look past them either.

[Moranis]

9 of their next 13 are against teams with winning records (and it is only 1 in the next 4 so they have a stretch of 7 of 8 games against good teams).  Be interesting to see if they keep up the pace when the competition gets a lot stiffer.

[TrueFan]

I think they are for real.

A lot of their success falls onto Wall and how good he's able to play. There are times he gets into a shooting funk so as long as he can avoid one in the playoffs they should be a real tough out.

The two games we played them this year highlighted John Wall's inconsistent problems. He was beyond bad the first game. Missed a ton of shots and just seemed completely out of the game. The second game he was engaged and making shots. He looked like a top 3 player in the league that night. When he plays like that they can go up against anyone.

[apc]

I am not surprised they are doing well.
Before, it was surprising to see how so much talent can be so bad.

[oldtype]

They're a good team.  They're also a big threat to make a win-now move at some point.  I'm surprised that they haven't at least been mentioned for Milsap/Melo/Ibaka.

[saltlover]

They're a good team.  They're also a big threat to make a win-now move at some point.  I'm surprised that they haven't at least been mentioned for Milsap/Melo/Ibaka.

What on earth are they going to offer?  They don't have particularly valuable draft picks, and they have no expiring contracts of value besides Porter, which at best would be a lateral move if traded.

Mahinmi is owed $48 million over the next three years and has played only one game this season.
Nicholson is owed $20 million over the next three seasons and has played in only 23 games and averaged 8 minutes, despite being healthy.
Markieff Morris is an inefficient chucker (.488 eFG on 12 shots per game) who sometimes rebounds.  His contract isn't terrible ($16.6 million combined the next two seasons), but he's also got some very questionable character baggage to go with his mediocre production.  He's clearly the starter they need to upgrade, but is he going to make his new team remotely better? No.

To get either Milsap or Anthony (who'd have to want to go to Washington) they'd have to trade two of the above players.  That'd make no sense for either New York or Atlanta.

Would Morris, filler, and a later 1st make sense for Orlando to trade Ibaka?  I personally don't think so.  Doesn't make them any better next year than they are today.

[oldtype]

They're a good team.  They're also a big threat to make a win-now move at some point.  I'm surprised that they haven't at least been mentioned for Milsap/Melo/Ibaka.

What on earth are they going to offer?  They don't have particularly valuable draft picks, and they have no expiring contracts of value besides Porter, which at best would be a lateral move if traded.

Mahinmi is owed $48 million over the next three years and has played only one game this season.
Nicholson is owed $20 million over the next three seasons and has played in only 23 games and averaged 8 minutes, despite being healthy.
Markieff Morris is an inefficient chucker (.488 eFG on 12 shots per game) who sometimes rebounds.  His contract isn't terrible ($16.6 million combined the next two seasons), but he's also got some very questionable character baggage to go with his mediocre production.  He's clearly the starter they need to upgrade, but is he going to make his new team remotely better? No.

To get either Milsap or Anthony (who'd have to want to go to Washington) they'd have to trade two of the above players.  That'd make no sense for either New York or Atlanta.

Would Morris, filler, and a later 1st make sense for Orlando to trade Ibaka?  I personally don't think so.  Doesn't make them any better next year than they are today.

I think Orlando would take any deal that gives them a first rounder for Ibaka.  New York may do the same for Melo.  Wizards own all their own firsts.

Wall-Beal-Porter-Anthony-Gortat/Mahimi.  Would love to see that team.