Remember when the Wizards were 2nd and the Eastern Conference and were right behind the Hawks for the 1st seed? Now the Wizards are on a five game win streak, but are still only the 5th seed in an Eastern Conference that is pretty weak, although it has improved at the top.
Towards the beginning of the season, the production Randy Wittman was getting from his players on the bench was astounding, as players such as Rasual Butler came out of nowhere to perform at levels that were completely unexpected. Suddenly right before the all-star break, these players that we expected to not do much started to perform to levels fans and the team had originally expected from them. The difference now is that we actually expected them to perform better because they made us think they were better than they really are.
It’s not that these players don’t have the ability to perform, it’s just they decided to take a little time off from their max potential. Once they get back into the swing of things, the Wizards are going to get back to how they were in the first few months of the season.
The Wizards have been more productive since their cold spell during the current five game win streak because Wittman decided that if the bench if unable to perform, they will not play. The starters are logging a lot of minutes, and the Wizards are therefore winning because the bench that had been very unproductive is no longer taking tim away from players that are productive. If the bench cannot perform when it is called upon, the starters are just going to have to take all of the minutes and try to keep their fatigue down.
If the bench can be as productive as it was earlier in the season, there are going to be a lot of teams that will not want to play the Wizards come playoff time. Bench production is what led the Wizards to the 2nd seed, lead the Wizards to drop to the 5th seed, and will now lead them in their pursuit of an NBA championship.
