It is clearly not advantageous for the Washington Wizards to be without their starting power forward for at least approximately 10 games to begin the regular season, but I was puzzled by all the pundits that believed it spelled doom for their chances to get off to a good start to the season. Markieff Morris will be sidelined six to eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia last Friday and his services of 14 points and 6 rebounds a game will certainly be missed. During Monday's annual team media day before the Wizards headed south to Richmond for training camp, it was clear that the team has a bevy of options to bandage the vacancy.
“Well, it’s not the ideal situation when you have one of your starting players [Markieff Morris] out for an extended period of time with surgery, but that’s part of the game," head coach Scott Brooks began. "You have to have that next man mentality, which we have and it’s going to open opportunities for guys to step up. We have versatility, we have depth, we can go in many different directions. We can go small, we can throw Kelly [Oubre Jr.] in there. We can throw Jason [Smith] in there. Mike Scott we can put in there. There’s a lot of players we can throw into the mix. We will miss him, but I feel confident in the group. That thing that we will always do and mindset that we will always have is a no excuse mentality. We had it last year, even when we had a tough start. We didn’t point fingers, we didn’t blame anybody, we just kept doing our job. I think that’s a good approach to have. He will be back soon, I don’t know when, but he will be back."
Oubre, who is now fully healthy following a PRP injection early in the offseason, seems like one of the lesser likely options because of his better fit at the small forward position where he will not have to worry about getting pushed around in the paint as a lesser built player. That does not mean the always confident 21-year old will not be willing to give the position a try if asked.
“Just being that body that is going to fill in, next man up,” Oubre said. “Being ready and just being prepared for whatever situation is thrown my way. I’m ready for the moment, if I’m blessed enough to be in that starting lineup, I will definitely give it my 110 percent all. Just give my body and life line for this team.”
Smith would be a veteran option as an energetic stretch-four that had good success with Washington last year as a three-point shooter that already gels well with John Wall and the rest of the starters. The ultimate pro's pro will embrace the opportunity with open arms if asked to, but will not worry about it if he is not asked to start.
“I think it’s going to be a tough thing for us to deal with, but we’re going to deal with it because we have to,” Smith said. “For me, I am a guy that says, ‘you can only control what you can control.’ I can control how hard I work in practice ... I just try and focus on things that I can control.”
In my opinion, the Wizards most interesting option would be starting Virginia product Mike Scott who signed with the hometown team during the offseason to a veteran's minimum contract. Scott admits that he "sucked" last season due to injury and the wear on his mental state with a now settled court case, but seems genuine in his commitment to revamp his game's image. Scott is taking an interesting approach to potentially starting as he does not think his role will change even though there is an inevitable increase in minutes because he wants to contribute the same attributes.
“Spark the team with energy, leadership, defend, make shots, dunk on people. Same role, different team” Scott explained when asked if he will hope to contribute similarly to his prime Atlanta days. “Last year sucked, it wasn’t even fun for me. I don’t even count last year as a season. I just want to stay healthy, stay consistent and everything will be fine.”
Probably the most likely option is a platoon situation. Washington can play Scott when they need more size and physicality or play Otto Porter Jr. when they want to go small with four three-point shooters on the floor. Fresh off of his $106.5 million contract, Porter is game to playing more minutes than ever before at power forward, but Brooks pumped the brakes on that a bit.
"I've played a lot of minutes at the position with Keef. It's a position I've played before and I think I can definitely step up and fulfill that role until he gets back," Porter proclaimed. "But we have guys here. Mike Scott, he can step in as a veteran guy that can come in and play the four with me also. We can go small. Coach Brooks is going to definitely evaluated the situation and put us in the best situation moving forward."
“We did it last year and we were pretty successful with Otto playing the four. That is something we will consider,” Brooks responded when asked if Porter playing the four is viable. “But you don’t want to overextend guys’ minutes. We are going to be cognizant of all of our guys’ minutes and want them to feel fresh throughout the season.”
Regardless of who starts against Philadelphia on October 18, a decision that will likely be made during training camp and preseason, the Wizards have four legitimate options to temporarily replace Markieff Morris in the start lineup so cut the story line about them not having depth until you have proof from this season.