Last season, the Washington Wizards had one of the besting starting lineups in the NBA with John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter Jr., Markieff Morris, and Marcin Gortat. The starting unit played together 1,347 minutes, most in the NBA over the course of 69 games and had a net rating of 8.1 thanks to a 111.9 offensive rating relative to a 103.8 defensive rating. That net rating was ninth best in the NBA for lineups with at least 200 minutes and second best in the NBA for lineups with at least 550 minutes behind the Clippers. Subbing out Markieff Morris for Kelly Oubre Jr. last year had a net rating of 17.4, 117.6-100.2, which was third best in the NBA with a minimum of 200 minutes behind two Golden State Warriors lineups.
Through 11 games so far this season, Scott Brooks has used 81 different lineups, but we will only look at the eight that have played 10 or minutes so far during the young season. With Markieff Morris missing a handful of games to start the season following sports hernia surgery, the Wall, Beal, Oubre, Porter, and Gortat lineup has already seen 144 minutes of run and boasts an impressive net rating of 23.3, 113-90.7.
The starting lineup we expect to see for the rest of the year, Wall, Beal, Porter, Morris, and Gortat, have played 44 minutes over the last three games and actually have a -7.9 rating, 117.3-125.2, largely in part of poor defense against Cleveland and Dallas as well as the unit only playing 10 minutes against Los Angeles on Thursday.
The two purely bench lineups of Tim Frazier, Jodie Meeks, Oubre or Tomas Satoransky, Mike Scott, and Ian Mahinmi have been no bueno to say the least. With Oubre, they have a net rating of -23.7, 96.3-119.9, in 35 minutes and with Satoransky, they have a net rating of -8.5, 89.4-97.9, in 19 minutes. If Thursday's game is an indication, we may have seen the last of the all-bench lineup as Porter or Beal ran with the second unit throughout the game to ensure a starter stayed on the floor at all times.
Against Los Angeles, having Porter and Beal playing small forward with the rest of the bench players resulted in net ratings of 41.9 and 129.1, but of course in a limited sample size of 3 and 2 minutes. Porter seems to be the consistent piece as a bridge between the starters and bench as he has ran with the second unit for 16 minutes in five different games this season for a 14.8 net rating, 109.8-94.9. Frazier had his best game of the season at home against the Lakers much in part because he had less responsibility with a starter running beside him according to Wall.
"I think it’s great," Wall said about always having a starter on the floor. "It takes a little bit of pressure of those second unit guys. It adds someone else who can create for them, pass and also score for those guys. It kinda makes Tim (Frazier) get into a better rhythm. He can play with two point guards out there, me and Brad (Beal) with him and it makes the job a little bit easier."
Washington's bench is still far from perfect, but it is up to Brooks to stop using a purely bench lineup unless absolutely necessary or in a blow out for the rest of the season because it has already shown to be a recipe for disaster.
