Skip to main content

Montrezl Harrell for Sixth Man? Wizards make case for awards after 20 games

By Bijan Todd

Harrell for Sixth Man? Wizards make case for awards after 20 games originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

Before the 2021-22 season started, oddsmakers did not hold the Washington Wizards in high esteem. Sportsbooks pegged the Wizards to finish with 34.5 wins after the Russell Westbrook trade. ESPN’s analysts got together and predicted Washington to finish 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Twenty games in, the Wizards are proving everyone wrong. They’re 13-7 and if this current pace continues for the remainder of the season, they’d snag 50 wins for the first time since 1978-79. They’re tied for second place in the East, miles above where anybody expected them to be at this point.

Washington’s surprisingly incredible season thus far can be accredited to a few factors: the ability for a hodgepodge roster to gel so easily, a coach who seems to understand matchups and lineups quite well and individually fantastic performances.

Though there are still 62 games remaining this season, certain Wizards have made clear they deserve to be mentioned in some end-of-year award conversations. Here are a few candidates for Washington and the awards they could win:

Coach of the Year: Wes Unseld Jr.

Wes Unseld Jr. was handed a daunting task when he was hired over the summer: get this team—complete with big personalities and zero experience playing with each other as a unit—to win games. He’s done that, and then some.

General manager Tommy Sheppard and company had their eyes on Unseld Jr. because of his defensive prowess, in addition to his name recognition in the District. Unseld Jr. has delivered on his defensive résumé, leading the Wizards to the league’s 11th-best defensive rating, sixth-best defensive rebound percentage and second-lowest fast break points allowed thus far.

Unseld Jr. has taken this group, unified them, and turned them into an absolute force on both ends of the floor. He deserves his flowers. Among head coaches who took over their current team beginning with this season, Unseld Jr. has led the Wizards to the best record and by some margin.

Sixth Man of the Year: Montrezl Harrell

If you’ve watched the Wizards this season, you’ve noticed Montrezl Harrell. The undersized (6-foot-7) center has been the catalyst for several Washington wins this year thanks to his roof-bursting tenacity and constant effort for rebounds.

Harrell has already won Sixth Man of the Year once in his career—2020 with the Los Angeles Clippers—for doing basically the same thing he’s done with Washington this season. You can’t help but absolutely love the energy Harrell exhibits when he’s on the floor.

Harrell is fourth in the league in bench scoring and third in rebounds. He also leads all NBA bench players in free throw attempts and field goal percentage (min. 17 minutes per game). Most importantly: Harrell has been consistent. He never takes games, or even plays, off. He will undoubtedly be in the Sixth Man conversation if he keeps this pace up and deservedly so.

Most Improved Player: Deni Avdija

Washington drafted Deni Avdija ninth overall in 2020 with the hope that he’d exhibit some of the qualities on both ends of the floor that he did while playing professionally in Israel. He showed flashes during his rookie year until an injury sidelined him for the end of the season, but nothing consistent or incredible.

This year, Avdija has delivered both of those qualities. Though he’s scoring 0.2 fewer points per game than he did last year, his field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, rebounds and assists are all improved from last year.

And that’s just on the offensive end. What he’s done defensively has been his true calling card.

Avdija’s defense for Washington this season has been a spectacle. His mechanics, from the way he moves his feet to his timing on the post, have shown clear improvement from last season. The man threw the X up on Giannis Antetokounmpo, for Pete’s sake.

“I’m taking it as a challenge. It’s fun to see them thinking like ‘oh yeah, there he goes, slow feet, tall guy, I’m quicker than him.’ But it’s not all about that. I’m playing with my heart and I’m doing everything I can to play 100 percent every play on the court,” Avdija said earlier this month.

Executive of the Year: Tommy Sheppard

Sheppard’s Westbrook trade shook the ground when it happened over the summer. Many people thought Washington giving up one of its most popular players this decade was a downgrade. It wasn’t.

Sheppard’s trade, in addition to other offseason acquisitions, have all proven to be crucial to the Wizards’ current success. In trading Westbrook and receiving Dinwiddie, Harrell, Caldwell-Pope and Kuzma, the Wizards improved their age, depth and cap space.

Every struggling team dreams of making deals like that. Sheppard should get recognized for his contribution to Washington’s current tear.

That’s it for the awards that actually exist. Here are some other, made-up awards that other Wizards players would earn if they existed:

The ‘Clutch Gene’ Award: Kyle Kuzma

The ‘Cutest Family’ Award: Bradley Beal

The ‘Best Blocker and Rebounder’ Award: Daniel Gafford

The Underappreciated Award: Aaron Holiday

The Best Hair Award: Corey Kispert

Wizards fumble 23-point lead in blowout loss to Rockets

By Chase Hughes
Wizards fumble 23-point lead in blowout loss to Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonThe Washington Wizards lost to the Rockets 115-97 in Houston on Monday night. Here are five observations from what went down...Rough nightThe worst loss of this Wizards season was objectively their 35-point collapse against the Clippers in late January. That one was an all-timer. But Monday's loss in Houston is certainly up there among the most crushing defeats Washington has endured this season, which has featured a decent share of them.In fact, it technically included an even bigger points swing. They led by 23 points in this game, only to see the Rockets flip that around and lead by 20 in the fourth quarter. That was a 43-point reversal. Christian Wood was the main reason for it, as he dominated the Wizards to the tune of 39 points and 10 rebounds. He shot an absolutely ridiculous 8-for-9 from three.The Wizards are now 30-41 on the year, meaning this is their fourth straight non-winning season. They have dropped seven of their last eight.Porzingis stayed hotOne game after he took over in the fourth quarter against the Lakers, Kristaps Porzingis once again had a big night. He had 22 points on 7-for-18 shooting and many of them were dunks. He nearly tore off the rim on a series of slams both in the halfcourt and on the fastbreak. Porzingis also had 13 rebounds and six blocks, five of which came in the first half. That was just one block short of his career-high.Porzingis shot 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and has helped the Wizards quite a bit in that area. He came into this game leading the team with 7.7 free throw attempts per game. Before he debuted, the Wizards were having some trouble getting to the line and were openly complaining about it in press conferences. He's helped shift the narrative very quickly.Rui cooked earlyWith Kyle Kuzma out due to injury, Rui Hachimura got the start at power forward and he absolutely thrived in that role, at least in the first half. Hachimura had 10 points in his first six minutes en route to a solid night of 16 points and eight boards. He shot 7-for-13 from the field and 2-for-5 from three. Hachimura's 3-point shooting continues to be a bright spot for the Wizards as this was his 13th time making multiple threes in a game, a new career-high. That's especially impressive considering he's only played in 31 games.Hachimura, though, faded in the second half to only score two points after halftime. That has been an issue for him previously in his career. On one hand it's great he has a tendency to start out hot, but finding a way to sustain that as the game goes on is one of the next steps for him as he continues to develop as a scorer.Avdija the playmakerAs the Wizards focus on player development as they close out the 2021-22 season, Deni Avdija showed some positive signs as an on-ball playmaker in this game. He had seven points, nine rebounds and four assists, including a series of crisp and creative passes. They were the types of plays that made Avdija such a highly-touted prospect coming into the 2020 draft.He has unique abilities as a ball-handler and passer at 6-foot-9 that he hasn't often been able to utilize at the NBA level. But on Monday, he showed what he can do and in a variety of situations. Avdija threw a lob to Daniel Gafford in a pick-and-roll, a shovel pass to Gafford for a baseline layup and later pushed the pace off a rebound and dumped it off to Porzingis for a dunk. There were other plays where Avdija simply getting the ball up the floor quickly led to good things.Kuzma out againThe Wizards played their second game without Kuzma, who has been sidelined with right knee tendinitis. Head coach Wes Unseld Jr. indicated on Saturday that Kuzma would be ready to return in this game, but that was not the case as the team decided to play it safe after Kuzma continued to feel some discomfort.Unseld Jr. described Kuzma sitting out on Monday as a matter of just giving him another day as a precaution. The team now has two off-days before they head to Milwaukee to face the Bucks on Thursday. Kuzma has been one of the few constants for the Wizards this season in a year that has been defined by inconsistency and change. His 66 games played are tied for third on the team with Corey Kispert and behind only Avdija (71) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (68). 
Read Next Story

Related News

Wizards fumble 23-point lead in blowout loss to Rockets

Kristaps Porzingis hopes 4th quarter vs. Lakers a sign of things to come

Kristaps Porzingis still in awe of LeBron James, happy to return favor on dunk