Garrison Mathews - Professional Shooter

[nate33]

Question - does this make Robinson and Brown expendable?

Robinson should definitely be out of the rotation when everyone is healthy.

There's only room in the regular rotation for one of Brown or Bonga. The other won't play unless there's injury. (Right now, Brooks is inexplicably benching both and forcefeeding Bertans extra minutes at SF, but normally, there should be room for one of them at backup SF.)

I really hope Brooks gives Brown another shot at minutes. I don't understand what happened there. Brown has been fairly bad this year, but he hasn't had any chance to get a rhythm. Brooks is bad at many things, but one thing he typically does pretty well is giving guys multiple opportunities to fail before benching them for good. He has extended that courtesy to everyone except Brown. I don't know why.

I think Brooks has more or less given up on Bonga. We know what we have there - a 3&D guy who is very limited on offense and merely good but not great on defense. I think he can help us due to the uniquely bad defense of the rest of the team, but at the moment, he probably isn't a rotation player on most rosters. And I don't think another 800 minutes of development will really change that. Bonga can still carve out an NBA career for himself, but he is going to have to do the work in practice, in the gym, and in the film room. Mostly, he needs to get stronger, a lot stronger. Hastening his release on his shot would help too.

Given that - getting a 2nd rounder for Bonga would be awesome.

Brown, well if Brooks is your coach, try to move him, no?

I don't think anyone would pay a 2nd rounder for Bonga. Like I said, I think he is more useful with us than most other teams. If we can't find minutes for him, nobody else will.

Brown is under contract for another year. It's not a use him or lose him situation. I'd be open to a trade, but it's difficult to get much in return after Brooks tanked his value by benching him. Also, Brown is a multi-talented player who is still very young. Right now, he has that jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none problem, sort of like Evan Turner. But if he gets a bit better at one or two things, he could suddenly become a quality starter. It's possible we could end up regretting trading him for scraps.

[NatP4]

You would be selling low on both Bonga and Brown. I say keep both and let them excel with an actual NBA coach

[DCZards]

The Brown situation is extremely frustrating. Yes, he got off to a rough start but his 3pt shot did seem to be improving and his playmaking and passing is nice to have when you’re trying to get open looks for shooters like Mathews and Bertans. Troy also is very good in the PnR.

And you would think that on a team desperate for rebounding, a great rebounder like Troy would at least get some minutes.

Brooks is clearly committed to letting Bertans play his way out of his terrible shooting slump (hopefully) ... primarily because he’s getting paid the big bucks.

[nate33]

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[payitforward]

moved from a game thread...

To be fair, Mathews hasn't exactly set the world on fire as a starter. He is averaging just 6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.2 assists in 17 minutes a game. And his +/- is -5 per game.

I think Brooks likes that Mathews is setting a tone with high energy on defense, even if he isn't actually playing very well against starting caliber competition. Brooks isn't going to change things up as long as the team is winning.

I guess I’m not sure how anyone can be successful in a situation like that. Since he’s now starting, he’s now playing along side both Beal and Westbrook, which similar to how Deni was being used, relegates him to just a spot up shooter. With such limited opportunities, if he misses his only 2 shots within those first 6 min of the game, then he probably won’t play again until the beginning of the 2nd half, in the same situation.

To me, if he’s active, playing defense and has the ability to spread the floor, I would assume that would be worth at least 20-25 min per game.

Well, first off he ain't coming out of the starting lineup until we lose a game!

MDStar makes a good point, nate -- he's starting alongside a couple of volume shooters. Last night he played 12 minutes. Only scored 5 points -- but he only got 2 FGAs, & he made them both! Can't do better than that.

The boxscore on ESPN lists him with a -9 on/off -- but, this just illustrates how little you can learn from that number.

Mathews started. With 5' 29" left in the 1st quarter, we were down by 1 point. Then Trent made a 3 & followed it by blocking a Beal lay-up. The rebound got thrown down court & Kanter got a lay up. Now we were down by 6. What did Mathews have to do with any of that? In any case, 12 seconds later, we were down by 4, & Bertans entered the game for him.

Main point -- Mathews will look a lot better on any metric if he gets shots. As a starter, he doesn't.

[payitforward]

It is increasingly clear that Garrison Mathews -- undrafted & out of nowhere -- is a genuinely good NBA player, a guy who plays hard & puts up above average numbers.

Now, in fairness, he hasn't played enough minutes overall to make that statement with 100% confidence! But, he's logged @600 minutes, so it's unlikely that his numbers are altogether a fluke.

His numbers last year were excellent. This year, overall, they are even better. His TS% is actually down some from the nose-bleed-high level of last year -- but it's still outstanding: 63%. Mathews gets to the line on a higher % of his FGAs than pretty much anyone on the team who isn't a C. We've noted how much Rui has improved in that -- Mathews is a notch better yet.

What's driven his overall improvement from last year -- & this is nice to see! -- is a 50% jump in steals, double the blocked shots, a 30+% drop in fouls, & a 70% drop in turnovers.

Gotta give the FO a lot of credit for finding this kid!

[pcbothwel]

It is increasingly clear that Garrison Mathews -- undrafted & out of nowhere -- is a genuinely good NBA player, a guy who plays hard & puts up above average numbers.

Now, in fairness, he hasn't played enough minutes overall to make that statement with 100% confidence! But, he's logged @600 minutes, so it's unlikely that his numbers are altogether a fluke.

His numbers last year were excellent. This year, overall, they are even better. His TS% is actually down some from the nose-bleed-high level of last year -- but it's still outstanding: 63%. Mathews gets to the line on a higher % of his FGAs than pretty much anyone on the team who isn't a C. We've noted how much Rui has improved in that -- Mathews is a notch better yet.

What's driven his overall improvement from last year -- & this is nice to see! -- is a 50% jump in steals, double the blocked shots, a 30+% drop in fouls, & a 70% drop in turnovers.

Gotta give the FO a lot of credit for finding this kid!

I was hoping for Bertans/Duncan Robinson lite. But he’s much more.
His defense and FTr are welcome surprises

[NatP4]

And Mathews is an impact defender. Bigtime undrafted find. Need to lock him up for the next 4 years.

[payitforward]

Yes.... He's just a tough, focused kid. What impresses me right now is that b/c he's starting he isn't getting the # of shots you'd want him to get (only 10.4 per 36 minutes), so he just gets other stuff done.

Plenty of areas for him to improve of course -- rebounding in particular. & we don't really see any evidence of play-making ability.

But... he can shoot, & he can defend -- that's two skills. You need two skills to be successful, so he has the platform. He could have a long, productive NBA career. I don't know why we haven't signed him long-term. Wait -- yes I do: we're up against the tax barrier.

Be interesting to see how they work this out.

[payitforward]

And Mathews is an impact defender. Bigtime undrafted find. Need to lock him up for the next 4 years.

Can't do it now, don't need to anyway, & we owe $117.5m to 7 guys next year. Figure $122m for 8 guys with our R1 pick.

[FAH1223]

Yes.... He's just a tough, focused kid. What impresses me right now is that b/c he's starting he isn't getting the # of shots you'd want him to get (only 10.4 per 36 minutes), so he just gets other stuff done.

Plenty of areas for him to improve of course -- rebounding in particular. & we don't really see any evidence of play-making ability.

But... he can shoot, & he can defend -- that's two skills. You need two skills to be successful, so he has the platform. He could have a long, productive NBA career. I don't know why we haven't signed him long-term. Wait -- yes I do: we're up against the tax barrier.

Be interesting to see how they work this out.

Luxury tax next season will be around $136M...Salary cap will only inch up to $112M or less... staying relatively flat.

As it stands, the Wiz will have around $16M in luxury tax room. Matthews has a Restricted Early Bird cap hold of $1.4M.

Easy re-sign...

[gambitx777]

Yeah and he's not gonna cost much any way unless we make a cap clearing trade wait til the off-season

And Mathews is an impact defender. Bigtime undrafted find. Need to lock him up for the next 4 years.

Can't do it now, don't need to anyway, & we owe $117.5m to 7 guys next year. Figure $122m for 8 guys with our R1 pick.

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[NatP4]

Good call though, PIF. I remember you posting about his impressive college numbers as soon as we signed him.

Would like to see you post more in the draft thread.

[FAH1223]

Re-sign him now

[payitforward]

Good call though, PIF. I remember you posting about his impressive college numbers as soon as we signed him.

Would like to see you post more in the draft thread.

Thanks, Nat.

March is usually when I start paying real attention to prospects for the upcoming draft, so you should see more from me soon. So far, I think the conversation in the draft thread has been extremely interesting. It'll be a fun Spring.

[tontoz]

Glad he is finally getting time. Certainly he has validated all of us bitching about his DNPs.

Still needs more touches though.

[likwitdesi]

Re-sign him now

They'll have to convert his 2 way into a real contract soon, no? Once they do that, they could also give him a multiyear extension. What is the most they can offer him?

Duncan Robinson is about to get paid between 15-20M a season. If they can get Garrison to sign for half for 3 years, that is a steal

[NatP4]

Glad he is finally getting time. Certainly he has validated all of us bitching about his DNPs.

Still needs more touches though.

Agreed. Wish we moved the ball more and got him more shots. Maybe ran a set or two for him. Atleast he’s finally playing though.

[NatP4]

Re-sign him now

They'll have to convert his 2 way into a real contract soon, no? Once they do that, they could also give him a multiyear extension. What is the most they can offer him?

Duncan Robinson is about to get paid between 15-20M a season. If they can get Garrison to sign for half for 3 years, that is a steal

No way he gets anywhere near that. Robinson signed a 3 year 3 million contract before he will be signing the big one. Mathews is in line for his first non two way contract.

I’m expecting 2 years 4 million.

[payitforward]

Re-sign him now

We can't do that. For one thing, we already have 15 players on standard contracts. For another, signing him would take us over the luxury tax line.

Of course, we can sign him to a multi-year, regular roster contract as soon the FA signing period starts this off season. But, that doesn't mean it'll be an easy thing to do. We have 7 guys w/ guaranteed contracts for next year at a total of $117.4m. W/ our R1 pick that'll be $122m for 8 guys. This year, the luxury tax line is @$132.6. Assuming that it stays flat, which is what most people think, we'll have, say, $11m to fill out the roster.

We might buy a R2 pick, & we might promote Cassius Winston. Those 2 moves would leave us @ $9m to pay 5 guys, one of them being Mathews -- who is having a hell of a season; he's going to get offers from other teams. It's hard for me to believe we'll be able to keep him for less than $3m, & it might cost more.

If it's $3m, we will have @ $6m to add the last 4 players. Who are they going to be? Will we want to re-sign 4 of these 5 guys: Moe Wagner, Alex Len, Raul Neto, Isaac Bonga &/or Anthony Gill?

This problem was caused by one foolish decision -- with which most people here agreed, btw -- re-signing Davis Bertans for way too much $$.

I can almost guarantee how this problem will be solved: by another foolish decision -- with which once again I fear most people here will agree -- goodbye Troy Brown, Jr.! We'll get to watch him become a solid, high-value NBA player for another team not the Wizards.