Scott Brooks may not have been on his A-game when his team needed it the most on Monday night. The head coach of the Washington Wizards was meeting a worthy adversary in Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. He was out-coached, however, and his team's season may have ended because of it. There will definitely be some decision he second guesses in the coming days.
Game 7 misgivings
The most regretful decision Brooks probably made during Game 7 was playing big men Ian Mahinmi and Jason Smith at the same time.
Both were a complete offensive sucks for the Wizards; neither scored a single point during 14 combined minutes in the game. Additionally, Smith was a minus-13 rating for the night, while Mahinmi was a minus-10. These two players arguably shouldn't have seen any playing time, let alone 14 combined minutes on Monday night.
In fact, the whole bench management was off. Kelly Oubre Jr. played a grand total of zero minutes. Bojan Bogdanovic was the only player on the entire bench to score; he poured in a whopping five minutes. Brooks didn't necessarily have a reason to trust his bench, but he at least had to try since John Wall was struggling from the field all night. He didn't give the bench any run, and as a result, Game 7 belonged to the Boston Celtics.
Successful debut season
Even with the Game 7 struggles, Brooks should still declare his first season with the Wizards as a success. He came in this summer and immediately met with some of the players to change the culture of the franchise. People seem to have bought in, with Wall, Bradley Beal, and Otto Porter Jr. all having career-best seasons.
The fans certainly bought in, providing an electric atmosphere for every home playoff game.
Now, the team will have to learn lessons from Game 7 to move forward. Finding solid bench production needs to be a priority for the Wizards in the offseason. They could lose a couple of valuable pieces in free agency, but should largely return the same core of players for next season, for which Brooks will have another year of experience under his belt.
The Washington Wizards were a Game 7 victory away from making their first conference finals since 1979. Brooks led the Oklahoma City Thunder to that round three times and once to the NBA Finals, but never won an NBA title with them. Together, they could help solve each other's legacy-defining droughts.
