Davis Bertans’ rough season gets rougher with calf injury

To put it kindly, this season hasn’t been kind to Wizards forward Davis Bertans. 

After signing a five-year, $80 million deal this offseason, Bertans showed up to training camp late and out of shape. His shooting slumped and then he caught COVID-19 in January. Now, after aggravating a lingering calf injury, the 28-year-old is expected to miss the next two weeks.

Entering Sunday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, coach Scott Brooks will have a decision to make in how he wants to fill the hole left by Bertans’ injury. Will he turn to Issac Bonga, as he did in Thursday’s win over the Utah Jazz? Will former 2018 first-rounder Troy Brown Jr. get a chance? Or perhaps rookie forward Deni Avdija will see an uptick in minutes. 

Brooks said to start, Bonga will get a chance, but added “another guy or two” will have to be ready.

“We hope that he’s back in a couple of weeks,” Brooks said of Bertans. “We’re definitely going to miss his shooting. Even when he doesn’t shoot the ball, he draws a lot of attention. We could do a lot of stuff that (allows) other guys to get opportunities when he’s in the game. But next man up.” 

Bonga, 21, provides quite a different skill set than Bertans. The third-year forward is not nearly the shooter, but is perhaps Washington’s best defender on the wing. However, Bonga’s struggles on offense — he shoots just 37% from the field and 33% from deep — have prevented him from solidifying a full role in the rotation. Brooks often turns to him when in search of a defensive spark. 

Brooks praised Bonga’s energy after Washington’s win over the Jazz. After Bertans exited in the first quarter, Bonga logged 18 minutes and was a plus-7 in the box score, meaning Washington outscored Utah by seven points when Bonga was on the court. He helped contain forward Bojan Bogdanovic and grabbed four rebounds.

If Brooks decides to turn elsewhere, Brown might be worth a look. The former 15th overall pick has largely fallen out of favor among the coaching, appearing in only 20 games this season. But the team’s front office still had high hopes for Brown over the summer when they picked up his fourth-year option for the 2021-22 season.
 
And with the NBA trade deadline approaching Thursday, it could be beneficial for Brown to take the court as a way to showcase his talent a few more times if Washington wants to move on. 

In terms of pure numbers, Washington will have to replace Bertans’ average of 10.8 points in 24.7 minutes per game. That isn’t exactly daunting, but the Wizards will have a tougher time in replicating the threat of Bertans’ shooting prowess. Washington’s offense benefits from Bertans drawing defenders on the perimeter, freeing up looks at the rim. 

The Wizards, too, will have to be careful in how they handle Bertans’ calf. The injury bothered him leading up to Thursday’s game as Bertans missed March 13’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks with the same ailment. He aggravated it just three games later. 

Brooks was asked if Bertans was rushed back too soon.

“You can put two and two together, but that wasn’t the case,” Brooks said. “He had a couple of days and felt great. He played on it, felt great. That day, he felt great. You can’t control it. Things happen. … We wouldn’t have put him out there if he did not feel 100%. Those are always tricky injuries.”