Prior to the 2020-21 NBA season, the Washington Wizards signed Davis Bertans to a 5-year $80 million deal.
He’s a 6-foot-10 wing that can catch and shoot along the perimeter. Perfect to stand in the corner with his hands ready for when Russell Westbrook drives and chucks the ball across the court full speed at him or when Bradley Beal faces double teams and rolls a ball to his feet.
Unfortunately, those pieces didn’t fit at all as the Wizards ended 34-38 and crawled their way into the 8th seed only to face the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs.
And that $80 million Bertans contract has been a disappointment thus far.
Davis Bertans made 31 fewer 3-pointers this season while playing in 3 more games than last year. His 3-point percentage dropped to 39% from 42%. Every single one of his stats went down this season.
But it’s a clean slate when the playoffs start.
Ben Simmons knocked off Davis Bertans and threw it down 🔥pic.twitter.com/y3kRaiuRHw
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 26, 2021
Yike.
On Wednesday night, Davis Bertans shined. He truly helped the Philadelphia 76ers take Game 2 of their series.
Let’s take a quick look at his box score:
- 24 minutes
- 0 points
- 0 assists
- 0 steals
- 0 blocks
- 6 fouls
- -11
Bertans took 4 shots. He missed all 4 shots.
And then he was disqualified and forced to leave the game after committing 6 fouls.
$80 million. Gone.
We need to build a superteam with Bertans fouling out in 24 minutes and Luke Kennard being so bad that he’s not even allowed to touch the court.
I love the playoffs.
Random Stray Thoughts:
- I think this postseason is showing us we are evolving past guys who exclusively stand in the corner and shoot 3’s. Regardless of how well they shoot, if they can’t put the ball on the floor or they can’t play defense. Davis Bertans and Luke Kennard look obsolete now.
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