The eyes are so Bobby Portis’ thing that he’s literally selling shirts.
No joke, one of the Wizards’ newest additions has a website that distributes t-shirts which sport an animation of his trademark wild gaze with an appropriate slogan at the top: Crazy eyes.
“I had red, white and black (shirts). I’ll have to change the black to blue now,” Portis told The Athletic. “I have to get them in DC. In Chicago, they were a hit.”
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Portis, who the Wizards acquired two weeks ago when they dealt Otto Porter to the Bulls for the enthusiastic big man and Jabari Parker, is also the creator of irreplicable basketball expressions. At any given moment, he’ll appear incredulous. His eyes pop out of their sockets. His brow wrinkles while his cheeks somehow tighten. Cameras will pan to him for the wackiest visages. Even Nicolas Cage would consider his contortions over the top.
It fits in with Portis’ on-court personality: He is a never-stopping mad man.
His high school friends first noticed the crazy eyes. The public caught on when he was at the University of Arkansas. He has since shown them off — along with the obvious energy that births them into existence — in high-voltage fashion.
“I think my eyes get crazy,” Portis said. “I’m not really crazy. I’m a good dude.”
But crazy or not, Portis will fit right in with the Wizards — because no longer is he the only very tall man in his locker room with a very bulging oculus. Before he even got to Washington, Thomas Bryant was forming the kookiest faces in the city.
There are no judgments here.
“I didn’t think they were crazy,” Bryant said. “I thought that was just his eyes. … Shit, I do the same thing.”
It’s not the only attribute the two have in common. The duo coach Scott Brooks referred to last week as the “Twin Motors” are sharing styles — and apparently a position, too.
Portis dabbled at center but was mostly a power forward during three-and-a-half seasons in Chicago. The beginning performances in Washington are all subject to change. Brooks is still figuring out his new personnel. But he’d have to make a drastic switch in the way he uses Portis to deploy him how the Bulls did. The Wizards have played their new big man exclusively at center. Brooks has outwardly referred to him as a 5, though he hasn’t closed the door completely on him getting power forward minutes.
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“Yeah, the way we use him is a 5, but the way we play, 4s and 5s are basically the same,” Brooks said. “It’s just, you have to call somebody a 4 and call somebody a 5.”
The 24-year-old Portis and 21-year-old Bryant are oddly similar.
They’re incessantly active. They’re modern, offensive bigs. They can take their games to the 3-point arc. They roll hard. They’re relentless setting screens. Their struggles come on the defensive end, especially guarding in space.
“They both have great hands. They both can finish around the rim. They’re both good 3-point shooters. There’s a lot,” Brooks said. “Bobby probably has a little bit more experience on (Bryant). But when you take one out, you put one back in, and it’s pretty good. … Now, I have the flexibility to play either one down the stretch.”
It’s tough to imagine co-defensive struggles are the only reasons Brooks would stay away from pairing the two at any point. After all, the Wizards recently played a frontcourt of Bryant, Parker and Jeff Green against an elite team in Toronto when Green has barely played the 3 this year and Parker has mightily struggled to stifle scoring or movement. NBA teams, as Brooks pointed out, don’t really detail the difference between 4s and 5s or 2s and 3s — especially not on offense. They do, however, differentiate between guards, wings and big men. Portis and Bryant are bigs. And Brooks clearly cares about those distinctions. Since removing Markieff Morris from the starting lineup 15 games into this season, he has turned almost exclusively to one-big lineups.
That’s stayed consistent through the first four games after the trade.
Portis has drained his 3s with the Wizards — he’s 12 of 22 in Washington, which has bumped his season-long percentage close to 42 percent — but he’s done more than just nail shots.
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During his first game as a Wizard, when he dropped 30 points on the Cavaliers, he had no idea where to be, when to go or what to do. But he screened any Cav who neared him. Over and over again. He may not have been in the right spots, and he may not have been doing the right things, but at least he was doing something.
The energy was, dare anyone say, crazy.
“I know maybe the first couple of actions, then after that, I get kinda confused,” Portis said. “But I just wanna try to play basketball. I like to score the basketball. I think everybody knows that. And then I love to (get) my man open because if I get my teammate open, then I may have some help, then I get open.”
Playing too many screeners at once is no issue. But even if Portis drains his 3s, his game is still concentrated inside the arc. He likes to post up and he’s successful rolling to the hoop. The Wizards, meanwhile, believe Bryant is most effective diving to the rim after laying picks. Besides the potential defensive issues that could come with pairing Bryant and Portis, there’s the offensive redundancy. But if Brooks — or the organization, in general — feels like Bryant and Portis are best not playing together, could that have ramifications beyond this season? Both guys, after all, are restricted free agents this summer.
There’s another element complicating the situation, too: Dwight Howard, who hasn’t played since November after undergoing back surgery and who will now return from his rehab in Atlanta to begin on-court work in D.C., according to our own Shams Charania. Howard has a $5.6 million player option for next year. What if Portis commands an eight-figure salary in free agency and Bryant requires $5 million annually? If all goes as the Wizards hope, they’d like to bring back both. But could they really dole out over $20 million for three players they consider to be strictly centers, then another $15.5 million for Ian Mahinmi?
The Wizards have 24 remaining games to feel out Portis and Bryant. Playing them next to each other could fail miserably. Or maybe it could surprise the doubters. Either way, compiling some amount of evidence to use this offseason would only help decision-making going into next year.
Besides, merely seeing Bryant pump himself up next to Portis would make the experience worth a try.
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“He plays with a lot of energy, a lot of grit and a lot of grind,” Bryant said. “It’s something I noticed as soon as he came, and I respect it.”
(Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA TODAY Sports)
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