Nene likely to return from injury Wednesday, will have minutes limit

Good news: Nene is coming back soon. From the sounds of it, he'll play in Wednesday's critical showdown against the Charlotte Bobcats after going through two full practices on Monday and Tuesday. That'll provide a huge boost to the Wizards as they make their playoff push.

That said, we probably won't see Nene at full capacity right away, if at all. Randy Wittman confirmed that there will be a minutes limit on the Big Brazilian, though he's not sure what that'll be yet. Via J Michael of CSN Washington:

"There'll be some restrictions early on, I'm sure," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said Tuesday. "I mean, five games (left). I haven't sat down with the doctor yet to gauge that. That'll happen today. First game back, especially. It gives us five games to get out there, get some rhythm, your timing, wind."

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The Wizards, along with many other teams in the league, impose minutes limits on players returning from injury. They had a similar limit with Bradley Beal and with Nene last season when he returned from his plantar fasciitis.

How much, though, remains to be seen. Also, this opens up two questions: whether Nene will start or come off the bench and which other player(s) will see their minutes cut. I'm of the opinion that Nene should take most of Trevor Booker's minutes, but Michael theorizes that Drew Gooden could see the biggest cut. Al Harrington is another player that might drop from the rotation.