Moderators: nate33, montestewart, LyricalRico
montestewart wrote:Benjammin wrote:I look forward to a day when someone's children won't have the need for this thread.
A time when Grunfeld is nothing more than a tale parents tell to make their children behave.
"Eat your spinach or the Grunfeld will make another trade."
pancakes3 wrote:If real life was a movie, Lamar Odom and Michael Beasley would come to DC and John Wall will have a "Like Mike" effect on those two en route to a championship (and learn about a different ship along the way. Friendship). There would be 5 musical numbers scored by Sir Elton John, and Ernie would be a talking woodchuck who tidies the Verizon Center before games with his woodland pals. Helen Mirren plays Irene and has a tasteful nude scene.
Ed Wood directs. Our Ed Wood.
doclinkin wrote:dobrojim wrote:Dat2U wrote:Agreed, It actually crushed me that we somehow managed to beat a horrible Knicks team by one point. It's like false hope. Hell, this entire season is about having enough false hope to go-all-in for the playoffs when in reality were really a 35 win team.
I get what you're saying but am still thinking baby steps/incremental improvement.
This was a game we would have lost traditionally.
My eyes were saying we were the better team and we were ahead more
than behind (WAG) so we 'should' have won. The ugly part is we should
have won by more than we did, up 15 early in the 2nd half and up 7 early/middle
of the 4th. But I'll take the 1 pt win especially after 3/4 losses were so close
and winnable. And to get the MSG monkey off our backs.
Against the easy schedule that being an eastern conference team confers,
I'm pretty sure we're more than a 35 win team. Unless Wall gets hurt. He's
indispensable with Maynor/Temple waiting in the wings. How much more than
35 wins remains to be seen as well as how high a seed we can manage. Anything above
7-8 gives us a legit shot to win a playoff round.
And that's all well and good for us to look back fondly in 3 years remembering that one time we made it to the playoffs and surprised somebody. Felt good about ourselves. Forced Ted's hand to re-ink the core starters at whatever the market price was (Ariza, Gortat) and renew GMEG and -- okay lost our draft pick...
... only to see the East seeded with franchise caliber-talent in the top 5 slots, who proceed to catch and pass us. And teams all around us grow comfortable scouting with advanced metrics in the Adam Silver era. And we rely on a scouting and talent evaluation department that amounts to expenses-paid trips to Treviso Italy, for that real eyes-on evaluation of what one sub-par talent looks like against other non-NBA euroscrubs.
Off and on I've been 'benefit-of-the-doubt' on both Ernie and Ted. Looking at the secret plan of designed futility, building a bench before recruiting top talent, so we can still select high draft picks while adding developing talent that either has a high home-run swing potential or high character glue guys that work hard but are not transcendent, just fit a hard hat culture. All of which would add good attitude and effort even while losing, preserving the chance at the truly transcendent talent needed to contend at the upper echelon --- so as not to get stuck in mediocrity. 'Suck until you suck lucky'. If that was the secret plan then great! John Wall, Brad Beal were strokes of luck. Whether or not this was the secret subtext, it was implicitly suggested in Ted's 10(-ish) point plan -- if he could execute it right.
But he was hemorrhaging corporate dollars to more attractive sporting events, losing box seats and sponsors and asses in the seats. So he flinched and allowed another 'all in for mediocrity' plan. Didn't want his high lotto talent to become disillusioned and accustomed to losing (in the 'taking my talents to South Beach' era). He flinched. Winced. Swerved. Could not hold true to the vision, and re-defined success multiple times, trying to buy his own bull[dumplings]. Tried to convince us he believed what he was saying. Tried to put a positive face on everything including failure.
And bless him, he continued the long Wiz/Bullet tradition of valuing loyalty above success. His 10 point plan states he wants his front office to be like an ethnic family, arguing vociferously at the dinner table, but defending each other in public. Contrast with Pat Riley who comes off as though he'd fire his nephew from the paper route if he had a Salvadoran family who would deliver the whole stack by 5AM for the cost of one plantain each. Yes you'd rather eat dinner with Ted. Unless winning a championship is the only food you are hungry for.
But worse yet, and here's the point where they lose me: Ted allowed both GM and Coach to enter a contract year with a win-now mandate : providing incentive for them to dump valuable assets for immediate gain. This with a coach who has a proven record of sucking at drafting, who therefor prefers to swap picks out for veteran players who can give immediate gain, if lower upside, who under a prior 'win-now' mandate TRADED STEF CURRY FOR A BUCKET OF DRIED COW CHIPS AND Mike MIller's stupid hairband.
Under this mandate ("win something or other") the coach will surely run the few reliable players he can trust into the ground, scratching desperately for wins to salvage his job here, or audition for his next position. And the GM is in an all-or-nothing shot to hang onto this job this year, since at his age and with his track record there may not be another kush front-office job waiting for him in this game. He will swap any future asset for any minimal gain, or to replace any burned out player the coach runs into the ground.
Clusterfelching all around.
Yes we may win one round, with all healthy. In a weakened East. But do we have the wind to sustain it? One leg of a relay race we can replay years later, and not even a bronze medal on the mantlepiece. But for 50 yards we were ahead of the pack weren't we? Well not ahead, but like neck and neck with that first guy on the Jamaican relay team, not Usain Bolt but like the guy nobody remembers, what's-his-name guy. Man we almost beat them then...
It's a weird feeling enjoying a win and feeling hollow about it. Wins without hope. Unless both Brad and John Wall take a remarkable leap every year, and, and… and.... can't see it.
WizarDynasty wrote:Eric maynor has actually played in rhetorically western conference championship within the last couple of years something wall can only dream off. Don't piss off a point guard with genuine wizard knowledge of What it takes scheme wisto get through 82games plus playoffs. he has been there and no other point guard on roster has even whipped deep playoffs recently. Wizard wisdom is What takes u deep into playoffs and maynor has the experiences of What it took licked in his memory for wall. point guard scheme.. adjustments strategies used in second game versus sixth game..disguised 4th quarter game plans. not many pg. available with those experiences as a back up point guard. more importantly
..maynor has this experience recently. name a backup point hare with .ba championship experience. thread showslack of wizard fan playoff experience. Fans have no clues about long 7 gam series. u Are publicly attacking one the most important elements on the team based on non playoff games. Ted is trying to transform you from a bullet .....piece of metal shot from a gin into a wizard....wise.... wisest fans in the .ba. board has a long way to go but ee have wise wizard posters to guide into Ted the savior rescue operation. remember to thank Ted for finally seeing wise wizard ball with my vision of two way players with high bbiqs. lateral quicksand...strong lower body strength standing reach...and spinning ball on a finger. dc is finally dc
montestewart wrote:Last Sunday, I took a young friend (I call him my foster nephew, he's my foster son's younger brother) out to get his Christmas/birthday present. He bought a pair of Lebrons. I didn't even flinch. He knows what he wants, and they looked pretty sharp. Wednesday, another friend took him to the Wizards Heat game.
That game was the most exciting this year to me, and my father-in-law (who's REALLY OLD) was much more engaged and excited than usual, as I'd call out the leads to him: 24-12, 36-12, 43-18. But he's been watching the Wizards too long. "It's too early to get excited." He was concerned that they didn't widen the lead before the half, calmed down when they came out fighting in the 3rd quarter, then started to announce the Wizards collapse (that's usually when he starts calling for Vesely).
But Wall, Nene, Booker and friends put on a show for us in the 4th. How can I complain about any aspect of that game? I even liked Maynor. No matter how much I question this team's direction, I'm a fan, and I'm going to enjoy a win like this just as I enjoyed (and completely lost my voice over) the Wizards beating the Celtics the year they won the championship (without Arenas), and beating the Cavs 108-72 in the playoffs (without Arenas), and beating the Thunder and the Lakers in the strike season. I like me some wins, especially the unexpected ones.
I texted my foster nephew's foster mom about what a great game he saw. She said he came home all smiles, sporting his Lebrons, bragging about how the Wizards had held Lebron under 30 points and shut down Wade.
A great game. Very satisfying.
The Consiglieri wrote:How about the fact that we're fans of a team that's <word I cant say> since the freaking Carter Administration? How about that. There's not a fan on this board that isn't die hard. If any fan in here was suspect in terms of loyalty, they wouldn't be a fan of the team in the first place. In what way exactly has this pile of manure with a wand of a franchise ever rewarded the loyalty of its long suffering fan base?
Incompetent management across multiple owners, multiple GM's, multiple coaches: Check
Innumerable moronic trades in which we've consistently gotten owned: Check
Horrendous draft day decisions year after year, decade after decade: Check
Hideous use of cap resources, amnesty provisions, and 2nd round picks: Check
Incompetent use of D League and refusal to own your own team: Check
Total failure season in and season out w/fewer playoff appearances than the Clippers/Warriors/Cavs in the last 25 years: Check
Total Seasons with more than 42 wins in the past 30 years 3< : Check (1996-1997 and 2004-2005)
Owner and Management not committed to the draft, or rebuilding the proper way: Check
Owner and Management unaccountable regardless of track record, and job safe: Check
Owner and F.O. built around friendship/loyalty rather than professionalism, and talent: Check
Total Failure to build a competitive team in any season at any point that could challenge for a title since the Shah ran Iran: Check
Is there anything anyone on the planet could say that's more absurd than challenging the fandom of individuals that not only support a team with this miserable of a track record, but also, post daily/weekly/monthly/yearly about all things related to said team, knowing full well its run by incompetents with no interest save, preserving their job and paycheck (EG), and receipts (Leonsis), and housing players that know full well the team is a trash compactor designed to grind up NBA title dreams, and replace them with salary chasing, grab the next buck cynicism?
There are no fans on the planet more loyal than fans of this team, of the Cavs, hell of the Clippers pre-Paul/Blake.
If you're a fan of this team for more than 10 minutes you deserve a gold star, fan for years, for life? Nobody can impugn your devotion or loyalty, 10 posts, or 10,000,000.
Just Absurd.
BruceO wrote:Five in a row..
If he were on this squad we'd have easily won six of the last five games
= not funny = Wizardry = obsession with fetid fowl consumption. Postby pineappleheadindc on Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:01 am
I was out of the house all day, so I recorded the Knicks vs Bulls game. Just watched it, well just the first half actually. New York sucks. Nobody's even trying. And it's not like they have incentive to tank, they will be sending Denver their pick.
There's no defensive effort. No help on D. Nobody makes any effort. Noah took a board for Chicago and he, a center, dribbled to coast-to-coast for an uncontested jam. Nobody made an effort to stop the ball.
Tyson Chandler remains a pouting, lazy female dog whose primary attribute seems to be that he is tall. The Knicks collection of guards couldn't hold their own at Barry Farms. J.R. Smith .... SMH....I'm struggling to find words mean and crappy enough to describe his game. But the English language does not possess a single word that can combine stupid, self-possessed, uncaring, selfish, overrated, and dog poo.
Their coach lacks any self respect. When the Knicks went down like 19-4, he didn't bat an eye. I would lined up 5 completely new guys at the scorer's table. Popovich would done the same thing, but also skinned those dudes alive. Then, they'd be on the first plane out to Charlotte.
The current Knicks are an affront to the noble game of basketball. They are a franchise with a long and storied tradition. Their fan base does not deserve this disaster. I know in this situation, the normal thing is to fire the coach. The thinking is that you can't fire all the players. To which I respond: why not.
The Knicks are not going anywhere. They have one asset, Melo, who is going to jump ship at he end of the season (if he doesn't, he's crazy). Start the rebuild now. Unload everyone if there are any takers. If there's a team who has injured players with a shorter contracts or are hard working character guys, see if you can get them for any able-bodied Knick. Move everyone.
I am a basketball, primarily NBA basketball, fan. I don't have to watch the home town Wizards to enjoy watching a game. But I'm hereby on strike from watching any more Knick games. They're horrible to watch and I refuse to add to the ratings when they're on tv.
montestewart wrote:The Wizards end this season on a 13-game losing streak, miss the playoffs, but silence criticism of losing a 1st rounder in the deepest draft of any sport ever. Theo the Lyin' attributes the team's failure to injuries, not EG, whose contract is renewed for another three years. Wizards luck out and move up in the draft, picking 3rd again, where they choose Marcus Smart, because he can back up either position, he sounds smart, he's the rookie equivalent to a veteran ("a coach on the floor"), they had injury concerns with Embiid and Randle (hangnail), EG had never been to Australia so he couldn't scout Exum, and everyone in the front office was on the same page with the Smart pick (the keep calling it "the Smart pick"), and some other reasons that no one could understand. Gortat signs elsewhere, everyone pretends that was the plan all along. Porter has a season ending injury in the offseason, so Ariza is signed to a 4 year/$40 million deal. Booker and Gooden get 3 year/$12 million deals. Ariza, Booker and Gooden proceed to show that their best years are behind them. Nene has three season ending injuries in one year. Beal has a season ending injury, but to everyone's disappointment, he comes back. Center is largely manned by Charles Jones de jours. The team totally sucks, but Wall has an all-NBA year and leads them to an only slightly worse record, bad enough to miss the playoffs, but good enough to lose the 2015 pick. Wall is angry that the team drafted a point guard, and is tired of losing: "I know we have to earn our wins, and I don't mind sucking it up, but when the front office keeps making questionable moves…maybe I'm in the wrong city." The next year EG makes a blockbuster trade that moves Nene and Ariza for, I don't know, Bogut or somebody, and Terd posts that he enjoys the smell of chastened, know-nothing fans. In 2016, the team finally makes it to the playoffs as an 8th seed, and Leoni proclaims "We have arrived!" and states that this is exactly according to the timetable that he had laid out with full transparency countless times. He raises ticket prices again and resigns EG for another three years. The team is swept in 4 games, all by double digit margins, the last a 124-83 massacre on their home court. At the beginning of 2016-2017, Wall starts agitating for a trade, and EG drags his heels so long that when he finally moves Wall, the Wizards get a nothing prospect, a tired veteran, and a late 1st round pick in return. Did I mention that the team either sells, trades away, or stashes in perpetuity every 2nd round pick? I don't think any of this merits green font at all.
A: Wall has no idea how to use a pick.
B: So he's like EG in a way
montestewart wrote:miller31time wrote:A capped out Wizards team in a historically weak Eastern Conference is now 7th and falling.
Extensions for everyone!
Look, I've explained this before in another thread a long time ago for a very long time over and over, it's exactly as Ded explained over in Ted Steak numerous times all a long since the beginning. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AT NIGHT! Last year, the team too a big step forward, faghting for 9th seed for the first time in a long. This year, 7th, maybe 8th seed, probably swept in the first round. They will talk their lumbs this year, but then:
2015: maybe 6th or 7th weed, take the series to six or maybe seven gems
2016: 5th or 6th weed, make it tooth second round, maybe take one game before exiting
2017: 4th or 5th weed, advance to second round, take series to sex games before exiting
2018: 3rd or 4th weed, advance to second round, take series to a seven games before exiting
2019: 2nd or 3rd weed, advance to second round, take series to a seven games before exiting
2020: 2nd weed, advice through first to arounds, sweat in ECF
2021: 1st or 2nd weed, advance through first and second round, win one in ECF
2022: 1st weed, advance to ECF, take the series to seven games before existing
2023: 1st weed, win ECF, swept in filials
2024: 1st weed, win ECF, win one in finials
2025: 1st weed, win ECF, take finals to six games
2026: 1st weed, win ECF, take finals to severin games
2027: 2nd weed (starting toofad, but not to late), win NBA championhips. Man, will EG be happy!
You see, it's pretty much just like I explained, by Ted's calculations, according to plan, each year the team will get incremationally better, and learn a little something a long the way. I'd start planning for that big 2027 celebration right now. It's going to be quite a puberty.
nate33 wrote:AFM wrote:Can someone enlighten me on the history of "Ji"?
Referenced a lot on these boards and I ALWAYS feel like its a big inside joke that I'm not in on. And honestly. that hurts a little.
He's the former incarnation of Jay81.
He has an odd fascination with forecasting weather, and he of course gets mercilessly pounded by the board whenever he is wrong. But his biggest claim to fame is in being a world class jinx. He had a stretch back in the Eddie Jordan era that whenever he started a thread, it was a guaranteed loss. It was truly uncanny. And it was made all the more infuriating because he constantly started game threads without giving anyone else a chance.
IIRC correctly, he ultimately redeemed himself by predicting that we would land the #1 overall pick in the John Wall lottery. When he started the lotto prediction thread, the board went apoplectic, but Ji had the last laugh.
pineappleheadindc wrote:.
If I could expand on Nate's comments a bit. Nate's a gentleman, so he'll be kind with his description of the Ji experience.
Ji isn't just a jinx. He's a JINX. Just about every game thread he'd start would guarantee a Wizards loss. As Nate says, it's uncanny.
And he wouldn't just JInx the team in a "normal" fashion (if there is such a thing). I swear, Ji would willfully and purposefully wait until the Wizards got a nice little winning streak going, maybe 3 in a row or so, then he'd swoop in to start a game thread in front of whoever had started game threads for the little winning streak and guarantee a loss. I swear he did it on purpose just for laughs.
I think Ji is actually a meteorologist IRL. It's scary for me to write this -- but I think he makes his living at weather forecasting. And, like his uncanny skill at killing Wizards winning streaks, Ji was (under his original screen name) horribly bad at weather forecasting. Not bad, but BAD.
He'd usually start new threads with titles such as "Historic Snowstorm Headed to DC Area on Tuesday!". And when Tuesday came, what would happen?
Yeah, it would never snow. Not only would it not snow, it would be clear and warm. He did it again and again, to the point where nobody would believe him.
And Ji was a troll in a good way. He knew where the line was. The worst he'd ever do was drop something like "Nice game, way to play guys". On a losing team's game thread. For something equally innocuous, another mod banned (suspended?) Ji. But I swear, his Ji screen name is still active.
Oh, and Ji had this habit of starting random, duplicative threads. Just because.
And that's the essence of Ji, "just because". Yeah, he's a JInx, yeah he screwed up weather forecast after weather forecast, yeah he was a sneaky troll, and yeah -- he'd just jam the front page with needless new threads. Why? Just because.
But through it all, he was and is OUR Ji. He never took umbrage to folks harassing him about his weather forecasting acumen, or his ability to JInx the Wizards or yelling at him for starting yet ANOTHER new thread about Eddie Jordan. No...he was and is a good-hearted poster and was (when he posted more) a really important member of the daily RealGM Wizards board community.
He posts now as Jay-something or another. But I wish he'd go back to his original screen name. And I wish he'd come back more regularly to post often. It's not the same board without Ji.
Lastly, Nate noted how Ji finally redeemed himself by calling the Wizards moving up in the lottery to get John Wall. I've found the thread and it (for us old timers) makes for fun reading. Link: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1011900
dckingsfan wrote:doclinkin wrote:From that threadJi wrote:Well if its any consolation.. when the caps were up 3-1 against Montreal, i sent out a public question on facebook asking everyone if they wanted to play Philly or Boston in the next round.
I need this jinx to end because all my friends think I am a jinx and this would end it all if we got John Wall. I could post game threads,etcso funny.
We'd be on a win streak, the thread starter from the prior game thread was due to start a new one, Ji would see a cherry hanging low on the tree (the Charlotte LOLcats for instance) and rush in there to start a Game Thread trying to break his shxtstreak. Inevitably we'd lose, and the more often he did it the more ridiculously awful the outcome. Inevitably something terrible would happen. The "not possible" game may have been ji. But the final straw was definitely the game Gil blew his knee out.
Really it was a mercykill that an overzealous Heat mod 86'ed him.
And somehow after that he changed his name to Jay, and made a baby, and people started respecting his weather reports and all crazy kinda things happened. So who knows. Luck can turn, maybe. Maybe you put in enough hopeless enthusiasm long enough and eventually the wheel turns. Maybe.
Maybe. Though cross your fingers and try not to get your hopes up. Still makes me jumpy if he starts even a weather thread. Remember this guy revels in disaster. He's the first guy every year to advocate tanking for lotto balls.
This needs to be HOF history material
keynote wrote:Tiny Too wrote:Supposedly, Wroten and Carter-Williams went to management. They didn't like that Maynor, as a veteran, insisted they, as rookies, carry his gear on the road trips.
In their defense, Maynor's bags are full of bricks and have no handles.
pineappleheadindc wrote:JWizmentality wrote:
That's what I get for perusing the General board. My offense, baiting the fan base. Isn't that some BS? If that's the case the whole Craptor board should be suspended. I haven't been suspended since the potassium on the toilet seat incident back in high school, and to be honest I'm kinda disappointed because I always figured miller31time would be the one to pop my cherry. Alas, he has missed his opportunity.
At the very least I took the Craptor bastard down with me. All I did was call them out for complaining about the refs, there was no name calling or anyth....actually I may have referred to them, in a very flattering way, to an aspect of the female anatomy....and I may have said he was possibly on some contraband but it was all in jest I assure you.
And I have no remorse nor have I learned anything from my incarceration. This rehabilitation has failed miserably, and I may in fact be much worse.
Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know how to troll by now? Copy/paste your offending post, so we can see what did you in.
Listen to me, there are only two ways to troll that make the endeavor worthwhile.
1) Lead the lemmings off of the cliff.
In this scenario, it's important for you to express sadness and outrage that the Raptors lost to such an inferior team as Brooklyn. Get folks into the habit of "hell yeah-ing" after your posts. Then, introduce something really stupid and work hard to get the lemmings to follow you. These can include (a) Introducing a conspiracy theory about how the dark forces of the NBA have paid off members of the Raptors squad or coaching staff to throw the game. "Player x really never liked Toronto anyway. Just watch, in 2015 he's gonna jump to some other team and Adam Silver will 'accidentally award them the number 1 pick in the lottery. It sucks that the entire NBA hates Toronto so much". Try and get a mass of folks to repeat your conspiracy theory. OR pick a marginal player or head coach and question their effort. Your ultimate goal is to get a thread full of vitriol aimed at one of their own for made-up (perceived) slights such as a lack of effort or commitment or that they're just stupid.
2) Insult, but couched as a compliment.
"Player X (of the Raptors) really knows how to hustle. Probably in the top 5 in the NBA in hustle. If only he had just mid-level skills (or bb IQ like player Y), he'd be unstoppable. I wonder why the Raptor front office is being so cheap with such a valuable player asset like him that they won't hire him a skills coach?" Try and get the masses angry at the organization.
Calling an entire group of people the same name as female body parts -- amateur.
doclinkin wrote:montestewart wrote:fishercob wrote:This will do wonders for Nene's persecution complex. I bet he's going to watch game 4 from an actual cross.
Selfish, unrepentant, beyond disaapointing. 20 year old Bradley Beal had more self control and respect for his teammates.
It takes balls to admit you were wrong.
Well then maybe he can admit that he was partially to blame.
WallTown02 wrote:It doesn't matter what the odds of success were. It's zero if you don't try. There is no defense here.
The model franchise, Spurs, use every resource possible to upgrade their team. They have multiple 2nd rounders playing meaningful roles on a championship team. They have multiple assets overseas. Yes, they sold a 2nd this year. They also traded for another. Their team is much deeper than ours. Yet they continue to add pieces in any way possible.
We on the other hand, have multiple open roster spots, but think we can't add talent in the 2nd round. It would be way too difficult to make this "tough & deep" roster. Meanwhile, we're likely to spend about $20 million annually on TWO former 2nd round picks!!!
Selling the pick benefits ONE person. Ted Leonsis. It doesn't give the team the best chance of improving. Arguing otherwise is simply being a blind homer.
Some random troll wrote:Not to sound negative, but this team is owned by an arrogant cheapskate, managed by a moron and coached by an idiot. Recipe for disaster.
