Bradley Beal

[GswSucks4Ever]

Also look at Klay Thompson's first month with the warriors, he was absolute ass. Just saying this because Bradley Beal has WAY more potential

[Wizardspride]

@CCJ

I don't think being drafted into a "messed up culture" has anything to do with Beal's struggles.


Rather, I think Beal's struggles are due primarily to his inability to create his own shot.

And frankly, I don't think that's going to change.

This is blatantly false. Culture and the support around the player is not everything, but it's a huge part. Saying the environment around a 19 year old doesn't matter... that's ridiculous

Yes. I agree that the culture and player support is a huge part.

But I don't happen to think that the CURRENT culture of the Wizards is bad.


So yeah, I stand by my previous post, "Beal's struggles are due primarily to his inability to create his own shot".

[blazinskillz]

I mean tho......He's only 19 lol

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

@CCJ

I don't think being drafted into a "messed up culture" has anything to do with Beal's struggles.


Rather, I think Beal's struggles are due primarily to his inability to create his own shot.

And frankly, I don't think that's going to change.

This is blatantly false. Culture and the support around the player is not everything, but it's a huge part. Saying the environment around a 19 year old doesn't matter... that's ridiculous

Beal is simply shying away from the moment. Following his first underwhelming performance, Beal didn't say he would score thirty or even twenty, he said he would be assertive, more aggressive and it didn't happen though being more aggressive is far more in the control of a player than guaranteeing an offensive outburst. Beal is overwhelmed right now and deferring to teammates with less talent than himself. I think too much is being made about his age right now. No one is asking him to carry the team or even finish as the team's second leading scorer after a game, just show yourself to be legit additional firepower. I think he's gonna be alright but I didn't expect him to shy away from being the focal point on offense considering all the injuries and what not.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Also look at Klay Thompson's first month with the warriors, he was absolute ass. Just saying this because Bradley Beal has WAY more potential

Please visit more often, GswSucks.

Sometimes I think I'm responding to Ernie Grunfeld's family members in this forum.

Others seem very insensitive to what contributes to success and failure. If any of the people who post here have ever had to train employees, mentor, supervise, lead, or serve in the military, etc. they would realize you do not put the least prepared in key positions and expect immediate success.

Lessons learned after someone fails should help you be prepared the next time, but with so much coaching and personnel turnover; but with the same general manager--the mistakes are cyclic. EG is so much more the problem than two bad games of Beal, it isn't funny. Wittman is the guy who should be anticipating what Beal may do ahead of time. The smart thing would have been start Crawford and let Beal scratch and claw and beat him out, with no pressure or spotlight.

Should Beal start because he was the #3 pick?

Hell to the no!

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... nko01.html

The link above shows the career of a great NBA SG. Look at what Kobe did as an 18-year old rookie. How many games did Bryant start??? He played a whole season as a non-starter. When he was 19 years old, like Beal, and after a full NBA season on the bench, how many games did Kobe start? The Lakers allowed Kobe two full seasons as a non-starter behind Eddie Jones. Kobe guy sucked many a game as a rookie, too. He was allowed to mature over time with very little pressure.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/box ... 80PHI.html

Wade was good right away and started right away -- And he was also 22 years old! Beal is just 19 years old. Who do people expect him to be, Magic Johnson?

People worried about Beal need to understand you should be worried about the coaching, management, and ownership. Those guys are collectively not as good as Shelvin Mack.

The thing to do with Beal is don't start him until Wall gets back. This guy and Wall belong together. Fire the coaching staff and start all over if they allow Jordan Crawford or any other lesser player to cloud the future of the true talent on this team. Wall is fast and athletic but not a player I like that much--but he can be GREAT with Beal. Crawford has swagger, can score, can pass, and if he learns shot discretion at an extraordinarily remarkable rate MIGHT be good off the bench. But for now, let him face NBA starters while the Wizards have many players injured.

Take the pressure off of Beal.

[GswSucks4Ever]

Trust me from a warriors fan suffering through Chris Cohan's ownership. Plenty of potential all-star talent went through the Warriors organization but we made the playoffs ONCE, with only one all-star appearance (Sprewell) in the past 15+ years.

Compare that organization to the one run by Joe Lacob and Jerry West, where developing and growing talent is the #1 objective. Coming in he didn't just change the players, he completely changed his brain trust, GM, talent evaluators, coach etc.

It's not enough just to draft high potential guys like Brandon Wright, Anthony Randolph, John Wall, Bradley Beal. Are the Spurs just really lucky to find gems in the late rounds that have better careers then lottery picks? Maybe showing up to practice and having professionals like Pop, Duncan, Robinson, Ginobili has some kind of effect?

Year after year of lottery picks, and not improving you realize it's not only the players. It's really a **** simple formula to have a good team, and if you're not at least .500 it's pretty clear the owner's main objective is not winning basketball games.

1) Hire an ANALYTICAL GM, this is the most important thing. Stay away from former players unless they have a solid grasp on Stastical Analysis. NOBODY can watch 30 teams, and 500+ Players, it's impossible, they need to understand how to use numbers to make better decisions.

2) Bring in a coaching staff that has a similar vision as the GM, if the GM is building for the future the coach has a strong emphasis on player development, if they're a playoff team they don't burn out starters to eek out a few more wins etc.

3) Don't draft knuckleheads, No matter what, just don't do it. Even if the kid is extremely talented the dysfunction he'll create on and off the court doesn't justify it. You'll spend 3+ years developing the kid, then realizing there is no way in hell you want him as a leader. And BOOM you just wasted 5 seasons. If there is no one that you want to draft and you feel like you're drafting the next Jimmer, trade the pick there are enough dumb GM's that want it.

[penbeast0]

Also look at Klay Thompson's first month with the warriors, he was absolute ass. Just saying this because Bradley Beal has WAY more potential

Please visit more often, GswSucks.

Sometimes I think I'm responding to Ernie Grunfeld's family members in this forum.

Others seem very insensitive to what contributes to success and failure. If any of the people who post here have ever had to train employees, mentor, supervise, lead, or serve in the military, etc. they would realize you do not put the least prepared in key positions and expect immediate success.

Lessons learned after someone fails should help you be prepared the next time, but with so much coaching and personnel turnover; but with the same general manager--the mistakes are cyclic. EG is so much more the problem than two bad games of Beal, it isn't funny. Wittman is the guy who should be anticipating what Beal may do ahead of time. The smart thing would have been start Crawford and let Beal scratch and claw and beat him out, with no pressure or spotlight.

Should Beal start because he was the #3 pick?

Hell to the no!

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... nko01.html

The link above shows the career of a great NBA SG. Look at what Kobe did as an 18-year old rookie. How many games did Bryant start??? He played a whole season as a non-starter. When he was 19 years old, like Beal, and after a full NBA season on the bench, how many games did Kobe start? The Lakers allowed Kobe two full seasons as a non-starter behind Eddie Jones. Kobe guy sucked many a game as a rookie, too. He was allowed to mature over time with very little pressure.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/box ... 80PHI.html

Wade was good right away and started right away -- And he was also 22 years old! Beal is just 19 years old. Who do people expect him to be, Magic Johnson?

People worried about Beal need to understand you should be worried about the coaching, management, and ownership. Those guys are collectively not as good as Shelvin Mack.

The thing to do with Beal is don't start him until Wall gets back. This guy and Wall belong together. Fire the coaching staff and start all over if they allow Jordan Crawford or any other lesser player to cloud the future of the true talent on this team. Wall is fast and athletic but not a player I like that much--but he can be GREAT with Beal. Crawford has swagger, can score, can pass, and if he learns shot discretion at an extraordinarily remarkable rate MIGHT be good off the bench. But for now, let him face NBA starters while the Wizards have many players injured.

Take the pressure off of Beal.

To be fair, coming off the bench behind Eddie Jones (a very good NBA starter for a lot of years) is very different from coming off the bench behind Jordan Crawford (who is more clueless than Beal from what I've seen through the preseason).

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

True about Eddie Jones. Dude could ball. penbeast0, the Lakers did have the luxury of phasing Kobe in slowly. They were not even close to champions those years, however.

INSTEAD OF OKARIZA, what the Wizards needed to do was acquire a Rip Hamilton or a Ben Gordon or a Kevin Martin for Beal to play under for one or two seasons.

Good teams don't put NBA rookies on the "forward line of battle" with little to no preparation. Teams that are poorly managed do it all the time.

If I were a GM of the Wizards Jordan Crawford would have been traded after I drafted Beal. That there was such a great need at SG was an indictment of what the Wizards lacked--a great SG. But what the Wizards do is open a competition where Jordan is now the most confident SG. He is much more experienced than Beal, but this is just Blatche ahead of McGee in terms of young vs younger. Blatche hadn't done jack in the league and the Wizards had NO ONE over him. Flip tried to make AB be KG. Now, they have JC over BB. I am trying to say the young guys are not the problem. The management and coach are the problem.

Washington could have plucked someone like Gerald Henderson or Wes Matthews or Danny Green -- to play in front of Beal. He needed them more than Seraphin needed Okafor--particularly with Nene on the roster.

What I illustrated Kobe for wasn't to say Crawford is an excuse because he's no Eddie Jones. The Wizards should have had their Eddie Jones. LOU WILLIAMS was a no-brainer FA addition.

Lou Williams came out of HS, too. Hindsight is 20-20 but we mentioned Williams before EG went and did the wrong thing. Now folks are pointing fingers at Beal and Jordan Crawford is chirping.

I cannot say this from experience, but I imagine what is going on with the Wizards is like watching a military commander (company grade, field grade, or flag officer) get troops killed, because he never has a good NCO train them. For a senior leader to come back and say the troops were deficient and just couldn't cut it in the face of the opposition and deflect blame--that's what I see with the Wizards.

I think Ernie is really, really, really bad.

The Good News: Abraham Lincoln had some poor generals at the onset of the Civl War. The North lost many battles. Eventually, however, the Union Army prevailed and won the war. The Wizards can turn it around, too. They just need to stop the blood letting of their foot soldiers.

*****Stop looking at the failings of the players but instead look at the organizational structure of the Wizards. Any nepotism, cronyism, fraud, waste, abuse of power, insurrection etc. needs to be cut out. Ted Leonsis put out a fine vision statement. What EG has done has been to usurp that IMHO.

[payitforward]

Trust me from a warriors fan suffering through Chris Cohan's ownership. Plenty of potential all-star talent went through the Warriors organization but we made the playoffs ONCE, with only one all-star appearance (Sprewell) in the past 15+ years.

Compare that organization to the one run by Joe Lacob and Jerry West, where developing and growing talent is the #1 objective. Coming in he didn't just change the players, he completely changed his brain trust, GM, talent evaluators, coach etc.

It's not enough just to draft high potential guys like Brandon Wright, Anthony Randolph, John Wall, Bradley Beal. Are the Spurs just really lucky to find gems in the late rounds that have better careers then lottery picks? Maybe showing up to practice and having professionals like Pop, Duncan, Robinson, Ginobili has some kind of effect?

Year after year of lottery picks, and not improving you realize it's not only the players. It's really a **** simple formula to have a good team, and if you're not at least .500 it's pretty clear the owner's main objective is not winning basketball games.

1) Hire an ANALYTICAL GM, this is the most important thing. Stay away from former players unless they have a solid grasp on Stastical Analysis. NOBODY can watch 30 teams, and 500+ Players, it's impossible, they need to understand how to use numbers to make better decisions.

2) Bring in a coaching staff that has a similar vision as the GM, if the GM is building for the future the coach has a strong emphasis on player development, if they're a playoff team they don't burn out starters to eek out a few more wins etc.

3) Don't draft knuckleheads, No matter what, just don't do it. Even if the kid is extremely talented the dysfunction he'll create on and off the court doesn't justify it. You'll spend 3+ years developing the kid, then realizing there is no way in hell you want him as a leader. And BOOM you just wasted 5 seasons. If there is no one that you want to draft and you feel like you're drafting the next Jimmer, trade the pick there are enough dumb GM's that want it.

+1
But your #1 and #3 are in fact about players -- about how you make sure you're bringing in the best players. With the best players, most coaching staffs will produce outstanding results. A few coaches do manage to get a little more production out of players overall than those players have delivered elsewhere -- but not too many. Yes, Pop is among them, and Phil Jackson.

All the same, the results aren't in for Lacob/West/Jackson, though pretty much every direction was up from the previous regime.

[Higga]

Gswsucks might be the smartest opposing fan poster I've ever read. Agree 100% with everything you're saying.

[Nivek]

1) Hire an ANALYTICAL GM, this is the most important thing. Stay away from former players unless they have a solid grasp on Stastical Analysis. NOBODY can watch 30 teams, and 500+ Players, it's impossible, they need to understand how to use numbers to make better decisions.

Exactly right. Even if it was possible to watch every game of every team, it would still be vital to understand and employ statistical analysis to avoid confirmation bias and the reality that "watching" (even intently) often leads to faulty conclusions because of the way the brain processes information and how memory works. Having a front office TEAM that engages in both observation and statistical analysis is critical.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I would say even if you watch it is better to also know about and trust your instruments, in this case statistical tools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_flight_rules

Sometimes weather conditions are clear and visibility is okay. Pilots can use visual flight rules (VFR) safely in a given air space. However, at times the weather or conditions are tricky. Instrument flight conditions require a pilot who is trained to fly under instrument flight rules (IFR). JFK Jr., IIRC was not cleared to fly under IFR conditions when he attempted to hurriedly fly to a wedding. Unfortunately, he crashed and died along with his wife and her sister. I understand from reading on this that pilots can sometimes be flying upside down and think they can see the ground. When EG and Ted get a "respected veteran" I think they could have the NBA Executive version of vertigo.

I believe it is really easy to watch a player and think you see one thing, but that player has a history of numbers that show a truer picture. I use the stats for the story more than what I see.

[Kanyewest]

I just think it was a bad idea to put him in the starting lineup. That puts pressure on him to produce right away. Better to let him come off the bench.

I assume that Beal played better than Crawford in the preseason. Plus I would say that the fair share of top 10 picks are starting (Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Waiters, Barnes, Lillard). He's only playing around 22 minutes per game anyways. Ultimately, let's just let Beal play this out and hopefully he can develop into a consistent player.

[tontoz]

I just think it was a bad idea to put him in the starting lineup. That puts pressure on him to produce right away. Better to let him come off the bench.

I assume that Beal played better than Crawford in the preseason. Plus I would say that the fair share of top 10 picks are starting (Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Waiters, Barnes, Lillard). He's only playing around 22 minutes per game anyways. Ultimately, let's just let Beal play this out and hopefully he can develop into a consistent player.

There aren't too many 19 yr old rookies starting.

I just don't see the point in starting him right off the bat. Let him get his feet wet first. If he continues to play poorly then that puts the coach in an awkward spot. Should Randy bench him which would surely hurt Beal's confidence or continue to start him and hurt the team?

If he starts the season coming off the bench there is no dilema.

[Nivek]

Beal did play better than Crawford in the preseason. Much better.

Crawford had one awful game and one good game. His career to-date suggests more awful games to come.

[Mel Proctor]

There may not be too many 19 year olds starting. But there is at least one 20 year old. His name is Dion Waiters. He was the guy that made Beal look like a fool on the court. And he is the guy that, as of right now, is making Ernie look even worse. I've watched both the Wiz and the Cavs this year. Waiters passes the eye test. He creates his own shot and doesn't rely on Kyrie. So far, Beal utterly fails the eye test.

I hope I am wrong, but am EXTREMELY worried that Beal is a major bust, like in the Vesely mold. How can one organization consistently fail to make the correct picks in the lottery? It actually is quite amazing to get it wrong 90% of the time. The only correct lottery pick I can think of in the past decade is Wall over Evan Turner.

[tontoz]

There may not be too many 19 year olds starting. But there is at least one 20 year old. His name is Dion Waiters. He was the guy that made Beal look like a fool on the court. And he is the guy that, as of right now, is making Ernie look even worse. I've watched both the Wiz and the Cavs this year. Waiters passes the eye test. He creates his own shot and doesn't rely on Kyrie. So far, Beal utterly fails the eye test.

I hope I am wrong, but am EXTREMELY worried that Beal is a major bust, like in the Vesely mold. How can one organization consistently fail to make the correct picks in the lottery? It actually is quite amazing to get it wrong 90% of the time. The only correct lottery pick I can think of in the past decade is Wall over Evan Turner.

If Waiters turns out better than Beal than it won't be just EG who got it wrong. I don't remember seeing anyone rating Waiters higher than Beal before the draft.

[Nivek]

Two games. 43 total minutes.

Lemme say that again: Two games. 43 total minutes.

Beal's freshman year compared well with guys like Vince Carter, Clyde Drexler, and Michael Jordan. It's of course possible the Beal could be a bust. But, Two games. 43 total minutes.

Calm down people. If he's still playing like ass after 20 games, then panic.

[Higga]

Two games. 43 total minutes.

Lemme say that again: Two games. 43 total minutes.

Beal's freshman year compared well with guys like Vince Carter, Clyde Drexler, and Michael Jordan. It's of course possible the Beal could be a bust. But, Two games. 43 total minutes.

Calm down people. If he's still playing like ass after 20 games, then panic.

He's a 19 year old rookie. He'll struggle a lot, especially without Wall.

You draft a guy like that because 2-3 years from now he could be an All-Star. It's about the long term.

He'll be fine. Let him play, gain experience, and develop. This is one of the reasons we suck. No commitment to player development.

[Nivek]

Just tweeted this -- teenage rookies whose first two games were similar to Beal's: Stephon Marbury, Xavier Henry, Tony Parker, JR Smith, CJ Miles

http://bkref.com/tiny/YqGDr