GT#2 Round 2: Washington Wizards @ Atlanta Hawks 5-5-15 8PM Philips Arena on TNT

[dckingsfan]

I think the Wizards offense is a bit different in the playoffs. They're taking (and making) more 3s, that's for sure.

Also, I don't have stats, but it looks like Beal, at least, is taking it to the hole a lot more per game than during the regular season.

Threes at a decent rate, drives to the cup, and FTs. These are the makings of a good offense.

More importantly - who starts the next thread? Who has a good winning streak?

It doesn't matter who start the freanking thread.

Wizards are going to win because they are the better team and ATL sucks on the road in the playoffs.

Damn, you just jinxed us Ji

[closg00]

I said he was better than Miller for the team, but I stop there. Why! It's for the reason I posed the question that you dodged Zard. Why was it that Beal had to play even a second as our PG yesterday? Why was Sessions benched early in the game?

I really don't recall Sessions being benched early in the game. If so, I don't think it had anything to do with him not playing well. Do you know something different...other than speculation?

Ramon's a vet and I suspect Witt trusts him...certainly more than the NBDL players you wanted the Zards to sign.

Since you are pretending that Beal was not running point for Sessions early in the game, here was the real-time reaction during the game.
Who Witt would theoretically trust for players not actually on the team? that is speculation on your part.

Lol, Beal is our PG. I knew this was coming.

Randy has no confidence in Bynum obviously or Rasual Butler.

Then it was Temple

Temple at the point. I think we'll need to see Bynum soon enough.

Nice fastbreak finish from Otto!

So if we're going to play Beal at the point, Temple is useless. He can't shoot and he has to be rusty defensively. Other than that, great move by Randy getting him in there.

What does it say about Ernie that his SG has to run the point with Sessions and Bynum on the bench.

Beal is not a PG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does it say about Ernie that his SG has to run the point with Sessions and Bynum on the bench.

What's it say about Wittman that he still hasn't recognized Beal's deficiencies handling the rock?

Can't believe I'm going to watch a whole game of Beal at PG.

[Hidden Eye]

The wizards did a good job holding the score close until the last 7 mintues in the 4th. Only so much you can do that's when the game was unreachable. When is Nene going to make a basket. The Hawks made too many threes and transition points made it look easy on their part.

I think it was down 4 with 5 mins to go and then they lost Gortat.

When you review the game in your head, they were right there.

But

No Wall. No Gortat.

Come on. Closing that out like that was near impossible.

Well Bradley was chucking up bricks and Nene was playing like Kwame Brown.

[TheSecretWeapon]

The wizards did a good job holding the score close until the last 7 mintues in the 4th. Only so much you can do that's when the game was unreachable. When is Nene going to make a basket. The Hawks made too many threes and transition points made it look easy on their part.

I think it was down 4 with 5 mins to go and then they lost Gortat.

When you review the game in your head, they were right there.

But

No Wall. No Gortat.

Come on. Closing that out like that was near impossible.

Well Bradley was chucking up bricks and Nene was playing like Kwame Brown.

Man, there's no reason to slur Kwame.

[DCZards]

I said he was better than Miller for the team, but I stop there. Why! It's for the reason I posed the question that you dodged Zard. Why was it that Beal had to play even a second as our PG yesterday? Why was Sessions benched early in the game?

Tell me again when Sessions was "benched early in the game." Hands says Ramon played the entire first quarter. Is hands wrong about that?

And why all the quotes from posters pointing out that Beal was playing PG? I never said Beal didn't play any PG against Atl. Beal runs the point occasionally when Wall in the game.

[hands11]

I don't think we even underperformed during the regular season - I think it was the way the team was built.

Come on DC. They clearly under performed in the reg season. They played little to no S4 line ups. That had a huge effect on Wall and Gortat. They could have had as big as a 10 game swing if they opened the floor. Totally different style and effect.
Ignoring that is making you sound like you are just missing everything that happened and is happening.

It is possible that I am ignorant to basketball. But from what I saw, Wittman felt he needed to go big with the lineups. Remember, his wings at the beginning of the season were Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce, Garrett Temple, Otto Porter Jr., Rasual Butler and the injured Martell Webster.

Otto was coming off a horrible rookie year and really didn't play well at the beginning of the season. Temple and Butler played out of their heads. But to think that you would have moved PP to the S4 - meh. And I will add that Beal had long stretches of playing poorly.

AND we won a lot of games at the beginning of the season. We played a VERY easy schedule. And then I think teams caught onto us/didn't take us lightly. Wall got tired playing all those minutes (remember how badly Miller was playing?).

As I recall you had a thread on Seraphin's breakout year - so, you wanted a stretch 4 and to play Seraphin. meh

We were also fortunate to give up so few games to injuries.

That's my take - I think they are a mid 40s regular season team. I guess if I had predicted more wins - I would agree with you. Or less wins and I would say they over achieved.

But since they won 46 games, they are a 46 win team, right? Or do we just use facts when convenient?

Lots wrong in that post.

For starters, Rasual, Beal, Webster... none of that has anything to do with playing Gooden at S4. Something I said during preseason and throughout the year.

2nd.. The KLife thread was a post about an article I shared with the board. The title was from the article. Not me.

Why do people have such a hard time distinguishing between sharing information, saying what they will do and understanding what a poster would prefer they do ?

Lets be clear. I wanted Gooden getting S4 minutes.

I would love for any player on the team to get better. I will root for them all most the time. Very few people piss me off so badly that I don't want to see them play better as Wizards. Even when my ultimate goal is to trade them for higher value.

If KLife plays well. I will post about it. I will also share whatever information I find on player.

KLife can contribute. He is better in some line ups them others. I have been clear on my view of that.

But for this team. This year. For the betterment of Gortat and Wall. Gooden should have been a regular in the rotation. Nene, Hump, KLife. They should have all filled in as needed. Nimble rotations. That is what I said.

Gortat a core piece. And Gooden with Gortat and Wall to open the floor. PP used in the post season at S4 like they are doing.

[closg00]

I said he was better than Miller for the team, but I stop there. Why! It's for the reason I posed the question that you dodged Zard. Why was it that Beal had to play even a second as our PG yesterday? Why was Sessions benched early in the game?

Tell me again when Sessions was "benched early in the game." Hands says Ramon played the entire first quarter. Is hands wrong about that?

And why all the quotes from posters pointing out that Beal was playing PG? I never said Beal didn't play any PG against Atl. Beal runs the point occasionally when Wall in the game.

You want the exact minute Sessions was on the bench? I believe Sessions was on the bench when I wrote:

What does it say about Ernie that his SG has to run the point with Sessions and Bynum on the bench.

This^ would have been around the time the Randy needed to call a TO. Sessions started the game, he was ass, then Randy had Beal running the point as was noted by posters watching the game (Did you even watch the game?) Sessions did bounce-back for a while.

In any case, Randy having to play Beal (coming off an ankle tweak) at PG early (Which he did), when we have Sessions as our back-up PG, supports why I am meh about Ramon.

[dckingsfan]

Come on DC. They clearly under performed in the reg season. They played little to no S4 line ups. That had a huge effect on Wall and Gortat. They could have had as big as a 10 game swing if they opened the floor. Totally different style and effect.
Ignoring that is making you sound like you are just missing everything that happened and is happening.

It is possible that I am ignorant to basketball. But from what I saw, Wittman felt he needed to go big with the lineups. Remember, his wings at the beginning of the season were Bradley Beal, Paul Pierce, Garrett Temple, Otto Porter Jr., Rasual Butler and the injured Martell Webster.

Otto was coming off a horrible rookie year and really didn't play well at the beginning of the season. Temple and Butler played out of their heads. But to think that you would have moved PP to the S4 - meh. And I will add that Beal had long stretches of playing poorly.

AND we won a lot of games at the beginning of the season. We played a VERY easy schedule. And then I think teams caught onto us/didn't take us lightly. Wall got tired playing all those minutes (remember how badly Miller was playing?).

As I recall you had a thread on Seraphin's breakout year - so, you wanted a stretch 4 and to play Seraphin. meh

We were also fortunate to give up so few games to injuries.

That's my take - I think they are a mid 40s regular season team. I guess if I had predicted more wins - I would agree with you. Or less wins and I would say they over achieved.

But since they won 46 games, they are a 46 win team, right? Or do we just use facts when convenient?

Lots wrong in that post.

For starters, Rasual, Beal, Webster... none of that has anything to do with playing Gooden at S4. Something I said during preseason and throughout the year.

2nd.. The KLife thread was a post about an article I shared with the board. The title was from the article. Not me.

Why do people have such a hard time distinguishing between sharing information, saying what they will do and understanding what a poster would prefer they do ?

Lets be clear. I wanted Gooden getting S4 minutes.

I would love for any player on the team to get better. I will root for them all most the time. Very few people piss me off so badly that I don't want to see them play better as Wizards.

If KLife plays well. I will post about it. I will also share whatever information I find on player.

KLife can contribute. He is better in some line ups them others. I have been clear on my view of that.

But for this team. This year. For the betterment of Gortat and Wall. Gooden should have been a regular in the rotation. Nene, Hump, KLife. They should have all filled in as needed. Nimble rotations. That is what I said.

Gortat a core piece. And Gooden with Gortat and Wall to open the floor. PP used in the post season at S4 like they are doing.

Yep, Gooden could have played more - But Humphries (higher paid player) and Nene (higher paid player) were playing really well there for a while during our winning stretch.

All gets back to choices - and I think Wittman (who is actually part of the team) made his.

This team is what this team is... And yes - Seraphin took some of Gooden's minutes - can't really have that one both ways.

Ignoring that is making you sound like you are just missing everything that happened and is happening

[hands11]

More importantly - who starts the next thread? Who has a good winning streak?

It doesn't matter who start the freanking thread.

Wizards are going to win because they are the better team and ATL sucks on the road in the playoffs.

Damn, you just jinxed us Ji

[hands11]

I said he was better than Miller for the team, but I stop there. Why! It's for the reason I posed the question that you dodged Zard. Why was it that Beal had to play even a second as our PG yesterday? Why was Sessions benched early in the game?

Tell me again when Sessions was "benched early in the game." Hands says Ramon played the entire first quarter. Is hands wrong about that?

And why all the quotes from posters pointing out that Beal was playing PG? I never said Beal didn't play any PG against Atl. Beal runs the point occasionally when Wall in the game.

Well if I am wrong its because the game flow data is wrong.

What I reported is exactly what is listed. He played the entire first, 1/2 the 2nd, all the 3rd and 10 mins of the 4th

[dobrojim]

we turned it over too many times (> 15)

didn't stay attached to shooters

Hands, Noah and Horford are very different players. Noah is annoying and not as good as
he was 2-3 years ago and has limited (being charitable) offensive skills. He thinks sidespin
on his shot is OK as opposed to an abomination. He could be a fit on a certain team but you
better have players that cover his weaknesses.

Horford can actually play on either side of the ball. Any team can use a player with the
range of skills he has.

Interesting that you choose to compare the 2 since they were teammates on UFL b2b's.
Noah peaked that first year, would have been 1st overall pick. Waited a year and IIRC,
Horford was taken ahead of him. And wisely so.

I know they are different. Ok course they are. Horford is offense. Noah is more defense.

I was looking at their similarities.

Mobile centers.
Annoying players that uses lots of hand checking and moving screens and whine after they actually get called for a foul.
But they are pretty much always fouling or moving.
He travels a lot.
Both kind of undersized for a true center.

[snip].

Not sure why i bother

Other than being 'bigs' from UFL they're not very similar at all. Noah is not undersized for a C.
Noah can't play the 4 given his lack of shooting. Horford would be undersized for a C but has enough
size/skill to make it work.

And thank goodness you're not our GM if you wouldn't want Horford who is definitely not
all offense (ask Nene). Consider this - ATL got off to a fast start last year, was in the top 2-3 in the conference.
Then Horford got hurt. They struggled and squeaked into the playoffs as 8th seed. This year Horford
was healthy and they convincingly won the #1 seed. I think that's more than a coincidence.
Horford would be an extremely desirable player to add to our team.

[tontoz]

Horford is a very good team defender as Beal found out the hard way. Sometimes he does get overwhelmed by bigger players (like Lopez) playing man D.

When i used to watch Atlanta he frustrated me because he didn't want to go to the basket. On a pick and roll he would take one or two steps towards the basket and stop. Frequently the guys passing to him would get a turnover because they would lead him with the pass and then he stopped rolling. He also rarely used to try to drive around slower bigs.

He seems to have gotten better about that and he has been money on his jumper for years. I would definitely take him here.