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Wizards in the Media Thread

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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1081 » by fishercob » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:51 pm

Zach Lowe on the Wiz today:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/winne ... -playoffs/

What a turnaround. Two weeks ago, the Wizards had stalled out. The young core consisted of John Wall, a legitimate star, and Bradley Beal, a second banana who hadn’t gotten better — or healthier. Otto Porter was on the fringes of the rotation — a Vine punch line. The rest of the team consisted of colorful fogies and two pricey starting bigs on the decline. The Wiz had no one else relevant in the same age band as Wall and Beal, and no one even just a few years older. That mishmash was the price of missed draft picks, poor player development, and get-rich-quick moves.

And then the first round happened. Randy Wittman flinging off the dunce cap and using Paul Pierce at power forward drew most of the attention, but two other story lines carry larger fundamental importance to the Wiz: the play of Porter and Gortat.

Porter’s emergence as a quality two-way player could realign the entire long-term trajectory of the franchise. They would have a real core, not just a duo in need of reinforcements everywhere. Porter enveloped DeRozan on defense; DeRozan shot 34 percent with Porter on the floor and 47 percent otherwise, per NBA.com. Porter still makes all the typical young-guy mistakes on defense, but the Wizards have realized he has the length and quickness to recover immediately:


Porter hit jumpers, murdered the glass, and made slicing off-ball cuts for easy buckets.

Gortat signed a five-year, $60 million contract last summer and then spent the first four months of this season losing crunch-time minutes to Kris Humphries. Washington didn’t need Gortat to be a star, but a 31-year-old regressing in the first season of a five-year deal is a problem. The Wiz want to pitch themselves as an attractive free-agency destination in need of just one more key piece, but they wouldn’t be able to do that with the regular-season versions of Gortat and Porter.

Gortat punched Barney in the freaking face. He shot 74 percent, finished everything near the bucket, aced his pick-and-roll dance with Wall, patrolled the interior, and dished assists at a career-best rate.

Beal is even driving more, per SportVU data, and driving with more speed and conviction — a big reason he doubled his free throw rate in this series. Lineups with Pierce at power forward flummoxed the Raps, and they hold promise in a potential second-round clash with the Hawks.

The Wizards are a team on the rise again. Let’s see if it lasts.


I don't agree with his characterization of Gortat, but I like the Otto dap.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1082 » by fishercob » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:53 pm

Ruzious wrote:
fishercob wrote:
montestewart wrote:Wait, you're in a band too?


Fixed.

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Quite simply, no.

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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1083 » by dobrojim » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:36 pm

further into that Grantland piece they defend Draymond Green as a potential max player
because he has B+ skills at dribbling, passing and shooting. I wonder how Otto Porter is
going to be looking when he has played as many games as Draymond.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1084 » by keynote » Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:00 pm

Partial transcription of the BS Report episode featuring Simmons and Widhorst, courtesy of our friends @ BF:

Windhorst: All the Wizards players last night were sitting in the front row at the Capitals game, and you can sense there team coming together, there might be something special developing in Washington. There just might be.

Simons: Now all of the sudden you have Wiz-Cavs in the [Eastern Conference] finals if that happens. Now it's Pierce-LeBron meet again? That's the best Eastern storyline right?

Windhorst: Yeah, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, but Wizards, I'm telling you, your boy House has some great tweets the other day with the #WittmanPlayingChess. You know, with the idea that he was playing possum, playing rope-a-dope and all of the sudden, broke out the REAL game plan.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1085 » by TheSecretWeapon » Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:56 am

I love the positive talk and everything, but I'm not sure four games has ever changed so much.

On the other hand, the Wizards basically did EVERYTHING in those four games that the critics have wanted. Nenê as the backup C. Pierce at PF. Shooting threes instead of long twos. If they keep doing those things...maybe the folks suggesting Wittman cost them 10 wins were right. :nod:

It's odd to see a team so significantly change what they do. Welcome, but odd.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1086 » by FreeBalling » Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:20 am

TheSecretWeapon wrote:I love the positive talk and everything, but I'm not sure four games has ever changed so much.

On the other hand, the Wizards basically did EVERYTHING in those four games that the critics have wanted. Nenê as the backup C. Pierce at PF. Shooting threes instead of long twos. If they keep doing those things...maybe the folks suggesting Wittman cost them 10 wins were right. :nod:

It's odd to see a team so significantly change what they do. Welcome, but odd.


Witt was on 106.7 and addressed the new look offense. His main point was having players rested for the playoffs. Then Witt talked about playing "The Truth" as a stretch 4. Witt did not want bigger PF's grinding down "The Truth" in the regular season.

The spacing on the floor and ball movement is fun to watch. I just hope we do not resort back to hero ball when it's crunch time.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1087 » by TheSecretWeapon » Thu Apr 30, 2015 2:08 am

FreeBalling wrote:
TheSecretWeapon wrote:I love the positive talk and everything, but I'm not sure four games has ever changed so much.

On the other hand, the Wizards basically did EVERYTHING in those four games that the critics have wanted. Nenê as the backup C. Pierce at PF. Shooting threes instead of long twos. If they keep doing those things...maybe the folks suggesting Wittman cost them 10 wins were right. :nod:

It's odd to see a team so significantly change what they do. Welcome, but odd.


Witt was on 106.7 and addressed the new look offense. His main point was having players rested for the playoffs. Then Witt talked about playing "The Truth" as a stretch 4. Witt did not want bigger PF's grinding down "The Truth" in the regular season.

The spacing on the floor and ball movement is fun to watch. I just hope we do not resort back to hero ball when it's crunch time.


I heard that interview. Seemed like BS to me -- there were a lot of things he could have done to help the team win more games without grinding Pierce down -- including giving Pierce some minutes at PF (and Porter more at SF), fewer minutes to Seraphin, run a modern professional offense. But, better late than never, I guess. :)
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1088 » by fishercob » Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:36 pm

TheSecretWeapon wrote:
FreeBalling wrote:
TheSecretWeapon wrote:I love the positive talk and everything, but I'm not sure four games has ever changed so much.

On the other hand, the Wizards basically did EVERYTHING in those four games that the critics have wanted. Nenê as the backup C. Pierce at PF. Shooting threes instead of long twos. If they keep doing those things...maybe the folks suggesting Wittman cost them 10 wins were right. :nod:

It's odd to see a team so significantly change what they do. Welcome, but odd.


Witt was on 106.7 and addressed the new look offense. His main point was having players rested for the playoffs. Then Witt talked about playing "The Truth" as a stretch 4. Witt did not want bigger PF's grinding down "The Truth" in the regular season.

The spacing on the floor and ball movement is fun to watch. I just hope we do not resort back to hero ball when it's crunch time.


I heard that interview. Seemed like BS to me -- there were a lot of things he could have done to help the team win more games without grinding Pierce down -- including giving Pierce some minutes at PF (and Porter more at SF), fewer minutes to Seraphin, run a modern professional offense. But, better late than never, I guess. :)


Yeah. While the notion of not wanting to grind Pierce down defending 4's all season does hold some water, the fact that it was used so sparingly still makes no sense. But as long as Randy keeps using it, I'm good (for now).
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1089 » by dobrojim » Thu Apr 30, 2015 6:53 pm

What's interesting to me is the question of how the responsibility for their stunning improvement in ORtg
should be apportioned:

1. TOR didn't play playoff caliber defense

2. We finally played with a stretch 4

3. small sample size normal variation (we just got hot for 4 games)
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1090 » by nate33 » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:01 pm

I was traveling a lot and listened to a bunch of NBA podcasts over the past few days. There was definitely a lot of praise for Washington, but mostly it was just criticism of Toronto. One thing that bugged me a bit is that everyone was attributing Washington's good play to either John Wall or Paul Pierce. Both guys have been really good to be sure, but the real difference maker has been Gortat. He has been an absolute monster at both ends of the floor. I don't think people properly understand how effective Gortat has been at snuffing out pick and rolls. He's essentially been Prime Joakim Noah on defense while also posting an ORtg of 133 with a 20% USG%.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1091 » by tontoz » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:09 pm

fishercob wrote:
TheSecretWeapon wrote:
FreeBalling wrote:
Witt was on 106.7 and addressed the new look offense. His main point was having players rested for the playoffs. Then Witt talked about playing "The Truth" as a stretch 4. Witt did not want bigger PF's grinding down "The Truth" in the regular season.

The spacing on the floor and ball movement is fun to watch. I just hope we do not resort back to hero ball when it's crunch time.


I heard that interview. Seemed like BS to me -- there were a lot of things he could have done to help the team win more games without grinding Pierce down -- including giving Pierce some minutes at PF (and Porter more at SF), fewer minutes to Seraphin, run a modern professional offense. But, better late than never, I guess. :)


Yeah. While the notion of not wanting to grind Pierce down defending 4's all season does hold some water, the fact that it was used so sparingly still makes no sense. But as long as Randy keeps using it, I'm good (for now).




Considering the way the offense used to bog down in 4th quarters i don't see why they couldn't use it at times to finish games. They were 28th in the league in 4th quarter scoring.

Instead Randy used Seraphin to finish games while Gortat rode the pine. :crazy:
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1092 » by dobrojim » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:12 pm

+1

FG% 74, 10 boards 2 blocks, 3 assists

If Gortat continues to shoot (Thanks John Wall) and play that well, we will have a very
good chance to be competitive.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1093 » by dobrojim » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:15 pm

Wizards had 4 guys that shot >/= 50% from 3 against TOR.
Sessions (how long can this last?)
Pierce and Porter
Gooden

could be an unsustainable pace for each of them.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1094 » by TheSecretWeapon » Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:22 pm

dobrojim wrote:What's interesting to me is the question of how the responsibility for their stunning improvement in ORtg
should be apportioned:

1. TOR didn't play playoff caliber defense

2. We finally played with a stretch 4

3. small sample size normal variation (we just got hot for 4 games)


Some of all this, I suspect. Toronto wasn't a good defensive team during the regular season. The Wizards DID finally play a stretch four. AND small sample size.

Out of curiosity, I just ran a quick check on the regular season to see if the Wizards had any 4-game stretch where they shot this many threes as a percentage of their FGA. The answer: not really. In the four games against Toronto, 29.6% of Washington's FGA were 3pt attempts. The closest they came to this during the regular season was a four-game stretch from Feb 28 to March 7 (opponents were Detroit, Chicago, Miami and Milwaukee). During that regular season stretch, 28.6% of their FGA were 3pt attempts.

On the defensive side, Toronto yielded 3pt attempts at about league average during the regular season, so this wasn't a case of a team that just allowed lots of threes. Interestingly, the team that allowed the highest percentage of opponent 3pt attempts -- Atlanta. The Hawks did a decent job of keeping the opponent 3pt FG% down -- 7th best.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1095 » by Kanyewest » Fri May 1, 2015 5:20 am

fishercob wrote:Amin Elhassan rips Gortat pretty hard starting around the 46-minute park.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/grantland/ ... d=12757122


I heard this podcast too characterizing Gortat as a frontrunner. I will say that Gortat has had decent games against the better big men of the league since being in Washington including Hibbert, Cousins, and Al Jefferson. But there are times where he has been inconsistent but that is true of any player. I will agree with Phil Cheneir's assessment of Gortat though that Gortat's effort on the defensive end is relative to how well his offensive game is going.

Anyways, I am interested to see if the frontrunner theory is at all viable one going forward. Perhaps Gortat can rack up big numbers against guys like Jonas and Amir Johnson- but can he do the same thing against Horford or Lopez? Gortat did stuggle a bit in the postseason against the Bulls.

Of course, Amin as with any person can have opinions that are wrong. He did suggest that Klay Thompson was not as important of a player as Iguodala going into the season. He has bet against Nerlen Noel as a winning player. But then again, he was with Gortat when he was working for them. Of course, perhaps Gortat has evolved as a player since then- at least that's what I hope.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1096 » by CntOutSmrtCrazy » Fri May 1, 2015 1:42 pm

dobrojim wrote:Wizards had 4 guys that shot >/= 50% from 3 against TOR.
Sessions (how long can this last?)
Pierce and Porter
Gooden

could be an unsustainable pace for each of them.


I don't really we need to lean on Sessions to keep making three at the rate he did, he was 2-5 through the first three games and 3-4 from deep the last game when nobody noticed.

Pierce I'm not worried about but we'll have to wait and see if Porter's confidence and play carries over.

Gooden is streaky so who knows.

On the other hand, Beal didn't really shoot well from three in the series so maybe we could see some improvement from him to make up for some regressions in others.
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1097 » by DaRealHibachi » Fri May 1, 2015 5:37 pm

Wow... :-?

Critt wasn't playing with Gil at the time I guess..

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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1098 » by dlts20 » Fri May 1, 2015 9:27 pm

ESPN's David Thorpe has Wall as the playoff MVP so far
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1099 » by keynote » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:01 pm

Matt Moore's write-up on the Wizards' shift towards a small ball philosophy, courtesy of CBS Sports:

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25275000/examining-the-washington-wizards-and-the-smallball-nba-craze
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Re: Wizards in the Media Thread 

Post#1100 » by dobrojim » Mon Apr 4, 2016 4:29 pm

bump

I'm really sick of Buck and Phil talking about how great Morris is. I mean he's not awful
but he certainly isn't great either. Buck says he's been 'terrific'. Hyperbole. The trade
to obtain him is terrific in the original, not modern sense of the word terrific, as in
it was a terrific explosion.

Oh and yesterday Buck said Big Balls was a good shooter. OMG. If he was a good shooter,
maybe he'd still be in the league playing somewhere.
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