Tapscott is an Idiot Playing Jamison & Butler 40 Mins

[hands11]

Come on CCJ, are you really comparing the Hawks youngsters to ours? Horford, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, and Childress last year were way better than any of the youngters on our team this year. Heck, I'd trade any one of them for our youngsters in a heartbeat right now, except for maybe McGee and that is based on potential alone.

While I can understand why some people are high on some of our young guys for their potential, I just can't understand why some people think they are that good right now. While Young has had 4-5 good scoring games, he has basically been a "scorer" that can't score, and has contributed little else to this team. Blatche is in his fourth year and while he has played ok in stretches, I don't think he even comes close to the quality of the play of Horford, a rookie. McGee definitely has the heart and atheleticism to be a good player, he clearly does not understand the nuances of the game. Crit has shown promise, but can't hit an open shot to save his life. These players have holes in their games that are much bigger than the Hawks youngsters last year.

I think your opinion, just like a lot of others on this board, is just based on the "grass must be greener" on the other side approach. People liked to argue that this team would play better if there was a different coach. Well, we have a different coach and the team still sucks. People argued that we would play better if Caron was switched to the 2. Well, that has happened and we still suck. People argued that the Wiz would play better if the line-ups were changed. Well, Taps inserted McGuire and Blatche in the starting line-up and we still sucked. I know some people don't want to admit to themselves that this team is not very good right now, but the fact is the Wiz aren't. They got two "all-star" vets who do not play very good defense and are not prepared to carry the team on their own, a few substandard vets, and a bunch of youngsters that are not ready to play at a high level.

I think everyone will agree to play the youngsters more. I think we will eventually see that happen as we get closer to the end of the year (at least I hope). At that point, we'll see who is right on how much better we will be with increased minutes with the youngsters. So far, our youngsters have seen some increase in minutes (especially McGuire and Crit), with no change in results. I expect to see that continue the rest of the season.

Nowhere did I say the Wizards youngsters are better than the Hawks of last season.

The Wizards youngsters are better than the Wizards veterans who are responsible for this team having only 10 wins.

Personally, I wouldn't sell this current crop of Wizards short and definitely wouldn't trade Blatche for Marvin Williams. I'm not real impressed with Young at all, but he's a great scorer, potentially. dandridge, you have to remember that even last season the only rookie for the Hawks was Horford.

I'm not going into any exhaustive argument because we obviously will disagree on this one. I say the young guys are better than the old guys on this team and I'll leave it at that.

Not sure if you said it this, but let me try. They may not be better but ..

- They are certainly more athletic
- Sucking at D is one of our main problems and while DSong gives effort, he is slow. AJ is AJ, etc
- Crit is clearly our only PG on the roster
- NY clearly more of a scorer then DSleezy as a SG and he has played some SF
- McGee clearly the only center on the roster and can jump like a rabbit, rebound and block shots
- DMAC is a good rebounder and decent defending looking for his offense.

They may not be better but they are way more athletic and have more energy to give on D. And as youngs, you can tell them what to do easier.

But as we saw from the NJ game, as of today, we are just going to get creamed playing them and the fans are going to boo them at home when they do. I think the booing is the part we want to avoid. When that starts to happen, things can go down hill pretty fast. No one wants to go to work and get booed.

In the NJ game we got to see what we look like with no CB and AJ not playing well. The youngs all posted decent numbers in decent minutes.. all except DMAC. AJ was way off. We lost by 27 and got booed.

But at least the younger players got mins and had some success. You can teach them from there.

Young or vets, we can't defend the 3 and our overall D sucks. We give up to many points. Question is, with more athletic teachable younger players, do they stand a better chance of getting it done ?

[Induveca]

This trend has begun to make me lose faith in Grunfeld. The Daniels trade is looking as bad as I though it would come the trade deadline. A lot of point guards are getting injured around the league, and many teams are in need of vet leadership off the bench.

So what does Grunfeld do? Trades Daniels for an almost identical contract for no good reason other than to try and win now in an obviously lost season. He continues to allow his puppet Tapscott to play Butler/Jamison 40 minutes a night, risking them for no reason and endangering our season next year.

If Jamison isn't traded by the break, I'll have lost faith in Grunfeld. Jamison needs to get shipped out before he becomes worthless. Arenas/Butler/our top pick/Blatche/McGee are plenty to build around. We have no need of Jamison.

[nate33]

This trend has begun to make me lose faith in Grunfeld. The Daniels trade is looking as bad as I though it would come the trade deadline. A lot of point guards are getting injured around the league, and many teams are in need of vet leadership off the bench.

So what does Grunfeld do? Trades Daniels for an almost identical contract for no good reason other than to try and win now in an obviously lost season. He continues to allow his puppet Tapscott to play Butler/Jamison 40 minutes a night, risking them for no reason and endangering our season next year.

I hated the James/Daniels/Crittenton trade at the time because I didn't think Crittenton was worth a future 1st rounder and I knew that James was done. For a moment there, it looked like I was gonna be proven wrong about the AD/James part. James played real well his first few games here and really looked like he was going to play himself into being a tradeable commodity. Alas, he has been amazingly sucky for the past month and now it's going to require incentive to dump his contract.

[Kanyewest]

Eddie Tappscott picks on the young guys

It took Ed Tapscott about 15 minutes to come out and address the media. After speaking to the team he had Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton, JaVale McGee and Oleksiy Pecherov in his office, "getting in somebody's butt hole," according to Antawn Jamison.

I sure hope that quote was wrong. I hope that Tapscott wasn't reaming out those young guys for a poor performance against the Spurs. I hope that Tapscott is not so stupid as to think that there's ANYTHING those four players could have done in the meager time he allotted them in the first three quarters to affect the outcome of that game.

When the game was already out of reach (23 point lead by the Spurs), Tapscott made wholesale substitutions at the 8:05 mark of the fourth quarter and put in JaVale McGee, Young and Crittenton. Pecherov came in with 5:34 left in the game. Up until that point, Nick Young played a total of 3:45; McGee played a total of 4:53; and Pecherov had not played at all. Just to make sure I didn't miss anything, I went back to watch that final 8:05 of the fourth quarter. The youngsters didn't play particularly well. Sorry, I take that back - they didn't SHOOT particularly well; but then neither did Antawn Jamison or Andray Blatche when they were in the game earlier. But the young guys did show effort. They did try to close out on shooters. The Spurs only made two 3-point shots (after making 11 up to that point) and one of those was contested. The young Wizards didn't seem particularly organized on offense and turned the ball over twice - but they didn't look any more inept than Mike James or Juan Dixon had earlier in the game. I did not see anything in that 4th quarter that made me think: "Wow, those young players are really stinking up the joint"

I am very concerned about an apparent rift within the organization, and specifically a rift that appears to have been created by Tapscott and Jamison between the "youngsters" and the "veterans".

Veterans like Mike James, can apparently do no wrong, even when they play over 26 minutes, go 0-6, and allow their defensive assignment to go off for 25 points - including 5 WIDE OPEN 3-point shots.But if Javaris Crittenton makes a mistake and lingers on the baseline too long and allows his man to score on a fast break, Taps is immediately in his grill.

Veterans like Jamison can play 36 minutes, and chuck the ball up every time they touch it regardless if they're only shooting 6-17 from the field; but Nick Young gets yanked if he misses two shots in a row.

A veteran like Caron Butler can play 33 minutes, cheat the passing lanes so he can grab Sports Center highlight steals, and leave 3-point shooters like Michael Finley WIDE OPEN NINE TIMES; but McGee goes for a pump fake he gets yanked.

A veteran like Darius Songaila can play 27 minutes and secure exactly 2 whole rebounds. Pecherov gets 2 rebounds in 5 minutes but fails to box out once, he sits the bench for a week.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2009/2/22 ... nto-the-pr

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Cowards attack the little man and the weak.

Like EJ, Tapscott doesn't play the young guys nearly enough minutes.

Worse, like Doug Collins, Tapscott rips into young players and turns a blind eye to (defensively) woefully bad veterans.

Dat, I'm seeing Jamison a lot like you do these days if that quote above is correct.

[Benjammin]

I totally agree with the bulletsforever blogger. The youngsters are a convenient excuse to overlook the repeated failings, deficiencies, and poor efforts of the veterans. The youngsters are the whipping boys, the sacrificial lambs who must be punished for the sins of all. It's not a good way to develop talent and confidence.

I would totally be fine with a complete overhaul of this roster, starting with Jamison, for the right deal Butler, and if possible, the guys like Stevenson, Songaila, and certainly James. It makes me sick that the vets don't man up and take responsibility for their shortcomings and being realistic that the two most important players on the Wizards have not played this year. But for Jamison and Butler, our all-stars, that would be too much truth for them to swallow.

[fishercob]

But here's the thing. I'm not seeing this supposed "rift" in the form of insubordination by the kids. I'm not seeing any of them not joining the huddle during timeouts or anything like that.

One of my best coaches once told me he treats everyone fairly, but not everyone equally. The fact that Taps is investing his energy reaming out those four shows that he cares about their development. I bet he's not too hard on James, because James is a lost cause and has no real future with this team.

I know it's frustrating as a fan, but I don't think the only right way to develop these guys is giving them big minutes. Would I play them more? Absolutely. But I'm not seeing evidence of this so called rift. I mean, McGuire's a kid. He's getting major minutes. So he's obviously doing something that the coaches want that Young and Mcgee aren't. Etan's a vet. before his injury, he hardly saw the court. So I really don't buy what's being sold here.

[hands11]

Cowards attack the little man and the weak.

Like EJ, Tapscott doesn't play the young guys nearly enough minutes.

Worse, like Doug Collins, Tapscott rips into young players and turns a blind eye to (defensively) woefully bad veterans.

Dat, I'm seeing Jamison a lot like you do these days if that quote above is correct.

I haven't cared a lot for some of AJ statements either but jumping all over Tapps at this stage of the game is jumping the gun. We don't even know what he said.

Tapps has mostly been cool and calm with these guys. Now ( maybe ) he is lighting a fire. As long as he can do both I'm ok with it. This is the same man that says, when you loose, you teach. When you win, you reward. He has also made a statement something like, you can only be called young players for so long. He is trying to bring these guys along. Isn't that what we want. We need someone who can motivate and challenge the younger players to get better. He will have to challenge the vets also, but right now isn't the time and he isn't even the official head coach.

I have read tons about how some posters want a coach that will get up in the players grill and hold them accountable. Sure, it would be great if it was across the board but lets be real for a moment. CB and AJ ... and SDong to a good degree have been playing pretty solid the whole year. In a year that totally sucked. This team made the playoffs the last 4 years. I'm sure this season has sucked for them but they never gave up and cashed it in. They have given a good... if not great effort. You can't expect the interim coach to jump on them.

But Tapps was a player development coach. He has worked with these young guys in the past. He has a relationship with them. I find nothing wrong with him calling them in to challenging them to be better then they are so they can compete against the best next year. They need to double their efforts. He preaches that they need to be " consistent " contributors. TALKING TO YOU NICK.

He has said he ( any head coach ) would rather get 8 pts every night then get 3 on night and 14 the next.

It just seems like people are looking for reasons to get down on this coach, the EG and this team when we have had enough real things to be down about... INJURIES being the biggest.

How about a little glass half full for a change.

1- We are getting healthier.
2 -Crit is playing way better. We finally have a quick young talented PG we plan to keep.
3 -McGee is going to be awesome. We finally have 2 legit centers
4 -DMAC can actually hit an outside shot and he is working over time to get better.
5 -Blathce can play more minutes and not foul out and he is maturing finally.
6 -Abe finally let EG fire EFJ
7 -Abe is willing to go over the cap to put us in the best position to do what we need.
8 -We may even get a top 3 draft pick
9- All of this leads to us being an attractive team for a top head coach.

Don't worry..... Be happy.

[hands11]

But here's the thing. I'm not seeing this supposed "rift" in the form of insubordination by the kids. I'm not seeing any of them not joining the huddle during timeouts or anything like that.

One of my best coaches once told me he treats everyone fairly, but not everyone equally. The fact that Taps is investing his energy reaming out those four shows that he cares about their development. I bet he's not too hard on James, because James is a lost cause and has no real future with this team.

I know it's frustrating as a fan, but I don't think the only right way to develop these guys is giving them big minutes. Would I play them more? Absolutely. But I'm not seeing evidence of this so called rift. I mean, McGuire's a kid. He's getting major minutes. So he's obviously doing something that the coaches want that Young and Mcgee aren't. Etan's a vet. before his injury, he hardly saw the court. So I really don't buy what's being sold here.

Wish I would have ready this before I wrote because it's right in line with what I was writing.

Not sure why more posters don't see this. They just seem to want to over simply everything and over react and takes thing out of context.

I think this season have really taken it toll on some RGM members. Maybe the Wiz can run a promo. RGM and Season ticket holders are allowed free visits to the team shrink.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I'm calling BS on all the positivity, hands.

What I'm specifically complaining about is selective criticism directed at Young and McGee when they barely played in a game where Jamison, James, and Butler got there asses handed to them by the Spurs and Roger Mason.

I'm not saying nothing's positive or that nothing good has happened while Tapscott's been coach.

What I am saying is it stupid as all hell to keep playing Jamison and Butler 40 minutes a game and it is unfair as hell to criticize the defense of Young and McGee when Jamison and James and at times Butler are leaving guys wide open all over the court. Why project all that frustration on them when they weren't even on the court in the third and early fourth quarter when the Wizards got destroyed?

I'm not buying the glass half full with respect to McGee or Young.

I will concede, however, that McGuire, Crittenton, and Blatche are young guys who are seemingly thriving under Tapscott.

Besides, more of my criticism is directed at Jamison for him inferring young guys are losing leads and playing terrible defense and deserve to be getting verbally reamed by the coach.

[hands11]

http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/outl ... -got-away/

So this is the source of what we are discussing?

Some blogger that quote AJ as saying that Tapps was getting in "someone butt hole"

I'm not sure that passes the bylaws of the players union. That stuff is usually reserved for jail
and male curtain shopping parties.

Look, we have no idea what was said. For all we know he was telling the kids, look, there are opportunities for you. Look how crappy the starters played. They are old farts that can't move enough to play D. Have you seen AJ try to play D? I would love to get in his butt hole. Maybe AJ misheard through the door. Kind of like the suicide bombers. Maybe there are no 100 virgins. Maybe it's a 100 Virginians.

Point is, what does AJ know about what he said. AJ is the one most people complain about saying stuff to begin with.

I haven't heard Tapps ripping the young players.

Besides, what is there to rip with DMAC, Blatche and Crit. They have all played/progressed well.
McGee. Hard to rip him. He is a rookie center who is still growing. Tapps would need a step later to get in his butt.

NY - I think there is room to get on him. He should be a more solid player by now. DMAC was wayyyyy more raw then NY and DMAC has blown by him in development. NY deserve some baby oil.

OP - dont know what to say there. Big man on a team short of big men and he can get 1 min. He must be doing something wrong. Maybe it's hemorrhoids from Tapps and the whole butt thing.

[hands11]

Eddie Tappscott picks on the young guys

It took Ed Tapscott about 15 minutes to come out and address the media. After speaking to the team he had Nick Young, Javaris Crittenton, JaVale McGee and Oleksiy Pecherov in his office, "getting in somebody's butt hole," according to Antawn Jamison.

I sure hope that quote was wrong. I hope that Tapscott wasn't reaming out those young guys for a poor performance against the Spurs. I hope that Tapscott is not so stupid as to think that there's ANYTHING those four players could have done in the meager time he allotted them in the first three quarters to affect the outcome of that game.

When the game was already out of reach (23 point lead by the Spurs), Tapscott made wholesale substitutions at the 8:05 mark of the fourth quarter and put in JaVale McGee, Young and Crittenton. Pecherov came in with 5:34 left in the game. Up until that point, Nick Young played a total of 3:45; McGee played a total of 4:53; and Pecherov had not played at all. Just to make sure I didn't miss anything, I went back to watch that final 8:05 of the fourth quarter. The youngsters didn't play particularly well. Sorry, I take that back - they didn't SHOOT particularly well; but then neither did Antawn Jamison or Andray Blatche when they were in the game earlier. But the young guys did show effort. They did try to close out on shooters. The Spurs only made two 3-point shots (after making 11 up to that point) and one of those was contested. The young Wizards didn't seem particularly organized on offense and turned the ball over twice - but they didn't look any more inept than Mike James or Juan Dixon had earlier in the game. I did not see anything in that 4th quarter that made me think: "Wow, those young players are really stinking up the joint"

I am very concerned about an apparent rift within the organization, and specifically a rift that appears to have been created by Tapscott and Jamison between the "youngsters" and the "veterans".

Veterans like Mike James, can apparently do no wrong, even when they play over 26 minutes, go 0-6, and allow their defensive assignment to go off for 25 points - including 5 WIDE OPEN 3-point shots.But if Javaris Crittenton makes a mistake and lingers on the baseline too long and allows his man to score on a fast break, Taps is immediately in his grill.

Veterans like Jamison can play 36 minutes, and chuck the ball up every time they touch it regardless if they're only shooting 6-17 from the field; but Nick Young gets yanked if he misses two shots in a row.

A veteran like Caron Butler can play 33 minutes, cheat the passing lanes so he can grab Sports Center highlight steals, and leave 3-point shooters like Michael Finley WIDE OPEN NINE TIMES; but McGee goes for a pump fake he gets yanked.

A veteran like Darius Songaila can play 27 minutes and secure exactly 2 whole rebounds. Pecherov gets 2 rebounds in 5 minutes but fails to box out once, he sits the bench for a week.

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2009/2/22 ... nto-the-pr

First, I want to say that I'm not at practices. I don't attend any meetings. I'm not around the team constantly. I watch the games on TV. I read the paper. I read blogs. So, maybe I've got a skewed perception on what's really going on inside the Wizards locker room - but from the outside looking in, it doesn't look pretty.


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