Cherrypicking a loss: Wiz vs Spurs

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

there's no use blaming the lack of cash or vets favoring DS for the loss of mason. bottom line: he's a good player and he wants to play on a good team. when we're healthy, we're still not as good as SA so Mason did the math there and jumped ship for greener pastures.

+1

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

no chance a rookie head coach would, or could do anything to stop gil from being gil. with the full support of Abe and EG, as well as being hands down the most talented player on the team, gil is licensed to shoot until he retires. the second the coach benches gil for taking too many shots, all gil has to do is put in a call to the front office and that guy would get canned before the preseason is over.

gil hasn't posted a blog entry since november. i wonder what's up with that. the uber hush-hushness of it all is kind of freaking me out. even tom brady has talked more to the media about his rehab and the pats are one of the most tight-lipped organizations in sports.

I think that was a very wise move for Gilbert to shut down the blog.

I view it as him showing humility, not putting the focus on himself with his teammates struggleing badly without him. Also, if there were any internal squabbles between him and management about his timetable to return, they weren't made public. Last, if the Wizards were to be tanking it's best they don't admit as much. Don't want Gil saying they're tanking in his blog.

Personally, I REALLY HOPE Gilbert is much healthier than my wildest imagination and is intentionally taking as long as possible to come back without raising any suspicion. There is NOTHING TO PLAY FOR this season with Tapscott an interim coach and the season hopelessly lost. (Gil IMO will probably be eased back into the lineup within a couple weeks.)

Gilbert's blog is something I haven't missed and I appreciate his silence at this time.

[hands11]

WASHINGTON (AP)—Oh, the humiliation! The player that got away, Roger Mason, comes back with the San Antonio Spurs and drops 25 points—on a night the awful Washington Wizards post their lowest points total in six years.

A season of embarrassment for president Ernie Grunfield’s front office hit another low Saturday as the travel-weary Spurs beat the Wizards 98-67. San Antonio wrapped up its annual rodeo road stretch with a 5-3 record, while Washington was left to wonder how much better than 30 games under .500 it would be if Mason were still playing in his hometown.

“That’s what we need,” Wizards forward Antawn Jamison said. “We need a veteran who knows how to play the game, a guy who can play multiple positions, a guy who can knock down big shots, a guy who is defensively sound. That’s a luxury we had last year, and that’s a luxury we don’t have this year.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2009022127

Shut-up!! Antwan, you & Gilbert got your cake, now you have to suffer the consequences.

Right. To bad AJ needed the money so bad after coming off a max contract that ended in 16M a year that there was nothing left to keep said player like he thing we need.

[hands11]

Good to see RM Jr killing us. Serious
Also good to see Young and Mcgee (8mins combined) getting some burn in this pointless game. Sarcasm

Also, funny quote by one of my friends who knows nothing about basketball, "No man that ugly should be named Fabricio"

Much as I just criticized Nick, nobody could be doing a better job of icing him than Tapscott has.

Javale definitely was doing better prior to Tapscott.

They got in in garbage time, but the play has been real chaotic and not productive.

I really don't think this had anything to do with Tapps. You drawing a correlation where there really isn't one. McGee played his first 11 games under EFJ at the start of the season when we had 2 PGs. He had some good games. Then teams adjusted to him. He started getting in foul trouble. He got a little lost. Such is the ways of a 7-0 rookie. Some highs.. some lows.

His best game was actually Nov 25th, the game Tapps took over. Tapps kept him starting another 9 games until Dec13th before starting Blatche in his place one game after we lost AD and Brown. I was actually calling for Tapps to do. Blatche was a better choice because he had more experience and better handles.

Also, McGee's 3 best games under EFJ were off the bench.

Look, this team had a lot going on this year. We had AD and D Brown those first games when McGee was playing better to begin the season. Again. Center and PG

We lost D Brown and AD on 12-11-09 McGee play went down after that.

Fact is, he has played his best most consistent ball of the year since 1-31-09

Not a surprising. Crit has been playing his best ball since then posting 3x 7 assist games.

People seem to keep looking for reasons to get on Tapps when I think he is doing a hell of a job given what he was dealt.

[hands11]

no chance a rookie head coach would, or could do anything to stop gil from being gil. with the full support of Abe and EG, as well as being hands down the most talented player on the team, gil is licensed to shoot until he retires. the second the coach benches gil for taking too many shots, all gil has to do is put in a call to the front office and that guy would get canned before the preseason is over.

gil hasn't posted a blog entry since november. i wonder what's up with that. the uber hush-hushness of it all is kind of freaking me out. even tom brady has talked more to the media about his rehab and the pats are one of the most tight-lipped organizations in sports.

This is bull.

Gill is signed. There is no more shinning sunshine up is Arss. He got paid, now it's time to do what EG and coach ask him to do. Hopefully they are already working this out behind closed doors.

If not, it won't be the first time a team had it dirty laundry aired in public.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Good to see RM Jr killing us. Serious
Also good to see Young and Mcgee (8mins combined) getting some burn in this pointless game. Sarcasm

Also, funny quote by one of my friends who knows nothing about basketball, "No man that ugly should be named Fabricio"

Much as I just criticized Nick, nobody could be doing a better job of icing him than Tapscott has.

Javale definitely was doing better prior to Tapscott.

They got in in garbage time, but the play has been real chaotic and not productive.

I really don't think this had anything to do with Tapps. You drawing a correlation where there really isn't one. McGee played his first 11 games under EFJ at the start of the season when we had 2 PGs. He had some good games. Then teams adjusted to him. He started getting in foul trouble. He got a little lost. Such is the ways of a 7-0 rookie. Some highs.. some lows.

His best game was actually Nov 25th, the game Tapps took over. Tapps kept him starting another 9 games until Dec13th before starting Blatche in his place one game after we lost AD and Brown. I was actually calling for Tapps to do. Blatche was a better choice because he had more experience and better handles.

Also, McGee's 3 best games under EFJ were off the bench.

Look, this team had a lot going on this year. We had AD and D Brown those first games when McGee was playing better to begin the season. Again. Center and PG

We lost D Brown and AD on 12-11-09 McGee play went down after that.

Fact is, he has played his best most consistent ball of the year since 1-31-09

Not a surprising. Crit has been playing his best ball since then posting 3x 7 assist games.

People seem to keep looking for reasons to get on Tapps when I think he is doing a hell of a job given what he was dealt.

Points all noted, hands. I really hadn't looked at anything more than the numerous 4 minute or less outings McGee had under Tapscott, even in losses.

[cwb3]

I'd like to believe that bits and pieces of our team are getting better by bits and pieces.
But then I watch a real professional basketball team like the Spurs play against the Wizards and the gap between them and us is just so depressingly HUGE.

You could (hypothetically) plug in a healthy Arenas and Haywood back on to the team tomorrow, and the Spurs would still crush us. The Wizards have such huge structural flaws with their offensive and defensive systems. They have no commanding leadership, and people's roles are so uncertain right now.

I fear it will take (assuming everyone returns and returns healthy) most of next year just to figure out how everyone will fit together again. And if the coaching and/or systems don't change, at best we will be a 40-45 win team, 1 and done in the playoffs. If the coaching and/or systems DO change, then next year is a learning year and likely also a lost year.

I think the Wizards have some talent, some nice pieces, but may be years (and a couple of adds/subtractions) away from becoming truly competative again. This year and last year really set the team back. (IMO and I hope I'm wrong).

[ZonkertheBrainless]

I think if we had a good defensive coach like Skiles or one of the Gundy's we could win 60 games next year if healthy. Really. This team is four weeks of intensive defensive practicing away from being an elite team. They have the ability to play good defense, but the system sucks. Ivan pointed out their primary problem is containing guards. That's BS. Their primary problem is helping on everything even when it's not necessary. They're predictable. And they don't know where they're supposed to be. That's all fixable.

[pancakes3]

+1 Zonker. Our biggest weakness is definitely help defense - doubling down to go for steals when we shouldn't, and bad rotations when man-to-man breaks down. There looks to be little chatter on the court on switches especially on pick and rolls. Critter likes to go over top of screens but James tends to slip under screens. Blatche stays with his man but McGee/Songaila like to switch. This discontinuity tells me that the coaching staff haven't really addressed this issue since probably training camp. This is why our defense sucks, not a lack of athletic ability.

any thought on hiring Terry Porter? JVG would be a solid get too.

[nate33]

There is bad blood between EG and JVG. JVG isn't coming here.

Mike Lee mentioned that Paul Silas wants the job. Didn't he coach Charlotte back when they had Rice, Mason and Zo? IIRC, they were pretty good back then and Silas was a big reason for the turnaround.

EDIT. Silas did coach Charlotte and helped them make a big turnaround, but I had most of the players wrong. He won 49 games in his first full season with a pretty lousy roster:

David Wesley
Bobby Phills
Eddie Jones
Derrick Coleman (as a surly 16 and 8 player, not the superstar with NJ)
Elden Campbell

Bench:
Anthony Mason (an over-the-hill 33-year old)
Baron Davis (a 20 year old rookie at the time)

[pancakes3]

how old is silas? I used to mix him and John Thompson up so maybe i'm overestimating his age.

[dobrojim]

Mason's better than Nick Young.

Yeah. I'm feeling a little stupid thinking back to the offseason when we
felt that losing RM wasn't going to be that big a deal since we had New York
waiting in the wings for those minutes.

[Benjammin]

how old is silas? I used to mix him and John Thompson up so maybe i'm overestimating his age.

Paul Silas will be 66 in July. I am not in favor of age discrimination, but I don't know that he would be high on my list. I'm sure Wes would probably put in a good word for him though.

[dobrojim]

Good to see RM Jr killing us. Serious
Also good to see Young and Mcgee (8mins combined) getting some burn in this pointless game. Sarcasm

Also, funny quote by one of my friends who knows nothing about basketball, "No man that ugly should be named Fabricio"

Much as I just criticized Nick, nobody could be doing a better job of icing him than Tapscott has.

Javale definitely was doing better prior to Tapscott.

They got in in garbage time, but the play has been real chaotic and not productive.

All fair points but the reality in this game was that it was closer when Songaila
was playing. AB was horrible. And for an extremely long period of time, the only
players on the floor for us who scored were AJ, CB and Songaila. DMac got a bucket!.
James didn't score. Neither did Critt. New York hace nada. SAN played great and
our kids couldn't do a damn thing.

All that said, Critt and Young both should have played more. There is no
particular reason to continue to play James more than 10-15 mpg his performance
vs NJ notwithstanding.