The Amazingly Sucky Flip Saunders Thread

[Wizards2Lottery]

Flame me, blast me, but it makes no **** sense to leave Stevenson in the game. I'm so sick of seeing him yank Young for the smallest mistakes while Stevenson continues to be the greatest brick layer in the history of the universe.

Caron is playing like **** all season yet Blatche can't take some of Butler's minutes even though Blatche has been awesome all year.

He was playing Young, McGee and Blatche and we were getting there!! We were **** getting there. But now were losing to the Clippers and Pacers. This is a **** travesty.

I'm pissed.

[miller31time]

I'm not ready to call him amazingly sucky but I agree 100% that having Stevenson as a main part of your lineup is automatic fail. It's inexcusable.

And yeah, Butler needs to be sat more often. Move Jamison to the 3 and put Blatche in the f'n game.

[Zerocious]

seriously fluck fip....tired of this nonsense

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Another DNP CD for McGee in the loss to the Clippers. Last season, McGee averaged 6.5 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15 minutes. Now, he's not playing at all most nights. Flip has not thought about trying McGee with Haywood and he hasn't played McGee with Blatche near enough. Flip is not the coach for McGee and I believe the Wizards might as well trade McGee, because Flip (seemingly) hates the kid.

Blatche started the season very well, but is getting less and less minutes each game. I'm not sure what more Blatche could have done to earn minutes this season. I feel his game is regressing a bit now with his decreasing minutes.

Young did get a look that went in and out, but he's on the bench behind Stevenson.

Gilbert's really turning it over a lot and inconsistent, but Flip is playing him like he's all the way back. On this one, however, I don't know what else Flip can do.

Overall, Flip is 7-15. EJ had lost 12 in a row and he's 6-18. Not much difference, except Flip's the one with all kinds of all stars.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

If Flip's a great coach, somebody please explain these last 5 losses. Look at the records of the teams they've lost to.

12/4 Toronto Raptors Toronto (7-13) L 107 - 109
12/6 Detroit Pistons at Detroit (7-12) L 94 - 98
12/10 Boston Celtics Boston (17-4) L 102 - 104
12/12 Indiana Pacers Indiana (7-13) L 113 - 114
12/14 Los Angeles Clippers at LA Clippers (9-13) L 95 - 97

[closg00]

I did not see the game but the stat-line is same-ole same-ole, a DNP for McGee while Wood plays a team-high 42 minutes & Kaman put-up numbers anyway. DeShawn our starting SG with 1 bucket.
I'm wondering if Flip is trying to recapture the old magic of the Wiz team of 3-4 years ago using that line-up? Well it ain't working.

[LyricalRico]

For what it's worth, the Big Three seem to be a bit more comfortable when Stevenson is in the game. Individually DeBrick sucks, but I think he has a positive effect on chemistry. That's probably what Flip is seeing.

[verbal8]

If Flip's a great coach, somebody please explain these last 5 losses. Look at the records of the teams they've lost to.

12/4 Toronto Raptors Toronto (7-13) L 107 - 109
12/6 Detroit Pistons at Detroit (7-12) L 94 - 98
12/10 Boston Celtics Boston (17-4) L 102 - 104
12/12 Indiana Pacers Indiana (7-13) L 113 - 114
12/14 Los Angeles Clippers at LA Clippers (9-13) L 95 - 97

I think the last two end of game meltdowns fall on the players. How many times did the Wizards turn over the ball(without a ton of pressure usually) at the end of the Clipper's game?

[MJG]

Quote from Insider:

"Right now we're having a hard time playing without Antawn and Caron and Gilbert on the floor," Saunders said. "Too much fluctuation. We went to our bench and had too much fluctuation."

I don't want to hate on Flip like many others, but he's not making it easy with stuff like that.

[Silvie Lysandra]

Not time for this yet. The roster is hopelessly unbalanced. George Karl couldn't win with the messes Ernie made in Milwaukee, and Flip can't win with the mess Ernie has made here. Flip has been a winner at his other coaching stops, I really doubt that he is the problem with the team, other than the fact that he's dreadful at managing egos (which he never had to worry about in Minny with KG on the team, and which got him run out of town in Detroit) and the "Big Three" have WAY too much influence in the locker room, and (Butler and Jamison in particular) are not shy about throwing a tantrum when things don't go their way.

A Larry Brown disciplinarian would do wonders for this team (at least if he doesn't follow his usual practice of irrationally benching young players) but the team needs someone who has the balls to give Butler and Jamison a DNP-CD.

[Hoopalotta]

I'd like to see the young guys play as much as anyone, but the bench was pretty terrible last night.

Everyone was a negative on the +/- numbers.....

Earl Boykins -13
Randy Foye -5
Dominic McGuire -19
Fabricio Oberto -1
Nick Young -9
Andray Blatche -11

The starters were all positive.

Antawn Jamison +5
Caron Butler +16
Brendan Haywood +4
DeShawn Stevenson +12
Gilbert Arenas +11

[MJG]

I'd like to see the young guys play as much as anyone, but the bench was pretty terrible last night.

Oh definitely. When we made our big runs, the starters were generally in. And when the Clippers made their runs, the starters were generally out. But Saunders' complaint doesn't sound like it was last-night-only problem. It sounds like just sort of a general feeling to me. Probably the "Right now..." in the beginning.

[Hoopalotta]

Well yeah, I see your point there, MJG, it does have that feeling when taking it all in (like the Stevenson/Mr. Intangible fest).

[verbal8]

A Larry Brown disciplinarian would do wonders for this team (at least if he doesn't follow his usual practice of irrationally benching young players) but the team needs someone who has the balls to give Butler and Jamison a DNP-CD.

I can see the logic behind benching Butler. I understand the need for Blatche to play more minutes, so I see a good reason to reduce Jamison's minutes. But I do not see what Jamison has done to deserve a DNP-CD?

[bullitz]

I don't like to blame losses on a coach because the players play the game. But, his substitution patterns were not good. The Clips made all their runs AFTER Flip's subs. Comcast put up a stat that sometime in the 3rd Q, Butler, Gil, BH, and Jamison had 58 points the rest of the team had 8. Flip cannot start Stevenson and expect to win games. It's not so much of what it does, it's what it doesn't allow. Starting Stevenson, doesn't give any of the other more talented offensive players (Nick, Foye, Blatche) to get in a rythym. Had Young started the game, he may have made that 3 pointer that would have given them the lead.

re: Gil he's coming around people. Yesterday was one of his best games on both sides of the ball. At least 3 turnovers were the fault of BH's suspect hands. He picked up so many fouls because Kaman is not a good matchup for BH and they had to double down and try to steal the ball. Gil got at least two of his fouls that way. The other turnovers were a result of him driving the lane and them packing the middle. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but our suspect jump shooting has led teams to institute a strategy of "packing the middle." We need to get more consistent on our open looks.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Want to know why McGee doesn't get many minutes, take a look at the final play against Indiana. The play was drawn up for McGee to start at the top of the circle, run toward the basket and use that amazing leaping ability and length to jump over everyone and tip in a pass thrown above the rim. Low percentage play, to be sure, but with so little time on the clock, it was the only option. What did McGee do? He stood at the top of the circle (unguarded) until the inbound passer had no choice but to throw him the ball so he could take an even lower percentage 18 footer that would have been disallowed anyway because the ONLY PLAY THAT'S PERMITTED (BY RULE) WITH THAT LITTLE TIME ON THE CLOCK IS A TIP IN.

Now, it's a fair point that the Wiz should never have been in that situation except that Flip and the coaching staff totally screwed the pooch on the preceding possession (broken down brilliantly over at BulletsForever). But, as anyone who has ever coached would tell you, it's tough to trust a guy who can't/won't carry out an assignment that was given to him less than 30 seconds before the play.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Quote from Insider:

"Right now we're having a hard time playing without Antawn and Caron and Gilbert on the floor," Saunders said. "Too much fluctuation. We went to our bench and had too much fluctuation."

I don't want to hate on Flip like many others, but he's not making it easy with stuff like that.

I vent a lot. I do hate on folks, occassionally. However, I like to think I waffle a lot when the same folks turn it around and do well. I'll turn around and praise them.

Flip did well the 4 out of 5 games the Wizards won and he did so starting Young and having Nick play over 30 minutes in each of those games.

Fluctuation? How about Gil and the lack of execution to close out games? How about defense not played by Jamison at the close of games? How about forced drives and shot attempts by Butler, Jamison, and Arenas when the team needs a good shot?

Fluctuation? How about Stevenson starting again and Blatche getting less and less minutes?

Fluctuation? How about McGee throwing down dunks and exciting fans one season, getting 15 minutes a game and drawing praise from Chris Paul and comparisons to Dwight Howard one season; only to getting chewed out after 0.1 seconds at the end of one game and yet another DNP-CD?

Flip is the guy with the new system that has contributed to a whole lot of fluctuation.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Want to know why McGee doesn't get many minutes, take a look at the final play against Indiana. The play was drawn up for McGee to start at the top of the circle, run toward the basket and use that amazing leaping ability and length to jump over everyone and tip in a pass thrown above the rim. Low percentage play, to be sure, but with so little time on the clock, it was the only option. What did McGee do? He stood at the top of the circle (unguarded) until the inbound passer had no choice but to throw him the ball so he could take an even lower percentage 18 footer that would have been disallowed anyway because the ONLY PLAY THAT'S PERMITTED (BY RULE) WITH THAT LITTLE TIME ON THE CLOCK IS A TIP IN.

Now, it's a fair point that the Wiz should never have been in that situation except that Flip and the coaching staff totally screwed the pooch on the preceding possession (broken down brilliantly over at BulletsForever). But, as anyone who has ever coached would tell you, it's tough to trust a guy who can't/won't carry out an assignment that was given to him less than 30 seconds before the play.

Yep. Dumb young guy didn't do the right thing. Didn't follow directions. Didn't execute with all of 0.1 seconds to save the butt of the coach. He screwed up big time.

I maintain the worse thing any leader can do is put the least qualified guy in a position where he's supposed to come in and save the day. Had McGee been in with Haywood, instead of having Jamison at PF, I guarantee you Hansbrough doesn't throw down dunks at the end of that game.

Jamison could be at SF, he could be at SG, but he's been getting killed inside at the end of games for years now. (Did you see Kaman post him up down the stretch last night?) YES, he's the guy balling to keep this sorry team in games. However, Flip gets paid to figure stuff out.

Chewing out McGee might have been warranted if he made it EXPLICIT that Javale HAD TO get to the rim.

At the same time if I'm McGee I hate having Saunders as my coach because he's getting the mushroom treatment by Flip. Kept in the dark and fed manure.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Not time for this yet. The roster is hopelessly unbalanced. George Karl couldn't win with the messes Ernie made in Milwaukee, and Flip can't win with the mess Ernie has made here. Flip has been a winner at his other coaching stops, I really doubt that he is the problem with the team, other than the fact that he's dreadful at managing egos (which he never had to worry about in Minny with KG on the team, and which got him run out of town in Detroit) and the "Big Three" have WAY too much influence in the locker room, and (Butler and Jamison in particular) are not shy about throwing a tantrum when things don't go their way.

A Larry Brown disciplinarian would do wonders for this team (at least if he doesn't follow his usual practice of irrationally benching young players) but the team needs someone who has the balls to give Butler and Jamison a DNP-CD.

I think it is time. I've been disappointed in a lot of things Flip has done for a month now. If players like Butler can get ripped so can Flip. Why are coaches given a pass and not the players who have to adapt to the coaching?

When it comes to egos, I don't understand his rotations that freeze guys out. Particularly young guys. Butler coming off the bench could do wonders for this team, as would sticking with Nick Young at SG and giving Blatche a lot more minutes at PF. Is it about egos or wins?

The big three were at two-thirds strength last season, and they won 19 games while ripping young guys. I would think a new coach coming in might have come in determined to change things. Flip has gravitated towards veterans, smalls, and short rotations. Bad, bad, and bad in my book.

It's not too early. In fact, I think Flip's most accountable for this. Gil missing FTs notwithstanding.

[Wizards2Lottery]

We were playing our best ball with Young in the starting lineup. I don't get this love for Stevenson at all. He is seriously one of the worst basketball players I have ever seen.

How about the lineup with both Boykins, Stevenson, McGuire, Jamison and Haywood. What the hell was that? That was the line up trying to hold onto a double digit lead. Man you can't make this **** up