OT: Wizards Eye NBA Finals This Season

[Naija Boy]

Where they'll be eyeing the NBA finals

Lol I have never burst out laughing at a RealGM post until now. Classic

[HeartBreaking]

good for them

[LLJ]

Wizards fans this preseason mighty touchy I find.

[Shock Defeat]

Focus on winning 50 games before talking about the NBA finals.

[Flight33]

LOL most overrated team in NBA history! I can't wait to face them so we can destroy them again

2012 Lakers say hi.

[pbj]

BS. So Ross, who was terrible his first season can make a jump to useful player but neither Porter or Rice can??? Whatever.

Andre Miller might be on his last legs but he still was one of the best backup PGs in the league last year.

And Jonas better than Gortat???? Nonsense. Jonas first has to become a passable to average starter before we start talking about him being better than some of the better starting Cs in the league.

Ross did step up his second year a respected 3 & D player and should grow more. I am not saying Porter & Rice won't improve but they must show it. Porter had a bad rookie year is looking better in pre-season.

If you looked at Jonas in the last 20 games and in FIFA he has expanded his game substantially
Gortat PER 17.6 ORtg 112 DRtg 103 OSW 4.1 DSW 4.0 FG% .541 RPG 9.5 PPG 13.2 MPG 32.8
Jonas PER 16.1 ORtg 112 DRtg 104 OSW 3.5 DSW 3.2 FG% .532 RPG 8.8 PPG 11.3. MPG 28.2

Yes Jonas was behind Gotat last year and I'm not looking at increased production from Gortat but am Jonas. Plus significant difference in minutes played.

Miller is 39 think I would rather have Vasquez.

I hate stats were we have to look at 15 games here or a 20 game stretch there to make a player look better. I've taken folks to task on the Wizards board for doing the same. A brief stretch of the season never tells the whole story. And your stats make no mention of the biggest difference b/w Gortat & Valanciunas, which is on the defensive end of the court. Gortat excelled as a rim protector for us, Jonas still has a ways to go before anyone can say he's competent defensively compared to other NBA starting Cs. As for FIBA I put very little stock into those perofrmances because often they dont translate to the NBA game.

Gortat is definitely better than Jonas at this point, no doubt about that in my mind. Any Raptor fan that says otherwise either hasn't watched enough of him in PHX or WAS, or is just drinking the JV kool-aid (it's delicious). I find that all pretty funny considering that he had 2 big games against us last year.

The rest is debatable though.

I think the games will be really close and there's too many IFs on both ends to definitively call the match-up for either side.. but I feel like the success of your squad is very reliant on the production of Pierce, Nene and Miller who seem like they could hit the wall at any time.

[KungFuPanda]

4 players suspended for the opener is a good start to a nba finals season.

[360windmill]

Yeah I don't think the Wizards make the finals even with a prime Paul Pierce...

[Badonkadonk]

And Jonas better than Gortat???? Nonsense. Jonas first has to become a passable to average starter before we start talking about him being better than some of the better starting Cs in the league.

Gortat turns 31 in February.

Jonas turns 23 in May.

It would be silly to ignore how we should expect each player to trend at this stage of their respective careers.

[Dat2U]

And Jonas better than Gortat???? Nonsense. Jonas first has to become a passable to average starter before we start talking about him being better than some of the better starting Cs in the league.

Gortat turns 31 in February.

Jonas turns 23 in May.

It would be silly to ignore how we should expect each player to trend at this stage of their respective careers.

Um, I thought we were talking about THIS season, not what will happen years from now.

THIS season, unless Valancinuas takes an monster leap forward (unlikely), Gortat is still likely to be the SIGNIFICANTLY more impactful player. And it mostly stems from the defensive side of the ball. There simply aren't too many examples of young bigs who defend at a high level unless you talking about Tim Duncan.

[Badonkadonk]

And Jonas better than Gortat???? Nonsense. Jonas first has to become a passable to average starter before we start talking about him being better than some of the better starting Cs in the league.

Gortat turns 31 in February.

Jonas turns 23 in May.

It would be silly to ignore how we should expect each player to trend at this stage of their respective careers.

Um, I thought we were talking about THIS season, not what will happen years from now.

THIS season, unless Valancinuas takes an monster leap forward (unlikely), Gortat is still likely to be the SIGNIFICANTLY more impactful player. And it mostly stems from the defensive side of the ball. There simply aren't too many examples of young bigs who defend at a high level unless you talking about Tim Duncan.

Um, I *was* talking about this season. I was simply discounting *last* season. I think Jonas will be the superior center moving forward.

I'm sure you'll completely discount this, but I go to a buttload of games and watched Jonas and Gortat go head to head. In a nutshell, Gortat had weight and savvy over the kid. Jonas, who was a complete afterthought in Casey's offense (until the playoffs for some reason) was more skilled.

Guess we'll have to play the games to see what happens, but I'd surprised if that wasn't the case based on the summer Jonas has had. Maybe it'll happen at 24 & 32 years of age but it's not going to be "years from now" lol.