WizarDynasty wrote:hands11 wrote:
Not that I disagree with your logic but if AJ was brought here to be the SF after letting go Kwame then what was to become of CB? Are you saying he was supposed to be the SG all along ?
YOu have to remember that grunfeld brought in caron to take the place of larry hughes. Grunfeld thought that CAron bulter could guard eastern conference playoff shooting guards...it all comes back to fact that grunfeld completely ignores a players ability to laterally accelerate in order to avoid being called for the charge. Caron butler can't move his feet quick enough side ways in order to keep up withe majority of eastern conference playoff shooting guards. If bulter is in a game against an eastern conference playoff team, he can't be assigned to guard teh sg and because of this fact. Grunfeld thought caron could in fact keep up with shooting guards...because at the time...grunfeld shows a lack of understand for concepts lateral acceleration and wingspan. If caron butler had a great wingspan for a shooting guard...he could get away with sagging off a player and still being able to challenge their shot due to his super long arms. caron bulter doesn't have a great wingspan even for a sg so he has to play them tight in order to not give up an easy shot. Since caron bulter isn't exceptionally quick..even for a s/f....he normally gets beat of the dribble if plays tight. Therefore, caron is assigned to guard s/f because he is is usually quick enought to stay in front of them.....but because his wingspan is poor for a s/f---he is not long enough to really challenge the average eastern conference s/f perimeter shot.
But grunfeld over estimated caron's lateral acceleration when it comes to matching up with sgs. He let ago jeffries not realizing that Jeffries and caron both had the same athletic ability in terms of their defensive lateral acceleration except...jeffires '611 height allowed him to challenge shots...even while playing off of player where as caron could not do this and as result gives up far easy look perimeter shots to his normally taller s/f eastern conference playoff small forward.
hope that explains caron and the sg miss step of grunfeld. Grunfeld's lack of perimeter defensive IQ in terms of peronnel decisions is the reason wizards have taken such a far step back. Jeffiries would be the perfect bench player right now..and its very difficult to find a 6'11 player that can guard the perimeter and the wiz gave up an entire losing season just to get jeffries and grunfeld gave up that bench value because he screwed up with the etan thomas contract. Teh wiz never used a draft pick on hughes so that really wasn't wasted talent. Arenas was a free agent but Grunfeld didn't create any of that cap space...Arenas is really a product of michael jordans years of hard work and suffering.
The way I remember it, the Etan signing was the right move at the time, given who this franchise was and how good he was. In hind sight, it didn't work out though. Etan has been injured a lot and he has been misused. He was primarily a PF who could play some center, not a center. Just because Milwaukee wanted to make him a starting center doesn't mean he was one. Go look at the old rosters. He was listed as a PF. Not even a PF/C like others that were on the roster.
Misusing him has hurt this team because it delayed the development of players like Haywood. We could have gotten a lot more out of Haywood over the years. And that inside presence would have allowed us to play CB more at SG because I would rather have him getting beat away from the rim. I'm not changing history here. I remember a lot of people hatted Haywood. He couldn't hold onto the ball. He fouled to much. They wanted him gone. I wanted him to start. I said he just needed more playing time and he needed to get his shots so he could develop. I thought he was treated unfairly from the beginning. Hughes, Gilbert, Stackhouse and later CB were given green likes to shoot from the outside and often miss, but Haywood wasn't given his touches so he could develop.
I even remember EJ telling his players to feed to post one season going into the playoff and players like AJ and GA bucking his request saying that's not who we are. We are run and gun. EJ have no control and that killed this teams development.
Now look. Everyone loves Haywood. But if it was up to most people, he wouldn't even be on the team.
Jeffieries would be a great bench player but he wanted to start and he wanted a lot more money them we would be willing to pay a bench player. He, like Etan, has been hurt to much so letting him go, which we could afford to do - unlike back when we had to resign Etan, was the right move.
I try no to revise history. There are moves I didn't like from EG. I didn't like letting both Dixon and Blake go. I thought we should have at least kept Blake since he was a pure PG and I believe he could start in the NBA. But signing Etan and letting Jefferies go are not two of them. I know people don't like the Etan signing now. I don't either. I also realize I'm putting my neck out by saying it was a good move at the time. That fine. I know I will get jumped but I remember who we were back them. The Etan signing was huge for the stability of this franchise.
But the biggest effect on this teams development is not EGs signing the wrong players but the way EJ lined them up. EG spent half the time EJ proofing the team. He would find a cheap roll player and EFJ would make him a starter over developing our younger talent for the future. Like today.
We should have had our post game squared away 4-5 years ago but we had to wait till last year when Etan was hurt to allow Haywood to shine - again. I say again, because he basically posted similar numbers like 3 or 4 years ago when he was given the mins.
I was also calling for many more mins for Blatche starting as soon as he recovered from the gun shot.
Were would he be now with his game has be been given the chance to develop?
Finding great centers and PFs is a lot harder then finding SFs, and guards. This team as a whole would be more developed if we let Haywood and Blatche develop. And now we added even another talented post player in McGee.
Hell, I remember a few years back - hell even last year - some people where saying centers don't matter anymore. Players like Haywood weren't needed. Well, now that you see what Howard can do and he is only 22 ?, people are going to lining up trying to find big players like McGee and Haywood to stop him. Put Wade on Orlando and they will win every championship for the next 5 years.
EG did a good job trying to find his cheaper diamond in the rough and managing the transition from terrible to something good. So while people may not like all his moves, this team is set pretty dame well for the future. EG got a good jump. We have those tall talented players and we aren't paying them 15M a year.
We have our picks. We aren't in the hole because we didn't trade them away.
We have bigs. Haywood the established vet and we have youngs who have talent in McGee and Blatche.
We have a very talented vet SG/SF in CB with young talent in NY
We have AJ who is a talented vet SF/PF/SG tweaner who is going to be great off the bench even if at an expensive price.
And we have Gilbert. One of the most talented one-on-one players in the league. All that is missing here is a little maturity.
Players like Etan, AD, and DS can or will be moved so those contracts are going to hurt us. The players that replace them will be those defensive or otherwise specialist types that you said we lost.
EG did it in the right order. Those pieces are trimming you can add later. And when we do that, the composition of this team will be complete.
Boston will start to fade. There window is short.
Orlando will be a beast of the East.
And we will be right up there contending.
Give McGee a year. Get Haywood and Gil back and this team will be something to be reckoned wtih
