Why were the 2008 Wizards so bad?

Gilfanatic123 · Post #1 » by **Gilfanatic123** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:19 am

I don't get it. Even without Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison being healthy all the time we still had a really deep bench.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80 ... rds_season

We had players like Javale McGee, Juan Dixon, DeShaun Stevenson, Andray Blatche and Nick Young. Was it just a chemistry issue? If we had good coaching that could've gotten Javale, Nick Young, and Andray Blatche under control, could we have had a good team that year?

I don't understand how a team with such talent like that could've only gone 19-63. That team could easily match up with the Heat right now if all healthy.

queridiculo · Post #2 » by **queridiculo** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:25 am

Blatche - sucks
Young - sucks
McGee - sucks
Stevenson - solid bench player
Dixon - sucks

Butler and Jamison are both tweeners with serious defensive deficiencies. Not hard to see why that team sucked ass.

Gilfanatic123 · Post #3 » by **Gilfanatic123** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:28 am

Yeah I know they had some problems and individually they sucked but even though the big 3 were injured quite a bit I don't see why the second unit couldn't have produced more wins than that. That probably should've been a cue to our management to not have the future of the team be in the hands of a bunch of sloppy bench players...

hands11 · Post #4 » by **hands11** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:40 am

Crappy coach. NO DEFENSE

Weave and Heave Offense

Knighthonor · Post #5 » by **Knighthonor** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:44 am

hands11 wrote:Crappy coach. NO DEFENSE

Weave and Heave Offense

This and Que

Gilfanatic123 · Post #6 » by **Gilfanatic123** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:47 am

You mean to say that I was NOT imagining that?

Knighthonor · Post #7 » by **Knighthonor** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:49 am

A lot of talent from the playoff team was scrapped. I like the playoff bench they had before. No idea why they dropped it.

Post #8 » by **nate33** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:23 am

Brendan Haywood missed the entire season.

Ed Wood · Post #9 » by **Ed Wood** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:36 am

Which is to say the team took a defensive sabbatical (a very sporting 30th in the NBA in defensive efficiency and probably other defensive stats). Nick Young and Andray Blatche are not the foundation of an offense of the quality and efficiency to compensate for being that bad at half of the game.

FAH1223 · Post #10 » by **FAH1223** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:39 pm

This topic should be the "2008-2009 Wizards" or "2009 Wizards".

The last playoff team was the 2008 Wizards (2007-2008) team. If you recall, Arenas came back way too early from his knee injury and EFJ played him 40 minutes a night. Arenas needed another surgery and we were lead by Caron, Jamison, Daniels, Stevenson, Mason, Haywood into the postseason vs. CLE and lost in 6 games for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.

The 2009 Wizards were horrible because the wheels essentially falled off. The defensive inefficiencies of the front court were evident with Haywood out. Caron developed bad habits and played way too much hero ball. The team wasn't in sync and there was a coaching change to friggin' Tapscott.

It sucks we didn't get a lottery pick out of that nightmare of a season.

GhostsOfGil · Post #11 » by **GhostsOfGil** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:10 pm

nate33 wrote:Brendan Haywood missed the entire season.

Funny thing, this isn't a joke. IMO, he was the single biggest reason the Wiz made the playoffs in 07-08

Kanyewest · Post #12 » by **Kanyewest** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:55 pm

As already mentioned, Brendan Haywood missed the entire season. Also, Antonio Daniels and Deshawn Stevenson were physically breaking down. Daniels couldn't defend anymore and Deshawn Stevenson became worse offensively. Blatche was in the doghouse with EJ and played alright with Tapscott as the head coach. Juan Dixon, Young, and McGee were effective with EJ but were not as good with Tapscott. The team played pretty selfishly offensively with Tapscott as the head coach. And they also lost Roger Mason to the spurs in free agency.

BTW, that crittendon/James trade was terrible.

Post #13 » by **nate33** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:07 pm

GhostsOfGil wrote:
nate33 wrote:Brendan Haywood missed the entire season.

Funny thing, this isn't a joke. IMO, he was the single biggest reason the Wiz made the playoffs in 07-08

Agreed. I definitely didn't mean it as a joke. Haywood had the best on/off differential on the team for 4 years during their playoff run with Arenas. He was basically their entire defense and arguably the 2nd most important player on the team. When he sat, we sucked.

Severn Hoos · Post #14 » by **Severn Hoos** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:07 pm

nate33 wrote:
GhostsOfGil wrote:
nate33 wrote:Brendan Haywood missed the entire season.

Funny thing, this isn't a joke. IMO, he was the single biggest reason the Wiz made the playoffs in 07-08

Agreed. I definitely didn't mean it as a joke. Haywood had the best on/off differential on the team for 4 years during their playoff run with Arenas. He was basically their entire defense and arguably the 2nd most important player on the team. When he sat, we sucked.

And that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too often, thanks to EJ and his infatuation with The Poet.

BTW, I assume everyone's seen the story that Rutgers is interested in EJ? Well, I guess he'd be the perfect antidote to what they had - don't remember him really ever getting in anyone's grill. It is kind of unfortunate - I'd always rather see the coaches who seem like genuinely good guys succeed. But EJ's myopia around Haywood was so frustrating. I really think that if he could have just gotten over that one thing - and maybe been more accommodating to Thibodeau - he could have been more successful and stayed longer. But his apparent refusal to focus on the defensive end limited what the team accomplished compared to what they might have been.

Kanyewest · Post #15 » by **Kanyewest** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:14 pm

The Thibs situation is interesting. I think people like to lump in the blame to EJ but I wonder if Thibs maneuvered his way out because he did end up with a MUCH better job. Yes the Wizards had their 3 all stars but the Celtics had their 3 hall of Famers and eventually won the title. Then again, maybe EJ saw Thibs as a threat to someone to take his job. It's not like the Wizards didn't hire a defensive assistant- they did get Randy Ayers- just not as good as Thibs (although to be fair to Ayers- I would rather work with KG/Pierce than Jamison/Butler).