Preseason G2 Wiz vs CHI Oct 12 5:00 PM Brazil

[tontoz]

Rice seems to have some scrappiness to his game but his shot mechanics look a little odd.

[GhostsOfGil]

Man, I had to watch that garbage through a Chicago feed. Just have to say, Stacey King is the WORST.

[GhostsOfGil]

My takes:

-John played his worst game I've seen since his stinker vs Pistons last season. Some of it seems be bad effort on his part and superior D to Hinrich.

I didn't think Hinrich played all that great defensively. It was more a team effort IMO. Whenever Wall got past Kirk, the defensive rotations were perfect. Wall kept forcing bad outside shots because Chicago rotated so well. And when Wall was able to drive and kick, Bulter was there on the weak side. You can really see why this team won 45 games even with a lack of talent. Their defense is suffocating.

[80sballboy]

One word of caution before bashing Ariza: he was horrible last preseason as well. I don't think he bothers to play hard until the regular season starts.

Just not an Ariza fan. Has nothing to do with preseason. His ballhandling is putrid and his skills and athleticism appear to be in decline. I hope they start Webster.

[80sballboy]

Watching the game this morning, thought the effort was decent. Chicago just won't let most teams get out on run. Wall was completely ineffective in half court. He was horrible but not too worried. If he plays his worst-ever game in preseason, who cares?

Vesely had that nice jump hook which makes you wonder why he doesn't try and post up more? His offensive perimeter skills are the worst I've ever seen. The fact that he's best we have at the 4/5 is pathetic without Okafor. Booker is just too small. He got abused the few minutes he defended Boozer. I don't think he plays much at all with Harrington around. I guess big Al didn't play last night. Don't remember seeing him. He's old so rest him.

I've been a Manor guy since college. I don't get all the chucking up in the fourth quarter. He's not a good shooter. When he ran the offense, he's fine. Just manage the game. Has to know his role.

Rice is a slasher without a consistent jumper. I guess he's not close with his father, because if he was, he'd almost be Seth Curry-like as a shooter. But I like his aggressiveness and he's not a defender yet, he's getting better.

Seraphin still has no basketball IQ. He's terrible at passing out of the double teams and I hate when he starts drifting away and starts shooting jumpers. How do you get a jumper blocked? Not a rookie anymore. Like his touch and big body. Going to have to play 20-25 minutes with Al playing 15-20.

I know we played two good teams so far in Brooklyn and Chicago sans Rose. Without Okafor, I expect a drop off on the boards and on defense. A little disappointed at disjointed effort offensively. I think once the regular season starts, we need to crash the boards as much as possible and get it out as soon as possible to run.

[hands11]

Man, I had to watch that garbage through a Chicago feed. Just have to say, Stacey King is the WORST.

Oh yeah. He was terrible.

The Ves hook did look pretty good. Hope he keep trying it. He needs to keep working on something that's an offensive move. As for his outside shooting, here is what I see. He is so used to catching and immediately looking to pass that when he decided to shoot, he does every to quickly. Its like a hot potato. If he is going to shoot from outside, he needs to locate the basket and slow down a little.

The hook close to the basket he can do quicker like he did. That's almost like a put back to him. But an outside shot needs confidence, form and patience. What would probably help him some is if a couple times a game he would catch and then locate the basket and do a shot fake before passing. Something to get him in the rhythm of what it would be like to actually take the shot, even if he doesn't. He is tall enough that he should be able to still pass it afterward.

Oddly enough, he would probably do better spotting up on the 3 line where he can catch and shoot where he is mentally prepare for what is about to happen. Like Randy says, its all about confidence. The good news is, back to back games with decent rebounds. At least he can start to gain some confidence over that.

[stevemcqueen1]

Ariza is a streak shooter. He's someone who tends to warm up when the whole team is shooting well. When he's off, his results are really ugly--missed layups, jumpers hit the side of the rim--so it can make you think he's worse than he really is. When he's rolling then he'll look cold blooded and play shutdown D. At this point in his career, I'm not too worried about him. He's a pro. But I'm definitely curious about our plans for him this summer.

[Illmatic21]

My takes:

-John played his worst game I've seen since his stinker vs Pistons last season. Some of it seems be bad effort on his part and superior D to Hinrich.

I didn't think Hinrich played all that great defensively. It was more a team effort IMO. Whenever Wall got past Kirk, the defensive rotations were perfect. Wall kept forcing bad outside shots because Chicago rotated so well. And when Wall was able to drive and kick, Bulter was there on the weak side. You can really see why this team won 45 games even with a lack of talent. Their defense is suffocating.

Yep. Also, they completely shut down our transition game. It seemed like Thibs had at least two guys run back on every shot miss or make. Chicago is one of the few teams who can afford to do that, because they have so many elite rebounders that having fewer guys crash the boards doesn't really hurt them. Even their SG in Jimmy Butler was able to steal multiple rebounds from our bigs.

I think Wall was trying to force himself to get his jumper going. In an actual game, the smart thing to do would have been to attack the basket when his shot wasn't working, but maybe he was trying to test his shot a bit in the preseason and build up some confidence.

It was just a formula for failure.. what with having to travel to Brazil, playing in an unfamiliar arena, against an elite defensive team. That's not really the time to try anything new. Good thing it's only preseason.