GT #11: Wizards @ Magic 7 PM (CSN/1500 AM)

[closg00]

Very unsatisfying win, felt dirty. We suck.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

True Dat.

I was exaggerating a bit. Beal wasn't bad. Porter was good all around. But that bench. OOo that bench. Sato was worse than useless tonight

Sato has been regressing lately. I just don't see much to him other than length and sure, he's playing mainly with garbage. But he has no chemistry with Gortat, Wall or Beal. They have no faith in him right now. When he's not going well, we have no chance for MarKelly Smithcolson to thrive.

Still puzzling that Ernie didn't look into acquiring an adequate player with knock down shooting ability *cough* Dudley *cough* to take pressure off of some of the wings.

What's Einstein's definition of insanity again?

[nate33]

Very unsatisfying win, felt dirty. We suck.

Minutes 10-42 were awful, but the last 6 minutes of the game were solid. The Wizards locked in defensively and made enough offensive plays down the stretch to put the weaker team away. It seemed almost... professional. The Wizards gave up just 4 points from the 5:47 mark down to the :18 mark (at which point they started to worry more about not fouling than getting stops). And one of those buckets was an awkward, off-balance, 20-footer by Jeff Green that was well defended by Morris.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Very unsatisfying win, felt dirty. We suck.

Minutes 10-42 were awful, but the last 6 minutes of the game were solid. The Wizards locked in defensively and made enough offensive plays down the stretch to put the weaker team away. It seemed almost... professional. The Wizards gave up just 4 points from the 5:47 mark down to the :18 mark (at which point they started to worry more about not fouling than getting stops). And one of those buckets was an awkward, off-balance, 20-footer by Jeff Green that was well defended by Morris.

Spot on obversations. When our starters are fresh and in synch things really hum.

I found myself last night day dreaming about 25 minute games. We'd be an ECF contender if John could play every minute and have the gas to stay in attack mode.

Alas, the games are 48 minutes.

[payitforward]

If Gortat only had a bit more ups.....I wish more of his layup attempts were dunk attempts.

Percentage-wise, he's consistently one of the best in the league at finishing at the rim - even without dunking that much.

He still gets swatted on too many key moments. How many times have we said "FFS Gortat. DUNK THAT SH*T!"

?? Read the bolded phrase again.

Results are what matter. Results affect... well, they affect results! obviously -- game results. Gortat is having a tremendous season from every POV. An average big in the NBA shoots an eFG% of 51.5%. Gortat is over 58%. He is also getting almost 40% more rebounds than an average NBA big.

Looking for something to complain about? He isn't a very good FT shooter.

[payitforward]

Game summary:

Wall: excellent

Everyone else: the suck

Our bench: smells badly

Porter played well.

The rest of our starters were meh although Beal did have 8 assists.

Our bench is a complete train wreck. Usually by the time our starters check back in the opponent is rolling and has big time momentum.

True Dat.

I was exaggerating a bit. Beal wasn't bad. Porter was good all around. But that bench. OOo that bench. Sato was worse than useless tonight

Oh, yes, Beal was bad. He wasn't horrible, no -- but his game qualifies as "bad" without a doubt. Off the bench, Smith had a solid 13 minutes. Terrible player, obviously, but "give a dog his due."

Mostly what happened last night was that Orlando was awful.

[80sballboy]

Percentage-wise, he's consistently one of the best in the league at finishing at the rim - even without dunking that much.

He still gets swatted on too many key moments. How many times have we said "FFS Gortat. DUNK THAT SH*T!"

?? Read the bolded phrase again.

Results are what matter. Results affect... well, they affect results! obviously -- game results. Gortat is having a tremendous season from every POV. An average big in the NBA shoots an eFG% of 51.5%. Gortat is over 58%. He is also getting almost 40% more rebounds than an average NBA big.

Looking for something to complain about? He isn't a very good FT shooter.

And this is why metrics are overrated, esp. on the defensive side. He's fine offensively but he doesn't rebound well in traffic. We got destroyed on the boards last night. Doesn't help that Keef only boxes out and doesn't go for rebounds. But I'm sure there is rebound traffic percentage somewhere. The only thing that matters is that we are 5-9 and Gortat has played a part in it. Some good. Some bad.

[nate33]

He still gets swatted on too many key moments. How many times have we said "FFS Gortat. DUNK THAT SH*T!"

?? Read the bolded phrase again.

Results are what matter. Results affect... well, they affect results! obviously -- game results. Gortat is having a tremendous season from every POV. An average big in the NBA shoots an eFG% of 51.5%. Gortat is over 58%. He is also getting almost 40% more rebounds than an average NBA big.

Looking for something to complain about? He isn't a very good FT shooter.

And this is why metrics are overrated, esp. on the defensive side. He's fine offensively but he doesn't rebound well in traffic. We got destroyed on the boards last night. Doesn't help that Keef only boxes out and doesn't go for rebounds. But I'm sure there is rebound traffic percentage somewhere. The only thing that matters is that we are 5-9 and Gortat has played a part in it. Some good. Some bad.

No. This is exactly why metrics are desperately needed. People have confirmation bias. They see Gortat make a mistake and falsely conclude that he consistently makes that type of mistake. Furthermore, they falsely conclude that other centers don't also make that type of mistake. Ibaka made a great play when he blocked that shot. But guess what? Ibaka happens to be an exceptional shot blocker. He does this to most players from time to time.

The bottom line is that Gortat is an exceptional finisher at the rim and a very efficient offensive player. He's also a very good rebounder who currently ranks 10th in the league in total rebound percentage. He has flaws. His help defense is competent, but not game changing; he has no perimeter range; and his offensive game relies heavily on a system so it's difficult for him to get his USG% up. Nobody is saying that he's an elite center. But he's pretty good.

[Dat2U]

Percentage-wise, he's consistently one of the best in the league at finishing at the rim - even without dunking that much.

He still gets swatted on too many key moments. How many times have we said "FFS Gortat. DUNK THAT SH*T!"

?? Read the bolded phrase again.

Results are what matter. Results affect... well, they affect results! obviously -- game results. Gortat is having a tremendous season from every POV. An average big in the NBA shoots an eFG% of 51.5%. Gortat is over 58%. He is also getting almost 40% more rebounds than an average NBA big.

Looking for something to complain about? He isn't a very good FT shooter.

From every point of view? How about defensively? While not terrible I don't think he's been very good on that end.

[stevemcqueen1]

I agree with 80sballboy about Gortat's rebounding. He vacuums up boards in our system but he is not a physical rebounder. Otto is a much tougher rebounder than him. The issue is he can't elevate any more unless he gets a running start. He has no second bounce at all so he can't contest the shot and still get the board. Brooks has him crash the offensive glass whereas Randy didn't, but mostly he's just getting weak tap outs.

It's not a killer, but it does hurt us that Gortat and Morris are soft on the boards. We have so little margin for error on rebounds that we're going get outrebounded by most teams. As it is, we're uncomfortably reliant on Otto Porter to save possessions and get those rebounds in traffic. They're also not a great defensive front court either. Both excel at single guarding bigs, but Morris is a weak team defender and Gortat is mediocre on his good days. He just doesn't hedge and recover on PnRs all that well and again, his lack of elevation limits his rim protection. He's a bull who wins with power and can't win with quickness.

Morris and Gortat are legitimately good and skilled offensive players and mesh well with the other starters on that side of the court. They're both very good passers. Gortat has a quality post game and is an outstanding PnR finisher. He's also a very physical presence that's a legitimately great screener. He runs the floor well and clears out the lane on the fast break and he is a key for Wall and Beal getting decent late clock looks on the perimeter.

But we do sacrifice on defense and on the boards to have two offensively-minded players starting at PF and C.

And seeing as how Wall, Beal, and Porter are pretty weak perimeter defenders, we could use a lot more defense in the front court to try and cover up their sins. We need some young, energetic legs there. Getting Mahinmi back will help, but a Nerlens Noel would be really nice to be able to throw out there as part of a three big rotation.

[montestewart]

?? Read the bolded phrase again.

Results are what matter. Results affect... well, they affect results! obviously -- game results. Gortat is having a tremendous season from every POV. An average big in the NBA shoots an eFG% of 51.5%. Gortat is over 58%. He is also getting almost 40% more rebounds than an average NBA big.

Looking for something to complain about? He isn't a very good FT shooter.

And this is why metrics are overrated, esp. on the defensive side. He's fine offensively but he doesn't rebound well in traffic. We got destroyed on the boards last night. Doesn't help that Keef only boxes out and doesn't go for rebounds. But I'm sure there is rebound traffic percentage somewhere. The only thing that matters is that we are 5-9 and Gortat has played a part in it. Some good. Some bad.

No. This is exactly why metrics are desperately needed. People have confirmation bias. They see Gortat make a mistake and falsely conclude that he consistently makes that type of mistake. Furthermore, they falsely conclude that other centers don't also make that type of mistake. Ibaka made a great play when he blocked that shot. But guess what? Ibaka happens to be an exceptional shot blocker. He does this to most players from time to time.

The bottom line is that Gortat is an exceptional finisher at the rim and a very efficient offensive player. He's also a very good rebounder who currently ranks 10th in the league in total rebound percentage. He has flaws. His help defense is competent, but not game changing; he has no perimeter range; and his offensive game relies heavily on a system so it's difficult for him to get his USG% up. Nobody is saying that he's an elite center. But he's pretty good.

Going back to Induveca's original comment, I didn't see that as a blanket condemnation. I have also wished that Gortat had a more decisive finishing move to use in certain situations, but there's no denying that he puts coordination and anticipation (and decent court vision) to efficient use on offense, and his defense is adequate and sometimes better than that. He's pretty low on the list of Wizards problems right now.

[montestewart]

^
To add to the above, among all starters this year at any position (minimum 8 GS) Gortat is 12th @ 12.7 RB per 36. Of starters who get 10 or more RB per 36, he's 6th in TS% (out of 27). And regarding his not-so-great FT%, he's about right in the middle of that group (15 of 27, closer to 13 than to 16). I would love a better center, but I would love a lot of things. Better bench and better PF rotation way before I worry too much about Gortat.

[payitforward]

I agree with 80sballboy about Gortat's rebounding. He vacuums up boards in our system but he is not a physical rebounder. ...It's not a killer, but it does hurt us that Gortat and Morris are soft on the boards.

Wow. I just have to give up. Gortat is one of the league leaders in rebounding. And he's *always* been a very good rebounder. Markieff Morris, otoh, is a terrible rebounder. This year and every year in the league. But here we see them treated as if they were the same.

It's really hard to talk about the team, a game, basketball in general if people are just going to make stuff up.

Btw, what does it mean to be "a physical rebounder?" Are there mental rebounders? Is a rebound worth more if you snatch it up while looking, you know, really mean?