GT #30: Cavs @ Wizards - Sun Dec 17 - 6 PM EST

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

That was a rough one. I can understand tired legs and poor shooting. But these Wizards routinely display a lack of focus and a lack of discipline. Ill-advised FGAs from role players (e.g., Mahinmi taking an 18-footer early-ish in the shot clock). Defensive lapses and silly bait-taking from core rotation players (e.g., Oubre failing to box out Green after a key 4Q defensive stop, Kieff with an obligatory tech). Missed FTs and missed layups from our two stars.

I can't put that all on Brooks. At some point, the character of a team reflects its best player(s). Wall is talented, competitive, and plays through pain; he's also not as good as he thinks he is, and rarely gives 100% focus and intensity for a full game. It's no surprise that a low-to-middle-seed playoff team who acts they're guaranteed to compete for the ECF is led by a border-line 3rd team All-NBAer who really thinks he should be 1st team All-D and 1st or 2nd team All-NBA.

Good points. Every little botch adds up against the Cavs. The only thing I would critique Brooks for is playing Beal 43 minutes. He admitted to being tired but knew he had to play that many minutes with Oubre in foul trouble and Otto out. I also think it shows that this team needs another 3-point shooter. That part of the game is killing us right now.

I said it in a couple of post back but if he had just given Tim Frazier 5 or 6 of Beal's minutes that would have helped Bradley be very fresh at the end.

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[80sballboy]

That was a rough one. I can understand tired legs and poor shooting. But these Wizards routinely display a lack of focus and a lack of discipline. Ill-advised FGAs from role players (e.g., Mahinmi taking an 18-footer early-ish in the shot clock). Defensive lapses and silly bait-taking from core rotation players (e.g., Oubre failing to box out Green after a key 4Q defensive stop, Kieff with an obligatory tech). Missed FTs and missed layups from our two stars.

I can't put that all on Brooks. At some point, the character of a team reflects its best player(s). Wall is talented, competitive, and plays through pain; he's also not as good as he thinks he is, and rarely gives 100% focus and intensity for a full game. It's no surprise that a low-to-middle-seed playoff team who acts they're guaranteed to compete for the ECF is led by a border-line 3rd team All-NBAer who really thinks he should be 1st team All-D and 1st or 2nd team All-NBA.

Good points. Every little botch adds up against the Cavs. The only thing I would critique Brooks for is playing Beal 43 minutes. He admitted to being tired but knew he had to play that many minutes with Oubre in foul trouble and Otto out. I also think it shows that this team needs another 3-point shooter. That part of the game is killing us right now.

I said it in a couple of post back but if he had just given Tim Frazier 5 or 6 of Beal's minutes that would have helped Bradley be very fresh at the end.

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Again, if a team doesn't have a small point guard, I don't know how you play Frazier. He give up 4-6 inches to every guard the Cavs have.

[nate33]

That was a rough one. I can understand tired legs and poor shooting. But these Wizards routinely display a lack of focus and a lack of discipline. Ill-advised FGAs from role players (e.g., Mahinmi taking an 18-footer early-ish in the shot clock). Defensive lapses and silly bait-taking from core rotation players (e.g., Oubre failing to box out Green after a key 4Q defensive stop, Kieff with an obligatory tech). Missed FTs and missed layups from our two stars.

I can't put that all on Brooks. At some point, the character of a team reflects its best player(s). Wall is talented, competitive, and plays through pain; he's also not as good as he thinks he is, and rarely gives 100% focus and intensity for a full game. It's no surprise that a low-to-middle-seed playoff team who acts they're guaranteed to compete for the ECF is led by a border-line 3rd team All-NBAer who really thinks he should be 1st team All-D and 1st or 2nd team All-NBA.

Good points. Every little botch adds up against the Cavs. The only thing I would critique Brooks for is playing Beal 43 minutes. He admitted to being tired but knew he had to play that many minutes with Oubre in foul trouble and Otto out. I also think it shows that this team needs another 3-point shooter. That part of the game is killing us right now.

We have a lot of 3-point shooters. The problem is, Porter is hurt and Meeks decided this was the season he would forget how to shoot. But, on paper, 3-point shooting shouldn't be a weakness. Beal, Porter, Scott and Meeks are all established dead-eye 3-point shooters. Morris and Smith are respectable 3-point shooters. And Oubre and Sato (and even Frazier) are all shooting pretty well from 3-point range.

[dcstanley]

Gotta wonder how Beal and Otto would look on a team with a system that prioritizes ball movement and off-ball movement. Both would thrive under coaches like Snyder and Budenholzer.

[queridiculo]

Predictably this is pretty much what all these years of Grunfeld's management have culminated in, an average squad with very little room for improvement.

The sad part is that as fans we don't even get to enjoy a small peak despite the schedule makers looking rather kindly on the Wizards.

Fifth highest payroll in the league and Leonsis still thinks Washington is on track and masterfully executing some sort of plan

[closg00]

The Wizards are really missing something this year. They seem much slower and unsure of themselves, as if they are a lottery team too young to know how to win. The regression is becoming obvious.

Has Brooks already lost the team? It seems a lot of nights the team doesn't even play hard.

Mike Scoot continues to be a beast.

They played hard today but that style of play started in the second half of last season. I don't think Brooks has lost the team yet because they are playing better defense since the start of the season. But they are also going into long offenive droughts and they are not locked in against bad teams. To me, it all starts with a healthy Wall. If he's right, we are a top-3-4 EC team. It's not Brooks' fault he's missing layups, free throws and mid-range shots. He's also not really running the offense as well as he did last season. But I think when Porter is out and Beal is gassed, where else is he going to go? Probably doesn't trust Mike Scott yet because he hasn't played with him that much and nobody trusts Kieff right now.

Frontcourt is the major issue right now. Gortat, Maninmi and Morris all have major flaws and it starts with lack of athleticism. Again, that's not on Brooks. He has no other options unless you want to throw green as grass and skinny as a rail Chris McCullough out there.

THIS^, someone smarter than Ernie should have told him that he is not surrounding John with the kind of front court that maximizes his youth and speed. Horrible front court.

[queridiculo]

THIS^, someone smarter than Ernie should have told him that he is not surrounding John with the kind of front court that maximizes his youth and speed. Horrible front court.

Leonsis is the smartest guy in the room and you know he's too busy chumming it up with his pal than to stare the ugly truth in the face.

[nate33]

The one bit of silver lining is that it really seems like we don't have to worry so much about Bradley Beal anymore. Whatever issues he had early in his career with the stress fractures doesn't look like it's a concern anymore. Brooks doesn't look like he's worried about playing Beal heavy minutes, and Beal doesn't seem worse for the wear.

* knocks on wood *

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

THIS^, someone smarter than Ernie should have told him that he is not surrounding John with the kind of front court that maximizes his youth and speed. Horrible front court.

Leonsis is the smartest guy in the room and you know he's too busy chumming it up with his pal than to stare the ugly truth in the face.

He has billions of reasons to think he's smarter than others. Smugness and the fact that he's maximizing his profits mean that we're not going to get any changes anytime soon.

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[Dark Faze]

At this point I'd like to rest John again. I just think there's something wrong and I'd rather side with caution.

[TGW]

At one time, a game thread against the Cavs would be 30+ pages long. This one didn't get past 5.

[nate33]

At one time, a game thread against the Cavs would be 30+ pages long. This one didn't get past 5.

If the team isn't going to care, why should we?

[payitforward]

THIS^, someone smarter than Ernie should have told him that he is not surrounding John with the kind of front court that maximizes his youth and speed. Horrible front court.

Leonsis is the smartest guy in the room and you know he's too busy chumming it up with his pal than to stare the ugly truth in the face.

He has billions of reasons to think he's smarter than others. Smugness and the fact that he's maximizing his profits mean that we're not going to get any changes anytime soon.

I've posted this before, but it's worth a repeat -- a long career in technology entrepreneurship has introduced me to two kinds of people who act like Leonsis:

1. Guys who were born on 3d base & think they hit a triple (i.e. born rich...).

2. Guys who the wind blew high in a tree & draw the conclusion that they know how to fly (i.e. went along on a true innovator's ride & think they were somehow responsible for the success).

Ted Leonsis is type #2. Steve Case, who started AOL, was a man w/ a vision, an actual innovator. Ted got lucky & went on the ride with Case. His conclusion is that he's really something.

Worth noting that since cashing out of AOL, Ted Leonsis hasn't made anything work -- nothing I know of, at least. He'll make Monumental Sports work, I believe. But, big deal -- that's operating in a field where you start with a monopoly. No one can come along & say, "The Wizards are a poorly run franchise. I'm going to start my own NBA team in Washington & run them out of town."

I'm sure Ted's a nice guy, & I'm sure he's no dummy. But, he sure doesn't bring much to running the Wizards.

[Shanghai Kid]

[quotfe="TGW"]At one time, a game thread against the Cavs would be 30+ pages long. This one didn't get past 5.

If the team isn't going to care, why should we?[/quote]

Kind of where I'm at this point. The buzz of being an ECF contender is dying and being replaced with "we are a 42-45 win team". You see Boston/Cleveland/Toronto on pace to win 55 and wonder why they seem to show up every night and we don't.

Hard to stay excited at this point.

[I_Like_Dirt]

You see Boston/Cleveland/Toronto on pace to win 55 and wonder why they seem to show up every night and we don't.

Hard to stay excited at this point.

Cleveland is an outlier thanks to Lebron, but the Celtics and Raptors have both followed extremely similar recipes for success. Depth matters in a big way. The Wizards have a certain degree of depth when Ian Mahinmi is healthy, which is to say, they don't have any depth at all. PER is a stat of limited individual value, but just for contrast's sake, the Wizards have 6 rotation players with a PER of 13 or more. The Celtics currently have 9 such players (would be 10 if Gordon Hayward were healthy) and the Raptors have 10.

PER tends to sort with 13+ being a rotation player or better. Granted, defense doesn't factor in quite so well, so Mahinmi suffers more than he probably should, for instance, but overall, it's not a bad representation. The Celtics and Raptors both go 10 deep. The Wizards go 6 deep at best and are a totally different team whenever one of their good players has to miss time because they don't have anyone to step in and take over. And honestly, this hasn't been an awful season for the Wizards in terms of production, either. The Wall injury sucks, but they were never a good bet to be as collectively healthy as they were last season anyway, and both Sato and Scott have honestly done exceedingly well for themselves thus far.

This isn't a case of the Wizards just not showing up every day and those other teams showing it. It's a case of Lebron being Lebron and other teams being built to withstand off-nights from any given player, or even injuries, much better than the Wizards are.

[NatP4]

At this point I'd like to rest John again. I just think there's something wrong and I'd rather side with caution.

That “something wrong” is playing for a “players coach” that doesn’t call him out for treating the game like a pickup game. Team has no leadership whatsoever

[Dark Faze]

At this point I'd like to rest John again. I just think there's something wrong and I'd rather side with caution.

That “something wrong” is playing for a “players coach” that doesn’t call him out for treating the game like a pickup game. Team has no leadership whatsoever

I mean, okay. To me he just doesn't look comfortable at all this year on the court.

[NatP4]

At this point I'd like to rest John again. I just think there's something wrong and I'd rather side with caution.

That “something wrong” is playing for a “players coach” that doesn’t call him out for treating the game like a pickup game. Team has no leadership whatsoever

I mean, okay. To me he just doesn't look comfortable at all this year on the court.

Effort thing IMO. He’s content with just walking the ball up the court and lazily throwing the ball to Beal to ISO. The low assists this year are because he doesn’t care to penetrate and collapse the defense and kick it to open shooters anymore. He hasn’t been creating open shots for guys as much this year, too much standing and watching or settling.

His TS is a mess, his assists rebounds and steals are all down, his defense has fallen off a cliff starting last year after the trade deadline.

I personally think it all comes back to the “players coach” that doesn’t actually motivate his players to play hard or even care, which is supposed to be his only useful trait.

[DCZards]

That “something wrong” is playing for a “players coach” that doesn’t call him out for treating the game like a pickup game. Team has no leadership whatsoever

I mean, okay. To me he just doesn't look comfortable at all this year on the court.

Effort thing IMO. He’s content with just walking the ball up the court and lazily throwing the ball to Beal to ISO. The low assists this year are because he doesn’t care to penetrate and collapse the defense and kick it to open shooters anymore. He hasn’t been creating open shots for guys as much this year, too much standing and watching or settling.

His TS is a mess, his assists rebounds and steals are all down, his defense has fallen off a cliff starting last year after the trade deadline.

I personally think it all comes back to the “players coach” that doesn’t actually motivate his players to play hard or even care, which is supposed to be his only useful trait.

Health continues to be an issue for John. I say let's wait until he's (hopefully) fully recovered from his knee issues and no longer on minute restrictions before throwing him under the bus...as you seem to relish doing.

I think we saw during that recent Wall-less road trip that the Zards are a MUCH better team when Wallstar is runnIng the show and on top of his game.

[DCZards]

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