Detroit VS Washington Tank-Battle, 6PM

[dobrojim]

keep playing Sing and Book with McGee to start.
Sing actually had a quick 6 in the 1stQ before reverting
to his poor shooting. But I'm hopeful that Sing's
shooting will follow the trajectory of Book's in the
next year. Book has actually shown he can now hit a jumper.
Sing needs to reach that level although I do (still) believe
that his 3 pt shooting when his feet are set is already
pretty solid.

keep using Ves liberally at whatever frontcourt position
you happen to need to sub for. If he stays out of foul
trouble he should play anywhere from 20-30 min a night.

I also liked Mack in this game, end of shot clock 3 and
a got one for myself shot from the baseline before that.

Sit Jordan and play Mack (not Mason) whenever JC goes into mindless
chucking mode.

to piggy back on Fish's comment, I think I liked the play
where Ves stole the ball up top, dribbled down, gave
it up to Wall and got it back for the flush. Excellent!

[verbal8]

guess who

Crawford

[Illuminaire]

That hurts the soul.

[nate33]

[Ruzious]

On the season, John Wall is 2nd on the Wizards roster in FGA by a wide margin at near 14 FGA/game. Tonight, Wall had 10 FGA (with far fewer free throws too) and was 4th in Wizards FGA (behind McGee, Young and Crawford) with Booker coming close at 9 FGA. Wall's usage rate for this game would be far, far lower than his season and career average. The results literally prove that Wall looked to get others involved before himself and look at the results.

See Nate's post for the reality of Wall's FGA's. His rate of taking shots is 4th on the roster, and he's way behind both Crawford and Young. Wall passed more last night, because Detroit defended the lobs really poorly, and the Wiz were able to execute. It was a matter of easy shots being available. His shot selection wasn't any better than usual.

[fishercob]

Boy, we gotta get Turiaf more shots!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Don't have any idea how you pasted those, but that's great work, nate.

--It shows the Wizards need to shelve Jordan Crawford; or otherwise, get him to take many fewer shots.

--They really need to get Booker more shots. Booker needs to be a lot more selfish.

--Young should continue to have the green light. Shelvin Mack should shoot more freely. They are the only two reasonably reliable perimeter shooters at the G position.

--Vesely and Singleton are better than their PERs. But, man, their numbers are depressing! At least they know they cannot shoot.

--Roger Mason should be released IMO. There are a ton of guys in the D-League who can score at SG or SF. (Washington really needs to look at Blake Ahearn, Andre Emmett, and Morris Almond. Each can score and shoot well.)

[tontoz]

Among shooting guards Crawford is 68th in TS% and 6th in usage rate.

[JonathanJoseph]

On the season, John Wall is 2nd on the Wizards roster in FGA by a wide margin at near 14 FGA/game. Tonight, Wall had 10 FGA (with far fewer free throws too) and was 4th in Wizards FGA (behind McGee, Young and Crawford) with Booker coming close at 9 FGA. Wall's usage rate for this game would be far, far lower than his season and career average. The results literally prove that Wall looked to get others involved before himself and look at the results.

See Nate's post for the reality of Wall's FGA's. His rate of taking shots is 4th on the roster, and he's way behind both Crawford and Young. Wall passed more last night, because Detroit defended the lobs really poorly, and the Wiz were able to execute. It was a matter of easy shots being available. His shot selection wasn't any better than usual.

That's circular logic. Wall did not pass more because the Wiz were able to execute. It's the other way around.

If Wall continues to penetrate off of ball screens expressly looking to get McGee/Vesely dunks no one in the NBA will be able to defend it. Before the last two games, Wall's been putting his head down and throwing up crazy off-balance, out of control shots as a first option.

Some perspective on Wall:
Career: 14.0 FGA/game, 5.8 FTA/game, 8.1 assists/game
Season: 13.8 FGA/game, 6.1 FTA/game, 7.4 assists/game
last two games: 11.5 FGA/game, 3.5 FTA/game, 12.5 assists/game

That's a different of about 5-7 times per game where Wall is looking to dish rather than finish. 5 to 7 times per game is at least 8-10 points per game the way McGee, Booker and Vesely can finish. If you do the math on how that would impact Washington's per game point differential, the Wiz would actually/maybe be fighting for a playoff berth this year had he been playing like that all year.

[Ruzious]

If Wall continues to penetrate off of ball screens expressly looking to get McGee/Vesely dunks no one in the NBA will be able to defend it.

Defenses of decent teams adjust. Otherwise, the Wiz would do that every play - and so would several other teams. KG in his prime would have averaged 60 points a game. Detroit's very susceptible to it, because of their lack of length and ability, and their lack of effort was on full display last night.

And Wall - like ANY decent PG - doesn't pick a certain number of plays to look to pass vs shoot. It depends on how the other team defends and how your teammates excecute.

[hands11]

guess who

That does seem to be the problem with to many players on this team.

Most have decent upside and can put together impressive games. Sometimes even two or three. Then, they will dish out a few WTF games were they seem to completely forget the good stuff they can do. And since so many do this, it is hard to get the stars to aline.

It just seems so simple for them to stop self destructing and just play smart that it makes people want to beat their head against the wall.

There really only seems to be Booker, Ves and maybe KS and Mack who just play with in their limits and play team smart ball.

It would just be so much better if Nick, Wall, McGee, Dray and Crawford could learn to do the same game in and game out.

[hands11]

If Wall continues to penetrate off of ball screens expressly looking to get McGee/Vesely dunks no one in the NBA will be able to defend it.

Defenses of decent teams adjust. Otherwise, the Wiz would do that every play - and so would several other teams. KG in his prime would have averaged 60 points a game. Detroit's very susceptible to it, because of their lack of length and ability, and their lack of effort was on full display last night.

And Wall - like ANY decent PG - doesn't pick a certain number of plays to look to pass vs shoot. It depends on how the other team defends and how your teammates excecute.

Sure other teams will try to adjust, but McGee is one of the best targets in the league for such plays. It is going to be really hard to defend if Wall learns to run the play as well as he did last night. And as teams adjust and sage to defend it, that opens up other options. That is why the P&R is such a hard play to defend. It will help a ton of Wall can hit that mid range floater. Wall and McGee should be able to do a lot of damage with it if they keep practicing it. Next, they need more pure shooters because that is what will open up. For that, all they need is for Nick to not dribble and catch and shoot instead. They can use Lewis the same way.

Hopefully they can add Ray Allen, draft Beal or both.

[Illuminaire]

It is entirely possible that the execution versus passing conundrum where both elements interact and feed one another differently depending on each specific game situation.

[JonathanJoseph]

If Wall continues to penetrate off of ball screens expressly looking to get McGee/Vesely dunks no one in the NBA will be able to defend it.

Defenses of decent teams adjust. Otherwise, the Wiz would do that every play - and so would several other teams. KG in his prime would have averaged 60 points a game. Detroit's very susceptible to it, because of their lack of length and ability, and their lack of effort was on full display last night.

And Wall - like ANY decent PG - doesn't pick a certain number of plays to look to pass vs shoot. It depends on how the other team defends and how your teammates excecute.

Sure other teams will try to adjust, but McGee is one of the best targets in the league for such plays. It is going to be really hard to defend if Wall learns to run the play as well as he did last night. And as teams adjust and sage to defend it, that opens up other options. That is why the P&R is such a hard play to defend. It will help a ton of Wall can hit that mid range floater. Wall and McGee should be able to do a lot of damage with it if they keep practicing it. Next, they need more pure shooters because that is what will open up. For that, all they need is for Nick to not dribble and catch and shoot instead. They can use Lewis the same way.

Hopefully they can add Ray Allen, draft Beal or both.

Right. If Wall runs it correctly and they bottle up the option to McGee, it leaves Nick Young (or other shooter) wide open for 3. See the Jeremy Lin/Steve Novak/Tyson Chandler offensive juggurnaut for an example. It does require a PG who understands how to do it though, and we're only seeing the first signs from Wall.

[tontoz]

Right. If Wall runs it correctly and they bottle up the option to McGee, it leaves Nick Young (or other shooter) wide open for 3. See the Jeremy Lin/Steve Novak/Tyson Chandler offensive juggurnaut for an example. It does require a PG who understands how to do it though, and we're only seeing the first signs from Wall.

We saw how well that worked the previous 2 games against the Knicks and Heat, 6-38 from 3.

[TGW]

Damn....JonathanJoseph has this professional basketball thing all figured out. Incredible. Just go around the screen. Get a layup or kick it out to the open shooter for 3. Easy.

I have a feeling this guy hasn't played anything competitive in his life.

[Nivek]

I wonder if it's possible that the Wizards offensive execution looked good against Detroit at least in part because Detroit has one of the league's worst defenses.

Nah, probably not.

[7-Day Dray]

I wonder if it's possible that the Wizards offensive execution looked good against Detroit at least in part because Detroit has one of the league's worst defenses.

Nah, probably not.

+1000. People seem to be forgetting that we beat DETROIT, one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA.

LOL @ us being a playoff team is Wall always plays like this. We still lack overall talent. We just won against a bad team.

[JonathanJoseph]

Damn....JonathanJoseph has this professional basketball thing all figured out. Incredible. Just go around the screen. Get a layup or kick it out to the open shooter for 3. Easy.

I have a feeling this guy hasn't played anything competitive in his life.

Almost a full day without an ad hominem attack. Unsurprisingly, you'd be incorrect. I've also coached basketball up to the high school level.

And actually, yes basketball played at its highest level is a very simple game. That's how unathletic guys like John Stockton and Steve Nash are able to kill people for 15 years running the exact same play over and over and over....

[Nivek]

Just to sorta loop back to the "looking good against a bad defense" point. Detroit has allowed 108.3 points per 100 possessions so far this season. The Wizards ortg: 101. Wall's ortg for the game: 85.

Umm, Nash and Stockton are "unathletic"? Huh. News to me.