Knighthonor wrote:rockymac52 wrote:W. Unseld wrote:Interesting non-Deng commentary from http://www.grantland.com:
No matter what roles Wall or Beal played (both came off the bench for a few games), the Wizards posted a point differential of plus-4.84, the equivalent of a 55-win team over a full season. And though a 25-game stretch isn’t something Washington can hang its hat on, it’s certainly an encouraging sign. That trio, combined with Nene and Emeka Okafor, also combined to form the league's most effective five-man unit that played at least 140 minutes together, per NBA.com.
Unlike some of the more desperate teams, Washington doesn’t necessarily need to hit a home run at the top of the draft, but to break through from mid-standings irrelevance, the Wizards probably have to avoid coming up empty. If the team can get an impact player with the third pick while also finding a competent backup point guard with one of its second-round picks, the Wizards have the opportunity to completely change the course of their franchise. No pressure, right?
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... -nba-draft
Very interesting! I'll have to read the rest of the article after this post. But this confirms some of my prior thoughts. Our current starting five of Wall/Beal/Webster/Nene/Okafor is a VERY good lineup. As in, one of the best in the entire league. The reason our team as a whole was below average to average, even when healthy, was that our bench was God awful. Ariza was fine. Booker was fine, albeit in a limited capacity. Seraphin was fine defensively, but a mess offensively this past season. Vesely and Singleton were terrible. AJ Price was actually suitable for a backup PG, although it'd be nice to get an improvement there.
The key is that we need a better bench. This past season our on/off stats were terrible when Vesely, Singleton, or Seraphin was in the game. That's a huge problem that we need to address in the short and long-term. The 3rd pick should help us out in this regard, no matter who we pick. That's a step in the right direction. It may not fix all of our problems overnight, but it's a start.
Sometimes we get caught up in trying to improve our team by improving our starting lineup with star players. That's nice and all, but our starting lineup isn't the issue. Far from it! Our starting lineup is fantastic. Better than most in the league. It's our bench that's killing us.
Well Bennett if he pans out could be a nice player off the bench to replace Nene, and could even play the 3 if he perfects his shot.
What will porter add off the bench?
Another good player! The skills a player has are not necessarily any different based on whether or not he's a starter or comes off the bench. The key is just adding more good players. Plain and simple. It doesn't necessarily have to fit a specific role that we don't already have. More talent is more talent at this point.
I agree that at the moment, and perhaps in the foreseeable future as well, the BIGGER need is additional production from the PF/C positions. Like I said in my last post, the likes of Seraphin, Vesely, and Singleton were the main issues last season. So it makes sense that adding a productive PF/C would help directly alleviate that problem more so than adding a productive SF would. However, adding the productive SF still adds another quality player to the rotation, and essentially replaces the likes of Temple and Martin in the rotation. That's a very good thing too.
