Tracking Former Wizards 3.0

[CobraCommander]

This has to to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

https://vimeo.com/76694248

I didn't think it was funny...it's kinda awesome!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Trevor Ariza has a long memory.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LeKingJames23/status/726813212851605504[/tweet]

The Wizards low balled him at the same time they raced to reward Gortat. Ariza had the best year of all Wizards save Wall IMO.

[Kanyewest]

Trevor Ariza has a long memory.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LeKingJames23/status/726813212851605504[/tweet]

The Wizards low balled him at the same time they raced to reward Gortat. Ariza had the best year of all Wizards save Wall IMO.

True, but Ariza hasn't been as good lately. His 3 point percentage this season wasn't even as good as his first season with Washington. I'm not sure if it is because Houston is a toxic place to play or if it's because Ariza is declining.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Trevor Ariza has a long memory.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/LeKingJames23/status/726813212851605504[/tweet]

The Wizards low balled him at the same time they raced to reward Gortat. Ariza had the best year of all Wizards save Wall IMO.

True, but Ariza hasn't been as good lately. His 3 point percentage this season wasn't even as good as his first season with Washington. I'm not sure if it is because Houston is a toxic place to play or if it's because Ariza is declining.

Perhaps a bit of both.

[closg00]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

[closg00]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

[AFM]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

COme on man, don't post chiet like that, you just invited another 10 paragraph TSW post

"In my stuff, Steph ranks significantly higher..."

[Kanyewest]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

Antonio Daniels These stats are not misleading. I tell ppl constantly Etan Thomas, Gil is hands down the most talented teammate I had in my 13 yr career...by far! Gil was a BEAST!!!

Antonio Daniels Doc Espinoza....TD is the best player I have played with...top 5 all time in my book and the best PF ever. But as far as pure talent is concerned, shooting, passing, handling, strength, athleticism, speed at the guard position...it is Gil hands down.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

Antonio Daniels These stats are not misleading. I tell ppl constantly Etan Thomas, Gil is hands down the most talented teammate I had in my 13 yr career...by far! Gil was a BEAST!!!

Antonio Daniels Doc Espinoza....TD is the best player I have played with...top 5 all time in my book and the best PF ever. But as far as pure talent is concerned, shooting, passing, handling, strength, athleticism, speed at the guard position...it is Gil hands down.

Okay, Arenas is my all-time favorite Wizards/Bullets player. But I saw this comparison over the weekend, and it's silliness. For one thing, look at one key piece of information that's omitted: minutes. Through six seasons, it's Arenas 15,687 to Curry 14,559. Won't bother with much more. But the comparison is nonsense.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

COme on man, don't post chiet like that, you just invited another 10 paragraph TSW post

"In my stuff, Steph ranks significantly higher..."

One paragraph.

[Ruzious]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

Unfortunately (to say the very least), just 3 days after Etan posted that, a lady was overpowered and raped while ON the red line of the subway - in the morning - by someone who appears to be a large black man 35-40 years old. Btw, Etan is 38 years old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-prosecutors-woman-raped-at-knife-point-at-10-am-aboard-metro-train/2016/05/23/c7a309ea-2101-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

I understand where Etan is coming from, but maybe he should put his Gucci's in other peoples' shoes before criticizing them and implying they are the entire source of the problem.

[Kanyewest]

Etan on Curry vs Arenas
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/848724641924927

Antonio Daniels These stats are not misleading. I tell ppl constantly Etan Thomas, Gil is hands down the most talented teammate I had in my 13 yr career...by far! Gil was a BEAST!!!

Antonio Daniels Doc Espinoza....TD is the best player I have played with...top 5 all time in my book and the best PF ever. But as far as pure talent is concerned, shooting, passing, handling, strength, athleticism, speed at the guard position...it is Gil hands down.

Okay, Arenas is my all-time favorite Wizards/Bullets player. But I saw this comparison over the weekend, and it's silliness. For one thing, look at one key piece of information that's omitted: minutes. Through six seasons, it's Arenas 15,687 to Curry 14,559. Won't bother with much more. But the comparison is nonsense.

I will say though that per 100 possessions a healthy Arenas and Curry were comparable in points per game, until of course this season when Curry reached Michael Jordan like heights. It would have been interesting to see what Arenas could have done if he had stayed healthy, played with a team that valued analytics, or even had better teammates.

[TheSecretWeapon]

I will say though that per 100 possessions a healthy Arenas and Curry were comparable in points per game, until of course this season when Curry reached Michael Jordan like heights.

Sorta. There's a logical flaw in b-r's per 100 numbers. I've corrected it for the past couple years, but need to go back and reconfigure for earlier seasons. Specifically, their stat is per 100 TEAM possessions, and the pace factor they use is merely the overall team pace that year. The flaw being: they have available (for at least the past decade) team pace while the player is on the floor. That's what I use, and it changes things a bit.

It would have been interesting to see what Arenas could have done if he had stayed healthy, played with a team that valued analytics, or even had better teammates.

Agreed on all counts. When I glanced at their numbers earlier, they had similar rookie years, but then Curry rated better each season following. The big separation happened after their 4th seasons. Curry's production ramped UP; Arenas' production seemed to plateau.

[keynote]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

Unfortunately (to say the very least), just 3 days after Etan posted that, a lady was overpowered and raped while ON the red line of the subway - in the morning - by someone who appears to be a large black man 35-40 years old. Btw, Etan is 38 years old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-prosecutors-woman-raped-at-knife-point-at-10-am-aboard-metro-train/2016/05/23/c7a309ea-2101-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

I understand where Etan is coming from, but maybe he should put his Gucci's in other peoples' shoes before criticizing them and implying they are the entire source of the problem.

Mods: feel free to move over to the politics thread.

Ugh. A terrible, terrible story indeed. But respectfully, Ruzious, there's nothing in the article that describes the suspect as "large." He *could* be, but all we have is a mug shot to go on -- the guy could be heavy set, but we don't know his height, or anything else. I bring this up to indicate how easy it is to read details like this into the narrative.

Now, I'm not a big fan of public shaming as a tactic; Twitter communities are quick to form mobs and rush to judgment. But I also reject the notion that the above tragedy can be to justify anyone's (cliched) reflexive response to a Black man in their proximity. As a country, we know (and have seen) where that rationale leads.

[payitforward]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

Unfortunately (to say the very least), just 3 days after Etan posted that, a lady was overpowered and raped while ON the red line of the subway - in the morning - by someone who appears to be a large black man 35-40 years old. Btw, Etan is 38 years old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-prosecutors-woman-raped-at-knife-point-at-10-am-aboard-metro-train/2016/05/23/c7a309ea-2101-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

I understand where Etan is coming from, but maybe he should put his Gucci's in other peoples' shoes before criticizing them and implying they are the entire source of the problem.

Huh! I really don't understand this post, Ruz. I didn't take ET to be saying that this woman was "the entire source" of any problem other than her own acting out of prejudice. And, of course she was the entire source of that.

What happened on the Red line is horrendous, but rape isn't especially to be associated w/ racism, so how does it fit here? In any case, it seems pretty clear that, long-term, way more black women have been raped by white men than vice versa. So... what if it had been a black woman sitting on the train? What chance she'd have been able to get away with refusing the seat next to her to some random ex-jock (i.e. big) white guy who asked about it?

One thing that did occur to me is that the woman on Etan's train might simply have been trying not to have a huge person in the seat next to her. I'm always hoping that's not going to happen when I'm flying. If so, she'd have been a lot smarter just to tell Etan that when he inquired.

I'm also struggling to imagine Etan Thomas in Gucci's.

[Ruzious]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

Unfortunately (to say the very least), just 3 days after Etan posted that, a lady was overpowered and raped while ON the red line of the subway - in the morning - by someone who appears to be a large black man 35-40 years old. Btw, Etan is 38 years old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-prosecutors-woman-raped-at-knife-point-at-10-am-aboard-metro-train/2016/05/23/c7a309ea-2101-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

I understand where Etan is coming from, but maybe he should put his Gucci's in other peoples' shoes before criticizing them and implying they are the entire source of the problem.

Huh! I really don't understand this post, Ruz. I didn't take ET to be saying that this woman was "the entire source" of any problem other than her own acting out of prejudice. And, of course she was the entire source of that.

What happened on the Red line is horrendous, but rape isn't especially to be associated w/ racism, so how does it fit here? In any case, it seems pretty clear that, long-term, way more black women have been raped by white men than vice versa. So... what if it had been a black woman sitting on the train? What chance she'd have been able to get away with refusing the seat next to her to some random ex-jock (i.e. big) white guy who asked about it?

One thing that did occur to me is that the woman on Etan's train might simply have been trying not to have a huge person in the seat next to her. I'm always hoping that's not going to happen when I'm flying. If so, she'd have been a lot smarter just to tell Etan that when he inquired.

I'm also struggling to imagine Etan Thomas in Gucci's.

LOL at the last sentence. When I wrote the previous post, I figured someone would post what you did in response - and I understand your reaction. And... I think your reaction is a result of you not putting yourself in the woman's shoes (and not because of the shoe size or that you prefer flats). There are realities that small women have to face that we scoff at because... we can. And just for fun, let's call these women racists, too.

[Ruzious]

Etan Thomas's account of racism on a recent train trip has gone viral.
https://www.facebook.com/etanthomas36/posts/837676589696399

Unfortunately (to say the very least), just 3 days after Etan posted that, a lady was overpowered and raped while ON the red line of the subway - in the morning - by someone who appears to be a large black man 35-40 years old. Btw, Etan is 38 years old.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/maryland-prosecutors-woman-raped-at-knife-point-at-10-am-aboard-metro-train/2016/05/23/c7a309ea-2101-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

I understand where Etan is coming from, but maybe he should put his Gucci's in other peoples' shoes before criticizing them and implying they are the entire source of the problem.

Mods: feel free to move over to the politics thread.

Ugh. A terrible, terrible story indeed. But respectfully, Ruzious, there's nothing in the article that describes the suspect as "large." He *could* be, but all we have is a mug shot to go on -- the guy could be heavy set, but we don't know his height, or anything else. I bring this up to indicate how easy it is to read details like this into the narrative.

Now, I'm not a big fan of public shaming as a tactic; Twitter communities are quick to form mobs and rush to judgment. But I also reject the notion that the above tragedy can be to justify anyone's (cliched) reflexive response to a Black man in their proximity. As a country, we know (and have seen) where that rationale leads.

In my effort to look at things from the woman's perspective, I probably worded things poorly, but the point is, we have to look at the woman's POV here - and it seems to me that there's likely a lot more to look at than just Etan's POV.

[Ruzious]

I apologize that I worded my response to Etan's piece poorly - and in a way that could sound racist. There's no perfect answer to this situation, unfortunately. If I offended anyone, I apologize.

[AFM]

No one with an IQ over 70 found that offensive. Don't let the word police get to you.

[Ruzious]

No one with an IQ over 70 found that offensive. Don't let the word police get to you.

Thanks bro. I'll have the occasional days when the over/under on me is about 70.