Pacers at Wizards tonight at Verizon

[noworriesinmd]

Randy Wittman said he wished he had a 8-9 man rotation vs a 12...that is pretty bad.

Random observations on the game.
1. No one respects Vesely's offense...everyone on the other team cleared out, knowing he would not do anything.
2. Vesely does a lot of the little things, but he gets zero respect from the refs....at times he seems undersized
3. Beal reminds me of that young kid playing with grownups who does not know what to do, so he just picks a corner and stays there. He did that for 3 quarters.
4. Beal has no elevation on his shot, it is easy to block.
5. Beal totally lost the game for us. Down three and having momentum on his side, he tries a lob which FAILED
6. Livingston should run point more, at least there was some flow in the game when he was running the show
7. This team is BAD. Wall and Nene won't improve this team at all. Phil Jackson could not coach this team to 10 wins.

[truwizfan4evr]

Booker hurt again what else can happen to the wizards? Ernie needs to be fired! How can Ted still think there hope in the season with are crappy roster? Ted is a horrible owner he's to soft hearted to fired Ernie in this kind of business you have to do what's best for the team, Ted you have to make these choices if you cant do it you shouldn't be an owner,

[hands11]

New Orleans GM is a very smart to get the Rashard Lewis expiring contract and dump 2 over paid role players on us. And as for Ernie......... not so very smart.

Not to mention that we gave up a 2nd round draft pick for the privilege of clearing the Hornets salary cap.

I was hopeful that perhaps that trade would work out, but at this point it's pretty clear that Ernie had something done to him that rhymes with grape.

Hardly. Trevor A has played well defensively most nights and is on offensively about half the time.
Okafor played ok in 6 or 9 games so that's what ? 70% of the time.

Neither of these two are the problem. The bigger problems are Randy and Kevin. I would say Price but I don't play him for Randy putting him out there. He is what he is. I blame Randy for Price. I would add Webster to the list but I don't think Randy has used him properly. Same with Martin. Not enough chances to get upset with him.

Right now, the biggest problem in Wall and Nene being injured but given what they have, Randy is the biggest problem. They play well went he puts in the right line ups.

[AFM]

Don't mean to hate on Crawford because he's played a decent game but i thought this was funny:

This about sums up our season

[Illuminaire]

Trevor playing OK on defense and Okafor having OK games 70% of the time are not worth 20 million dollars in committed salary.

[dandridge 10]

Awesome. That is what I am wearing next game.

I am sorry to say, but you guys are wasting your time trying to think of different line-ups that are going to work. You are also fooling yourself if you think the team is going to be that much better with John Wall and Nene. Yeah, these guys might get us more open shots, but who is going to make those open shots on this team?? The thing is, the Wizards HAVE been getting open shots. They just cannot connect on a consistent basis because of a lack of shooters/scorers on this team. Unless John Wall has dramatically developed his jumpshot and Nene has suddenly become an offensive force, The Wiz will continue to struggle when they get back. This team is epically bad because of how Ernie Grunfeld put it together. It is the worse team in the league offensively. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing.

It's too bad, too, because at least this team puts in the effort most of the time and has some heart.

[hands11]

Trevor playing OK on defense and Okafor having OK games 70% of the time are not worth 20 million dollars in committed salary.

Hardly. Trevor A has played well defensively most nights and is on offensively about half the time.
Okafor played ok in 6 or 9 games so that's what ? 70% of the time.

They were compliment players to Wall and Nene. And they are more productive then Lewis.

I know everyone wanted Ted to buy out Lewis but that isn't what Ted wanted to do. So until someone shows me something better they could have gotten for that Lewis contract at the time, then Trevor A and Okafor for a year wasn't a bad trade.

That trade isn't the problem nearly as much as a combination of bad luck Wall, stupidity = Nene, back coaching = Randy, and soft play = Kevin

[DMVleGeND]

You are also fooling yourself if you think the team is going to be that much better with John Wall and Nene. Yeah, these guys might get us more open shots, but who is going to make those open shots on this team?? The thing is, the Wizards HAVE been getting open shots. They just cannot connect on a consistent basis because of a lack of shooters/scorers on this team. Unless John Wall has dramatically developed his jumpshot and Nene has suddenly become an offensive force, The Wiz will continue to struggle when they get back. This team is epically bad because of how Ernie Grunfeld put it together. It is the worse team in the league offensively. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing.

It's too bad, too, because at least this team puts in the effort most of the time and has some heart.

Not that I support Ernie Grunfeld, but all of our losses have been close. One can only wonder the outcome of these games would be if we had our two best players on the floor.

[dandridge 10]

You are also fooling yourself if you think the team is going to be that much better with John Wall and Nene. Yeah, these guys might get us more open shots, but who is going to make those open shots on this team?? The thing is, the Wizards HAVE been getting open shots. They just cannot connect on a consistent basis because of a lack of shooters/scorers on this team. Unless John Wall has dramatically developed his jumpshot and Nene has suddenly become an offensive force, The Wiz will continue to struggle when they get back. This team is epically bad because of how Ernie Grunfeld put it together. It is the worse team in the league offensively. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing.

It's too bad, too, because at least this team puts in the effort most of the time and has some heart.

Not that I support Ernie Grunfeld, but all of our losses have been close. One can only wonder the outcome of these games would be if we had our two best players on the floor.

If either one were go-to scorers, I would feel more confident. But, they are not.

Don't get me wrong, I think John Wall and Nene will help, and perhaps we could have won 1-3 games by now if they were both playing. However, even with both playing, I think this team will still be bad. They are going to struggle scoring all year long.

[hands11]

And we will know for sure when we see them out there.

Its just as easy to think they would win at least half of these games.

Wall and Nene at not just two scrubs. They are the two team leaders.
Players like Trevor A and Ves are transition players and they don't have their transition PG.
Beal, Webster and Martin are spot up shooters and there hasn't been spacing.
And Nene is a go to post player with a mid range game who can pass can you can run your offense through.

Pretty easy to see how Wall and Nene make the pieces on the team a lot better. Plus both are leaders.

But obviously neither view can be proven until we see it.

[Illuminaire]

Hands sounding so much like EG it's scary

Potentially average overall production is not worth 10 million/year/position. Yes, they were meant to be complimentary players - but that's not the level of their pay grade, now is it?

As a side note, any time you've reached a point where being "more productive then Lewis" is a major piece of your argument, you should probably hang up the keyboard. Blind squirrels in poorly fitted uniforms could have been more productive than Lewis when we had him. He was useless. Beyond that, measuring Okariza against Lewis is a false argument - the real measure is what we could have done with the cap space we foolishly squandered.

Meanwhile, you continue to maintain the stance that we shouldn't complain about Ted's refusal to buyout Lewis because darned it, he didn't want to. That's bollocks too. We're the fans who fund this team. He has every right to make the decision he did as owner, but we have every right to call it the cheap, shortsighted, **** move that it was.

And we have every right to expect, nay, demand better, both with our voice and with our dollars.

[hands11]

Hands sounding so much like EG it's scary

Potentially average overall production is not worth 10 million/year/position. Yes, they were meant to be complimentary players - but that's not the level of their pay grade, now is it?

As a side note, any time you've reached a point where being "more productive then Lewis" is a major piece of your argument, you should probably hang up the keyboard. Blind squirrels in poorly fitted uniforms could have been more productive than Lewis when we had him. He was useless. Beyond that, measuring Okariza against Lewis is a false argument - the real measure is what we could have done with the cap space we foolishly squandered.

Meanwhile, you continue to maintain the stance that we shouldn't complain about Ted's refusal to buyout Lewis because darned it, he didn't want to. That's bollocks too. We're the fans who fund this team. He has every right to make the decision he did as owner, but we have every right to call it the cheap, shortsighted, **** move that it was.

And we have every right to expect, nay, demand better, both with our voice and with our dollars.

I never said you can't complain about Ted not doing that. Ride Ted about it all your want. At least your anger would be targeted in the right direction.

As for spending your money on the team. No one put a gun to your head to do that. If you don't like the product, don't buy tickets or gear.

My posts are in response to people getting on EG about the trade and what he got for the Lewis contract. Given Ted did not want to buy out Lewis, what better deal was out there for the Lewis contract ?

Thats what I have been saying. Not what you say I have been saying.

Hey, I would have loved for Ted to buy him out and then go spending some more to get good players. But I understand it isn't my 16-18M so I don't get bent out of shape over the fact that he didn't do that. Specially since he pissed away 20 plus M a year the last few years on Lewis and Gil before that. And Dray this year and several more after this. I don't have to like it to understand that is was a reasonable decision.

[sashae]

[truwizfan4evr]

Fired Ernie video~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0xO4yqQ ... re=g-all-u Can someone make a firedErnie Grunfeld.com?

[DANNYLANDOVER]

"...sure can't wait to get the **** outta here the first chance I get"

[Jay81]

Harrison Barnes 20 pts 12 reb. Suck on that everyone

[truwizfan4evr]

Harrison Barnes 20 pts 12 reb. Suck on that everyone

He also has a good pg setting him up also Beal dont.

[jivelikenice]

Harrison Barnes 20 pts 12 reb. Suck on that everyone

I liked how Beal played today and if he plays with this aggression he could become a player. That being said, the mob mentality took over here in terms of evaluating Barnes fairly. There's been a evidence of UNC guys improving when they get to the pros, but Barnes never got the benefit of the doubt. I really hope we didn't pass on trade down scenarios where we could have gotten him and another asset for #3.

[Jimmy Recard]

Wall looks fat

[Dat2U]

Trevor playing OK on defense and Okafor having OK games 70% of the time are not worth 20 million dollars in committed salary.

Hardly. Trevor A has played well defensively most nights and is on offensively about half the time.
Okafor played ok in 6 or 9 games so that's what ? 70% of the time.

They were compliment players to Wall and Nene. And they are more productive then Lewis.

I know everyone wanted Ted to buy out Lewis but that isn't what Ted wanted to do. So until someone shows me something better they could have gotten for that Lewis contract at the time, then Trevor A and Okafor for a year wasn't a bad trade.

That trade isn't the problem nearly as much as a combination of bad luck Wall, stupidity = Nene, back coaching = Randy, and soft play = Kevin

Bad luck? Injuries. Blaming players? Where have I heard this all before?

You make this ridiculous argument all the damn time about the OkaforAriza trade, but you can't ever back it up. And if you think Ted told Ernie, "look I don't care how you do it, or how much salary we take on... just make sure I'm not wasting money on the Lewis deal", then your just in complete denial. Again, is a business minded, bottom line focused owner really going to take on an additional $43 million in commitments just to get something out of money that was already spent? I think not. And if he actually did, then it's more of an indictment on Ernie for not being able to properly express to ownership how bad an idea it is. It was originally argued this trade was made on the merits that the Wizards added talent commensurate to what's available in free agency, or even a better option than the risk of losing out in free agency. Now apparently were trying to shape the argument to fit your tidy little narrative.

As far as Okafor & Ariza outperforming Lewis.....

Rashard Lewis 14.70 PER / .653 TS% / 15.6 min / 7.2 pts / 2.0 rebs
---
Trevor Ariza 14.61 PER / .433 TS% / 25.9 min / 8.6 pts / 4.8 rebs
Emeka Okafor 16.08 PER / .452 TS% / 25.1 min / 8.4 pts / 7.0 rebs

They are outperforming the Lewis of last year. This year? Not so much. Only reason Ariza & Okafor's PER is comparable is because both are getting up a lot more shots (and missing them). Lewis' TS% is .200% points higher than both.