Game Thread: WAS @ ORL

[jivelikenice]

+2. We're absolutely risking Wall and Mcgee's development having them play with this dumb, selfish team. The only players that they should worry about are Wall, McGee, Singleton, Booker, Seraphin, and Vesely. Everyone else needs to be put in their place. Its ridiculous that these other guys are allowed to show up and think they're entitled to a certain number of shows or a place in this offense. Dray needs to get it through his thick a** skull that no team where he is the go to option will be a winning team. Our offense right now is Wall walks it up...Throws it down low to Dray or Lewis and then runs the baseline & sits around until Dray or Lewis shoot the ball. Flip has created an environment where Dray & co. feel this entitlement and should take the fall for it...PERIOD

And what the hell happened to Crawford. He's dribbling the hell out of the ball and shooitng his way out of the NBA!! This team is reminding me of a Clippers team a few years back where everyone was on their rookie deal and going for contracts all at once. It just doesn't work.

And where is Evans? is he healthy yet?

[jivelikenice]

how does wall have 5 assists at half and finsih with 5?

he flat out sucks this year. i don't care about how many games we win but i want to see improvement from our "franchise player". he is worse in every category this year. he might really be a bust.

He has played 3 poor games IMO and not real great games. That beign said, while he should assume some responsibility, he's playing with teammates who can't finish, can't shoot, & can't run. Not one person in the starting lineup wants to be a role player or make his teammates better. They're all out there playing for themselves. Wall would be averaging 10 assists/ game inspite of how average he's been playing if we had anyone out there with him who could shoot. Young has been missing open shot after open shot since moving into the starting line. Dray is shooting sub 40%...Young is shooting sub 30% as a starter....Lewis is shooting sub 40%...How do you expect the floor to open up for Wall when teams don't have to respect anyone on the floor and the offense consists of one pass than a shot??? The organization has been irresponsible in putting a team round him that can behoove his development....

[Jimmy Recard]

If the Wizards would run with Wall, Young, Singleton, Booker, and McGee at least they would be energetic and have guys running the court.

+1

[WallToWall]

We shot 37% today. Taking the 3 point shots out of the calculation, we shot 32/81, or 39%. That will not win us many games. Who's in favor of blowing up the already-blown-up team? At this point, I have no issues watching 4 talented, hard working, rookies around Wall. Back those rookies up with some-over the-hill teachers to teach the rookies whats important in the game of basketball, and how to prepare for games.

[hands11]

Dude.

Between the board melting down and this crazy girl calling me, I need some laughter.

Why are some women so freakn crazy ? She made me lose my freakn appetite.

Here's my attempt for laughter - for some reason this post reminds me of the horrid redneck joke... "Research has shown that 70% of women abused by their spouses JUST DON'T LISTEN!!!!"

lol. I think I might of heard that a long time ago.

Hey, I get the whole listening and letting a women go to her well stuff but at some point it becomes to much to take. Specially when they start trying to drag you down with them and then blaming you for it. I mean I was minding my own business watching a basketball game and eating some Chinese food. And they are so damn sneaky the way the draw you into it by acting normal first. It's actually very sad. Her family did a number on her. She can be pretty cool at times. And I was a idiot. I got caught off guard. You know. Hey, I wanta ask you something and I want you to be honest. I didn't take the bait right away. I did lots of qualifying and even when I answered I really didn't even say much. I kind of let her answer her own question. Nope. Still didn't work. It was a set up. I am going to get a tattoo so I never forget again. Never answer a womens question when she asks you to be honest no matter what she says. I should have just said no, ask a girl friend. Who am I kidding that wouldn't have worked. She would have just said she wanted a guys opinion. Sneaky little things they are.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3TdhHo37W4[/youtube]

[hands11]

Oh lol, here is one that may hit a little closer to home. She's funny.

Money Shot - GUYS & SPORTS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... xCHvtc9I6c

[dangermouse]

We could really do with a game against a crappy team...

NJ was really the only game where we had a chance. Should have won that one, would have been great for morale.

But yeah we need to be rid Flip since, you know, we played our best game of basketball against BOS after he was ejected the other day... With that in mind it really seems like a no-brainer.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Every other team in the NBA has at least 2 wins, except for New Jersey. Their win was against Washington. At 0-6, Washington is likely the worst team in the league.

I would feel a lot better about it if being last guaranteed the top pick, Anthony Davis.

[tontoz]

I didn't see much effort tonight. This team lacks heart and discipline. John Wall looks like he's checked out, wtf is wrong with him? He's not even setting up his teammates like he was last year when he was only playing at "65%". Smh, from the Redskins to the Wizards this town is so disappointing.

HE HAS NOBODY TO SET UP!

Did I say that loud enough? Probably not.

He has the exact same teammates as he did last season when he was racking up 8 assists in a single quarter. I don't see what you're getting at.

Exact same teamates? Funny but i don't see Gil, Hinrich, Thornton or Yi out there and all of them could score better than the guys who replaced them.

Memory fail

[dangermouse]

Exact same teamates? Funny but i don't see Gil, Hinrich, Thornton or Yi out there and all of them could score better than the guys who replaced them.

Ironically, I think we would be better this year with Yi taking some of Blatche's minutes, maybe even McGee's and Lewis'. At least the guy could hit a jumper.

Every other team in the NBA has at least 2 wins, except for New Jersey. Their win was against Washington. At 0-6, Washington is likely the worst team in the league.

I would feel a lot better about it if being last guaranteed the top pick, Anthony Davis.

It has been a while since the worst team in the league has won the lottery. Off hand i think its only happened a few times? IT'S DUE!

No doubt it will be rigged in New Jersey's favour, they are moving next year right? Give Brooklyn a gift... Or San Antonio if they tank. History repeats.

[sashae]

Wizards basketball.... catch the excitement!

[montestewart]

No offense, no defense.

We'll make up for it on Special Teams.

Highlight of the game.

[pancakes3]

sashae: i'm laughing to keep from crying


thought, not sermon:
i see regression in wall. he's making some dangerous, ill-advised shots and passes out there. there was one play where he made a spin move - one of the fastest spins i've ever seen. it was clearly too fast because his momentum spun him out of alignment for a shot so he tried to kick it out back across the lane through 3 defenders to the top of the key for nick young. it got stolen and converted for an easy 2. it was eerily similar to the game-losing turnover he had in the 2nd jersey game.

point is, he's consistently getting himself in terrible situations and either throws up a brick (with our pick and pop PF on the perimeter so he can't help rebound) or makes a cross-court prayer (which has gotten stolen more often than not).

i'm not entirely sure how to fix the offense in the state that it is right now though. on paper, a pick and pop with blatche and nick/shard at the corners and a weakside mcgee doesn't sound like the worst play in the world yet when we run it, it's giving us diddly in results. i just don't know...

[sashae]

I felt before the season we'd have the worst team in the league (even with Charlotte, NJ and Toronto all looking bad) but I thought we'd at least see some progress. I personally feel like a lot of Wall's regression comes from lack of trust for his teammates. Rather than making the smart play (passing for an assist) he's trying to do it all, BECAUSE NONE OF HIS TEAMMATES CAN SHOOT.

Blatche's bad body language and bad play are TERRIBLE for Wall's development. Young is failing at the one thing he's supposed to do well (shoot) and the rest of the roster outside of a perhaps-light-going-on McGee is spare parts. I get that we're rebuilding. I get that we're going to be bad. I do not understand allowing a culture of terrible decisionmaking and bad attitude being allowed to fester.

We have to make some changes, HAVE to. Flip, who I believe is a capable coach but clearly not reaching the guys, as well as Blatche should both get punted. EG deserves to go solely due to the fact that he allows this total abortion to continue. What a disaster.

When you're not in DC, you rarely bump into folks wearing Wizards/Bullets gear. I was in California over the holidays, and saw a guy wearing a Wizards hat. Rather than talk about the success of the team, or promise for the future, or pride in the franchise.... we commiserated on how terrible it is to be stuck rooting for this godawful franchise. Unlike the Redskins (who I've disowned largely because Snyder is so damn embarassing) I keep hoping against hope that this damn franchise will get its act together. Allowing this mess doesn't suggest that we're anything more than the Clippers with less future and (maybe) more sane/less racist ownership. Ugh.

[Zonkerbl]

Um, isn't this basically the same team that won like 19 games last season? Well, maybe Singleton and Mack are new, but really -- what did we expect?

I am a little disappointed that Wall does not appear to bring any Allen Iverson, Derrick Rose, or Chris Paul skills to the table. He's a good player but he doesn't appear to be creating opportunities for his teammates. Even Gilbert did that, just by forcing the defense to pay so much attention to him.

[7-Day Dray]

We're the worst team in the NBA, but we're not the worst team TALENT WISE in the NBA, if you get what I'm saying. The things that's the worst about this team is the EFFORT (Dray, I'm looking at you). If we played with consistent effort, we would've wn at least two games by now (Game 1 vs. NJ, and the 2nd game vs. BOS.

[WizarDynasty]

I think the problem with this team is that we don't have a two way shooting guard.
Nick YOung is a terrible player. He is the laziest player on the court.

He absolutely never sprints, and always jogs. Always on cruise control. Second he is very slow with the ball. A shooting guard...is job is to create offense.
Nick cannot beat anyone driving to the whole because he is to slow. He almost always shoots a contested jump shot.
He is one of the worst players working without the ball because he jogs through screens rather than sprints.
He almost never fights on the block for position to post up another guard.

So again, he can't beat anyone off the dribble and our offense suffers because he can't get to the hole and draw fouls on bigs, instead relying on a pull up jumper because he doesn't have the speed and power to get to the hole.

His shot is not reliable from long range even when wide open. On defense he plays average man defense but constantly left ray allen open for three pointers showing extreme lack of awareness of position of his man and where the ball is.
When he gets fouled he lets out this high pitched cry as if he is about to cry.

I just think Nick is part of the losing culture and we really need a kevin martin like shooting guard for this team. Jamal Crawford suffers alot of the same problems as Nick although Crawford has alot more heart. Just give me a reggie miller or ray allen like player who will sprint through screens but also has dribbling power and explosiveness to beat people off the dribble and get to whole to draw a foul. I would enjoy getting some like James Harden.

If I were coaches I make it so that nick young wasn't allowed to even jump shoot, he would be forced to go to whole at least 15 times a game to draw a foul.
All of the times wall is penetrating to the hole, all he is really doing is pretending to be nick young as the team starting shooting guard. We need a guard with explosive first step and the ability to draw contact.
We need to really force nick into this role. If he can't do it in the next ten games, we need to trade him for whatever we can, even if its a second round pick and then look to draft a big body shooting guard with an explosive first step who can hit a jump shot with some basketball intelligence. The problem with Nick is that he doesn't have an explosive first step and he isn't explosive driving to the hole. Crawford has teh same problems and it really kills our offense.

Also i would force NIck to play more point guard and force him to work on his open court ball handling skills and speed with the basketball. Nick is one of the slowest players in the league driving to whole with the ball.

[cwb3]

When you're not in DC, you rarely bump into folks wearing Wizards/Bullets gear. I was in California over the holidays, and saw a guy wearing a Wizards hat. Rather than talk about the success of the team, or promise for the future, or pride in the franchise.... we commiserated on how terrible it is to be stuck rooting for this godawful franchise. Unlike the Redskins (who I've disowned largely because Snyder is so damn embarassing) I keep hoping against hope that this damn franchise will get its act together. Allowing this mess doesn't suggest that we're anything more than the Clippers with less future and (maybe) more sane/less racist ownership. Ugh.

After throwing up upon the conclusion of the Wizards / Bucks game, I switched over to NBA TV to catch the Bull's at Clippers matchup. Helped to get the taste of bad basketball out of my mouth. With Chris Paul alongside Blake Griffin, the Clippers look like a pretty potent team. The Bull's however look awesome! Rose definately outplayed Paul on that night, but CP is still adjusting to new team.

The point is. . .there is SUCH a wide gulf in talent AND execution between the Wizards and the Clippers right now, not to mention elite teams like Chicago. The Wizards have not looked even competative this season, aside from moments in the opening game against NJ and, oddly, short bursts of effective play against the Celtics. Last night was abomidable, just an eyesore to watch. I listened to the first quarter and 1/2 on radio on way home from work. Dave Johnson was flying solo last night, and he was NOT pulling any punches about what his eyes were seeing.

[hands11]

Ok .. Six game down. Four to go before. A positive view for those who still are open to it.

Unlike a lot of what I read, I'm not going all negative after this game. I saw some good things and that is what I am going to focus on for now. It was a total blow up and rebuild. The team has very few experienced proven players and the ones who have some experience are no in a grove yet. It is going to take some time. I have detached emotionally so none of the bad I see gets to me. Same way I approached the Skins this season who also made improvements even though it didn't show up as wins. Not yet. They are like the 4th youngest team in the league and with Mo out, I would expect maybe the youngest.

I always expected the first 10 games to be the ugliest for this team. They played 11 deep with most the minutes going to 10 players. Exactly what I expected and wanted to see and I saw some growth in individuals which is what needs to happen first. I even saw some impressive ball movement. I saw some team ball. Plays were the did the right things but just missed the shots. And there was that one play they moved it around for like 6 passed and found Wall for a open 2. It was perfect and something to build on.

They were on the road against a vet team that had Dwight Howard who ripped them apart which is understandable given their inexperienced post players and the fact he is Dwight Howard. It really boiled to that and a few other things. Orlando won 52 games last year and added some good players.

D Howard & Pick and roll defense - mostly an inexperienced Seraphin getting beat.
On the road
Refs sucked again. D Howard has 2 goal tends. phantom 3 sec D call. Nick got clobbered. etc
Missed layups in the first quarter.
Cold outside shooting in first quarter. Outside shooting is killing this team.

They went down big in the first. Other then that, they played them pretty even for 3 quarters.

Positives.
Booker hit from outside twice and played with general hustle. Made a nice drive for a dunk. I don't think I ever saw Booker hit from that far out one before let alone twice. And outside shot was on the wish list for Booker and this was the first sign I saw that he has added it. More will be revealed.

McGee didn't back down to Howard and made some impressive post moves on him. He was still over powered ( most are ) but I was impressed by his approach. He fought and that is what I wanted to see. He even took a smart charge. 2 steals 5 blocks. He rebounded well early. He actually got the better of Howard more then once. That is something to take note of. He showed heart and some skill. This will start to pay off more in games where the opponent is not the best center in the league.

Serpahin continues to get playing time and having him out there against Howard was the first time I saw them put a player on him that could match him physically. KS even went strong against him on a post move that was impressive. But KS got lost in team D and P&Rs. Badly. That will get better with experience. The NBA game is fast. I am looking forward to seeing more power post with KS in the game. Specially with Booker and soon a scrappy long Vesely.

Nicks shot was cold early but he got to the line by driving 6-6 ( still hasn't missed this year ) and still scored 17 in 25 minutes with 4 rebounds 2 blocks. He also started to hit in the 3rd. He has struggled but we know Nick can shoot. It will come around. Hopefully he starts to get some calls. He get fouled to much but he driving more which is what I wanted to see.

Wall hit some from outside and it looked good. I'm not getting down on him for this game. Not after what I saw in Boston game 2. Zero turnovers.

Singleton hit from 3 again. He is hitting .500 from 3. Everyone else sucked so far. He is slowly establishing his game.

The big weakness
They need shooters who can hit from range reliably. Nick has been on and off. Lewis hasn't found his 3 ball. Mason hasn't picked up the slack. Crawford isn't helping there either. And since all of that is true, they are really missing Mo Evans who is a vet and would be a calming influence who can hit from 3. But we knew outside shooting was a weakness going into the season. They can not afford to have their best shooter ( Nick ) being so up and down. And because of that, not having Mo is killing them. Specially early in the season while they are all trying to find their shots.

Most of what I saw bad boiling down to poor outside shooting and youth on D. They do have some talent though so with time, it will look better. Orlando is a much better team of vets.

Best move they could make in the short term would be to trade Crawford for a pure shooter. But they are rebuilding. They will give Crawford 20 games or so to show improvement. That and Lewis needs to get out of his funk from 3 range. 4-14 .286 is way below his historic averages. Same is true of Nick. 5-18 .278 Those are not numbers are not going to last. They will get better.

Things will start to get better even if they change no players and just add Vesely and Mo eventually.

I said it before. If you don't like watching sausage made, tune in after another two weeks. The worst of it will be over by then.

[cwb3]

hands11: You have a stronger stomach than most!