Dat2U wrote:If I had to rate the Wizards prospects thus far I'd say this is the order:
1. C Javale McGee
2. PF/C Andray Blatche- He's likely to continue to tease and tantalize for years to come.
3. SG Nick Young - He's another tease & tantalize type prospect who will likely never fully put it together. He can definitely score, but is he willing to do anything else?
4. SF Dominic McGuire - he's got all the requiste gifts you'd want to see in a potential defensive stopper on the perimeter. Long, athletic, quick feet and the willingness to hustle. His best attribute right now is probably rebounding. He just needs some court time in the regular season to develop confidence that he can truly play at this level.
5. PF/C Oleksiy Pecherov - he does show alot of effort in chasing rebounds, he often comes up empty handed in that regard.
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Andray Blatche may be our best option in terms of trade bait.
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Dominic McGuire has the ability to be a solid defensive role player down the line. His offense is what's holding him back. I'm willing to give him another year to develop the confidence to get there.
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Oleksiy Pecherov is a bust.
I agree with your order, but have a slightly more positive outlook on all of them. Surprise surprise, right?
1. JVMcG. Really is a surprising package of long and fast. With his mother running the show he's gonna demand and command a pretty sizeable contract once his rookie deal is up. Even young and confused though, he's already threatening Etan's job. His huge hands and ups make him like a funnel over the basket and turn shotjacking misses into accidental assists. If he were on a young rebuilding team he'd be in the conversation for rookie of the year. Wouldn't win, but he'd be in there.
2. I expect Blatche will continue to steadily improve, albeit more slowly than we'd like. He needs better actual strength and better conditioning, but he's just started to work out. It takes a couple years to really see long term integrated muscle and fitness at a high level. He's remarkably coordinated for his size, but not a natural athlete. His best motivation seems to be potential embarrassment, since he'll be playing a ton with Brendan out I fully expect him to try harder, prepare better. He can go one of two ways, he can lean out and get swifter as you suggest, or he can hit the plates and hulk out a bit. Either or both will help. He needs better strength to finish with confidence around the basket.
It's a positive sign though that the coach is riding him about it. Dave Johnson (or was it Buck?) one of them said every day in practice Eddie asks Dray "Is it a blessing or a curse?" talking about his talent and potential. In other words: can you live up to the expectations? If he knows people are watching and counting on him, it may keep him focussed. Having players younger than him will make him take the veteran role. He doesn't want to disappoint his teammates whatever his tendency to make bad decisions on his own. Remember he didn't play organized ball until midway thru highschool and at age 22 he's the 2nd youngest on the team. Even the college kids don't have a real impact in the league until their 3rd year. Last year was the first time he earned consistent play time and he played pretty well.
Andray Blatche at age 25 will be a solid and skilled rotation player. It's possible he may not have the internal drive and ability to max out his ultimate potential, but in part because his high end possibilities are a pretty tall shelf to reach.
3. Nick Young can score, even when guarded. Fade away, split the D on the trap, pull-up and score. He still hasn't finished in traffic much. At times this team can't make a basket to save their life. A bail-out scorer is a necessary role -- especially with Gil injured. You put more pressure on the opponent to work at the defensive end, it affects their energy level at the offensive end as well. Ditto your own team. It's up to the coaches to know when to use that 6th man type weapon, especially if Nick doesn't have the judgment to know for himself. But it's a positive weapon to have. I just wanted him playing next to Daniels though who can figure out when to feed him the ball.
4. EJ thinks enough of Dom that he's been playing him at 2-guard every game this preseason for at least a few minutes. Offense will come once opponents forget about him and leave him open shots, but that won't happen until Nick is oncourt and Dom is at SF next to a real point guard, (or Juan on a good night). He's built the lean fitness that Dray needs, that's a good thing, and with his new baby he seems suddenly mature enough to treat this thing like a fulltime job. I still want him to build muscle to finish at the rim, but his rebounding is prodigious, a game changing skill and a need o this team.
5. Reserving judgment on Pech. While lowering expectations. He had one year while swiss-cheesed with injury, and was injured over the summer as well. If he's injury prone well yeah he won't even play in Europe, but if not, still there's room for the size and that single skill if he develops consistency. He still has to improve a ton to even be a defensive upgrade for Jamison, which iis a damning statement. But he's cheap and tall, and better than many a 15th man.
Overall my feeling is the youth on the Whites team has the raw athletes to compete with any starting team out there. And lose most match-ups, true, but they can run uptempo and score and tire 'em out, and can outperform many a bench just on enthusiasm.
On offense anyway their roles are clear, with good synergy, a few minutes a night:
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JDix -- the veteran version, with better judgment in a PG role.
Nick -- running ahead of the outlet pass and finishing on the break, but starved of the ball until he's in the right spot.
Dom -- defending the better perimeter player and poaching rebounds from the bigs.
Dray -- too tall for most 4's/ too quick for most Bigs. A decent passer for a Big (to Nick and McGee) and a solid rebounder when he decides that's his role.
JVMcg -- cleaning up any shotjacking from the perimeter, catching passes from Juan, Dom, Dray.
All can run the outlet, most can pass. You have inside and outside bailout scorers (Nick and JVMcg) surrounded by roleplayers. The Defense has holes, but a ton of size and athletics in every position (except PG). A few plays per game they'll make good stops by accident. Already Javale changes shots by proximity alone. And every good shotblocker needs a rebounder behind them for all the non-deflected shots that miss anyway because of altered trajectory and fear. Dray + Dom can fill that role, and even Dom can block shots.
And incidentally if they decide to keep him, the three useful skills Dee Brown has shown are: 1) pesky defense running around players feet like a yapping chihuahua and disrupting the ballhandlers; 2) pushing uptempo to feed JaVale (if nobody else); 3) rebounding long bounces. It's an overlooked (pun) aspect of his gameplay in preseason. He's not scared to dart in among the trees and dig out a ball, and can still get upcourt first even if he snatched a loose ball in the paint. Can't hit the broad side of a barn most times, and doesn't pass like a true point, but he is fast-- so far that's as advertised.
The risk of course being if we keep both Dee and Juan we may go ultra-small for a shot of 'energy'. Then stick with it a little too long. I'd rather live with Nick's mistakes.
