Wizards at Hawks 7:30 02/19/14

[Illmatic21]

The zards have been playing worse and worse and worse. I wonder if the futility of their offensive sets is starting to discourage them.

Offensive sets?
You mean:

1) John wall drive leading to
a) layup
b) corner 3 pointer

2) Nene/Gortat attempted handoff to Beal as he runs maniacally around them trying to get open like a chicken with its head cut off

3) John Wall hesitation crossover/borderline carry leading to an elbow pullup

4) Nene pump fake leading to Nene pump fake leading to Nene pump fake leading to missed jumper

You forgot swinging the ball to Ariza, then standing around watching as he attempts a dribble drive reminiscent of an eight year old at basketball camp

[jeffsays]

The zards have been playing worse and worse and worse. I wonder if the futility of their offensive sets is starting to discourage them.

Offensive sets?
You mean:

1) John wall drive leading to
a) layup
b) corner 3 pointer

2) Nene/Gortat attempted handoff to Beal as he runs maniacally around them trying to get open like a chicken with its head cut off

3) John Wall hesitation crossover/borderline carry leading to an elbow pullup

4) Nene pump fake leading to Nene pump fake leading to Nene pump fake leading to missed jumper

You forgot swinging the ball to Ariza, then standing around watching as he attempts a dribble drive after deciding not to take the open 3 reminiscent of an eight year old at basketball camp

Fixed that for you

[Illmatic21]

Why is everyone convinced that Ernie will get an extension? i dont get it

Agreed, Ted can't be that stupid. And I assume he has people advising him, who will undoubtedly sit him down and present the facts.

Grunfeld is probably the worst GM in the league who's been tenured for this long. Except maybe Dumars (what a cluster-F out there in Detroit), and he's earned himself some leeway by 1) being a franchise legend and 2) winning that championship in 2004. Grunfeld doesn't even remotely have any of those things going for him.

[closg00]

How-long has George McPhee been a GM? See what I mean?

[jeffsays]

How-long has George McPhee been a GM? See what I mean?

I don't follow the caps much, but I pulled this off wikipedia.

When McPhee joined the Capitals in 1997, the team was looking to turn around its long storied history of being a regular season juggernaut, only to fold in the playoffs. Things started off great, as McPhee engineered the club's first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season. The team has played well under the general management of McPhee, having won seven Southeast Division championships (1999–2000, 2000–01, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2012-2013), had eight 40-or-more win seasons (1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11, 2011-12) and a franchise record 121-point season (2009–10).


Also, the caps have been much more successful than the wizards. I'd be happy if we had an equivalent to GM for the Wizards.

[Upper Decker]

talent may not be great but its better then what we are playing. Witt is the main cause and he's the main cause due to Wall. Even if everyone else was average, a Superstar could carry you and I do believe Wall would be a Superstar in the right system. I do believe he is capable of 23 & 9 on effecient basketball in the right system. The players around him would look alot better if he played that well. The main problem is Witt. However, even if we axed him, I dont trust Ted to be smart enough to find a coach that fits Wall's strengths to a glove.

To me this is the game where he needs to be axed. I believe weve lost 5 of 6 and the Hawks are terrible right now. An L here and I wouldnt let him coach the next game

This whole post is delusional beside Ted not being smart enough to do anything. Blaming Wittman as the main cause is the same exact cry EG had toward Eddie Jordan, Tapscott, & Flip. In addition, Wall is not even close to being a superstar. He's not even top 5 in his own position. Wall in incapable of playing efficiently becasue he settles for long-2's and never bothers to attack the basket.

[jeffsays]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee/status/436245256255070208[/tweet]

I've heard enough. Fire Randy and have Newman replace him.

[TGW]

Time for Otto to get some mins.

The Cavs are just 3 games outside the playoffs and Bennett is getting serious mins.

Its time to develop Otto AND make the playoffs. No excuses for Randy to not make that happen.

Dude, if you're a Cavs fan, there's a Cavs bored on realgm you can post on. No one gives a rats behind about the Cavs here.

[payitforward]

talent may not be great but its better then what we are playing. Witt is the main cause and he's the main cause due to Wall. Even if everyone else was average, a Superstar could carry you and I do believe Wall would be a Superstar in the right system. I do believe he is capable of 23 & 9 on effecient basketball in the right system. The players around him would look alot better if he played that well. The main problem is Witt. However, even if we axed him, I dont trust Ted to be smart enough to find a coach that fits Wall's strengths to a glove.

To me this is the game where he needs to be axed. I believe weve lost 5 of 6 and the Hawks are terrible right now. An L here and I wouldnt let him coach the next game

This whole post is delusional beside Ted not being smart enough to do anything. Blaming Wittman as the main cause is the same exact cry EG had toward Eddie Jordan, Tapscott, & Flip. In addition, Wall is not even close to being a superstar. He's not even top 5 in his own position. Wall in incapable of playing efficiently becasue he settles for long-2's and never bothers to attack the basket.

Agreed -- delusional. Phil Jackson couldn't get much better play out of this talent pool. And the idea that John Wall is a superstar... it's just ridiculous.

In another sense, the problem is in the premise -- yes, if everyone on the squad was "average", and one guy was "a superstar", you'd have a pretty good record. It's true by definition! A team with average talent is an average team; an average team gets the average number of wins on a season. The average number of wins is 41. A true "superstar" playing 2700+ minutes might well be worth 5 or more extra wins over an average player.

So, yeah. But Wall is not a superstar, and our talent level is not average; it's well below average. You know how you tell that? You tell it by the fact that we lose more games than we win. As we did last year -- even after Wall came back, and everyone was so excited.

Witt's not a terrific NBA coach, or at least there's no evidence that he is and no reason to think so. But we aren't good enough for him to be the one holding us back. Right now, we have 4 guys playing at above average for their position and role: Ariza, Wall, Gortat and Booker. Webster on the season but not right now. That's it. Those 4 guys play 1/2 our minutes.

[payitforward]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee/status/436245256255070208[/tweet]

I've heard enough. Fire Randy and have Newman replace him.

Agreed -- we need to go small every night, and Newman is much smaller than Randy.

[payitforward]

If there was ever a must-win game, I'd say tonight is it: if we lose tonight, and Brooklyn beats the Jazz and the Cats win at home over Detroit, we're in the 7th spot and one game out of 8th.

[hands11]

Not sure why the approach is 'well its Ernie's fault so don't blame Randy'. The roster is flawed and Ernie is bad - I don't think anyone disagrees with that or could argue it. Thats a given and he should not be offered a contract this summer. What's also is a given is that Randy is terrible and isn't making chicken salad out of chicken $hit (my favorite Hard Knocks quote). Sure you can let is play out, but you're losing yet another 30 games of evaluation and development for guys like Wall/Beal/Otto. We've wasted enough time early in their careers. Why not let Newman finish out the season and see what he can do. I mean he immediately played Ariza at the 4 which is something we've been screaming for since the summer. Randy shouldn't be allowed to keep his job because of Ernie's failures. They should both be out. Who cares which one comes first as long as they're both gone this summer!

Let me try again.

Randy Wittman IS a problem. He's not The Problem. Firing Wittman and replacing him with Someone Else isn't going to transmogrify this mediocre roster into a good team. Truly fixing the team means replacing Grunfeld and the front office. Giving Grunfeld a chance to pick the next coach would be a mistake, in my opinion.

You didn't address his question though, what's wrong with letting Newman finish out the regular season and playoffs? Intelligent Xs and Os coach with Spurs pedigree. He can't possibly do a worse job than Randy '161-309' Wittman, can he?

Been my montra for most the year. Randy has so been a let down as a game coach. Seems to be a good practice coach. Love that he focuses on defense. Very refreshing after all those years of EFJ. But I never expected him to suck so much at match ups, rotations, offense, time out, motivation, accountability... did I leave anything out?

Win or lose will have no effect on how I think about this team until they dump Randy. If he hasn't gotten it by now, its not like a magic light is going to go on.

Bring on the NEWMAN. This needs to get added to everyone who agrees signature. Contact Ted. Write on the WP page. Its just time to move on.

[hands11]

Fair point...More sake for the sake of change versus having any hard evidence supporting that Newman would do anything differently. And a run lead by Newman would likely mean extensions for everyone.

The wizards seemed to respond positively to randy getting ejected. Maybe him getting fired would light an even bigger fire under their behinds. Wishful thinking though.

If Newman is just average we will be better. If he is actually decent, we might actually have some fun watching the playoff games. If they keep Randy, I expect a first round slaughter. They might win one game.

[hands11]

^Cartier Martin is starting??

Oh no you don't Atlanta. Don't you go tanking on us.

[hands11]

Number three is my favorite. Make sure to finally get free six inches inside the the three point line!

But there is even one better now. I saw Wall do it last night.

Pump fake step back to 3 inches inside the 3 line at the top of the key. Randy has him working on perfecting the longest 2 ball on the court. Its a new wrinkle Randy added.

[hands11]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLee/status/436245256255070208[/tweet]

I've heard enough. Fire Randy and have Newman replace him.

Coach Randy Wittman got tossed for arguing an offensive foul called on John Wall and within three minutes, the Wizards had scored 11 unanswered points against the Toronto Raptors, chopping a 17-point lead down to six on Tuesday night.

During the frantic, desperate run, the Wizards forced five turnovers and three missed shots, holding the Raptors without a field goal for the rest of the game. But Wall wasn’t ready to credit the ejection alone for the desperate run.

“What changed the momentum for us is when we went small,” Wall said after the Wizards lost, 103-93, to Toronto. “We went small and spaced the court.”

OH DAMN. RANDY IS TOAST. THATs ALMOST LIKE WALL ASKING THEM TO FIRE HIM. TOTALLY CALLED RANDY OUT FOR BEING AN IDIOT.

[dlts20]

I say the same thing about Wall every game. Whenever he finishes with his oppposite hand he makes it and when he doesnt, he misses it. His left is so good but alot of times he still tries to finish with the right when he's on the left side of the rim. I dont get it.

Worst of all though Wall is still getting hammered when he drives the lane and doesnt get the calls. Even after the dunk contest & All Star apperance, he still gets no love. Its not even close either. He literally will get hit like a brick wall but no call

[nuposse04]

I say the same thing about Wall every game. Whenever he finishes with his oppposite hand he makes it and when he doesnt, he misses it. His left is so good but alot of times he still tries to finish with the right when he's on the left side of the rim. I dont get it.

Worst of all though Wall is still getting hammered when he drives the lane and doesnt get the calls. Even after the dunk contest & All Star apperance, he still gets no love. Its not even close either. He literally will get hit like a brick wall but no call

He's prolly laid the pipe on every ref's wife, even violet palmer.

[Illmatic21]

I bet Atlanta fans (if they exist?) hate us like we hate Toronto. We've had the Hawks number this year


Elton Brand can still get it done

[FAH1223]

Hawks have had too many injuries. Wizards will still find a way to lose. We've lost like 12 straight in Atlanta