Official Randy Wittman Thread - It's Playoff Randy Time LOL

[Kanyewest]

Mark Jackson got GS past the first round and still got canned. Playoff randy is not real randy. He is what he is.

The year Jackson got fired, the Warriors did not get out of the first round. Also, Jackson had clashed with ownership because Jackson refused to stop preaching at his church when he became a head coach. He also refused to give credit to his assistant coaches and often fired them including Mike Malone. Yes, Jackson also ran a bad offense but it would be interesting to see if the Warriors would have just pushed him out had he just run a below average offense.

He made it to the second round the year before last. He got canned after making 2 straight playoff appearances. Randy is about the same, My point is if mark Jackson was canned, we should have hope that Randy could go too. Unless we take the cav's or bulls to 7 in the ECF or we make it to the NBA finals.

They are similar situations. Jackson refused to play small ball until a season ending injury to Bogut made Jackson play Green and Barnes at the 4. Still, the media around Golden State were pretty certain that Jackson was going to get fired even before the Warriors/Clippers series had started.

You are right though there is a chance for Wittman to be fired, even though he made it to the 2nd round. They include Lionel Hollins, Rick Carlilse, and Flip Saunders all made it to the conference finals and got fired. Still, it would probably take a sweep by an Eastern Conference team to make it happen.

[TheSecretWeapon]

There is a 0% chance of Wittman or Grunfeld being fired, even though Leonsis ought to be looking at replacing both of them. Leonsis stated the goal: Make the playoffs. Mission accomplished. And they've gotten out of the first round -- a bonus "accomplishment." Absolutely, positively no way Leonsis replaces Grunfeld or Wittman this offseason.

[AFM]

For someone interested in stats, you sure do throw around "0% chance" pretty flippantly

[fishercob]

There is a 0% chance of Wittman or Grunfeld being fired, even though Leonsis ought to be looking at replacing both of them. Leonsis stated the goal: Make the playoffs. Mission accomplished. And they've gotten out of the first round -- a bonus "accomplishment." Absolutely, positively no way Leonsis replaces Grunfeld or Wittman this offseason.

I agree that neither guy will be replaced, but I think the Wizards have yet to meet Leonsis' stated goals for this season. I think he said 50 wins and getting further than last year were goals, but I could be remembering that wrong.

[jmrosenth]

What's his contract situation again? I think he signed a new 3 year deal with the last year being a team option last offseason? So technically next year he'd be in a lame duck situation? If that's the case, I think there's a better chance of him being extended than getting fired this offseason. [watches board explode]

Realistically you have to start thinking about Scott Brooks as his replacement after next season....sorry if that's already been mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

[Jay81]

Kris Humphries got hurt.

Drew Gooden began to see minutes and suddenly, as hands11 has pointed out, Gortat's numbers improved.

Gortat's numbers were pretty good all season. They bottomed out at a PPA of 144 on February 5, and improved to a final number of 166. But, he was in the 170s through December and declined in January. I guess we could decide to attribute Gortat getting better from February 5 on to Humphries getting hurt, but Humphries got hurt on February 25. Gooden didn't really enter the rotation until then.

what a disaster this post was:)

http://kevinbroom.com/

[JAR69]

It makes total sense that Randy Wittman is better than any coach in NBA history at winning road playoff games.

5th best playoff winning percentage of all-time: http://www.basketball-reference.com/coa ... stats.html. And that includes Kerr and Blatt, who are at 1.000.

[gtn130]

So are there still people doubting how much of a negative impact Randy's system had on the team during the regular season? Turns out shooting long 2s and clogging the lane with two bigs doesn't work very well -- who could have ever predicted that???

This roster has been held back so much, and the team we saw vs Toronto is what we should have been watching all year.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Why didn't Randy Wittman use Pierce at stretch four earlier? Very simple answer: Kris Humphries and coaching preference.

Before this season began if you simply looked at the roster, there were several power forwards. With Humphries, Gooden, and potentially even Blair all behind Nene it was apparent that Pierce would see few minutes at PF. I posted this before the season began.

Humphries in particular was a Wittman favorite. He played hard all season, and had one 20-rebound game. How would Randy Wittman have benched him to play Pierce?

Playing Pierce at the four didn't necessitate benching Humphries.

Wittman easily could have started Pierce at the three, and had lineups featuring him at the four, with Porter playing minutes at his natural position.

When Pierce plays 4 when does Humphries play?

If Humphries never went out injured we wouldn't be seeing Gooden or Pierce at PF. What took place at the end of the regular season (small lineups with a stretch four) never would have happened.

The whole point is Humphries wasn't benched. Players filled in after he was injured. Wittman was pretty much forced to accept the stretch four lineups which do put Humphries on the bench

[gtn130]

Nene shouldn't have seen nearly as much time at the 4. Not impossible to use Pierce at the 4 without completely benching Humphries. The key is to play Nene a lot less, which would have been great because he's fragile and old.

[queridiculo]

Nene shouldn't have seen nearly as much time at the 4. Not impossible to use Pierce at the 4 without completely benching Humphries. The key is to play Nene a lot less, which would have been great because he's fragile and old.

Nene can platoon the four and the five, much like he has in the series against the Raptors.

He's only played 25 minutes a game anyway.

[gtn130]

Nene shouldn't have seen nearly as much time at the 4. Not impossible to use Pierce at the 4 without completely benching Humphries. The key is to play Nene a lot less, which would have been great because he's fragile and old.

Nene can platoon the four and the five, much like he has in the series against the Raptors.

He's only played 25 minutes a game anyway.

The objective is to make use of Humphries while playing Pierce at the 4. It would make sense in the regular season.

[hands11]

From my understanding, Pierce had to basically beg Witt to go small. Wall said they had been asking Witt all year to put Pierce at the 4 but Witt wouldn't budge.

Source?

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball ... ice-game-1

This isn't the first time that Paul Pierce has said that he discussed playing more at power forward with coach Randy Wittman. It supposedly happened during training camp going into his first season with the Wizards but was used sparingly en route to 46 wins and a No. 5 seed. Now, with the Toronto Raptors ahead in a first-round series that begins Saturday, the conversation has been revisited (CSN, CSNwashington.com and NBC Sports Live Extra, noon ET).

"We talked about it. We talked about it today," Pierce, 37, said after Thursday's practice. "That’s a possibility but whatever the task at hand, I’m ready for it. Coach told me to be prepared for it so today I’m not only at the three position on offense, I did some four stuff in dummy offense that I’m prepared for."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/pi ... story.html

“We’ve been asking all along to put him at the four a little bit,” point guard John Wall said. “We’ve been talking about it. He came here to make big plays.”

So where is the part where Paul is pleading regular rotation minutes to at S4 during the season ?

You didn't post anything any different then I said.

Of course they talking about it. They probably talked about it before he signed.

And Wall has talking about hit for at least two year now.

Paul did play some S4 during the year. There is a mile and 1/2 between that an doing it as part of the regular rotation.

Did you listen to the Paul video interview I posted ?

[hands11]

I find it funny that millie is out there trying to serve up extra helpings of crow, when the teams playoff performance so far validates the criticisms that many posters on this board have had with Wittman's coaching, and Ernie as a GM.

It's bordering on the absurd that given how well Pierce played at the four in the second half of the 2013/14 season, that it took Wittman until now to finally make some adjustments.

People want to point to the weak schedule to open the season as a reason for Washington's success, but the run Washington had with Nene out of the lineup also should have been a lesson on how much more effective Wall is directing the Wizards offense when he has more room to operate.

Butler being played over Porter in the second half of the season is just another in a series of awful decisions made by Wittman.

I'm glad that he's apparently seen the light, but given his history (telling Love not to shoot threes?), is there really any reason to believe that he's going to do things much differently going forward?

Time will tell, but I'm still firmly in the camp of taking advantage of the team option, and moving in a new direction in the front office, and with the coaching when the time comes to rebuild this roster.

But but..

The team option isn't until the season after next.

Just to get the fact right. Ted would need to eat his contract for 1 year.

[hands11]

He was stubborn and antiquated in his approach during the reg season and was justifiably criticized for this.
But if his thinking has evolved and he has adapted more or less to what his sage critics were saying, should
he still be fired? I don't know the answer to that. I can see arguments either way. I wonder what the players
would say privately. I wonder what opposing coaches would say speaking candidly.

If you want to know what the players would say.. go to the Gortat thread.

Gortat was the most affected. It affected Wall as well, but Wall is the franchise player #1 pick max'd out and young. He was still a major part of what they were doing.

Gortat is the one who was most effected and he had a miserable year dealing with Randy.

But if they go to the ECF playing S4 like they are now and Gortat continues to beast, he may good solider it and keep his public thoughts to himself post season.

But they better play more S4 next season.

Why didn't Randy Wittman use Pierce at stretch four earlier? Very simple answer: Kris Humphries and coaching preference.

Before this season began if you simply looked at the roster, there were several power forwards. With Humphries, Gooden, and potentially even Blair all behind Nene it was apparent that Pierce would see few minutes at PF. I posted this before the season began.

Humphries in particular was a Wittman favorite. He played hard all season, and had one 20-rebound game. How would Randy Wittman have benched him to play Pierce?

Coaching preference was obvious when Randy failed to even try Ariza at stretch four or even use Gooden much at PF in the playoffs against Indiana. Long twos and two traditional bigs is what Wittman preferred. Last playoffs Atlanta took Indiana seven games and made Hibbert a liability. Washington should have done the same. Instead they let Hibbert and West dominate. The Pacers clogged the lane.

Randy was sticking to the same philosophy until about the last 25 regular season games. What happened? See next post ...

Yes. This is what I'm saying. And then Hump got hurt.

That's the poor coaching decision he did. And it screwed Gortat.

Paul at S4 isn't the issue. These things are way bigger issues and I have been gripping about it for a long time.

Love that Hump got some burn. He just shouldn't have been exclusively him if he also wanted to get Kevin minutes. And he should have told him to get his ass behind the 3 line more often.

[hands11]

Kris Humphries got hurt.

Drew Gooden began to see minutes and suddenly, as hands11 has pointed out, Gortat's numbers improved.

Next thing that tool place was Otto Porter played extremely well towards the end of the season. Butler slumped. Pierce played like he had tired legs. Otto performed so well that he gained Wittman's confidence.

The Wizards luckily got Toronto in round one. Pierce beat them playing PF last season. Gooden and Porter took away all the minutes Humphries and Seraphin would have played.

I believe a confluence of things forced Wittman to see the light. However, he's still not a superior tactician. I want to see his coaching next round.

I think he learned that three point shooting is better than shooting long twos. He now sees just how devastating small lineups can be.

I want to see what happens when Wall and a Gortat are far less overwhelmingly good next round.

Exactly. Only thing you left out was. Kevin played the first 2 games.

Game 2 Kevin got a little sloppy. Randy wasn't going to risk missing out on this sweep so he shortened the bench even more. Which was easy with Otto and Gooden playing well.

[hands11]

Mark Jackson got GS past the first round and still got canned. Playoff randy is not real randy. He is what he is.

The year Jackson got fired, the Warriors did not get out of the first round. Also, Jackson had clashed with ownership because Jackson refused to stop preaching at his church when he became a head coach. He also refused to give credit to his assistant coaches and often fired them including Mike Malone. Yes, Jackson also ran a bad offense but it would be interesting to see if the Warriors would have just pushed him out had he just run a below average offense.

He made it to the second round the year before last. He got canned after making 2 straight playoff appearances. Randy is about the same, My point is if mark Jackson was canned, we should have hope that Randy could go too. Unless we take the cav's or bulls to 7 in the ECF or we make it to the NBA finals.

And the conversation comes full circle.

Next year will be the first year Ted is not throw money down a dark hole and getting nothing for it. Dray's 7M boat anchor comes off the book.

Randy is signed one more year at something in the 3M range.

Would you keep Randy one more year if it meant Ted bellied up for a DL team ?

I would.

[hands11]

There is a 0% chance of Wittman or Grunfeld being fired, even though Leonsis ought to be looking at replacing both of them. Leonsis stated the goal: Make the playoffs. Mission accomplished. And they've gotten out of the first round -- a bonus "accomplishment." Absolutely, positively no way Leonsis replaces Grunfeld or Wittman this offseason.

And he is signed
And if you have dreams of KD, then you don't want a coach in place that KD doesn't like. You want to get KD and then attract the best.

Time is everything.

Its why Randy has an option year in 2016 which is the year KD is a UFA.

[hands11]

Why didn't Randy Wittman use Pierce at stretch four earlier? Very simple answer: Kris Humphries and coaching preference.

Before this season began if you simply looked at the roster, there were several power forwards. With Humphries, Gooden, and potentially even Blair all behind Nene it was apparent that Pierce would see few minutes at PF. I posted this before the season began.

Humphries in particular was a Wittman favorite. He played hard all season, and had one 20-rebound game. How would Randy Wittman have benched him to play Pierce?

Playing Pierce at the four didn't necessitate benching Humphries.

Wittman easily could have started Pierce at the three, and had lineups featuring him at the four, with Porter playing minutes at his natural position.

When Pierce plays 4 when does Humphries play?

If Humphries never went out injured we wouldn't be seeing Gooden or Pierce at PF. What took place at the end of the regular season (small lineups with a stretch four) never would have happened.

The whole point is Humphries wasn't benched. Players filled in after he was injured. Wittman was pretty much forced to accept the stretch four lineups which do put Humphries on the bench

Wouldn't be awesome if Hump manned up and took one for the team knowing they needed to get Gooden in there at S4 until post season when Paul would be ready to play there as well. Season was winding down. Had to get ramped up for the playoffs. Team wasn't playing well.

In steps the HUMP.

Strained Groin

Sorry coach.. Can't play. Got this left groin thing going on. Maybe Gooden can step if for a while.

Chris is getting payed anyway.. right. Signed two more years at $4,440,000 $4,630,00

Meanwhile, Gooden is a UFA and the team really needed to start opening the court. No doubt Gortat and Hump talk.

That would be such and awesome story if that is what really happened.

And if it didn't work. Hump would be like. I feel much better now. Ready to roll coach.

[montestewart]

Wouldn't be awesome if Hump manned up and took one for the team….

In steps the HUMP.

Strained Groin

Sorry coach.. Can't play. Got this left groin thing going on.

Your consecutive post streak ends at seven. NOT IN OUR HOUSE!

GO WIZ!