Injuries and Wittman: A Year of Struggle
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 5:05 pm
Hey guys. Big wizards fan here (fan of all DC teams) and I figured I'd join the forum to discuss this team. The way I see it, the explanation for our struggles this year is very simple. Randy "confused face" Wittman is the smoking gun. With a team as talented as the wizards, there is no excuse to be in the position we are currently in.
This is essentially the same team as last year, with several improvements. Dudley has been great for us. He's a steady defender, has a very high basketball iq, and is a deadly shooter. We wanted to go small and he helps with that. Anderson has been hurt for most of the season but when he came in, you could immediately see how well he fits with us. Great shooter, high basketball iq, solid defender (notice a trend?). Moving Nene to the bench has helped. He gives our second unit a lift and is able to more effectively contribute because he doesn't have to play as much. With him on the bench we have increased our pace and it has paid off (more on that topic later). Gortat totally works in this new offense as does Wall and Beal. Porter benefits too. A few people say losing Pierce hurts and I think perhaps a little but not really. He was a rock for us and gave us veteran savvy and coaching. But he was only a stopgap measure and this is Wall's team. Wall is a great leader and the team goes where he goes. But a great leader doesn't mean squat without a great coach (unless you're lebron the cavs).
Markieff Morris. Totally brilliant move. It was risky due to his attitude but seems to have paid off. Morris hasn't made a peep and is playing quite well given his short time with the team. I can see how well he fits with us. He brings physicality and aggressive rebounding to the table, both of which we needed). Morris is a fantastic defender, runs the floor, and can score from anywhere on the court. I think any basketball fan can agree that Morris can be an absolutely dominant force and he has a very high ceiling. Gary Neal. Great shooter and a nice vet. But sitting out because of a calf strain? Get out of here. Bye bye. Marcus Thornton is basically the same player. Somewhat desperate pickup but we need able bodies because Temple isn't cutting it. JJ Hickson. Meh he has potential and provides depth but Wittman won't use him.
That brings us to Randy Wittman. He is the MAJOR reason why we are in the position we're in. We focused solely on offense this offseason and totally forgot about defense. That's on the coach. We started the year with a major turnover problem which is to be expected but it took us way too long to rectify that issue (15-20 games or so?). And how did it take us until after the all star break to start playing great defense? All year we've been dominant in terms of forcing turnovers and scoring off said turnovers. But we let people shoot lights out against us game after game, especially from beyond the arc. Teams would consistently put up 100+ on us. I saw lack of effort, lazy attempts at disrupting shooters, etc. A better coach would have rectified this issue FAR sooner. Wittman's famous garbage rotations and poor player management is back. Temple has several games where he scores between 0 (yes 0) and 8 points a game? Let's keep him in the starting lineup! Neal is too big of a sissy to come back and play. We have this guy named Kelly Oubre who was a great draft pick and who has loads of talent (raw though it may be) but no. Let's bury him on the bench. I want to throttle Wittman. WTF. Lately our offense sputters or we lose momentum and Wittman takes too long to notice and adjust. Hell even if he does notice he doesn't adjust. Those last few possessions against the pacers were laughable missed opportunities. Then of course the refs stepped in to cost us the game with that garbage call for Paul George (that block was clean enough to eat off of). If we had a better coach, I guarantee we would be the 3rd-4th seed in the playoffs (probably even higher). With Wittman at the helm, who knows what you'll get out of the wiz. And to be fair its also our garbage assistant coaches/coaching staff. Don Newman is good but everyone else is regarded as the worst in the league (or near it). Clean em out and let's get Luke Walton aka Steve Kerr Jr.
Injuries have sucked. We've had the most in the league by far. Beal has been incredible, especially in his aggressive drives to the rim. But of course he's soft as all hell. Our lineups have constantly been changing (Nene is out here, Neal is out there, Dudley, Porter, etc.). We can't get into a rhythm with that sort of flux. But even with these injuries we shouldn't be 10th in the East.
So this was a loooong post and I'm sorry haha. Just wanted to get my thoughts out. I hope we can discuss this and I also want to discuss why only Wittman and his staff need to go and NOT Grunfeld.
This is essentially the same team as last year, with several improvements. Dudley has been great for us. He's a steady defender, has a very high basketball iq, and is a deadly shooter. We wanted to go small and he helps with that. Anderson has been hurt for most of the season but when he came in, you could immediately see how well he fits with us. Great shooter, high basketball iq, solid defender (notice a trend?). Moving Nene to the bench has helped. He gives our second unit a lift and is able to more effectively contribute because he doesn't have to play as much. With him on the bench we have increased our pace and it has paid off (more on that topic later). Gortat totally works in this new offense as does Wall and Beal. Porter benefits too. A few people say losing Pierce hurts and I think perhaps a little but not really. He was a rock for us and gave us veteran savvy and coaching. But he was only a stopgap measure and this is Wall's team. Wall is a great leader and the team goes where he goes. But a great leader doesn't mean squat without a great coach (unless you're lebron the cavs).
Markieff Morris. Totally brilliant move. It was risky due to his attitude but seems to have paid off. Morris hasn't made a peep and is playing quite well given his short time with the team. I can see how well he fits with us. He brings physicality and aggressive rebounding to the table, both of which we needed). Morris is a fantastic defender, runs the floor, and can score from anywhere on the court. I think any basketball fan can agree that Morris can be an absolutely dominant force and he has a very high ceiling. Gary Neal. Great shooter and a nice vet. But sitting out because of a calf strain? Get out of here. Bye bye. Marcus Thornton is basically the same player. Somewhat desperate pickup but we need able bodies because Temple isn't cutting it. JJ Hickson. Meh he has potential and provides depth but Wittman won't use him.
That brings us to Randy Wittman. He is the MAJOR reason why we are in the position we're in. We focused solely on offense this offseason and totally forgot about defense. That's on the coach. We started the year with a major turnover problem which is to be expected but it took us way too long to rectify that issue (15-20 games or so?). And how did it take us until after the all star break to start playing great defense? All year we've been dominant in terms of forcing turnovers and scoring off said turnovers. But we let people shoot lights out against us game after game, especially from beyond the arc. Teams would consistently put up 100+ on us. I saw lack of effort, lazy attempts at disrupting shooters, etc. A better coach would have rectified this issue FAR sooner. Wittman's famous garbage rotations and poor player management is back. Temple has several games where he scores between 0 (yes 0) and 8 points a game? Let's keep him in the starting lineup! Neal is too big of a sissy to come back and play. We have this guy named Kelly Oubre who was a great draft pick and who has loads of talent (raw though it may be) but no. Let's bury him on the bench. I want to throttle Wittman. WTF. Lately our offense sputters or we lose momentum and Wittman takes too long to notice and adjust. Hell even if he does notice he doesn't adjust. Those last few possessions against the pacers were laughable missed opportunities. Then of course the refs stepped in to cost us the game with that garbage call for Paul George (that block was clean enough to eat off of). If we had a better coach, I guarantee we would be the 3rd-4th seed in the playoffs (probably even higher). With Wittman at the helm, who knows what you'll get out of the wiz. And to be fair its also our garbage assistant coaches/coaching staff. Don Newman is good but everyone else is regarded as the worst in the league (or near it). Clean em out and let's get Luke Walton aka Steve Kerr Jr.
Injuries have sucked. We've had the most in the league by far. Beal has been incredible, especially in his aggressive drives to the rim. But of course he's soft as all hell. Our lineups have constantly been changing (Nene is out here, Neal is out there, Dudley, Porter, etc.). We can't get into a rhythm with that sort of flux. But even with these injuries we shouldn't be 10th in the East.
So this was a loooong post and I'm sorry haha. Just wanted to get my thoughts out. I hope we can discuss this and I also want to discuss why only Wittman and his staff need to go and NOT Grunfeld.
GTFO Millie, seriously. Mods please merge this shi_te with one of the Randy threads, how-many Grunfeld troll-threads can we whack-a-mole?