GT Wiz vs Hawks

[badinage]

Dear Deni Avdija,

If by some chance you happen to read this:

I’m deeply sorry. You played a brilliant game tonight, and any coach worth a damn would have kept you in and gotten you that trip dub that you deserved.

And I’m sorry that you play with such knuckleheads — that when you give up the ball, making the right play, you almost never get it back.

Anyway, enough negativity. Savor this night. And lean on it as proof of what’s to come — of the player you’re just now rounding into becoming. We’re all incredibly excited to see it.

[penbeast0]

Dang, pissed at myself for missing this one.

[nate33]

Dear Deni Avdija,

If by some chance you happen to read this:

I’m deeply sorry. You played a brilliant game tonight, and any coach worth a damn would have kept you in and gotten you that trip dub that you deserved.

And I’m sorry that you play with such knuckleheads — that when you give up the ball, making the right play, you almost never get it back.

Anyway, enough negativity. Savor this night. And lean on it as proof of what’s to come — of the player you’re just now rounding into becoming. We’re all incredibly excited to see it.

I disagree with this completely. Wes left Deni in for several minutes of garbage time and let him run point in an effort to get him that last assist. But guys like PBJ kept missing wide open 3s. Eventually, Atlanta put in their garbage time unit and things got really sloppy. I was glad he got Deni out of there at that point. It wasn't worth risking an injury.

Deni played 37 minutes. There was nothing wrong with Wes' handling of Deni's minutes.

[nate33]

I just watched the replay. It was a really strange game. I thought the Wizards played kinda bad, but it didn't matter because the Hawks played much worse.

The Wizards had a ton of unforced turnovers and gave up what felt like a million offensive rebounds, but somehow outrebounded the Hawks. Mostly, I think the win can be chalked up to Atlanta going 11/40 from 3-point range and Kuzma getting on a hot streak.

I honestly didn't think that Deni played all that well, at least in the first half - except for the rebounding. He had a lot of turnovers, some of which were assigned to his teammates that were really Deni's fault. His defense on Trae was pretty good though.

Kuzma was cooking, but man he would be such a better player if he would stop with the heat checks. I don't mind him launching a lot of shots in the confines of the offense, but when he starts forcing isolation shots early in the shot clock, it's very frustrating. He could be so much more efficient with just a minor mental adjustment. I'd really like to see how he would turn out if he played for a coach like Spoelstra or Carlisle, a guy who would maximize his strengths but sit him if he got too shot happy.

PBJ got some meaningful minutes for the first time this season. He looked tentative, but I was very encouraged by the way he moved. His feet were so much lighter than they were in preseason. I guess it has taken him this long to fully get right after his injury trouble. I now think he actually has a chance of panning out as a useful NBA player - if he ever starts shooting as well as advertised.

[payitforward]

Love that concept, nate.
Man oh man do I ever know a lot of people who could be improved with "...a minot mental adjustment" !!

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

I just watched the replay. It was a really strange game. I thought the Wizards played kinda bad, but it didn't matter because the Hawks played much worse.

The Wizards had a ton of unforced turnovers and gave up what felt like a million offensive rebounds, but somehow outrebounded the Hawks. Mostly, I think the win can be chalked up to Atlanta going 11/40 from 3-point range and Kuzma getting on a hot streak.

I honestly didn't think that Deni played all that well, at least in the first half - except for the rebounding. He had a lot of turnovers, some of which were assigned to his teammates that were really Deni's fault. His defense on Trae was pretty good though.

Kuzma was cooking, but man he would be such a better player if he would stop with the heat checks. I don't mind him launching a lot of shots in the confines of the offense, but when he starts forcing isolation shots early in the shot clock, it's very frustrating. He could be so much more efficient with just a minor mental adjustment. I'd really like to see how he would turn out if he played for a coach like Spoelstra or Carlisle, a guy who would maximize his strengths but sit him if he got too shot happy.

PBJ got some meaningful minutes for the first time this season. He looked tentative, but I was very encouraged by the way he moved. His feet were so much lighter than they were in preseason. I guess it has taken him this long to fully get right after his injury trouble. I now think he actually has a chance of panning out as a useful NBA player - if he ever starts shooting as well as advertised.

Defensive rebounding wasn't great from either team last night, so the offensive rebounding from both team somewhat negated the impact of our per usual poor rebounding. Same with TO's, where we weren't really all that bad last night with only 12.

I agree regarding Kuzma, he is probably 2-3 boneheaded shots per game away (that in many cases could be easy assists) from really upping his efficiency if he would just cut out these shots that very few players, if any, have any business taking on a regular basis.

Regarding Deni, yeah he had a couple of bad TOs early on but he also had some really good passes throughout the game, so don't agree he didn't play all that well even in the first half. He was the primary defender on a night where Young went 6-19 (a game that saw as per usual Young get some very generous calls), he rebounded, he was moving the ball, from start to finish. I do agree though and could careless that WUJ didn't leave him in for a triple double. Looks like his teammates during one of the timeouts told him he was close, because before then he looked like he could care less.

[nate33]

Regarding Deni, yeah he had a couple of bad TOs early on but he also had some really good passes throughout the game, so don't agree he didn't play all that well even in the first half. He was the primary defender on a night where Young went 6-19 (a game that saw as per usual Young get some very generous calls), he rebounded, he was moving the ball, from start to finish. I do agree though and could careless that WUJ didn't leave him in for a triple double. Looks like his teammates during one of the timeouts told him he was close, because before then he looked like he could care less.

Yeah, perhaps I overstated it when I said he didn't play all that well. Obviously, he stuffed the box score and played his usual good defense. What I really meant to say that I don't think this was one of the best games he ever played, even though the statistics might suggest it was. I thought it was a modestly above-average Deni game, plus he played more minutes than normal.

[gambitx777]

I just watched the replay. It was a really strange game. I thought the Wizards played kinda bad, but it didn't matter because the Hawks played much worse.

The Wizards had a ton of unforced turnovers and gave up what felt like a million offensive rebounds, but somehow outrebounded the Hawks. Mostly, I think the win can be chalked up to Atlanta going 11/40 from 3-point range and Kuzma getting on a hot streak.

I honestly didn't think that Deni played all that well, at least in the first half - except for the rebounding. He had a lot of turnovers, some of which were assigned to his teammates that were really Deni's fault. His defense on Trae was pretty good though.

Kuzma was cooking, but man he would be such a better player if he would stop with the heat checks. I don't mind him launching a lot of shots in the confines of the offense, but when he starts forcing isolation shots early in the shot clock, it's very frustrating. He could be so much more efficient with just a minor mental adjustment. I'd really like to see how he would turn out if he played for a coach like Spoelstra or Carlisle, a guy who would maximize his strengths but sit him if he got too shot happy.

PBJ got some meaningful minutes for the first time this season. He looked tentative, but I was very encouraged by the way he moved. His feet were so much lighter than they were in preseason. I guess it has taken him this long to fully get right after his injury trouble. I now think he actually has a chance of panning out as a useful NBA player - if he ever starts shooting as well as advertised.

I wonder if he dropped some weight ? He looks like he's moving better too me too. I read somewhere that in terms of knee issues which I believe he had with is compounded so like dropping ten pounds in general is like 30 off your knees or something like that. Idk could be talking out my ass lol.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[nate33]

I just watched the replay. It was a really strange game. I thought the Wizards played kinda bad, but it didn't matter because the Hawks played much worse.

The Wizards had a ton of unforced turnovers and gave up what felt like a million offensive rebounds, but somehow outrebounded the Hawks. Mostly, I think the win can be chalked up to Atlanta going 11/40 from 3-point range and Kuzma getting on a hot streak.

I honestly didn't think that Deni played all that well, at least in the first half - except for the rebounding. He had a lot of turnovers, some of which were assigned to his teammates that were really Deni's fault. His defense on Trae was pretty good though.

Kuzma was cooking, but man he would be such a better player if he would stop with the heat checks. I don't mind him launching a lot of shots in the confines of the offense, but when he starts forcing isolation shots early in the shot clock, it's very frustrating. He could be so much more efficient with just a minor mental adjustment. I'd really like to see how he would turn out if he played for a coach like Spoelstra or Carlisle, a guy who would maximize his strengths but sit him if he got too shot happy.

PBJ got some meaningful minutes for the first time this season. He looked tentative, but I was very encouraged by the way he moved. His feet were so much lighter than they were in preseason. I guess it has taken him this long to fully get right after his injury trouble. I now think he actually has a chance of panning out as a useful NBA player - if he ever starts shooting as well as advertised.

I wonder if he dropped some weight ? He looks like he's moving better too me too. I read somewhere that in terms of knee issues which I believe he had with is compounded so like dropping ten pounds in general is like 30 off your knees or something like that. Idk could be talking out my ass lol.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

I don't think he ever had much weight to drop. He was always pretty lanky.

I'm just amazed at how much quicker and more balanced he looks. I used to think he was always about to fall over.

[doclinkin]

Love that concept, nate.
Man oh man do I ever know a lot of people who could be improved with "...a minor mental adjustment" !!

[payitforward]

Love that concept, nate.
Man oh man do I ever know a lot of people who could be improved with "...a minor mental adjustment" !!

Most of us qualify -- me above all!

[AFM]

Speak for yourself. I need a major mental adjustment...

[dobrojim]

Nice to get a dub once in a while. But here's my thing, the team played better, got a W, but
our 2 announcers remained really bad. I couldn't believe it when Drew started talking about
how good our record is when Kuz scores 30 and that's all we need to have happen and/or
for Poole to play well.
I am a little encouraged by Poole of late but even though this is a poor draft upcoming,
we still need a high pick.

[nate33]

Nice to get a dub once in a while. But here's my thing, the team played better, got a W, but
our 2 announcers remained really bad. I couldn't believe it when Drew started talking about
how good our record is when Kuz scores 30 and that's all we need to have happen and/or
for Poole to play well.
I am a little encouraged by Poole of late but even though this is a poor draft upcoming,
we still need a high pick.

I listened to the Atlanta feed and I was really impressed by Atlanta's play-by-play guy. He wasn't an annoying homer and he really gave credit for Wizards players when they made spectacular plays. Their commentary guy wasn't that good though. He made really simplistic observations like: "the Wizards give up a lot of offensive rebounds", and then just repeated it over and over. He was also much more of a homer.

I wouldn't worry too much about the tank. Jordan Poole turned things around 15 games ago. Prior to that, he was literally the worst guy in the league, shooting with high volume on terrible efficiency with a high turnover rate and terrible defense. The team went 3-19 in that stretch with a laughably awful point differential of -11.1. In the last 15 games, Poole has been a below-average starting shooting guard, but not egregiously awful. His shot volume has gone down and he has posted a .556 TS% while eliminating a lot of turnovers and playing a little better D. Basically, that guy is the guy I was expecting. Not coincidentally, the Wizards have looked much better during the stretch, going 4-11 with a point differential of -7.7 - the numbers of an ordinary bad team but not an historically awful team.

Basically, the record of the last 15 games puts us on pace to win 12 more games over the remaining 44 games of the season. Our tank will be fine. Maybe we catch Charlotte and/or Portland, but that'll be it. But my guess is that Portland stays ahead of us and San Antonio outplays us too (Wemby has been too good lately). So we will probably finish 2nd worst or maybe 3rd worst if we catch Charlotte.