GT #67: WIZ @Blazers 10 pm 3/17/2025

[BearlyBallin]

Wizards have won 6 of their last 10 games. While the Jazz have lost 9 of 10.

Seriously guys team needs to lose a few. I don’t want to catch the Hornets and Pelicans.

Bey out knee
Brogdon out ankle
Bilial out hip
Kispert out thumb injury
Smart out non covid illness

Blazer beat the Raptors in a close game today.

Cross your fingers and hope for a Blazer victory….

[bsilver]

Good game for us Deni fans. We can root for him and the Blazers and not feel guilty. These recent wins are not helping our draft chances. Hopefully can stay at 14% and keep the Flagg chances alive.

[tontoz]

Just got done watching the last game. I didn't even record it originally so I had to record the replay.

I would definitely prefer a close loss but when I saw their reaction to the win I can't be mad.

Kyshawn is starting to replace Deni as my favorite player on the team. You could see he was a baller early in the season but his shooting was so bad it was discouraging.

[Jay81]

Must lose tonight

[BearlyBallin]

AJ starting the game

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

My prediction. Bub drops 67. Deni gets 2 on 1 of 54 shooting

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

We flowin

[BearlyBallin]

Young Wiz kids are getting minutes. Martin, Jones & Vuk all in the game

[prime1time]

Scoot Henderson looks very disappointing. Hopefully he can turn things around.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Keefe is doing his best for the tank playing an all G league lineup

[BearlyBallin]

Read on Twitter

[BearlyBallin]

Read on Twitter

All the young boys getting some

[prime1time]

Watching Sarr play it's hard to believe that I'm watching a future center. Yes Sarr can improve but it's clear he doesn't want to play the 5. Another way to put it, if you have Sarr playing the 5, you don't have a traditional center.

[prime1time]

Fascinating to watch Avdija play. He's grown so much. Some players just take time.

[BearlyBallin]

Read on Twitter

Blazers up 10 pts @half time

[Jay81]

Thank god we tanked because we would of beat them

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Clingan had his 21st birthday last month. Vukcevic just celebrated 22 years old last week. Sarr will be 20 at the end of next month, at the end of the season.

[dobrojim]

Young Wiz kids are getting minutes. Martin, Jones & Vuk all in the game

In the post game presser Keefe says this is basically the plan for the rest of the season.
That plan is to play the new kids so they can evaluate what they have. They will be
playing Jones, Martin and Vuk and probably AJJ a lot for the rest of the year. Obviously
they can't call it the Tank but their priorities have officially changed. They presumably
have a good idea what they have in Sarr/Bub/George. I expect they will still get minutes
but winning games is not the goal.

FWIW, Sarr looked good again in this game. I thought AJJ looked a bit frenzied.
The game hasn't slowed down for him the way it has for The Trio. Any additional
wins they get this year will be more/less accidental.

A loss next game vs UT would be really helpful.

IDK if anyone responded to my post in the last couple days raising the issue
of whether Flagg will come out this year or not. He's obviously young.
He's presumably having fun at Duke. He's getting NIL money. We'll see what
decision he makes. I wouldn't be shocked if he stayed one more year.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Young Wiz kids are getting minutes. Martin, Jones & Vuk all in the game

In the post game presser Keefe says this is basically the plan for the rest of the season.
That plan is to play the new kids so they can evaluate what they have. They will be
playing Jones, Martin and Vuk and probably AJJ a lot for the rest of the year. Obviously
they can't call it the Tank but their priorities have officially changed. They presumably
have a good idea what they have in Sarr/Bub/George. I expect they will still get minutes
but winning games is not the goal.

FWIW, Sarr looked good again in this game. I thought AJJ looked a bit frenzied.
The game hasn't slowed down for him the way it has for The Trio. Any additional
wins they get this year will be more/less accidental.

A loss next game vs UT would be really helpful.

IDK if anyone responded to my post in the last couple days raising the issue
of whether Flagg will come out this year or not. He's obviously young.
He's presumably having fun at Duke. He's getting NIL money. We'll see what
decision he makes. I wouldn't be shocked if he stayed one more year.

Yes we are officially in full on Tank mode. That Denver win as a great feel good moment for the vets to hang their hats on. After that win looks like an organizational decision to shut it down and go into "evaluation" mode for the rest of the season. Keep our current draft position, and lets get some valuable playing time and experience now for some of these young guys we haven't seen like AJ, Martin, Tristan, Colby Jones. As Keefe said in the post game, they already know what they have in Holmes, at this point they want to see more of Tristan, and these guys that have been playing for the Go Go.

And I love it. This is the way to close out the season. Nice the vets had the win at Denver so they can wrap things up for them on a high note, and time to get an idea on some of these young guys on the fringe of the roster and see what they've got moving forward.

[dobrojim]

Nice they had b2b wins vs playoff bound DET and DEN. Just based on the improvement from experience
and maturation, this same team, with heavy minutes from the trio, could get possibly 10-15 more wins next year.
I continue to believe their FRP next year is now at risk. It will be interesting to see how they manage that risk.

PS - Even Poole is still getting better. Fewer WTFs.