Eddie Jordan Playoff Chronicles

[cavsfan_osiris]

I thought it might be interesting to have a thread dedicated solely to all things Eddie Jordan and this year's playoffs. I am a Cavs fan, but I have respect for the Wiz. I am not here to troll, only to discuss basketball.

Game 1:

Decisions/adjustments and lack thereof by Eddie Jordan and the staff played a significant role in the outcome.

* Washington's best player had a mismatch all game and only took 10 shots. Props to Mike Brown for making the adjustment to start Wally, props to Wally for the defensive effort, but Eddie Jordan and that staff let their team down by not taking advantage of that. Mike Brown had announced before the game that Wally was going to start and regardless of that Caron Butler is the team's best player, not Jamison and not Arenas.

* Arenas was hot in the first half and for some unknown reason the ccs guards were playing off him. In the second half they stepped up tight on him and forced him to put the ball on the floor and attack. Arenas did not attack the rim well and he didn't get nearly as many comfortable looks as he did in the first half. Adjustment by Mike Brown, yet there was no adjustment by EJ.

In fact EJ only played Arenas 27 minutes. If his limit is 30-32 minutes then Arenas should be playing every second of that limit. This is the post-season, 3-5 minutes is a significant amount of time. At the post game conference Arenas implied that the substitution pattern played a factor in him going cold after he was on fire early. Arenas takes a lot of jumpers, his game is based on feel and rhythm. If he's hot you do not mess with him because he has the ability to score 50+.

Everyone (medical staff, Arenas and Jordan) all need to get on the same page and with Gilbert's post game comments it doesn't seem like he and Jordan are on the same page.

* The Cavs controlled the tempo. I mean totally controlled the tempo. It's almost as if the Wiz had no specific game plan with respect to tempo. They were just out there running their sets with no purpose. When the Cavs got a defensive stop and had a chance to run they ran and executed. When they didn't have a chance to run they slowed the game way down. The Cavs played how they wanted to play. The Wiz need to make the game more uptempo, they failed. MB's game plan made sense and was executed. Jordan's game plan didn't make sense.

All Eddie Jordan and the staff needed to do was watch tape of Philly or Detroit vs Cleveland and how tempo is one of the most important factors when playing against Cleveland. Those teams have Andre Miller and Chauncey Billups who are solid PG's, I understand that, but if Antonio Daniels can't get the job done then he must get benched in favor of someone who can.

* Haywood was playing very well today on both ends. After his good start he was a non-factor and got very few touches. From what I could tell Haywood's disappearance act had to do somewhat with coaching.

* The Wiz were not aggressive enough in taking the ball out of LeBron's hands.

Eddie Jordan is a good coach and the Wizards have a competent coaching staff. I expect better than this from them. Coaching does not always play a huge role in each game, but it did today. They failed their team in this first game. I expect vast improvements and adjustments as the series progresses.

[CrankyTodd]

I thought it might be interesting to have a thread dedicated solely to all things Eddie Jordan and this year's playoffs. I am a Cavs fan, but I have respect for the Wiz. I am not here to troll, only to discuss basketball.

Game 1:

Decisions/adjustments and lack thereof by Eddie Jordan and the staff played a significant role in the outcome.

* Washington's best player had a mismatch all game and only took 10 shots. Props to Mike Brown for making the adjustment to start Wally, props to Wally for the defensive effort, but Eddie Jordan and that staff let their team down by not taking advantage of that. Mike Brown had announced before the game that Wally was going to start and regardless of that Caron Butler is the team's best player, not Jamison and not Arenas.

Caron Butler isn't remotely close to his early season form. He is suffering from knee, hand, and god knows what other injuries. He can't attack the basket, you don't see his jab step pull up, he's just not the same right now. This was known by Wiz fans coming into the series. We're just sick of bitching about our constant string of injuries.

* Arenas was hot in the first half and for some unknown reason the ccs guards were playing off him. In the second half they stepped up tight on him and forced him to put the ball on the floor and attack. Arenas did not attack the rim well and he didn't get nearly as many comfortable looks as he did in the first half. Adjustment by Mike Brown, yet there was no adjustment by EJ.

In fact EJ only played Arenas 27 minutes. If his limit is 30-32 minutes then Arenas should be playing every second of that limit. This is the post-season, 3-5 minutes is a significant amount of time. At the post game conference Arenas implied that the substitution pattern played a factor in him going cold after he was on fire early. Arenas takes a lot of jumpers, his game is based on feel and rhythm. If he's hot you do not mess with him because he has the ability to score 50+.

Everyone (medical staff, Arenas and Jordan) all need to get on the same page and with Gilbert's post game comments it doesn't seem like he and Jordan are on the same page.

Eddie is doing the best he can with what he has, but I would agree that leaving him out for such a massive chunk of the middle of the game can't be a good thing. Gil doesn't have his explosion back yet, the legs just aren't there, so he can't drive to the hoop as effectively as he can when he is completely healthy. His shot, however, is obviously fine.

* The Cavs controlled the tempo. I mean totally controlled the tempo. It's almost as if the Wiz had no specific game plan with respect to tempo. They were just out there running their sets with no purpose. When the Cavs got a defensive stop and had a chance to run they ran and executed. When they didn't have a chance to run they slowed the game way down. The Cavs played how they wanted to play. The Wiz need to make the game more uptempo, they failed. MB's game plan made sense and was executed. Jordan's game plan didn't make sense.

All Eddie Jordan and the staff needed to do was watch tape of Philly or Detroit vs Cleveland and how tempo is one of the most important factors when playing against Cleveland. Those teams have Andre Miller and Chauncey Billups who are solid PG's, I understand that, but if Antonio Daniels can't get the job done then he must get benched in favor of someone who can.

Antonio Daniels is now beyond the point in his career where he is capable of running an uptempo offense. He conserves his energy for occasional surprisingly quick drives to the hoop, but he won't push the ball up the court. Our only other guards are really 2-guards.... Mason and Nick Young. They can play PG in a pinch, but it's not their gig. Nick Young would push it up, but no way in hell is EJ going to play a rookie shooting guard at the point in the playoffs unless we were in dire straits.

* Haywood was playing very well today on both ends. After his good start he was a non-factor and got very few touches. From what I could tell Haywood's disappearance act had to do somewhat with coaching.

Brendan got into foul trouble pretty early on.

* The Wiz were not aggressive enough in taking the ball out of LeBron's hands.

Eddie Jordan is a good coach and the Wizards have a competent coaching staff. I expect better than this from them. Coaching does not always play a huge role in each game, but it did today. They failed their team in this first game. I expect vast improvements and adjustments as the series progresses.

[Wizards2Lottery]

In my opinion, he is not a very smart crunch time coach. He's done some good things in his Wiz coaching career, but his teams have always had the inability to finish close games or play effective defense consistently. His plays at the end of close games or quarters consistently suck. Hey Gilbert, hey Caron why don't you jack a three point shot from the top of the key.

If he doesn't get us past the first round this year, he needs to be on the hot seat... too bad that won't happen because:

1. No body in Washington media cares about Wiz basketball. No one will call EJ out for anything.

2. This team has sucked so much in the past, the current mediocre state of this team besides all the all star talent makes people over appreciate what we do.

That said, the Wizards will still win this series in 5 or 6. We are the better team, the better coached team and the deeper team. I thought EJ did a good job in todays game, the players just couldn't hit the ocean.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

If Butler's not healthy, don't play him 40 minutes.

Jamison tires at the end but EJ keeps playing him 42+ each playoff series. In one of the posts leading up to this thread I said Jamison would tire late in games and Varajeo would get rebounds over him. This game, I think Antawn tired at the end and settled for jumpers which came up short. Legs gone IMO.

EJ doesn't put a lot of imagination into his end of games strategies. Just puts the ball in the hand of the stars and hopes for the best.

I think the offense stagnates a lot at the end and it comes down to will Gil do it on his own or will the Wizards lose.

[nate33]

EJ coached a fine game. It's silly to blame him for the loss. We had plenty of opportunities to win this game down the stretch. If somebody would have hit a wide open freaking jumper at any point in the 4th quarter, we'd have won the game. Eddie can't shoot the shots for these guys.

My only minor quibble is that it's clear that nobody on the team can handle Z except Haywood. Mike Brown typically pulls Z out of the game after about 7-8 minutes of action in the 1st and 3rd. He then starts Z in the 2nd and 4th. Z killed us at the start of the 2nd and 4th because we didn't have Haywood in the game. EJ needs to pull Haywood out when Z gets pulled to avoid foul trouble; and then put Haywood back in as soon as Z goes back in.

[miller31time]

Yup, no glaring omissions by EJ, in my opinion. This is all on the Wizards players for failing to complete numerous opportunities in the 4th.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

One thing I'll say is if Lyrical as well as nate and miller all feel EJ did a good job, I'll say I'm fine with EJ.

Just looked like at the end they settled for the jumper and couldn't get a shot to drop. Couldn't stop Lebron, either.

I think at the end I'd want Jamison with fresher legs, and maybe even have him at SF with Blatche and Haywood simply for fouls.

Foul Lebron instead of letting him get layups. Haywood had 5 and could couldnt foul.

[nate33]

They did foul Lebron a lot in the first half and they generally prevented him from getting to the bucket except on a few alley oops.

Lebron scored a ton by making his pull-up jumpers from 18-20 feet. There really is no way to defend that shot. You just put a hand in his face and hope that he misses. Today, he didn't. But if we can force him to shoot the majority of shots from 18-feet, I'll be happy.

Again, I think the execution was solid at both ends of the floor. Stevenson, Jamison, Mason and Songaila simply missed far too many open jumpers. Arenas was 4-5 from 3-point range. The rest of the team was 2-19 despite having a lot of open looks. Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with Cleveland's defense.

[miller31time]

They did foul Lebron a lot in the first half and they generally prevented him from getting to the bucket except on a few alley oops.

Lebron scored a ton by making his pull-up jumpers from 18-20 feet. There really is no way to defend that shot. You just put a hand in his face and hope that he misses. Today, he didn't. But if we can force him to shoot the majority of shots from 18-feet, I'll be happy.

Again, I think the execution was solid at both ends of the floor. Stevenson, Jamison, Mason and Songaila simply missed far too many open jumpers. Arenas was 4-5 from 3-point range. The rest of the team was 2-19 despite having a lot of open looks. Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with Cleveland's defense.

In the first 5-7 minutes of the first quarter, our offense was terrible, and it wasn't because of missed shots. It was poor execution. If it hadn't been for Haywood rebounding a ton of our poor shots, we'd have dug ourselves a huge hole. But this was corrected, as it usually is, in time and we slowly cut into the lead and eventually took an 10+pt one ourselves.

I really see this as reason to start Arenas. Daniels isn't cut for this series. We need Arenas on the floor with Jamison and Butler so the three of them can get a rhythm together and be ready to go in the 4th. My 2 cents, at least.

[Tiny Too]

Although it is no fault of EJ's that Jamison, Stevenson, Mason, and Butler missed tons of open shots from the perimeter, that Caron is obviously laboring (just as he did in his first few games back from the hip problem), and that Daniels added nothing to our cause, he must be held accountable, yet again, for several game management errors:

1) In the second half, he went SMALL BALL with Songaila guarding Z. Songaila was brought in, not Blatche. In the first half, we correctly and successfully did not double Z in the post. (Most of Z's points came on 15-18 ft. jump shots off a pick-and-roll with LBJ. I can live with that over a 7 game series.) Accordingly, their perimeter shooters did not get off against us in the 1st half. However, with Songaila guarding Z, our guards (especially Arenas) are too tempted and conditioned to help in the post. That enabled guys like Gibson and West to find a rhythm a few times in the 2nd half.

Why EJ did not play Blatche as the first sub for Haywood in the 2nd half, I have no idea. I thought AB played fine in the first half and delivered some hard fouls on LBJ.

2) His time management of Gil's minutes was terrible. I understand that he tried to save Gil's alloted minutes for the majority of the 2nd half. But he played the guy 18-19 straight minutes without a rest!!!!!!!!! No wonder Gil didn't have his legs to blow past his man and penetrate late in the game. Moreover, he didn't play him enough in the 1st half when Gil was his hottest from the outside.

3) Besides not playing AB enough, I fault Jordan for not playing Nick Young. I know he is a rookie, but, if there was ever a need for him, it was this game. Caron was struggling. Daniels did nothing. Mason and Stevenson couldn't hit from the outside. Neither could Jamison. We only scored 84 points!!! The problem this game was offense.

4) Why didn't BTH see more playing time??? He had a terrific 1st quarter. I want to vomit when I see Songaila at the 5 instead of BTH or AB, especially when one of those two is being effective and is not in serious foul trouble. I bet Haywood played less than 30 minutes.

5) Our guards did not put sufficient pressure on Cleveland's ball handlers. They have NO ONE to handle the ball as a point guard, especially when West is on the bench ( and, anyway, West can't dribble going to his right). After D West, LBJ is their only ball handler. Neither Gibson, Sczerbiak, or Damon Jones can dribble. I would pressure them full court and speed up the tempo of the game to our style. Our failure to do this is a conspicuous coaching mistake.

6) Once again, we began the game jacking jumpers. When Butler is rusty and can't put the ball on the floor and when AD is your point guard, we have no one that can slash and penetrate and create for teammates. That's why it is imperative, with our current starting line-up, to go early to BTH in the post or Jamison down low (even though Ben Wallace guards him better closer to the basket) to at least try to establish an inside presence and draw some fouls.

7) When Cleveland is small at guard with West, Gibson, or Jones, why don't we try to post their man more often. We can even post Arenas. I remember him making a baseline layup in the 2nd half off of this alignment. Another coaching blunder.

I can't wait until next year when we have a real coach!!

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Does anybody have a theory about why we are so bad (LeBradford Smith bad) on jump balls? We NEVER win jump balls, even when we have physical advantages at the jump.

Giving up three extra possessions today hurt us badly.

[hands11]

You will never get some people to objective look at these things but good luck trying

[tkunit]

EJ messed up in the second when he had the line up of Haywood, Dsong, Jamison,Mason and arenas on the floor. Dsong got crushed by sideshow on the boards and Jamison was chasing wally through picks and along the three point line. thats all I really saw and was mad about today.

And I am a founding member of the wiz board 5.

[cavsfan_osiris]

I agree that DSong didn't work this game, but I don't fault Jordan for using him. He has played some solid minutes and hit some big shots for the Wiz at times off the bench. IMO he deserved those minutes. With how the matchups went and with his poor play it might be an adjustment to make for subsequent games, but I can't fault him in this one.

I am really shocked that some people are absolving Eddie Jordan. The Cavs came into the game with a solid game plan of controlling the tempo and forcing guys like Mason to beat them. Great game plan and executed to perfection.

What exactly was Washington's game plan coming into that game? All I could gather from watching them play was Jamison taking a ton of shots. Butler not taking many shots, maybe he's injured and other than that have Arenas taking a ton of shots.

Against the Cavs tempo is extremely important. What I saw yesterday was not exactly a sophisticated game plan and it was an unprepared team. Wally Szczerbiak was named as starter a day or so in advance. If you're a headcoach you've got to find a way to use that to your advantage. Wally played solid defensively, but the Wiz let him and the Cavs off the hook. If Caron isn't healthy enough to abuse that matchup then he shouldn't be on the floor IMO.

Washington was content to let Cleveland dictate how the game was going to be played and Washington did nothing about it. That is a substantive adjustment that needs to be made and a failing of the coaching staff. I don't know what the option is behind Antonio Daniels, but I don't care who it is the Wiz have to start to at least think about who their other option(s) are because he can't play like he did yesterday and the Wiz expect to win this series.

I am impressed by Mike Brown. It's hard to get a gauge on him and the Cleveland coaching staff. Over the past 3 seasons they seem to be total mess at times during the regular season, but when the game count in the post-season they really make some good decisions and adjustments.

[likwitdesi]

My three complaints of EJ were:

1. Should have kept Arenas in in the 1st half because he was red hot
2. Did not play N1...perfect situation for his one-on-one instant offense skillset
3. Songaila should never play center this series especially when Z is in...he can play it maybe only when wallace and varejao are their bigs

[cavsfan_osiris]

My three complaints of EJ were:
3. Songaila should never play center this series especially when Z is in...he can play it maybe only when wallace and varejao are their bigs

I agree with that. There's no way DSong can be asked to guard Big Z. Big Z can still get it done down low when he has a huge mismatch like that. Against guys like Haywood Z is basically just a jumpshooter at this stage of his career.

And what's the point of going small if you aren't going to increase the tempo? You don't use a small lineup and play a grind it out slow tempo game.

[closg00]

Caron had no business being out there for 40 minutes, he clearly was not on his game despite the three steals. Bad decision there.

Z should never be on the floor w/o Haywood, even if he risks fouling out.
Z abused us in the post, does EJ EVER try going to a post game when the shooters are off? NO! Brown knew when to go for our throats when Haywood was out. EJ does two things, he plays his stars, and he uses small-ball, that's about it.

If Boobie can get 28 minutes, I don't see why AB would only get 8. EJ made the same mistake last series

Not getting to the FT line, hey! Young is sitting on the bench, fully capable of going-off it hot. Zero minutes.


EJ just cannot closeout in the 4th quarter because he grinds his starters 40+ minutes, they were barely hanging on at the end. We were winning close games often this season using our bench a little more smartly for that spark.

Some on this board are satisfied if our stars manage to keep us in-games, that's not good coaching.

[FreeBalling]

-= original quote snipped =-





I really see this as reason to start Arenas. Daniels isn't cut for this series. We need Arenas on the floor with Jamison and Butler so the three of them can get a rhythm together and be ready to go in the 4th. My 2 cents, at least.

Arenas need to start, good post Miller.

I think EG should have played Young, we got nothing from our bench. Except for Gil.

[nate33]

It's not fair to criticize EJ with 20/20 hindsight. When EJ put Haywood, DSong, Jamison, Mason and Gil on the floor, it may not have worked well, but it isn't a lineup where anybody could have reasonably predicted it not to work well.

The same thing applies to starting AD over Gil. It's worked well for the past few games, there's no reason to complain about EJ trying it now.

There was only one rotation move that EJ made that I complained about before we were able to see the results. It was when Z came back in at the beginning of the 2nd quarter and EJ left Haywood on the bench. Once Z abused Blatche once or twice in the post, it was obvious that Haywood was needed in the game. But even that situation wasn't that bad because EJ got Haywood back in the game within about 4 minutes.

[daSwami]

Brown knew when to go for our throats when Haywood was out.

Er, Haywood's +/- was -18 so that strategy wasn't all that effective.