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Stevenson is a good defender and can shoot, but IMO his veteran leaqdership would be a great asset on the second squad. You also can let Nick Young run with the 1st squad and he'll learn a thing or two.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't follow the Wiz closely but I've always been a fan of Nick. Would this be too much too fast for Young?

Kid still has a loooooong way to go, and alot to prove before he can take Deshawn's spot. Why hasn't he been playing pre-season by the way?

Wizards guard Nick Young expects to miss about 10 days while he recovers from a sore left knee.

The injury bothered Young during training camp and flared up on Friday. He could miss both of the Wizards games against the Hornets in Europe, though a quicker recovery is still possible. It hasn't been a smooth preseason for the Wizards whatsoever, as they already have three starters (Arenas, Jamison and Haywood) out with injuries.1

This is a veteran-laden team. We have vets on our 1st and 2nd squad. Nick Young isn't starting because we don't need more offense in our starting lineup. We need defense, and now more than ever with the loss of our best defender, Haywood.

Young is a talented player but there are two things holding him back from the starting lineup - defense and consistency (both due to his young age).

In time, there's not a doubt in my mind he'll be our starting 2-guard.

On what basis does Nick deserve to start?

Are we sure that Stevenson can shoot? At his best he is a decent shooter, normally he is a well below average shooter for a shooting guard. I think Nick should start the season on the bench but if he can exhibit that he can play within the offense and be more mature than he should be considered for the starting spot.

N1 did exactly one thing fairly well last year: score points. He contributed pretty much zero beyond that. Instant offense types tend to come off the bench; until he learns to do more than shoot (or perhaps, upgrades from "pretty good" to "undoubtedly great" in that department), I don't see why he should be an exception to that rule.

Loss of Mason kinda hurt too.

I'm a big Nick Young fan myself, but based on where he was at the end of last season I don't think he's ready to start.

He still kills too many possessions by dribbling around until there's 2 seconds left on the clock and then either jacking up a bad shot himself, or passing to someone else who's in no position to take a reasonable shot.

Hopefully he'll be able to fill more of the role that Roger Mason had last year.

IMO if you put him among starters at this point he'll coast on some aspects of the game cause he has teammates to cover up for him. He still has to show defensively, spacing wise, Rebounding and with assists he can help the team in other ways other than scoring. I do think he can be a good scorer but even there he needs improvement in his ability to get to the rim, ability to make jump shots without fading unnecessarily and ability to move without the ball like a kevin martin or rip hamilton. Then he should be a starter. But regardless of starting or not if we were healthy he's not going to be in a bad second lineup with AD, Nick, Dmac, Blatche, Etan as second unit players and songaila, mcgee, dee stepping in for variance

thanks for the answers guys!

i see you have mcguire, blatche and thomas in the second unit. who's going to start at c for you? i thought it would be thomas?

N-one is not on the trip to Europe iirc, that's why he ain't playin'

As for our C position, seems to me it's totally up in the air right now.
EJ always liked ET, a reason many here don't like EJ. AB could start.
Right now we don't know.

Thomas is pretty much a shoo-in for C. Veteran. Size. That's just coaching 101. KG isn't even the center on his teams, i don't think Blatche will be on ours.

I mean, Blatche is at a waifish 235lbs compared to etan's 255. Neither can hold a jock to Haywood Jablome's strapping 270 or hope to stop Shaq the shaved down silverback at alumbering 325 - a full 100lbs more than Blatche. (i'm actually surprised to see how accurate a gorilla's weight is... 310-345lbs).

pancakes3 wrote:Thomas is pretty much a shoo-in for C. Veteran. Size. That's just coaching 101. KG isn't even the center on his teams, i don't think Blatche will be on ours.

I mean, Blatche is at a waifish 235lbs compared to etan's 255. Neither can hold a jock to Haywood Jablome's strapping 270 or hope to stop Shaq the shaved down silverback at alumbering 325 - a full 100lbs more than Blatche. (i'm actually surprised to see how accurate a gorilla's weight is... 310-345lbs).

Blatche weighs way more than 235. Yahoo lists him at 248 and that looks about right to me. Your point is well taken though. EJ is going to go with the veteran Etan. He's stronger, and he's less likely to fall for the veteran tricks of opposing starters. I'd rather Blatche match up against opposing backups and thrive as a featured scorer in the second unit.

sorry to say but Nick Young is a bust....and nowhere near starter caliber. He looks slow to me...I dont think he's got he first step to get by anyone...most of his point come off fadeaway jump shots.
Even in summer league he looked terrible. I'm sorry but if you cant get by guys in summer league you dont have a chance in regular season

He thinks he's better than he is and I don't think hes got the fire or desire to improve.

Wizards Note: Nick Young returned to practice yesterday after missing the past two weeks with a sore right knee. Young said he expects to play on Friday against Cleveland. He added that the injury may require surgery after the season. "I'm not trying to do that now. It don't hurt that bad," Young said.

Tell me we are not cursed.

Ugh, this has all the makings of another disaster. Incompetent medical staff tells player their knee is fine. Player rushes back to playing and really F's the knee up. Sounds eerily similar to Gil's situation.

Well, it looks like CCJ's suggestion is going to get some serious testing. If Young misses a significant portion of the season, Butler is going to have to play extended minutes at SG.

I don't have too much trouble with Butler playing the 2. Statistical evidence (in small sample sizes) suggests that Butler puts up slightly better numbers at SG, while the team plays only slightly worse. I'm less enthusiastic about Jamison playing a ton of minutes at SF. The team definitely plays better with Jamison at PF, it's not even close.

Ideally, DMac steps up big time this year, allowing Butler to play some SG without requiring Jamison to move to SF.

At what point does this organization look themselves in the mirror and say we need a revamped medical staff and training staff?

Obviously, we here on the Wizards Board know it's a combination of bad luck and incompetence, but when will the organization get it?

It's just really frustrating to be a Wizards fan. I'm never going to quit on the team, but they sure don't make it easy.