Jay Mariotti- the Wizards are "Dogging It"

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

It's been a loooong time since I've been on here and I've missed the good reads, but launching a business on top of my 9-5 while helping run a youth group on the side has sucked up my time like no other.

Friday I come home from work and turn on the TV to EPSN to hear Jay Mariotti claiming the Wizards are "dogging it." The numbskull of a host was even astute enough to ask him if he'd even watched the Wizards this year and how he could tell from over a thousand miles away, and Mariotti asserted it even further, without a lick of support.

Now I can handle the Wizards being decimated by injuries and simply being shorthanded, as a fan I got numbed to that years ago. But "dogging it" would be something I can't swallow.

I've only had time to watch two full games, the Knicks and Heat when we had them at home, so you guys will have a much better judgement than me. But I watched the Rockets game and "dogging it" would be the last way I'd describe it. Shorthanded, inexperienced, and poorly coached at times is one thing, but we seemingly outplayed them for 36 minutes, arguably with less talent on the floor.

I guess all I'm asking is whether Mariotti's claim has any merit at all. I hate the guy and his waxed eyebrows already, so it can't hurt his rep with me either way. And trust me I respect the opinion most of the guys on this board 100x more.

(and while I was gone has the "we are a better team without Gilbert" baloney been squashed?!?)

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

and like I said I haven't been on in a while and I'm not familiar with recent posts, so feel free to merge if needed

[spaceman_E]

Even if I thought they were dogging it, hearing Mariotti say it would probably change my mind. The people on Around the Horn are talking heads, nothing more. I want nothing more than to beat Page, Mariotti, and Skip Bayliss with giant foam bats.

[miller31time]

Even if I thought they were dogging it, hearing Mariotti say it would probably change my mind. The people on Around the Horn are talking heads, nothing more. I want nothing more than to beat Page, Mariotti, and Skip Bayliss with giant foam bats.

Foam?

[nate33]

No. The team definitely isn't dogging it. Arenas and Haywood are out. Daniels and Stevenson are playing hurt and suck so bad that they may as well be out as well. Etan is sucking after recovering from surgery and an entire season of no basketball. That leaves only Butler, Jamison, Songaila and a bunch of 22-year-olds and minimum-salary vets.

The team is still playing hard though there have been a couple of blowouts with extended garbage time. They were dogging it in garbage time but that's typical of the NBA. That's why they call it garbage time.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Jamison successfully defended a 4 on 1 fast break against Houston.

Washington played hard against the Rockets. They played exceptionally well in their win over Utah.

Other games? Not so much.

Butler appears to have dogged it at least 3 games.

The rest of the team just appears to suck, for the most part, except for the young talents McGee and Young and once in a blue moon Blatche.

[nate33]

Jamison successfully defended a 4 on 1 fast break against Houston.

Washington played hard against the Rockets. They played exceptionally well in their win over Utah.

Other games? Not so much.

Butler appears to have dogged it at least 3 games.

The rest of the team just appears to suck, for the most part, except for the young talents McGee and Young and once in a blue moon Blatche.

C'mon CCJ. That's not right.

Butler didn't dog it. It's just that he's not a great player, he's merely an extremely good player. Marion and Artest have both managed to shut him down.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

nate, I really wasn't thinking about subpar offensive efforts against Artest and Marion, that's understandable.

Caron's not putting forth much effort defensively in games I've watched. Beasley dunked on him like he was a statue.

I've seen Caron take a ton of ill-advised shots only to not get back on defense. Caron's not playing much defense at all.

I think Jamison's playing much harder than Butler is. Mariotti's statement made me think of Caron, fairly or not.

[yungal07]

LOL Jamison doesn't put any effort in defensively. Watching the Knicks game now, and Jamison hasn't put a hand up once on the shooter. And he jogs on the closeout defense. JOGS.

No one on this team plays defense except for Haywood and McGee's clueless ass. Everyone is a joke defensively.

[Kanyewest]

nate, I really wasn't thinking about subpar offensive efforts against Artest and Marion, that's understandable.

Caron's not putting forth much effort defensively in games I've watched. Beasley dunked on him like he was a statue.

I've seen Caron take a ton of ill-advised shots only to not get back on defense. Caron's not playing much defense at all.

I think Jamison's playing much harder than Butler is. Mariotti's statement made me think of Caron, fairly or not.

I concur.

[doclinkin]

Yeah I dunno. It's hard to look like you're trying to win and still lose. The only way to do it is to play line-ups that you expect to fail, and make bad substitutions etc. That way you can keep the games close, but still fail in the last quarter, last few minutes of the games. Dunno, though, that would require a plan by the team/front office-- without telling the players, you don't want them to get too discouraged. Don't shout at them, keep a positive outlook, don't get too upset, but in press conferences suggest hey, we're built to win only with the guys who are out, so it's no big deal if we lose...

That's how I'd do it anyway if my team caught unforeseen injuries and I knew there was little likelihood of making a deep run in the playoffs, but I had no good trade potential, and was capped out. In that case, the only way to pick up a superstar or is to draft one, it's the best cheapest way to add a talent infusion.

I think it's entirely possible Gil's public statement has an effect on some of the players. Caron said a few games back if the team was 1-20 he'd be 'thinking about Tahiti'. Not inconceivable there's some subtle tanking going on. BUt if there were you'd have to be real careful not to tip your hand and get your tail kicked by a team with 7 active players, one about 5'2". Because that would be embarrassingly laughable.

[Scabs304]

Tanking it is an understatement.

[LyricalRico]

Yeah I dunno. It's hard to look like you're trying to win and still lose. The only way to do it is to play line-ups that you expect to fail, and make bad substitutions etc. That way you can keep the games close, but still fail in the last quarter, last few minutes of the games. Dunno, though, that would require a plan by the team/front office-- without telling the players, you don't want them to get too discouraged. Don't shout at them, keep a positive outlook, don't get too upset, but in press conferences suggest hey, we're built to win only with the guys who are out, so it's no big deal if we lose...

That's how I'd do it anyway if my team caught unforeseen injuries and I knew there was little likelihood of making a deep run in the playoffs, but I had no good trade potential, and was capped out. In that case, the only way to pick up a superstar or is to draft one, it's the best cheapest way to add a talent infusion.

I think it's entirely possible Gil's public statement has an effect on some of the players. Caron said a few games back if the team was 1-20 he'd be 'thinking about Tahiti'. Not inconceivable there's some subtle tanking going on. BUt if there were you'd have to be real careful not to tip your hand and get your tail kicked by a team with 7 active players, one about 5'2". Because that would be embarrassingly laughable.

[AgentOvechkin08]

Yeah I dunno. It's hard to look like you're trying to win and still lose. The only way to do it is to play line-ups that you expect to fail, and make bad substitutions etc. That way you can keep the games close, but still fail in the last quarter, last few minutes of the games. Dunno, though, that would require a plan by the team/front office-- without telling the players, you don't want them to get too discouraged. Don't shout at them, keep a positive outlook, don't get too upset, but in press conferences suggest hey, we're built to win only with the guys who are out, so it's no big deal if we lose...

That's how I'd do it anyway if my team caught unforeseen injuries and I knew there was little likelihood of making a deep run in the playoffs, but I had no good trade potential, and was capped out. In that case, the only way to pick up a superstar or is to draft one, it's the best cheapest way to add a talent infusion.

I think it's entirely possible Gil's public statement has an effect on some of the players. Caron said a few games back if the team was 1-20 he'd be 'thinking about Tahiti'. Not inconceivable there's some subtle tanking going on. BUt if there were you'd have to be real careful not to tip your hand and get your tail kicked by a team with 7 active players, one about 5'2". Because that would be embarrassingly laughable.

Amen Amen I say to you!!!LOL

[ZonkertheBrainless]

heh, I was curious to hear what doc's take of this would be.

so doc, what are your thoughts on firing ej and letting Randy Ayers take over?

[fishercob]

Yeah I dunno. It's hard to look like you're trying to win and still lose. The only way to do it is to play line-ups that you expect to fail, and make bad substitutions etc. That way you can keep the games close, but still fail in the last quarter, last few minutes of the games. Dunno, though, that would require a plan by the team/front office-- without telling the players, you don't want them to get too discouraged. Don't shout at them, keep a positive outlook, don't get too upset, but in press conferences suggest hey, we're built to win only with the guys who are out, so it's no big deal if we lose...

That's how I'd do it anyway if my team caught unforeseen injuries and I knew there was little likelihood of making a deep run in the playoffs, but I had no good trade potential, and was capped out. In that case, the only way to pick up a superstar or is to draft one, it's the best cheapest way to add a talent infusion.

I think it's entirely possible Gil's public statement has an effect on some of the players. Caron said a few games back if the team was 1-20 he'd be 'thinking about Tahiti'. Not inconceivable there's some subtle tanking going on. BUt if there were you'd have to be real careful not to tip your hand and get your tail kicked by a team with 7 active players, one about 5'2". Because that would be embarrassingly laughable.

Can someone dig up the HOF post thread?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Caron's behind has been on the basketball court but he's playing as if his mind's in Tahiti.

[doclinkin]

heh, I was curious to hear what doc's take of this would be.

so doc, what are your thoughts on firing ej and letting Randy Ayers take over?

Nope.

Look if the franchise decided to go in a different direction than Eddie, I suspect they'd do it in the offseason when the Coaching pool generally is bigger. But the fact is EJ has been through this before in a 26-win season and kept his guys positive and playing hard every game all the way to the end. IF you have to have a guy nursemaid a losing season, a calm players' coach like EJ who won't wreck longterm lockerroom chemistry is the guy to have.

And I don't see that the front office had any reason to think that this Wiz team without Haywood would be any better right now than they are. Ernie has always been a heavy stats-influenced guy since back in the Pat Riley Knicks days. The EG knicks were one of the first to use the hockey-style +/- ratings. He knows Haywood's value as well or better than we think we do. And the front office was unsurprised that Gil was expected to miss a large chunk of the early season. Seems to me possible that tanking was always a realistic option. Rival Miami got a sudden talent upgrade with their star and starting Big out. If you have no other options sometimes you have to take a losing year to re-stock. The best way to do it is to re-load when you have injury, then you get all your tlaent back at once. Spurs style. An injury year is a good year to tank.

It's a strategy in danger of a monkeywrenching maybe by JaVale's early positive effect. Remember McGee was not expected to contribute right away. Ernie's early press conferences all said here's a young guy with flaws but we expect him to improve. The season's early hopes rested on the outside chance that Blatche was ready to take Haywood's role with the team. And then some.

If not? Right. We're clearly in need of a talent infusion. 'Problem' is at some point Gilbert comes back, and you have no idea what effect that has. Could rip off a string of games on exuberance alone. Or not. If you're gonna lose to get better, might as well lose early before he gets back. Then rip off a string of wins late to show the league what you can do. Then maybe shut it down for the season if the playoffs are out of reach.

Just saying. It's a positive thing to see the fast start every game now, and to watch the first 3 quarters of play. But when we piss it away at the end, it doesn't sting. Because tanking or not, we're in pretty good shape long term if we keep losing and still keep it together. The media won't crush you for fading with injured stars and key role players, fans still watch and cheer as long as McGee is bringing some excitement, and if we lose, to a team that has seven players and a starting 2-guard looking like a burnt mcnugget, well hey, could be just a 'wink wink' to the rest of the league that we dumb like a fox. Rolling out the tank brigade. Yank the young talent to watch the veterans show good technique (DS2 and DS9) in a loss, and say: do it like them, only 'succeed' more than 'suck'.

Just a theory.

[Benjammin]

I'm fine with EJ coaching the whole year as long as I am certain that he will be replaced at the end of the year. I think EJ is definitely the right coach for tanking mode while keeping a calm locker room.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Team really needs to learn to play defense though. If we get a talented rookie next year we'll want to start off on the right foot by getting a head coach who knows how to teach defense.