1/21/08 Game Thread Monday
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miller31time
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G35
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Gilbert0Arenas wrote:Beware of the Wizards.
Beat Boston twice. Beat Dallas twice. After an 0-5 start were now 22-12. To think we will only get better offensively and defensively with Gilbert replacing Antonio Daniels.
Beware Eastern Confrence.
Is Gilbert really a better defender than Daniels? Is it a coincidence/better direction from the coaching staff that the defense has improved with Arenas out?
I never noticed Gilbert being that good of a defender.......
I'm so tired of the typical......
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miller31time
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G35 wrote:Is Gilbert really a better defender than Daniels? Is it a coincidence/better direction from the coaching staff that the defense has improved with Arenas out?
I never noticed Gilbert being that good of a defender.......
Sure is. Gilbert has never been a great defender, and up till last season, he was slightly below average. In the short time he played this season, his defense looked great. He corrected nearly all of the mistakes he made earlier in his defensive career (ie: doubling down low when no double was needed / cutting down on gambling in the passing lanes, etc). Daniels, on the other hand, has always been an overrated defender. He makes the same mistakes Gilbert made last season and before. What makes people think he's an average-above average defender is the fact that he gambles a lot when it comes to taking charges. He tries to get in front of players in a way that looks like he took a charge, but 90% of the time, he's called for a blocking foul, thus hurting the team instead of playing fundamental man defense.
But let's, for a second, pretend that Daniels is a better defender than Gilbert and that Gilbert has not improved at all and is still a slightly below-average defender. Is he THAT much worse than Antonio to explain a jump from being ranked 28th in defense to 15th? Could a small difference in defense from one player to another REALLY cause THAT much of a drop? I'd argue that even if AD is a better defender than Gilbert (which he isn't), it would be impossible for the difference to be 13 spots in defensive efficiency.
Then take into account the fact that, with Arenas, we're the 3rd best offensive team in the league, couple that with the fact the Wizards are having a great defensive year (which, as I alluded to before, is the product of Randy Ayers, more PT for Brendan Haywood and an emerging role for Andray Blatche) and you have yourself a top tier team in the East when Gilbert returns.
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G35 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Is Gilbert really a better defender than Daniels? Is it a coincidence/better direction from the coaching staff that the defense has improved with Arenas out?
I never noticed Gilbert being that good of a defender.......
Much better than Daniels. AD isn't that good of a defender. Arenas was better than him before he got injured.
Our offense is much worse than last year in terms of efficiency. We dropped from 3rd in the NBA to like 12th.
All people think is that we're better because Gilbert is gone. Its actually because we hired a very good defensive coach (Randy Ayers) and the young guys on our bench progressed and stepped it up (Blatche, Mason, Young and now even Pecherov).
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miller31time
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Just to clarify (so people don't think I'm pulling numbers out of my ass), we were 3rd in defensive efficiency last season prior to Arenas and Butler getting injured at the end of last season (so, about 70 games through). We finished the season 5th.
http://www.knickerblogger.net/stats/2007/
http://www.knickerblogger.net/stats/2007/


















