2025-26 Lineup Thread -- How's it shakin out?

[AFM]

Deni... Champagnie....

[leswizards]

No. That is false. Assuming they don't play PG, there are only 42 total minutes available for Bilal, Kyshawn, Whitmore, Riley and Middleton to share at the rest of the wing positions. Even if Whitmore, Riley and Middleton get 0 minutes (which is absurd on its face), Bilal and Kyshawn only get 21 a piece.

The Wizards pg play has been atrocious this year. I am perfectly comfortable with experimenting with other players just as long their play merits minutes at the pg. Riley has only played garbage minutes this season, yet you are worked up over this rotation because you assume that it means no minutes for will et Al.

I'm worked up over the rotation because it makes no sense. It plays a bunch of veteran big men when the clear weakness of the team is ballhandling and playmaking and the clear goal of the team is to develop young players for the future.

I have no problems with the general idea that the team should perhaps lean on its veterans a bit more because maybe there are too many young guys playing at once and it's leading to systemic failure. (I don't really agree with the idea, but it's not unreasonable.)

But if that's your focus, then we should be leaning on the veterans who actually know how to play, and that's CJ and Middleton. We shouldn't be playing Gill at all. And we shouldn't be force-feeding Bagley any more than the 18 minutes he needs to play to back up Sarr because it pushes a bunch of other guys out of their natural position. And we should still give a significant workload to our younger players who actually do know how to play, like Kyshawn and Bilal.

Your philosophy is self-contradicting. On one hand, you seem to want to play more vets to try instill more order in the rotations and limit the mistakes, which I can totally understand. But on the other hand, you are saying to hell with traditional roles and skillsets. Just throw Bilal Coulibaly in at PG because you can't fit him anywhere else. And that will surely disrupt the order of a veteran lineup and add a lot more mistakes.

You suffer from cognitive dissonance. Any person that expresses an opinion that can be construed by you to contradict your belief that Bilal is a great player challenges your fundamentally held belief that he is a great player, and hence that opinion must be challenged and shown to be false and invalid.

As my post did not show appropriate deference to Bilal’s (and Keyshawn’s) greatest, you felt a compelling need to show my opinion to be false.

[dckingsfan]

Any lineup rotation where Kispert and Gill are part of your key rotational pieces is mind-numbing.

One exception is if you are trying to move Kispert and want to showcase him.

[leswizards]

Any lineup rotation where Kispert and Gill are part of your key rotational pieces is mind-numbing.

One exception is if you are trying to move Kispert and want to showcase him.

Kispert is already getting 20 mpg, so he is already part of the rotation. And, I wouldn’t mind moving him.

CJ, Bub, cam, tre, and getting about 94 mpg and that rotation is mind numbingly making the Washington Wizards look like the Washington Generals.

[nate33]

You suffer from cognitive dissonance.

You clearly do not understand the term.

There is nothing cognitively dissonant about my stance. You could try and argue that I'm incorrect about my assessment of Bilal, but it's not dissonant.

But I'm content in my position. I think it's up to you to argue how Anthony Gill, a career end-of-bench journeyman who has played a grand total of 2100 NBA minutes in 6 seasons, never earned more than a vet-minimum contract, and is now 33 years old, is better than Bilal Coulibaly - a guy who led the team last year in minutes per game. If my position is backed by the advanced stats, on/off differentials, front office value assessments, and coaches, I'd say it's much more defensible than your position, which appears to be backed by nothing but vibes.

[leswizards]

You suffer from cognitive dissonance.

You clearly do not understand the term.

There is nothing cognitively dissonant about my stance. You could try and argue that I'm incorrect about my assessment of Bilal, but it's not dissonant.

But I'm content in my position. I think it's up to you to argue how Anthony Gill, a career end-of-bench journeyman who has played a grand total of 2100 NBA minutes in 6 seasons, never earned more than a vet-minimum contract, and is now 33 years old, is better than Bilal Coulibaly - a guy who led the team last year in minutes per game. If my position is backed by the advanced stats, on/off differentials, front office value assessments, and coaches, I'd say it's much more defensible than your position, which appears to be backed by nothing but vibes.

You just proved my point. I have not said one negative thing about Bilal in these post, but you feel a need to tell me how great Bilal is and how unchallengeable that belief is, and how wrong I am for not embracing your beliefs.

[doclinkin]

Line up wise I do think we’ve seen too much CJ. I know we’re trying to showcase him for trade but I’d rather lose with youth than toothless vets.

If we are going to lose let’s get creative to see if we can discover hidden upside.

I’m restless to see how Riley might work at guard.

Not a fan of the Cam Whitmore at PF experiment. I want to feed him the ball as an outside in attacker.

Curious if Bub and Cam can show any chemistry.

Vukcevic displays offensive talent. Why not throw him to the wolves on defense for an extended stretch.

AJJ can’t earn any look at the court?

I guess I’m the exact opposite of leswiz, which is probably no surprise. I think we should be doing exactly what we did last year: get PT for the youngest players to see if we can jumpstart something and add a boost of energy.

Only part we do agree: CJ missing double digit shot attempts helps nobody. Not his trade value nor the development of our young pups.

[payitforward]

...even if you want to argue that Champagnie is every bit as good as Kyshawn and Bilal...

Per my query, nate, I was not looking for an argument of any kind -- just for your explanation, which you have now provided. There's plenty of room for dialogue here.

Champagnie started a lot of games last year; I don't think his production vs. starters was particularly different than vs. backups. Correct me if you have info that shows I'm wrong.

The only way you can judge a player is by what he produces on the court. jc was extremely productive last year. E.g., a .614 TS% is not to be sneezed at after all.

That said, my point is not to "argue that Champagnie is every bit as good as Kyshawn and Bilal." That's an abstract issue that is irrelevant & anyway there's no real basis yet to compare Bilal or Ky to anyone -- at least not usefully. They are both incredibly promising players with a ton of potential & at the very beginning of their careers.

My only concern about Justin, OTOH, is that it makes no sense to me that he isn't getting at least the same minutes this year that he got last year -- it's obvious that he's earned them. He's also young enough that we shouldn't assume there's no more development possible.

Nor would I want his minutes to come from either Ky or Bilal, btw.

[leswizards]

At what point did garbage time kick in tonight? The rockets had the Wizards down by 20 about twenty minutes into the game, and down by 27 at the half.

I am curious, because to me the whole second half was garbage time. The rockets didn’t play the 2nd half the way they normally would, their coach didn’t coach the way he normally would, and the refs didn’t ref it the way they normally would.

Hence, what was actually gained in the second half by the young wizards? It wasn’t a legitimate learning experience.

That’s why I made my suggestion about trying to get a lineup that actually keeps game’s competitive.

I am sure that those who think the wizards are on the right track will find lots of positives in the second half and bash me. So be it.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

How about this strawman?

Dawkins should fire Keefe for not keeping the team competitive. (Heck, Wingers should fire both Dawkins and Keefe.)

Yay or Nay?

[payitforward]

Has everyone gone crazy all at once?

[nate33]

At what point did garbage time kick in tonight? The rockets had the Wizards down by 20 about twenty minutes into the game, and down by 27 at the half.

I am curious, because to me the whole second half was garbage time. The rockets didn’t play the 2nd half the way they normally would, their coach didn’t coach the way he normally would, and the refs didn’t ref it the way they normally would.

Hence, what was actually gained in the second half by the young wizards? It wasn’t a legitimate learning experience.

That’s why I made my suggestion about trying to get a lineup that actually keeps game’s competitive.

I am sure that those who think the wizards are on the right track will find lots of positives in the second half and bash me. So be it.

You are no doubt correct that the Wizards came back because Houston took their foot of the gas.

Where you are wrong is in your assumption that a lineup of one young player plus four among Kispert, Champagnie, Gill, Bagley and Sarr are somehow good enough to keep games close in the first half.

[leswizards]

At what point did garbage time kick in tonight? The rockets had the Wizards down by 20 about twenty minutes into the game, and down by 27 at the half.

I am curious, because to me the whole second half was garbage time. The rockets didn’t play the 2nd half the way they normally would, their coach didn’t coach the way he normally would, and the refs didn’t ref it the way they normally would.

Hence, what was actually gained in the second half by the young wizards? It wasn’t a legitimate learning experience.

That’s why I made my suggestion about trying to get a lineup that actually keeps game’s competitive.

I am sure that those who think the wizards are on the right track will find lots of positives in the second half and bash me. So be it.

You are no doubt correct that the Wizards came back because Houston took their foot of the gas.

Where you are wrong is in your assumption that a lineup of one young player plus four among Kispert, Champagnie, Gill, Bagley and Sarr are somehow good enough to keep games close in the first half.

The bucks had the wizards down by 20 in under 13 minutes, and only played disciplined basketball after that the few times that the wizards got the lead to single digits.

The wizards got their sole win of the season against a maverics team missing Irving, Gafford and Exum; and Davis and lively may have played injured or ineffectively.

The hornets played like crap in the first half, but beat the wizards by 40 in the second half.

The 76ers playing the 2nd game of a back to back played poorly in the first 29 minutes, but routed the Wizards by 30 in the final 24 minutes.

I will finish this later

[closg00]

I don’t understand the lack of usage of our young players we need to evaluate. Tristan for example, when it’s not garbage time, you see him get a couple of minutes where he drains a three, then he is quickly taken out, Keefe seems determined to limit him to less than 5 minutes, his D is completely irrelevant at this point.

At the PG position Keefe/Dawkins are determined to play-on with Bub to see if he can break out of his slump, but he arrived with exactly the game that he is showing, he will always be camping outside of the painted area except on rare occasions. SO, why TF have we not seen AJ yet, or even Sharife at Point? I suspect that the org would rather have a poor leader laying Bub than to admit that the phucked-up badly on the Deni trade, as-long as Bub continues to play, there won’t be any articles/videos from the top sports analysts on him behind potentially a bust.

Will, play him, or have him playing in the G-League like so-many other rookies from the 2025 class, having him riding the line, or making a brief garbage time appearance is wasteful.

[leswizards]

At what point did garbage time kick in tonight? The rockets had the Wizards down by 20 about twenty minutes into the game, and down by 27 at the half.

I am curious, because to me the whole second half was garbage time. The rockets didn’t play the 2nd half the way they normally would, their coach didn’t coach the way he normally would, and the refs didn’t ref it the way they normally would.

Hence, what was actually gained in the second half by the young wizards? It wasn’t a legitimate learning experience.

That’s why I made my suggestion about trying to get a lineup that actually keeps game’s competitive.

I am sure that those who think the wizards are on the right track will find lots of positives in the second half and bash me. So be it.

You are no doubt correct that the Wizards came back because Houston took their foot of the gas.

Where you are wrong is in your assumption that a lineup of one young player plus four among Kispert, Champagnie, Gill, Bagley and Sarr are somehow good enough to keep games close in the first half.

The bucks had the wizards down by 20 in under 13 minutes, and only played disciplined basketball after that the few times that the wizards got the lead to single digits.

The wizards got their sole win of the season against a maverics team missing Irving, Gafford and Exum; and Davis and lively may have played injured or ineffectively.

The hornets played like crap in the first half, but beat the wizards by 40 in the second half.

The 76ers playing the 2nd game of a back to back played poorly in the first 29 minutes, but routed the Wizards by 30 in the final 24 minutes.

I will finish this later

The thunder game seemed competitive for 3 quarters, but the wizards were down by 20 points 5 minutes into the 4th.

Other than the first quarter, the magic routed the wizards for the whole game.

The wizards were competitive against the knicks for a half, but they were down by 20 points 7 minutes into the third quarter.

The Wizards were competitive for most of the first half against Celtics, but were routed by 30 the rest of the way.

The cavaliers game was basically a route from the start of the game.

The wizards lost to a maverics team missing Davis, Irving, lively, Thompson and exum.

The pistons playing the second of a back to back played poorly for 3 quarters, but beat the Wizards by 10+ points in the final quarter plus to win.

The rockets results were previously mentioned.

Maybe the players that you seem to have no respect for couldn’t have been any more effective than this. But considering that this offseason you seemed to be blinded by your delusional optimism into thinking that this team has enough good young players to win 30 games, I seem to doubt your opinion.

[nate33]

You are no doubt correct that the Wizards came back because Houston took their foot of the gas.

Where you are wrong is in your assumption that a lineup of one young player plus four among Kispert, Champagnie, Gill, Bagley and Sarr are somehow good enough to keep games close in the first half.

The bucks had the wizards down by 20 in under 13 minutes, and only played disciplined basketball after that the few times that the wizards got the lead to single digits.

The wizards got their sole win of the season against a maverics team missing Irving, Gafford and Exum; and Davis and lively may have played injured or ineffectively.

The hornets played like crap in the first half, but beat the wizards by 40 in the second half.

The 76ers playing the 2nd game of a back to back played poorly in the first 29 minutes, but routed the Wizards by 30 in the final 24 minutes.

I will finish this later

The thunder game seemed competitive for 3 quarters, but the wizards were down by 20 points 5 minutes into the 4th.

Other than the first quarter, the magic routed the wizards for the whole game.

The wizards were competitive against the knicks for a half, but they were down by 20 points 7 minutes into the third quarter.

The Wizards were competitive for most of the first half against Celtics, but were routed by 30 the rest of the way.

The cavaliers game was basically a route from the start of the game.

The wizards lost to a maverics team missing Davis, Irving, lively, Thompson and exum.

The pistons playing the second of a back to back played poorly for 3 quarters, but beat the Wizards by 10+ points in the final quarter plus to win.

The rockets results were previously mentioned.

Maybe the players that you seem to have no respect for couldn’t have been any more effective than this. But considering that this offseason you seemed to be blinded by your delusional optimism into thinking that this team has enough good young players to win 30 games, I seem to doubt your opinion.

This is the dumbest conversation on this board in a while. You go on believing that the secret to our success will be to play Gill for 30 minutes a night, move Bagley to PF to cause a ball handling and floor spacing disaster, and abandon playing any PG at all. Oh yeah, and you will develop three of our best young players: Bilal, Kyshawn and Tre, by having them share less than 48 minutes combined, all at the PG position.

[leswizards]

The bucks had the wizards down by 20 in under 13 minutes, and only played disciplined basketball after that the few times that the wizards got the lead to single digits.

The wizards got their sole win of the season against a maverics team missing Irving, Gafford and Exum; and Davis and lively may have played injured or ineffectively.

The hornets played like crap in the first half, but beat the wizards by 40 in the second half.

The 76ers playing the 2nd game of a back to back played poorly in the first 29 minutes, but routed the Wizards by 30 in the final 24 minutes.

I will finish this later

The thunder game seemed competitive for 3 quarters, but the wizards were down by 20 points 5 minutes into the 4th.

Other than the first quarter, the magic routed the wizards for the whole game.

The wizards were competitive against the knicks for a half, but they were down by 20 points 7 minutes into the third quarter.

The Wizards were competitive for most of the first half against Celtics, but were routed by 30 the rest of the way.

The cavaliers game was basically a route from the start of the game.

The wizards lost to a maverics team missing Davis, Irving, lively, Thompson and exum.

The pistons playing the second of a back to back played poorly for 3 quarters, but beat the Wizards by 10+ points in the final quarter plus to win.

The rockets results were previously mentioned.

Maybe the players that you seem to have no respect for couldn’t have been any more effective than this. But considering that this offseason you seemed to be blinded by your delusional optimism into thinking that this team has enough good young players to win 30 games, I seem to doubt your opinion.

This is the dumbest conversation on this board in a while. You go on believing that the secret to our success will be to play Gill for 30 minutes a night, move Bagley to PF to cause a ball handling and floor spacing disaster, and abandon playing any PG at all. Oh yeah, and you will develop three of our best young players: Bilal, Kyshawn and Tre, by having them share less than 48 minutes combined, all at the PG position.

Much of what you said is false, and the result of false assumptions you make because of your cognitive dissonance and delusional optimism. Still think there is a danger of the wizards winning 30 games?

[nate33]

This is the dumbest conversation on this board in a while. You go on believing that the secret to our success will be to play Gill for 30 minutes a night, move Bagley to PF to cause a ball handling and floor spacing disaster, and abandon playing any PG at all. Oh yeah, and you will develop three of our best young players: Bilal, Kyshawn and Tre, by having them share less than 48 minutes combined, all at the PG position.

Much of what you said is false, and the result of false assumptions you make because of your cognitive dissonance and delusional optimism. Still think there is a danger of the wizards winning 30 games?

What I said was an accurate distillation of your strategy.

Your only response has been to point out that the Wizards are currently really bad. This is not a revelation. We can all see that. But replacing a bad rotation with a worse rotation is not a solution. It just makes us even worse while not developing our young players.

[leswizards]

This is the dumbest conversation on this board in a while. You go on believing that the secret to our success will be to play Gill for 30 minutes a night, move Bagley to PF to cause a ball handling and floor spacing disaster, and abandon playing any PG at all. Oh yeah, and you will develop three of our best young players: Bilal, Kyshawn and Tre, by having them share less than 48 minutes combined, all at the PG position.

Much of what you said is false, and the result of false assumptions you make because of your cognitive dissonance and delusional optimism. Still think there is a danger of the wizards winning 30 games?

What I said was an accurate distillation of your strategy.

Your only response has been to point out that the Wizards are currently really bad. This is not a revelation. We can all see that. But replacing a bad rotation with a worse rotation is not a solution. It just makes us even worse while not developing our young players.

That is false, but since it is never going to happen, I don’t see the point in arguing over your false assumptions.

For someone who delusionally thinks/thought this wizards team is capable of winning 30 games this season, you are obnoxiously rude and smug.

[nate33]

Much of what you said is false, and the result of false assumptions you make because of your cognitive dissonance and delusional optimism. Still think there is a danger of the wizards winning 30 games?

What I said was an accurate distillation of your strategy.

Your only response has been to point out that the Wizards are currently really bad. This is not a revelation. We can all see that. But replacing a bad rotation with a worse rotation is not a solution. It just makes us even worse while not developing our young players.

That is false, but since it is never going to happen, I don’t see the point in arguing over your false assumptions.

For someone who delusionally thinks/thought this wizards team is capable of winning 30 games this season, you are obnoxiously rude and smug.

When did I say they could win 30 games?

I predicted 25, up from 23 because I didn't think intentional tanking would be necessary. Now that more teams have entered the tanking derby, I wish I could rescind my 25 and go back to 23.