PG: Wizards blow out slumping Raptors

[MiamiSPX]

Horrible loss. We actually made their lottery picks look like home run picks.

For the posters that coincidentally appear only after losses...when was the last time a team blew it up while sitting 4th in the conference 32 games into the season?

[Son Goku 25]

Horrible loss. We actually made their lottery picks look like home run picks.

For the posters that coincidentally appear only after losses...when was the last time a team blew it up while sitting 4th in the conference 32 games into the season?

It's definitely a tough position to be in.

The way I see it is this team is still a young rebuilding team so that means they are going to be inconsistent.

We got a couple of injuries to our main guys and don't have great depth either. We're still top 5 in the east but I understand when you look at it from a diff perspective, I can understand the argument that other teams can be better than us as early as next season (due to their own injuries) while we might not still have an actual franchise player and are capped out.

We're sort of stuck in a way and looks bad if they pivot away from this core drastically but also looks bad if we don't add to it or make some big changes. Guess you can say we're mid. Reminds me of the pre Lowry and DeMar Raptors in a way.

[WaltFrazier]

Watched the game in an hour replay later last night, from mid third quarter on. Raps won the third and were only down 2 points going into the 4th. 37-17 4th quarter. Before seeing that I assumed it was a blowout all game. Does it make it worse that it was just a last quarter collapse? Or not so bad?

[Tripod]

What's funny is that the Raps winning % right now, is at .563%. In the Raps first 18 years in the league, they had 16 years WORSE than they currently have. And the only 2 better were .573%.

So this would be our 3rd best non-Masai year in team history, % wise.

[Tripod]

Without CMB and Poeltl this team has no one to protect the paint other than Scottie and he's not that good at being a full time C defensively/ can't do it for a whole game/ is going to hurt his offense if he has to focus on that the whole time.

Such a simple concept and we see it repeatedly the last few years, with no changes.

[Tripod]

Is Bobby secretly sabotaging the team by not addressing the C position since the summer? It’s a glaring need since last year…

Since last year? Since 2020

[Madvillainy2004]

Can Scottie stop with these stinkers lmao its year 5 man

[Madvillainy2004]

I’m not high on Darko either but I don’t think this is his fault. Bobby gave him a supremely flawed roster that isn’t built for the modern NBA.

Your 3 highest paid players put 0 pressure on the rim with a live dribble and nobody off your bench can shoot 3’s at a competent level. What can you do as a coach?

He's a development coach that hasnt developed **** and he sucks as an in game coach on top of that. What exactly has he provided to this franchise?

Who is he going to develop?

It isn’t his fault Gradey’s #1 skillset ended up being a weakness of his. It isn’t his fault Mogbo has 0 touch around the rim. It isn’t his fault Jakobe has 0 handles.

You can’t give a coach a roster with barely any talent and expect to make gems out of it. It starts with the FO. Not the coach or players.

Ive said this a lot but if Gradey isnt a volune 3 point shooter on solid %s theres just no path to him being useful to a team thats actually trying to win games. Rjs been out for weeks and were begging anyone to step up and score 10+ a night at that spot and Gradey somehow moved down the rotation lmao

[Tha Cynic]

The bench players have not developed and can’t shoot and we badly need a big. It’s pretty clear what the issue are and honestly not that hard to fix. The issue is that the front office refuses to address either concern.

Look at the huge difference Mamu made. We need more guys like that because at this stage it’s very clear our drafting or development staff is really bad. Like we’re bottom of the league bad right now and it is nothing like the crew that drafted and developed the bench mob.

It’s also ironic that some want us to tank when it’s very clear drafting and developing has been the biggest issues. You want to double down? lol

We drafted one of the strongest players in the league in Barnes and developed none of his one game or driving. We drafted CMB who showed a ton of potential decking downhill and have him never even look at the basket when he had the ball and instead just kick it out. We drafted a shooter and we didn’t even bother working on his form. We drafted a bunch of non shooters and didn’t develop any other skill and they also can’t shoot.

If a guy has a strength, make sure that translates to the nba first and becomes elite and then focus on the weaknesses.

[PushDaRock]

If you can't handle us at our worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve us at our best!!!

Good Riddance!!!

[sidsid]

Always annoys me when you've got the right injury (Jak) to see some modern ball, but you then have another injury (CMB) preventing you from seeing the only lineup (Mamu/Barnes/CMB) that matters in terms of development.

[MEDIC]

The bench players have not developed and can’t shoot and we badly need a big. It’s pretty clear what the issue are and honestly not that hard to fix. The issue is that the front office refuses to address either concern.

Look at the huge difference Mamu made. We need more guys like that because at this stage it’s very clear our drafting or development staff is really bad. Like we’re bottom of the league bad right now and it is nothing like the crew that drafted and developed the bench mob.

It’s also ironic that some want us to tank when it’s very clear drafting and developing has been the biggest issues. You want to double down? lol.

Totally agree. This is fixable, but in order to do so, Bobby needs to find the right veteran talent that is sitting on rosters that can be.gotten for cheap. That's the challenge.

We basically need to dump the youth that don't seem to be developing & bring in some vets. Its the only way to go.

Could you imagine if they didn't get lucky with that Mamu signing. Things would look very very rough.

We basically have to find the next Mamu & his twin in order to move forward.

The issue is, they seem ti be more interested in cutting salary than they are making this work.

[Troubadour]

Pretty embarrassing but Wizards played well and knew how to beat us. It’s frustrating but I do look at more higher expected teams like the Cavs and Magic and don’t feel as bad anymore. Throw in Atlanta too. I think we are teams fundamentally built badly while the Pistons/Knicks/Celtics found the right formula. To a lesser extent, the Pacers but I think their window is closed.

Pistons lost so many games they almost set a record. Last year people were calling for a rebuild. I wouldn't be so confident in their formula.

Pistons are Top 10 in offence and defence, they've found a franchise player in Cade Cunningham, and their other young talent is developing. I'd trade places with Detroit in a heartbeat.

[Tripod]

Can Scottie stop with these stinkers lmao its year 5 man

Barnes is the only one to have bad games?

Siakam and Banchero both shot 4-13 last night posting 11 and 13 pts.

[Dennis 37]

Horrible loss. We actually made their lottery picks look like home run picks.

For the posters that coincidentally appear only after losses...when was the last time a team blew it up while sitting 4th in the conference 32 games into the season?

I don't want it blown up. I want a center. I'm so fricken tired of not having a center. The odds of us winning a game without Jakob out there is less than 50%. Even against bottom feeders. There's got to be an underused center in the league. or a g-leaguer we could 10 day, or a player in Europe.

[Troubadour]

Can Scottie stop with these stinkers lmao its year 5 man

Barnes is the only one to have bad games?

Siakam and Banchero both shot 4-13 last night posting 11 and 13 pts.

On the season, Siakam is averaging 23 PTS / 7 REB / 4 AST on 56% TS (assisted on 42% of his 2FG and 75% of his 3FG). Barnes is averaging 19 PTS / 8 REB / 5 AST on 58% TS (assisted on 57% of his 2FG and 93% of his 3FG). They concede the same FG% at the rim as primary defenders, but Barnes averages one more block per game. Based on EPM, Siakam is vastly superior offensive player and not that far off defensively (overall EPM is 3.0 vs 1.4).

Scottie's got a longer career ahead of him. That said, he needs to win debates with Jalen Johnson and other peers before looking at players a rung or two above him.

[Los_29]

Pistons lost so many games they almost set a record. Last year people were calling for a rebuild. I wouldn't be so confident in their formula.

At the end of the day, Harris/Cade/Duren/Ausar is not a good future core. Just goes to show you how wide open the East is if Detroit is leading it.

I know everything is relative and not absolute, but this just seems objectively incorrect.

Cade is going to get MVP votes and probably has a floor of All-NBA second team this year.

Duren is going to be an All-Star and might get an All-NBA nod as well.

Ausar seems like he'll be an All-Defensive team mainstay with room to grow.

An All-NBA-caliber guard, an All-Star-caliber C, and an All-Defensive team forward, all 24 or under. Seems like a good future core to me?

There is the issue of them racking up wins (and therefore award consideration) in a weak East, but that opportunity is available to everyone, and they are the ones actually doing it. It might just mean that they are good players.

Cade is great player with lots of strengths but he’s not an efficient scorer. Duren is a good player and Ausar is a great defensive player, non-shooter, non-scorer. This is a core they assembled from tanking for half a decade. Not a bad core but not a great core. I’m sorry, but it isn’t. It’s good enough in a horrible East. But not good enough for sustainable success in this league.

[sidsid]

I wonder if its the right time to start looking at trading Barnes soon....I think we should learn from our past mistakes from holding onto these guys for way too long where their value goes in the gutter....

What would you look for in a Barnes return?....A draft pick heavy package and start over or an upgraded player package.....I think building around Barnes as the franchise player is the worst thing we can do.....Hes a heck of a player but we have him in the wrong role and idk if we will ever get a chance to add the right player to compliment him with the lack of assets we have outside of him...

If i were running things and the team continues to look like it has been looking you have to have that conversation....Barnes right now would fetch us alot of assets on the market to a team that still believes he could reach franchise player level...I think it would be a win/win for us....We get multiple assets like draft picks and what not while also being able to start over and move away from this flawed core we built over the years...At that point id fire Bobby and scout team since i am not so confident in their drafting as of late as well...New vision, rebrand jersey + court, New team building method....We need a whole new core at this point imo.

The FO has avoided building a proper team during the entirety of the post-Giannis offseason. Where their worst ideas included building the team around the Jak/Fred PNR. The goal is to make the playoffs, not to build around stars like Siakam/Barnes, and that won't change until they've hit the wall on their current retool of the previous retool and the remaining piece of this FO is fired.

That's why I've been warming to the AD/KD trades as long as they don't sell out the 3+ years of draft picks down the road. A bit more fun to watch modern ball while the wheels spin. You're probably looking at another 2 years before Barnes starts thinking about his next contract and where he wants to play. That'll be the catalyst for a blow-it-up scenario with likely a new FO.

[Tripod]

Can Scottie stop with these stinkers lmao its year 5 man

Barnes is the only one to have bad games?

Siakam and Banchero both shot 4-13 last night posting 11 and 13 pts.

On the season, Siakam is averaging 23 PTS / 7 REB / 4 AST on 56% TS (assisted on 42% of his 2FG and 75% of his 3FG). Barnes is averaging 19 PTS / 8 REB / 5 AST on 58% TS (assisted on 57% of his 2FG and 93% of his 3FG). They concede the same FG% at the rim as primary defenders, but Barnes averages one more block per game. Based on EPM, Siakam is vastly superior offensive player and not that far off defensively (overall EPM is 3.0 vs 1.4).

Scottie's got a longer career ahead of him. That said, he needs to win debates with Jalen Johnson and other peers before looking at players a rung or two above him.

The ENTIRE point was that other people have bad games too. You seemed to have missed that.

It's taken 5 years for JJ to have a year better than Barnes. Those first 4 years don't count?

JJ is having a great year. Why can't people just say that their were 7 great picks that year and the Raps got one of them. Some years Barnes was the best/near top of the bunch, other years it was other guys.

But again, the ENTITE point was Barnes is far from the only guy who has bad nights.

[ill-Will03]

I’m not high on Darko either but I don’t think this is his fault. Bobby gave him a supremely flawed roster that isn’t built for the modern NBA.

Your 3 highest paid players put 0 pressure on the rim with a live dribble and nobody off your bench can shoot 3’s at a competent level. What can you do as a coach?

He's a development coach that hasnt developed **** and he sucks as an in game coach on top of that. What exactly has he provided to this franchise?

Who is he going to develop?

It isn’t his fault Gradey’s #1 skillset ended up being a weakness of his. It isn’t his fault Mogbo has 0 touch around the rim. It isn’t his fault Jakobe has 0 handles.

You can’t give a coach a roster with barely any talent and expect to make gems out of it. It starts with the FO. Not the coach or players.

While I do agree Gradey is a scrub. I do fondly remember the scrubs we had while Casey was here and most if not all exceeded expectations.

We had guys like Ppatt, Vasquez, Bebe, etc all looking like nba role players.


I know our drafting hasn’t been the best but I do feel like Darko doesn’t play to our strengths. These players shouldn’t be as bad as they are, that is solely on development and the coaching staff