PG: Wizards blow out slumping Raptors

[PushDaRock]

Says you.

He isn't a natural scorer for the 1000 time so expecting him to become a 22-25 point guy is just setting YOUR EXPECTATIONS up for failure.

AND you expect him to do that while also playing better defense to try and cover Yak since Mamu can't.

And I will point it out again, Barnes has put up almost exact numbers without RJ as.onntbe season EXCPECT with his 3pt shooting dropping horribly. So he isn't getting the point boost that he was with that in the first 2 months.

Ingram CAN produce more as he is a natural scorer. Now go ask Ingram to score more but also chase Pritchard around at POA defense because no guard could stop him THEN go play C because no one else has any paint presence. Ingram would crumble being asked to do all that but Barnes is expected to because we have no other options. He just isn't good enough to expect that out of him, regardless what your expectations are.

If he's not supposed to score more with RJ out, then who should? You think the role players should instead of him? We are missing 19 points from the line-up, you don't think Scottie should step up his scoring even a bit?

It's like a limbo bar going lower and lower.

Guarding Pritchard is supposed to be an excuse for not contributing to the offense?

Somehow expecting a modest boost in scoring from your Max Player when missing one of your best scorers is asking for too much now?

[mdenny]

If he's not supposed to score more with RJ out, then who should? You think the role players should instead of him? We are missing 19 points from the line-up, you don't think Scottie should step up his scoring even a bit?

It's like a limbo bar going lower and lower.

Guarding Pritchard is supposed to be an excuse for not contributing to the offense?

Somehow expecting a modest boost in scoring from your Max Player when missing one of your best scorers is asking for too much now?

I don't get it.

Barnes is having a good season in totality. And every player has ups and downs. If he's still playing like this in 2 weeks then i'll start to worry.

[canada_dry]

The fact they are nearly identical is not a good thing

Says you.

He isn't a natural scorer for the 1000 time so expecting him to become a 22-25 point guy is just setting YOUR EXPECTATIONS up for failure.

AND you expect him to do that while also playing better defense to try and cover Yak since Mamu can't.

And I will point it out again, Barnes has put up almost exact numbers without RJ as.onntbe season EXCPECT with his 3pt shooting dropping horribly. So he isn't getting the point boost that he was with that in the first 2 months.

Ingram CAN produce more as he is a natural scorer. Now go ask Ingram to score more but also chase Pritchard around at POA defense because no guard could stop him THEN go play C because no one else has any paint presence. Ingram would crumble being asked to do all that but Barnes is expected to because we have no other options. He just isn't good enough to expect that out of him, regardless what your expectations are.

If he's not supposed to score more with RJ out, then who should? You think the role players should instead of him? We are missing 19 points from the line-up, you don't think Scottie should step up his scoring even a bit?

We are dead last in ORTG without RJ btw, I'm just wondering where the points are supposed to be coming from if Scottie isn't supposed to score more?

Exactly.

The bending over backwards to defend scottie from legitimate criticism is weird.

Our best guys are supposed to step up their production at least a bit when a key guy is out. Not just stay the exact same. Thats not good enough.

This is becoming a pattern. When we gave him the keys after the pascal trade his numbers went down instead of up too.

[tsherkin]

Our best guys are supposed to step up their production at least a bit when a key guy is out. Not just stay the exact same. Thats not good enough.

This is becoming a pattern. When we gave him the keys after the pascal trade his numbers went down instead of up too.

This presumes that you don't already know that it's a stupid idea to run more possessions through a guy whose greatest contributions are defense and versatility, not scoring. It's not a smart approach. We know this. We've tried this. Scottie isn't a scorer. Asking him to score more isn't an intelligent approach to basketball strategy. He has tons of value doing what he does, but if you take him outside the parameters and structure of what makes him useful to us, you're setting yourself up for failure. That just is what it is. We've known for ages that he isn't a tier 2 type of scorer, let alone tier 1. Wishing really hard that it was so, and bitching when he shows it is not, is not an especially smart approach. He's worth it to us, but you can't ask him to be everything for us. You ask that of a superstar. He isn't that, nor is he paid like one.

[pingpongrac]

While it has been ugly since RJ went down, the overreactions to some of these recent losses are a bit over the top. This team is on pace to win 45-ish games which would still be a 15-win increase and, while it hasn’t been pretty lately, Scottie (our franchise player) has noticeably improved on both ends of the court and our other core players (Ingram, IQ and RJ) have been pretty good for the most part. The biggest issue over the past 15 or so games when we’ve been slumping has been the lack of production from guys like Gradey, JKW and Ochai while we’ve also been without RJ (and Poeltl for 2/3 of those games), so we have been heavily relying on 3 or 4 players to carry the load. Obviously this team has some holes — and that should be expected considering we are coming off back-to-back .350-ish winning percentage seasons — but it’s not near as bad as it seems lately. Put it this way, I doubt many would have expected us to be tied for 4th after 32 games despite missing RJ/Poeltl for a combined 26 games while getting very little from the majority of our bench when we’ve been without those key pieces.

We are still a pretty young team that is going to have some growing pains. A lot of ups and downs are to be expected, though obviously you would hope the swings wouldn’t be so wild where one night we look dominant at times (against Miami) then get blown out by one of the worst teams in the league (Washington) just a few days later.

[beanbag]

You think complaining on here has any relevance as to what the FO does?

Like, you think THAT is the purpose of this board and not so that a bunch of randos can tell us about how they were right about prospect x all along while no one else cares?

Guy thinks NBA front offices are checking RealGM message boards. lol.

LOL its about giving your opinion on whats missing. Some people clearly have no clue because they cant decipher what theyre watching and thats ok... no clue why youre on a message board if you don't want to have different discussions.

That's not what you said before. I give you credit for back peddling as it suggests you realize how ridiculous your original statement was.

[Los_29]

Guy thinks NBA front offices are checking RealGM message boards. lol.

LOL its about giving your opinion on whats missing. Some people clearly have no clue because they cant decipher what theyre watching and thats ok... no clue why youre on a message board if you don't want to have different discussions.

That's not what you said before. I give you credit for back peddling as it suggests you realize how ridiculous your original statement was.

I legitimately thought he replied to the wrong person there because it had nothing to do with what I originally replied to. lol.

[basketballto]

The fact they are nearly identical is not a good thing

Says you.

He isn't a natural scorer for the 1000 time so expecting him to become a 22-25 point guy is just setting YOUR EXPECTATIONS up for failure.

AND you expect him to do that while also playing better defense to try and cover Yak since Mamu can't.

And I will point it out again, Barnes has put up almost exact numbers without RJ as.onntbe season EXCPECT with his 3pt shooting dropping horribly. So he isn't getting the point boost that he was with that in the first 2 months.

Ingram CAN produce more as he is a natural scorer. Now go ask Ingram to score more but also chase Pritchard around at POA defense because no guard could stop him THEN go play C because no one else has any paint presence. Ingram would crumble being asked to do all that but Barnes is expected to because we have no other options. He just isn't good enough to expect that out of him, regardless what your expectations are.

If he's not supposed to score more with RJ out, then who should? You think the role players should instead of him? We are missing 19 points from the line-up, you don't think Scottie should step up his scoring even a bit?

We are dead last in ORTG without RJ btw, I'm just wondering where the points are supposed to be coming from if Scottie isn't supposed to score more?

The person playing sg in rj place should account for those points or are we playing only 4 starters now?

[PushDaRock]

Says you.

He isn't a natural scorer for the 1000 time so expecting him to become a 22-25 point guy is just setting YOUR EXPECTATIONS up for failure.

AND you expect him to do that while also playing better defense to try and cover Yak since Mamu can't.

And I will point it out again, Barnes has put up almost exact numbers without RJ as.onntbe season EXCPECT with his 3pt shooting dropping horribly. So he isn't getting the point boost that he was with that in the first 2 months.

Ingram CAN produce more as he is a natural scorer. Now go ask Ingram to score more but also chase Pritchard around at POA defense because no guard could stop him THEN go play C because no one else has any paint presence. Ingram would crumble being asked to do all that but Barnes is expected to because we have no other options. He just isn't good enough to expect that out of him, regardless what your expectations are.

If he's not supposed to score more with RJ out, then who should? You think the role players should instead of him? We are missing 19 points from the line-up, you don't think Scottie should step up his scoring even a bit?

We are dead last in ORTG without RJ btw, I'm just wondering where the points are supposed to be coming from if Scottie isn't supposed to score more?

The person playing sg in rj place should account for those points or are we playing only 4 starters now?

We can see how well that's working out for us

[ReggieSlater]

This entire season has been very odd. We started off terrible, but not in the way I expected to be. It was a bit puzzling. We then go on a streak (admittedly against a lot of tanking eastern teams), and the team is the hottest team in the league. Then we are just terrible, like we might be the worst team in the league. Defense is fine one day and the worst the next. Why such variants in play? We missed like 10 completely wide open threes in a row the other day. Not forced shots, we get the shot we want, or three off a offensive rebound, clank after clank.

[GoRapstheoriginal]

MAKE THE GAME THREAD PLEASE!

[Tripod]

Our best guys are supposed to step up their production at least a bit when a key guy is out. Not just stay the exact same. Thats not good enough.

This is becoming a pattern. When we gave him the keys after the pascal trade his numbers went down instead of up too.

This presumes that you don't already know that it's a stupid idea to run more possessions through a guy whose greatest contributions are defense and versatility, not scoring. It's not a smart approach. We know this. We've tried this. Scottie isn't a scorer. Asking him to score more isn't an intelligent approach to basketball strategy. He has tons of value doing what he does, but if you take him outside the parameters and structure of what makes him useful to us, you're setting yourself up for failure. That just is what it is. We've known for ages that he isn't a tier 2 type of scorer, let alone tier 1. Wishing really hard that it was so, and bitching when he shows it is not, is not an especially smart approach. He's worth it to us, but you can't ask him to be everything for us. You ask that of a superstar. He isn't that, nor is he paid like one.

It's funny how Barnes producing the same AND having more burden on defense is being ripped to shreds but BI producing 1.5 more points on 55.1% TS is viewed as a stepping up big time.

[tsherkin]

It's funny how Barnes producing the same AND having more burden on defense is being ripped to shreds but BI producing 1.5 more points on 55.1% TS is viewed as a stepping up big time.

Yeah, BI has been quite brutal since RJ went down.