Wizards' Haywood Could Miss 4-6 Months?

[cedric76]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/HeadlineStori ... TORY_12422

Etan better be healthy

[JO_CB_FTW]

ALREADY

[doclinkin]

Hard to say this is a blessing in disguise, this will have an impact on the Wiz' season like no other and I wish only the best for Haywood and swiftest best recovery. Still, as Wiz fans you got to be persistent as a weeble-wobble, and if every cloud has a silver lining there's a fortune of silver to be made in that 40 days and 40 nights of rain.

Longterm net positives?

1. The maturation of Andray Blatche.

Andray Blatche looked really good in the first half of the Dallas game (I watched the debate the second half). Huge, smooth, fluid. He's moving his feet better and has even better body control. He went ful court on one end to end run to finish, and while I started out saying, pass pass pass, he actually avoided the contact with a nifty deft mid-air pivot and left the ball gently in the basket easy. His shot looks good, his low post moves look smooth and much improved. As he builds arm strength I hope he'll start to finish more aggressively, but he's definitely ready to take the next step.

We saw with Caron out last year, Dray plays best when he is counted on to produce. No more kid games, the team needs him all grown up. And the more he plays the better he'll become. He's ready for experience to translate into production. I think he's a strong contender for league MIP.

Better still he develops his game at the center spot. This is where he has the best mismatches on a nightly basis, and will help him realize he needs to keep up with this current weight room dedication to hold his ground in the middle. But his inside/outside skills mean the Wiz can start to run some plays that Big Wood is less of a good fit for. We need more/better slashers on the perimeter to really take advantage, but Daniels should profit, ditto Caron, and as Nick Young develops he'll start to get those dunk chances once he learns to use that high pick. The backdoor is wide open for Dray's passing skill to make a difference and frustrate the opponent on a nightly basis.

2. Tall Ball.
Notice Etan didn't play as much? He started the game, but AB took the bulk of the load. Etan is still rounding into game shape, but Blatche is producing right now. It's always a risky bet here, but seems to me Proof is making the case to take the minutes right now. It should say something loud and clear that the white team has been winning every scrimmage. Unless/until Dray switches teams.

Regardless, whether initially starting or not there's no alternative but for Dray to take heavy minutes in the middle, even in relief. Thing is this means there's now an opening on the floor next to him at back-up Power four. I suspect Tawn will be alright, with a brace, might sit out a few preseason games as a precaution. Post-game quotes suggested he was already feeling much better than the initial scare indicated. But either way, there's room for the young Bigs to show and prove, to get the experience needed to succeed down the line.

Pecherov looked a little better than he had in the past: better passing, better handle, he actually hit his shots. Not hopeless on defense entirely he stuck his nose in there, though his footwork was awful and anticipation not great. But JaVale looked leagues ahead of where I expected him to be. Neither one knows how to seal their man, box out, and secure a rebound (where the Wiz got crushed yesterday) but some things require repetitions to fully learn. In the short term they'll hurt the team, in the long term the experience will do nothing but help.

Darius Songaila will get minutes ahead of them, but looking at line-up stats he's actually an underrated underappreciated player, especially defensively. He's defensively fundamentally sound. Undersized, but works smart and hard. He fouls when beat, and that may be more often than most, but still he doesn't give up the easy buckets except at the line. Watching him will help the young bigs improve their defensive basics. And offensively he's no Mike Ruffin. He's got good chemistry with Caron, AD, Dray, plays the midrange game well. Pecherov can look to him as a mentor for certain. If the 7 foot Pech had 60% of Darius' skills on the floor, he'd be more than a useful roole-player. But Darius has a ton of experience, from college to the Euro-championships. Pech was a volleyball and soccer player up until relatively recently (5-6 years?). He needs to play to improve. There's no substitute for livefire game minutes. Ditto JvMcG.

And when either one is on the floor next to Dray, this team is huge. And opponent Bigs have to chase them out to the perimeter since all three players will shoot from there.

So: in the short term the team suffers. But In the long term, well the future is now. Or anyway it's sooner than you think. And clearly Bigger.

He didn't do much with the minutes, but notice how long DMac played at 2-guard in Dallas? (With DS2 running point) There were some HUGE MEGA MIGHTY BIG line-ups played yesterday. Just testing out configurations, and they didn't work all that well, but it was fun to see.

[miller31time]

Wow, this is depressing. Can the team at least play 1 damn game before our starting lineup dies?

EDIT: And it goes without saying but we're going to be the worst defensive team in the NBA this year, and possibly one of the worst defensive teams in NBA history.

[daSwami]

has someone put nate on suicide watch?

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Did anyone notice just how incredibly suck our interior defense was last night?

It was really bad on Friday as well.

This is really, really bad news no matter how you spin it.

I just don't see us being competitive absent the big wood.

[closg00]

Damn, coudn't you see Roy Hibbert stepping in during BTH's down-time? It seems like we have been one pick away from snagging an Impact player of-late. 2 years ago it was Stuckey, last year it was big Hibba

[cedric76]

so do u see darius getting more than 24min#game
him and blache benefit the most?

[LyricalRico]

And it goes without saying but we're going to be the worst defensive team in the NBA this year, and possibly one of the worst defensive teams in NBA history.

It's going to be absolutely brutal. But at least EJ can be excited. Now nothing stands in his way from playing his favorite players and going to small ball with reckless abandon. Why even watch at this point?

[MF23]

If Haywood is out this long I don't see anyway this team makes the playoffs. Defense and rebounding is effected to much when he's not playing. We'll at least the Wizards have players they believe in becasue they didn't bring anybody who improved the frontcourt this offseason. McGee is a long way away from improving the frontcourt.

[Wizards2Lottery]

4-6 months on a regular time table is 2 years on the Wizards medical staff timetable.

This franchise is done. Eddie Jordan, no Gil, no Jamison, no Haywood.

Please tank. Another first round exit brings no good.

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

Hate to be Ji-esque, but I vote for tanking.

[newslowsad]

I should have known this was going to turn into a disaster when Ivan said Wood would only be out a week. Oh well, it isn't like his minutes weren't going to be killed thanks to Eddie's love for Etan.

[MJG]

And just wait! Once Jamison shuts it down for the season after learning in mid-November that his preseason knee injury was much worse than originally diagnosed, and Caron takes his annual quarter-season break, we can enjoy a lineupof:

PG: Daniels, Brown
SG: Stevenson, Young
SF: McGuire, OPec
PF: Blatche, Songaila
C: Etan, McGee

You wanted to see more of Blatche? Now he's our number one option! Hooray!

[DCZards]

4-6 months on a regular time table is 2 years on the Wizards medical staff timetable.

This franchise is done. Eddie Jordan, no Gil, no Jamison, no Haywood.

Please tank. Another first round exit brings no good.

Tank! Only losers even think or talk about tanking. I hope Tough Juice doesn't read your comments. He'd hunt you down and kick your a**.

[LyricalRico]

And just wait! Once Jamison shuts it down for the season after learning in mid-November that his preseason knee injury was much worse than originally diagnosed, and Caron takes his annual quarter-season break, we can enjoy a lineupof:

PG: Daniels, Brown
SG: Stevenson, Young
SF: McGuire, OPec
PF: Blatche, Songaila
C: Etan, McGee

You wanted to see more of Blatche? Now he's our number one option! Hooray!

Yep. They say it's a sprain right now. By the second week of the season it'll be a torn ACL with gangrene that requires amputation. And don't forget that Daniels has a bad wrist, Young has a store knee, and Etan will also probably miss 30 games.

It's probably going to be more like this:

Blatche/McGee
Songaila/Pecherov
McGuire/???
Stevenson/Dixon
Brown/Dixon

Introducing your new NBDL franchise...the Washington Wizards!

[Soup's Uncle]

Long Season.

[queridiculo]

Let's all hope the Redskins playe meaningful games well into January to distract us from this sadness.

With Arenas likely out for a year (who are we kidding relying on Wizards time lines) this may very well turn out to be yet another wasted season.

Is anybody still arguing whether rebuilding shouldn't have been an option worth considering?

[Pollinator]

1 Ricky Rubio PG
2 Blake Griffin PF/C
3 Demar DeRozan SG
4 B.J. Mullens C
5 James Harden SG
6 Jrue Holiday PG/SG
7 Brandon Jennings PG
8 Hasheem Thabeet C
9 Earl Clark SF/PF
10 Tyreke Evans PG/SG

[Wizards2Lottery]

4-6 months on a regular time table is 2 years on the Wizards medical staff timetable.

This franchise is done. Eddie Jordan, no Gil, no Jamison, no Haywood.

Please tank. Another first round exit brings no good.

Tank! Only losers even think or talk about tanking. I hope Tough Juice doesn't read your comments. He'd hunt you down and kick your a**.

stfu. Deep down inside, you know your happy cuz your boy EFJ has now earned another free bye for this year.

btw how old are you? "I hope Tough Juice doesn't read your comments. He'd hunt you down and kick your a**" oh no Caron Butler is gonna hunt me down and beat me up!