Jamison calls out teammates

[tkunit]

there is way to much 1v1 in the offense right now, and its built for butler who isn't even a strong 1on1 guy.

As for Jamison its getting old because we have to hear it every year from him, but it usually works. Last year he wasn't the worst defender on his team, so if you gonna hate, hate responsibly. The man has just slow feet but at least he battles for the boards.

Our defense has 2 huge problems we sag so much defensive its a freaking shooting drill. The second problem is all about coaching and atmosphere. When EJ came to DC he set up his offense which allows the players to get the most of what they can do on the floor with minimal in game coaching. Its basically a player run system and they live and die by that on offense. There was nothing on defense, EJ showed his idea of good D was noticeable hustle which is why Etan could get mins over haywood. Now half way through he tries to change the ton of his team to defense with out changing personnel, and its a bunch of bill. Players don't buy it, we get stuck with a second rate defensive coach because the good one we had saw the situation and bailed.

Bad defensive scheme,
1 good defensive player on the team and he is out 4-6 months.
players are older and can't win the game on the O end only this year
EJ can't coach his team to a win and relies on his players to do it.

[McGully Culkin]

Hey everyone...good to be back (had another SN that was lost somehow)....anyways, I don't really have an issue with the way the Wizards have been playing. There has been some bone-headed play from guys like Blatche and Stevenson, but for the most part, the effort is clearly there. I wouldn't even go as far as to say Blatch isn't giving it his all, because most of his mistakes are due to just having a low b-ball IQ, and not due to a lack of hustle.

Losing will do this to a lockerroom. There is going to be finger-pointing and blame placed around if things aren't going the way that people expect. Rather than making some quote to the press, how about you address those players in person? Jamison is a team captain/leader, right? This could have been done behind closed doors.

This isn't what an 0-5 team needs right now. I'm wondering how much some of the younger guys respect Jamison in the first place? How are the relationships on the team if he is taking his complaint to the media?

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks to see if Jamison's words light a fire under certain players.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

What Jamison should reflect on are his own ill-advised shots and subpar defense so far. He should note that unlike the past, he's had a net negative affect on the team. He should admit it if he's still hurting from that preseason injury he suffered.

Jamison's numbers are off this season. Way off.

Instead of averaging 19.9 and 9.5 per 36 minutes like he did all last season, this season he's at 17.0 and 7.0.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... san01.html

Additiionally, the team operates at a deficit when Jamison is on the court.

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809WAS.HTM
http://www.82games.com/0809/08WAS8D.HTM

When Jamison's been on the court the opponents average 57%FG as opposed to 47%FG when he's off the court.

Granted it's a very small sample space, but the trend is Jamison's not off to a good start.

If anybody cares, here's Jamison's net production in PER, points, and Roland Rating from last season:

http://www.82games.com/0708/0708WAS.HTM

To me, he shouldn't call anybody else out.

[nate33]

When Jamison's been on the court the opponents average 57%FG as opposed to 47%FG when he's off the court.

Like you said, it's a real small sample size (particularly with Jamison who has so few "off" minutes), but that's a ghastly statistic. If nothing else, we can infer that Jamison's "on" time roughly corresponds with when we are playing opposing starters. Basically, this team yields an eFG% of 57% against starting-caliber opposition. Words cannot describe how bad that is.

[doclinkin]

When the Memphis Grizzlies were coming off consecutive playoff seasons under Hubie Brown, everybody thought they were the up-and-coming team of the West. And then they just fell off the map. One thing that many thought contributed to that was Jerry West giving Brian Cardinal $30M for no apparent reason and it created tension in the locker room because other guys hadn't gotten theirs.

I forget where I read it but one story behind that was: ownership had been getting up JWest's ass that he hadn't done anything. The ownership wanted to see motion, blah blah blah, So Jerry grabs the phone while the owner is standing there, calls Cardinal's agent and says, hey how 'bout we give your boy 30 million dollars. Agent about pizzed himself scrambling to say yes. West hangs up the phone and says, there, I did something, happy?

In this case I think there's a couple things going on. Not resentment or money-related.

Look nobody on this board is likely to underestimate Haywood's importance to the team. And if they do, you can count the seconds before nate'll show up to correct and remind 'em. But the fact is the guy we were all counting on as his back-up (and Jamison's back-up) is a guy who has always had problems with his motivation, effort, energy, priorities, judgment, professionalism, common sense... Or you have Etan Thomas with a demonstrated track record of poor results before he was knocked out with heart problems. Some part of Haywood's startling +/- had to do with Etan's subaverage game effect; (leastways that may have been part of the explanation for Haywood's lesser +/- last year).

Blatche is lazy. Has been since highschool. If he hadn't been, he would have actually gone to UConn where Jim Calhoun would have chewed into him like a hungry mole rat. And he'd have been a lotto pick coming out. But he couldn't make the grades to graduate, much less pass entrance tests. The potential millions didn't matter as much to him as taking the bare minimum, the last highschooler ever to make it to the NBA. So far he's shown that to him just making it is Good enough. Nothing startling about that recognition. If he had the motor of a guy like KG he'd be an allstar contender already. Jamison has been riding him about his work habits for years now. Dray responded by... renting hookers. Going into the year Jamison responded to Dray's new maturity line by saying essentially: 'we'll believe it when we see it'.

As for the rest of the team, I think motivation is part of the problem. Part of, not the whole thing. Last year I think the hopes and expectations were higher going into the season. Arenas was supposed to be healthy, EJ was on notice from the offseason Tom Tippytoe do-si-do. Haywood returned with a chip on his shoulder to show not only was he the starting Center, but he could play with EJ, and force him to recognize Haywood's strengths, Etan or no. The defensive emphasis sat well with Haywood since that's his strength and metier. He accepted the offseason challenge of Ayers and EJ and seized the leadership role on Defense, and in making sure Nick Young for example had his head in the game.

As for the rest of the team, most of them had genuine affection for EJ and the coaching staff. And with their jobs in jeopardy (one year deals for all assistants) the writing was on the wall that it was playoffs or the axe. And that didn't change when Gilbert went down. Expectations stayed high. So the Eff you attitude kicked in nobody gives us a chance, nobody thinks we can do it. There was an extra urgency, and when a few teams overlooked the Wiz' talents they pounced got confidence and surprised mor than a few.

But this year, nobody's likely to overlook the team. And the team doesn't have the same urgency to prove themselves because they turned it on last year and succeeded, at some point maybe they can turn it around... And anyway at some point Gilbert comes back, maybe Haywood... rescue and all that. Doubt it myself. But I expect they'll win a few games regardless.

The guy who turned it on the most and who has fallen the hardest this year is DeShawn. The guy stinks out loud. He may be injured, played through some pretty significant dings and dents last year, but think more likely he just let himself rest over the summer (in a big pile of Lindsay Lohan...) and now doesn't have the legs or stamina.

JaVale, Nick, Dixon. Those guys are bringing it. Dom's still figuring out where he fits in the league, it's tough to be a defensive specialist with little experience, no frame of reference to anticipate the opponent and stick in front of him. Etan's still in recovery. And Daniels is old & injured. Caron's the whole team by himself but has no room to operate since teams can load up on his side -- Jamison, well, as usual as Jamison goes so goes the team. When he hits his shots the floor opens up. But while he seems to still be giving the same effort, he's at an age where the first thing to go is consistency, some nights he'll hit his shots, some nights not. Tough to anticipate or count on. I don't expect he'll fall too far off the shelf, but he can't carry the team, now if ever.

And paradoxically Eddie's extension removes some of the urgency, and may be the thing that ends up getting him fired.

Right now the reason to watch the team is the development of Nick and JaVale, the long awaited improvement of JDix, and waiting to see when Gil comes back, But even then, I doubt we win much unless Haywood gets back quick, or JaVale learns quick, or Blatche... well, so yeah, 0-5 while we're waiting on Blatche. That sorta says it.

[Higga]

The problem isn't Jamison. The problem is how we're using him. He'd be perfect as a 6th man at this stage of his career. But do we have the Coach with the 'sacks to move him there permanently? Well I think we all know the answer to that one...

[omegatronic3]

The problem isn't Jamison. The problem is how we're using him. He'd be perfect as a 6th man at this stage of his career. But do we have the Coach with the 'sacks to move him there permanently? Well I think we all know the answer to that one...

good point..that's what I was thinking...hes a perfect sparkplug off the bench...the problem is who can we justify starting in his place?

[doclinkin]

The problem isn't Jamison. The problem is how we're using him. He'd be perfect as a 6th man at this stage of his career. But do we have the Coach with the 'sacks to move him there permanently? Well I think we all know the answer to that one...

And play him behind who, exactly? Show me the all-star caliber player putting up a double-double at PF that you can sit him behind? The hope was that Andray Blatche would play this role, Jamison himself said he expects Blatche to take the starting role at some point -- but he's going to have to work hard to earn it. As of right now he's still lazy and distractible.

Down the line maybe JaVale takes the spot (next to Haywood...) but he's still learning NBA basics, much less any pro offense. He's got a couple years before he's ready to start _at PF_ on a winning team. (Though by the end of the year I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting at Center, he's already earning close to 20 minutes a game just on raw Huge and enthusiasm. But hell we need him at Center more than the 4 anyway). So who? Pech? Yeah that would take sacks: a great big sack of stupid.

It's silly: If our coach has any stones he would use his psychokinetic powers to erect an invisible force shield around the opponent's basket. IF he had even the gonads of an 8-yr-old boy he'd hire a Gilooly squad of non-lethal ninjas to injure them as they got off the team bus: precision whack to the knee KAI! If he weren't an XXY chromosome hermaphrodite he'd get up off his vagina, snatch Dee Brown into the training room and forcibly inject bovine growth hormone into his buttock tissue to create a superfast seven foot he-gorilla who could sprint up court faster than an amphetamine addicted grizzly bear to blow a point blank lay-up.

Imagine this: imagine he's right and Jamison is actually the best option at PF and we're forced to play him at PF for heavy game minutes because the guys behind him are even worse. Why then you could expect the team to have a record of 0-5 right now. Except... in a world where Jamison had a +/- of neg 4.4 and a guy like Darius Songaila was putting up a -1.7 (compared to Blatches -6.3 and McGuire & Pech's neg 13 deallys). In that case, why sure it would require some big wolly 'Nards to start Darius in front of Jamison, if that's what you're suggesting. Think that would help team chemistry long term? Maybe. But I promise you nobody on these boards would be wearing the pompoms and short skirt cheering for that move, patting you on the back for joining in that chorus of sheep.

Hmmn, maybe not though. Maybe I'd be the lone guy temporarily supporting the short term shake-up of The Higga Plan.

JDx
N1
CB3
DS9
JVMcG...

I like the starters okay, not sure about the chemistry off the bench.

[Kanyewest]

The Wizards hold the Jazz to 43% and do a much better job contesting 3 point shots. And as well as McGee played, Jamison was the one that nailed the 3 to put the Wizards ahead by 2 points, which was probably the shot of the game.

[LyricalRico]

The Wizards hold the Jazz to 43% and do a much better job contesting 3 point shots. And as well as McGee played, Jamison was the one that nailed the 3 to put the Wizards ahead by 2 points, which was probably the shot of the game.

I agree that he backed it up. He looked like "contract year" Jamison tonight. Let's see if he keeps it up.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Jamison led by example and put in a lot of work at both ends against Utah. He had 3 steals and a block this game. He got to the line 9 times. He really worked to get shots inside. I especially liked to see him posting up as a SF with Blatche and McGee in there with him.

Despite playing 43 minutes, Jamison was fired up and very active late in the game. His three at the end was clutch.

Real solid game. Jamison backed up being the captain last night.

[MJG]

Another thing: as much as people were complaining about his shot-jacking during the game, he wound up taking only 15 shots total in 44 minutes. If you ignore the previous game (where he only played 24 minutes), that was his lowest number of the year, despite the minute total being his highest on the year.

[P'Oed]

I think Jamison was lucky enough to get bailed out on a lot of stupid shots last night. That being said, he hit a really big 3 and had, by far, his best game of the season. I just still don't see the guy as a starter anymore.

[doclinkin]

Jamison led by example and put in a lot of work at both ends against Utah. He had 3 steals and a block this game. He got to the line 9 times. He really worked to get shots inside. I especially liked to see him posting up as a SF with Blatche and McGee in there with him.

Despite playing 43 minutes, Jamison was fired up and very active late in the game. His three at the end was clutch.

Real solid game. Jamison backed up being the captain last night.

HIs interior defense was pretty solid yesterday, and despite playing a few minutes at SF he wasn't exposed outside. A nice defensive showing all 'round. Boozer isn't the most physical banger but Jamison held his ground and contested every shot, no blow-bys or failures of effort.