Game Thread - Wiz @ Blazzers 10:00 PM

[Ji]

We should just suspend the season for this team

[JWizmentality]

We should just suspend the season for this team

Ji you're alive!! I thought we lost you after the Sacto win.

[beretta90]

y ru complaining bout dixon being i. he had a great game for not playin in like 5 games. he has more experiece n drive than nick young sorry. dixon is better than mike james, crittenton, nick young (now), setevenson, and mcguire. the coach is smart for playing him

[JWizmentality]

We have Juan Dixon fan boys now?

[jivelikenice]

Wait....So McGee and Crittendon after playing very well (albeit in garbage time) vs the Lakers get a total of 12 minutes in between them so that we can find pt for Dixon (who won't be here next season), James (probably will never play alongside Gilbert), and yet another 38 minutes for Butler (who chipped in with 9 turnovers)....

And where is Nick Young...He had a 4 game stretch of dominating bball and now he's been cooled down but our coach...Can we fire an interim coach?

[GilArenas88]

Geez didnt reallyh watch the game, just a little here and there, had family over. Jeez tho we out shot them from the field, the line, and three point range only lost rebounding by two and still lost by 13. But I guess 26 to's, damn, whens the last time we had that many, or even close. Also 21 steals, wow, Roy with 10, a rare feat, another big ouch. Is that close to an NBA record or even the record.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Ugh, going through the box score to find something, anything good that came of this game. McGee and Critt only get five minutes each and produce nothing. Blatche gets five rebounds in 35 minutes. Young only gets seven minutes.

Criminy.

[TradeMachine]

Maybe there's a reason why your young guys don't play that much.

It's difficult to imagine a team caring less about winning or playing the game the right way than the 2008-2009 Washington Wizards.

It started with the most lackadasical warmup routine I've seen this year, starring an assistant coach who was practically begging Nick Young to focus for 5 seconds so he could hit at least 1 15 foot jumpshot out of a series of 7. In the co-starring role: 7 footer Javale McGee, who, while practicing complex crossover dribble moves on the perimeter unguarded, was challenged by a teammate to make a 3 pointer for $100. He attempted to take up this bet but, before he could launch a shot, found himself running across the court to track down the ball that he had managed to dribble off of his own foot.

This is from a Blazer blogger from the Media Row in the Rose Garden.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/1/25/73 ... rt-wizards

[bulletproof_32]

Ugh, going through the box score to find something, anything good that came of this game. McGee and Critt only get five minutes each and produce nothing. Blatche gets five rebounds in 35 minutes. Young only gets seven minutes.

Criminy.

I had every intention of watching the game but feel asleep prior to tip off and was out for the night.

Anyway, going through the box score this morning, I did see something that I was really impressed with. Unfortunately, for the Wizards it was Roy's 10 steals.

[hands11]

Maybe there's a reason why your young guys don't play that much.

It's difficult to imagine a team caring less about winning or playing the game the right way than the 2008-2009 Washington Wizards.

It started with the most lackadasical warmup routine I've seen this year, starring an assistant coach who was practically begging Nick Young to focus for 5 seconds so he could hit at least 1 15 foot jumpshot out of a series of 7. In the co-starring role: 7 footer Javale McGee, who, while practicing complex crossover dribble moves on the perimeter unguarded, was challenged by a teammate to make a 3 pointer for $100. He attempted to take up this bet but, before he could launch a shot, found himself running across the court to track down the ball that he had managed to dribble off of his own foot.

This is from a Blazer blogger from the Media Row in the Rose Garden.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/1/25/73 ... rt-wizards

Wow. That was terrible. While watching the game I got to a point where I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Butler just took the ball and threw it up into the stands and walked off the court.

Then the thought came into my mind. Who can we really count on to play professional basketball on this team. I wasn't thinking prospects or upside. I was thinking professional basketball player.

Here are the qualities I'm talking about:

Prepared and ready to play night in and night out.
Effort - Someone with a motor
Heart
The ability to hit an open jumper with confidence.
Mental toughness

Here is the list I came up with for our team of 12.

Caron
AJ
Songaila
Dixon

Now that's sad and explains a lot. We have 4 professional basketball players. Everyone else is either a project or a vet who you know can't get it done like James.

You want to teach these guys something. Start these players and put it on them to get in the other players grill when they aren't getting it done.. While I'm all for giving people opportunities and some rope, every so often you have to make a point and now would be a great time because this lesson is probably more important then just giving them time to work on their game during a game.

Here is my starting line up for next game

Dixon - PG - It is clear he is our best PG at this point.
DMAC - SG - he didn't make my lists because of his offense but he shows all the heart and motor
Butler
AJ
DSong

We would at least get to watch what looks like professional basketball.

[JWizmentality]

If I'm Nick, why the hell would I listen to some assistant whining in my ear about 15 footers if I know I'm getting 8secs in the first half? I think the Wiz kids have defected and it's close to full blown mutiny. They don't get PT, they get blamed for every loss, and they get benched when they make mistakes even though the vets get away with murder. At this point, I wouldn't give a f**k either. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick and a few others were trying to play their way off this "No Accountability" garbage team.

[hands11]

If I'm Nick, why the hell would I listen to some assistant whining in my ear about 15 footers if I know I'm getting 8secs in the first half? I think the Wiz kids have defected and it's close to full blown mutiny. They don't get PT, they get blamed for every loss, and they get benched when they make mistakes even though the vets get away with murder. At this point, I wouldn't give a f**k either. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick and a few others were trying to play their way off this "No Accountability" garbage team.

Then send his Ben Gordon butt packing because we have to many projects as it is to worry about flakes like him. DMAC is his same year, lower pick, less talented and has shown way more maturity and ability to learn what he needs to do.

Look how far Crit has come in a short while. He went from you can't put him on the court to something manageable.

NY has no where to look but in the mirror.

At some point you have to stop blaming Tapps for these guys. They should be earning their minutes in their second year. Like why after all this time when we need big men has OP not been able to earn any minutes ? At what point do you put that on OP. You do what you need to do and make it so they have to play you. Obviously OP and NY don't do that. DMAC and Crit do. Blatche is a borderline issue.

As of today, I conclude.

You keep DMAC, Crit and McGee
You get ride of NY and OP

You also keep Blatche but you make him fight for his minutes by putting him on the bench from time to time when you see him stop doing everything he needs to do on a regular basis. By bench I mean not starting.

NY has talent but I would much rather have RM in his roster spot 10/10 times.

That's just addressing our young players. We also have to address our vets.

Right now, this team is a total mess. We are lucky we have Tapps as the fall guy as an interim coach not signed to a long contract. What we most need right now is Haywood back. We can still loss enough to get a good pick but we need some stability in the post so we can at least see what we have in some of these younger players and tradable vets.

We are now 1/2 game out of last place.

[WizStorm]

Let me get this straight, J-Crit has shown something and earned his PT, yet only could manage 5 minutes in another blowout loss to Portland? Yet, at the same time it's N1 and his flakiness that is causing him not to get quality floor time?

At some point wouldn't you expect some consistency in the minutes the young players are getting? It's not doing anyone any good to be playing such sporadic minutes, with absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how they "earn" their PT. I certainly don't see minutes getting curtailed for the vets even when they are obviously dogging it on the court.

[JWizmentality]

And just how has Nick not earned his PT this year? I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I give Eddie Jordan props. Nick was getting consistent minutes under him and was a 6th man candidate. Then along comes this moron Tankscott, who immediately curtails his minutes, benches him for the slightest infraction, and openly admitted he made a mistake with Young.

How do you give a player coming off consecutive career nights less than 30mins?!? Way to kill a hot streak. Like Wizstorm said, there's no rhyme or reason to how Tappy distributes minutes. He's just flying by the seat of his pants and I DON'T blame Young in the slightest. I refuse to give the benefit of the doubt to a lame duck coach whose last job was his daughter's pee wee league and who benches a player who registered 4blks within the first minute of a game because Aaron Gray was going to abuse him. **** that ****!!

See, now I'm more pizzed than I should be.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Can we fire an interim coach?

I've been asking myself the same thing for a while now. Originally I wanted the season to play out and EG and alike to have all the time in the world to choose the right next coach. But the way things are going with the older, high mileage vets being played 40+ a night and the youngsters being all but toyed with in terms of their playing time and utter significance, I'd kill to have SOMEBODY who knows what they're doing come here. Even bring EG down to coach HIS talent, though sometimes I don't even know if he knows what he's doing anymore.

Shoot, just hire multiple interims.
Bobby Knight one week, in which he can choke out the knuckleheads for lack of focus
John Chaney the next week for 7 days of 6AM practices to instill some discipline and make these youngsters realize it's their J-O-B.
Next Al Pacino to give the Any Given Sunday speech...

"Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch
play by play
till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me
and we can stay here and get the **** kicked out of us
or we can fight our way back into the light.
We can climb out of hell.
One inch, at a time...
On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know
when we add up all those inches
that's going to make the ****ing difference
between WINNING and LOSING
between LIVING and DYING."

And so on and so forth week by week until we can get a real coach...

[yungal07]

What does Nick have to do earn PT? Shoot well from the field? That's probably not it, since he's far and away our most efficient shooter amongst any of our guards...so that's not it. Maybe if he starts shooting in the mid-30's, he'll get consistent minutes like Desuck and James.