Singleton, AT, JH/New Guys Apprehiation Thread

[hands11]

THE NEW GUYS ROCK

AT in the House.

Singleton is a beast.

J HOWARD

I love it.

[hands11]

Did DMAC get traded so JH could get his number 5 number

[doclinkin]

Did DMAC get traded so JH could get his number 5 number

You mean Juwan Howard's #5. Pretty sure they hadn't sold them all off yet....

[hands11]

The new guys all played with Sam I Am.

Sammie finger prints all over this deal.

Time for Flip and Sam to put their prints in this team and coach them up. I have a good feeling about this. We have a lot less knuckle heads. I think McGee and Nick will be easier to coach now.

[mavfan12]

Glad you guys like Singleton. I was a fan of his, but between Marion, Dirk, and Gooden there weren't a whole lot of minutes for him. He played a little more last year. Steady hustle player, won't take bad shots but can hit a midrange J.

[JES12]

I hope Howard grows up with you guys. He is very talented, but he tuned out our last two coaches. Maybe he needs to start looking at himself.

Singleon just was not seeing minutes with Damp/Dirk/Marion/Howard and Humpries/Thomas earlier in the season. Singleton is needs to find a team willing to give him 15-20 minutes a night.

I truley think both teams can win the trade..especially with your followup trade with the Clips.

[hands11]

I hope Howard grows up with you guys. He is very talented, but he tuned out our last two coaches. Maybe he needs to start looking at himself.

Singleon just was not seeing minutes with Damp/Dirk/Marion/Howard and Humpries/Thomas earlier in the season. Singleton is needs to find a team willing to give him 15-20 minutes a night.

I truley think both teams can win the trade..especially with your followup trade with the Clips.

Yeah, not looking like such a bad trade for us now and CB and Haywood fit well for you guys. I will have fun watching Dallas go on a run. CBs game doesn't slow down the Dallas offense like he did ours because Dirk holds the ball also. Its more a part of how Dallas plays. Plus now Haywood has a real PG to feed him the ball in the post for easy dunks. And Haywood is a great offensive rebounder who can D up against the great centers.

Good deal for Dallas and looking like a good deal for us.

[Ruzious]

I hope Howard grows up with you guys. He is very talented, but he tuned out our last two coaches. Maybe he needs to start looking at himself.

Singleon just was not seeing minutes with Damp/Dirk/Marion/Howard and Humpries/Thomas earlier in the season. Singleton is needs to find a team willing to give him 15-20 minutes a night.

I truley think both teams can win the trade..especially with your followup trade with the Clips.

It's been forever since we've had an energy player like Singleton.

JES, I think you're already seeing that Haywood is a great addition to the Mavs. With Butler, I think it comes down to whether or not he goes back to being the team player he use to be (when he was an outstanding passer) - rather than the shot-jacker he's been the last 2 years.

[daSwami]

I'm on board with new guy love fest. Let's face it, Wizards basketball minus Arenas has been a snoozefest for the past 2+ seasons. I'd rather lose big with young hustle guys who play hard every minute they're on the court than lose close games with bored veterans.

Our new roster reminds me a bit of the (" you da man!") team that the Bullets fielded while they waited for Chris Webber to heal. Robert Pack, Brent Price, Juwan Howard, Cal Cheaney, Muresan). Those guys were fun to watch, and knowing that CWebb and a young, still-raw Rasheed Wallace were on deck for the next season made for an exciting time.

Bear in mind that next season we (possibly) add Arenas, a high draft pick, and a decent FA into the mix and this team could turn it around fairly quickly, fingers crossed.

[dobrojim]

The difference between Ross and Stevenson is Ross is paid what his role warrants.

I'm open to the difference being more than that, based on the following:

Now that Bowen's gone, the best perimeter defender in the league I have ever seen is Ross, hands down.

Those are strong words, more than I've heard about Ross. I've always heard he was a good defender, but I haven't seen him play much. If he comes near the above description, that's more than Stevenson, who was more fearlessness and effort than ability, and Stevenson was not a good offensive player, so if Ross isn't either, no great loss, especially if he's used correctly (that is, not starting and/or playing 25-30 minutes). Perhaps Ross is an upgrade, "irregardless" of salary.

the guy I sit next to at games who I've come to like a lot and actually was on
an NBA roster briefly so I trust his insights has said he heard very solid things
about Ross as well, that he defends. I was skeptical of what he would bring
at the time I heard he was in the trade, but esp if he is a good team player
in terms of chemistry and not b!tching if he doesn't get minutes, I am more
than willing to wait until I see him over these next 30 games to make my conclusions.

[penbeast0]

The new guys all played with Sam I Am.

Sammie finger prints all over this deal.

Time for Flip and Sam to put their prints in this team and coach them up. I have a good feeling about this. We have a lot less knuckle heads. I think McGee and Nick will be easier to coach now.

I'm sorry and hate to rain on any parades, but are you actually saying that Josh Howard and Al Thornton are LESS knuckle headed than Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison -- or is this just celebrating the lovely news that DeShawn Stevenson is gone.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Maybe knuckle heads was the wrong word but AJ, Caron and Stevenson had BIG egos. All three were so full of themselves and their veteran status. They were never shy of throwing everyone under the bus (mostly AJ and Caron).

[hands11]

The new guys all played with Sam I Am.

Sammie finger prints all over this deal.

Time for Flip and Sam to put their prints in this team and coach them up. I have a good feeling about this. We have a lot less knuckle heads. I think McGee and Nick will be easier to coach now.

I'm sorry and hate to rain on any parades, but are you actually saying that Josh Howard and Al Thornton are LESS knuckle headed than Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison -- or is this just celebrating the lovely news that DeShawn Stevenson is gone.

It's not really like that. You have to look at the whole picture.

CB and AJ being knuckle heads isn't about pot smoking and DWIs. That was more about how they were playing here. To many shots. To entitled. And with AJ not good enough D. With CB, it's going his own way not listening to Flip like in the Dallas game and him being a big fish in a small pond. CB is better off in Dallas with bigger fish.

With DS is about him being a true knuckhead and not being a very good talent.
With DMAC, it about him just not fitting in and not being able to score. Being to much a wall flower.
With M James, its about him thinking he is a NBA player who could even mention wanting to be moved by the deadline as if anyone really wanted him.

It's how it all fit together both talent and personality.
Moving the player we moved is better for the ones we kept like Dray and McGee and better for the ones we added and better for Flip who now have a deeper bench so he can pull McGee when he is shooting stupid shots and we still have other athletic players to replace him with.

Big picture. Total picture. And it's about a fresh start for everyone.

Like EG said, the group we had gone rotten.

This group is fresh.

[dobrojim]

^
re knuckleheads - it's how you play the game

good teams execute well/work hard to get
decent shots on O.

on D, they work hard and play SMART to keep
the other team from getting good shots.

that's simply high IQ, and good blue-collar basketball

Caron and AJ for all their virtues, didn't play that way
as a matter of habit. They played like trust fund kids play with
their money, smart kids from good stock, but not near
enough discipline to habitually do the right thing on
the court. Too much entitlement

[hands11]

Reading up a little more on AT and it seems we have another Nick Youngish player on our hands.

I sure hope SAM I AM can help him round out his game.

Great leaper. Quick leaper.
No assists. Bites to quickly on pump fakes and closes out to hard on rotation so he get blown by.

As a SF, looks like we have a bench project to go along with Nick being the same at SG.

So we dumped

Haywood - a top quality starting center on a good team ( Dallas ) who still has years of game left and should have been one of our core leaders setting the defensive tone and who could be signed to a fair contract.

CB - A starting SG ( yes SG on Dallas ) on a quality team with a PG and under a good contract.

AJ - He was the only one that really needed to go. A back up on a bad contract as a back up - on a good team (The Crabs)

So we moved two quality starters on good contracts - on being a the key position of center and the other a SG which we need and who could have been traded next year as an expiring for...

SF - back up
PF - back up
SF/SG - starter who is a little bit of a head case
+ a late late first pick

Now I like Singleton a lot but you don't give up Haywood to get him. And Howard is a more athletic CB but more of a bone head. I would have liked to keep CB until next year.

I will have fun watching the new guys for now but we loose by doing it this way. We should have just shipped out AJ suited up Z with his nice expiring. Then got whatever else you could with probably M James (exp) and Nick. The DMAC deal was separate.

The Pollins did hose this team.

Foye/Mimi Me
CB/NY ?
MM
AB/McGee
BH/Z/Berto

And in hind site, McGrady would have been a nice piece if you wanted to go that direction.

But, lets watch the new guys since we have them.

[hands11]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04026.html


Friday, February 26, 2010

Practice was well over for the Washington Wizards at Verizon Center on Thursday, and every player except one had left the court for the comforts of the locker room. Only Al Thornton remained, and he stayed almost half an hour longer working on his jump shot as General Manager Ernie Grunfeld alternated watching and engaging in conversation with Coach Flip Saunders


As this article details - Loosing Howard will be hard on the team because now they are more vulnerable to foul trouble and players that are less establish will have to step up.

Nice to see AT putting in the extra work. That's a really good sign. He may end up being a keeper.

Note to McGee and NY... Dudes, you might want to stick around with the new guy who obviously gets it. I wonder if Dray has it in him to get on McGee and Nick. Dray put in the time. Became 7DD and now is cranking. Dray should get in their eyes and tellm.... dudes..put in the work.. go join AT.

This team is exciting to watch again. You just don't know from game to game what you might get. So far it has been productive and exciting but the JH adjustment and teams scouting us is going to make it tougher on them. There are lots of possibilities for growth and I think we have the athletic player to do it. I think things are going to get tougher in the short term though. Teams, if they are smart, should follow what MEM did and just drive drive drive to the hole. We really need to at a min activate Davis since McGee isn't going to get stronger over night. Seems he is sill on our books as paid so why not bring him back. And if not him, find someone else please.

But, we have some interesting new faces to go along with some talented youth that was already here so it should be fun watching them adjust and hopefully grow their games. Every game is a learning experience now which feels very different than before.

But AT is earning my respect with his game and extra practice time.

[hands11]

With Dray doing so well lets not forget about our other new guy AT.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/players/p ... yerId=3237

Min 40
FG 7-13
FT 6-6
STL 1
REB 8
PTS 20

Can't wait to get Singleton back.

[ErikChowbay023]

Singleton -Howard


Interviews - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB1Ax0fl ... re=related - Love Singleton`s attitude.

[hands11]

Looking over Al's numbers on thing stand out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/g ... yerId=3237

November 66 FTs - Getting to the line almost every nice. Only two Goose eggs
December 31 FTs - Four Goose eggs. Four 1 FT games
January 18 Fts - some limited minutes and some low min games but still five Goose eggs

Since a Wizard - four game with zero FTs made in ten games.

Al needs to make sure he gets to the line on a consistent basic. He is the starting SF. He should be averaging at least 6 FT attempts a game.

[hands11]

Wow. AT really needs to work on his consistency.

http://espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=3237

The 15 or 16 pts games are great but he can't have games of 7 and 4 pts. We need at least 12 from him every night. He needs to level it out a little. Starters need to be consistent. That's what he needed to focus on the rest of the year.

And if his shot is off like Singletons was tonight ....1-6, then at least go do the other stuff. Singleton had 10 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block and 4-4 from the line. That kind of makes going 1-6 a little easier to take.