Wiz vs DET - The battle of the balls.

[cavsfan_osiris]

Is Flip Sanders trying to get fired? Some of his comments lately have been off the wall. He slammed McGee after a bad game when he has been playing better in general. I have no idea what good could come from that. He didn't have Dray's back after the Boston debacle when he has been playing out of his mind. I didn't get that at all either.

I believe Flip made the comment that, 'this isn't what I signed up for' or something to that effect. This may sound crazy, but the thought has entered my mind that Flip wants to get himself fired.

[Hoopalotta]

Osiris, I could see how that would seem possible, but he did say this before the Detroit game...

Back in his former stomping grounds, Saunders was asked about how difficult this season has been and provided an interesting answer. "I've had a lot of fun the last two weeks," he said. "With our young players, to see how Andray [Blatche], how JaVale are improving and they've improved by leaps in bounds. That's something we can hang our hat on, knowing that we're going to have Gilbert [Arenas]. We're going to have draft picks and we're going to have a lot of cash. We're going to have the ability to change this team drastically. What we're tyring to do now is see what we have now. The decisions we have to make this offseason are as big a decisions that we've made in a long time."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... rdsinsider

[closg00]

Is Flip Sanders trying to get fired? Some of his comments lately have been off the wall. He slammed McGee after a bad game when he has been playing better in general. I have no idea what good could come from that. He didn't have Dray's back after the Boston debacle when he has been playing out of his mind. I didn't get that at all either.

I believe Flip made the comment that, 'this isn't what I signed up for' or something to that effect. This may sound crazy, but the thought has entered my mind that Flip wants to get himself fired.

Like I said previously, I am beginning to understand why the players mutinied in Detroit. I've noticed that Flip lacks an internal filter when addressing the media (when angry). His comments are alienating and not helpful for building-up a young team. It doesn't help that he says nicer things when calm. His actual coaching ability is also questionable.

[dlts20]

Osiris, I could see how that would seem possible, but he did say this before the Detroit game...

Back in his former stomping grounds, Saunders was asked about how difficult this season has been and provided an interesting answer. "I've had a lot of fun the last two weeks," he said. "With our young players, to see how Andray [Blatche], how JaVale are improving and they've improved by leaps in bounds. That's something we can hang our hat on, knowing that we're going to have Gilbert [Arenas]. We're going to have draft picks and we're going to have a lot of cash. We're going to have the ability to change this team drastically. What we're tyring to do now is see what we have now. The decisions we have to make this offseason are as big a decisions that we've made in a long time."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... rdsinsider

I saw him say that and honestly, it sounded so fake to me. It sounded like he said that because he's heard all the grumblings by fans being upset with him not taking up for his guys and being too critical in general

[MJG]

Is Flip Sanders trying to get fired? Some of his comments lately have been off the wall. He slammed McGee after a bad game when he has been playing better in general. I have no idea what good could come from that. He didn't have Dray's back after the Boston debacle when he has been playing out of his mind. I didn't get that at all either.

I believe Flip made the comment that, 'this isn't what I signed up for' or something to that effect. This may sound crazy, but the thought has entered my mind that Flip wants to get himself fired.

There's a fine line between trying to find a way to motivate your players to be better and just being a prick. After last night's comments about McGee, there's no doubt in my mind that he's crossed way over that line. Maybe he wants to get fired, maybe this is just his way of sulking like a child when things aren't going this way. Either way, it's really annoying.

[no D in Hibachi]

Osiris, I could see how that would seem possible, but he did say this before the Detroit game...

Back in his former stomping grounds, Saunders was asked about how difficult this season has been and provided an interesting answer. "I've had a lot of fun the last two weeks," he said. "With our young players, to see how Andray [Blatche], how JaVale are improving and they've improved by leaps in bounds. That's something we can hang our hat on, knowing that we're going to have Gilbert [Arenas]. We're going to have draft picks and we're going to have a lot of cash. We're going to have the ability to change this team drastically. What we're tyring to do now is see what we have now. The decisions we have to make this offseason are as big a decisions that we've made in a long time."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... rdsinsider

Not to burst his bubble, but last off-season the Wiz made some monumental decisions which really set back the franchise. The decision to trade Rubio for Foye/Miller will haunt this team. Even if Rubio comes over and is only a 15 and 8 guy, he'd still be better than what we received. Hopefully this off-seasons big decisions are a little more carefully thought out.

[Ruzious]

What exactly did Saunders say about McGee that has a few poster's panties in a bunch?

[nate33]

What exactly did Saunders say about McGee that has a few poster's panties in a bunch?

Saunders delivered some pointed criticism toward McGee after the game. "JaVale, as good as we thought he was [when he had a career-high 20 points against Atlanta], some would say the guy's got all-star potential. He might've been able to be a CBA all-star, if that [against Detroit]. As good as he was [against the Hawks], he was that bad [against the Pistons]. He had no energy, so we had no presence around the basket and they just outworked us."

I don't think it's a big deal. Flip is straight with his players. He doesn't hesitate to point out when they're bad, and that's fine with me. Let's face it. McGee got destroyed last night by Jason freaking Maxiell. You have to struggle to find words for positive reinforcement.

Flip doles our praise sparingly. I think that's good. On American Idol, nobody gives a crap about what Paula Abdul thinks. In the end, all they care about is pleasing Simon. EJ = Paula Abdul. Flip = Simon Cowell.

[verbal8]

Flip doles our praise sparingly. I think that's good. On American Idol, nobody gives a crap about what Paula Abdul thinks. In the end, all they care about is pleasing Simon. EJ = Paula Abdul. Flip = Simon Cowell.

Was Mike James the Wizards version of William Hung?

[hands11]

It's not an easy call. While I have liked some of Flips coaching I have not liked others. So I'm not all in for Flip but we could have done worst and we had. We had Eddie. Gard. Wes. At least Flip is a professional level coach who has won something. And the dude was caught a little flat footed. He thought he was coming to a vet team running for a title not a rebuild so not playing McGee early is understandable to some degree. The kid couldn't play a lick of D and he wasn't even hitting the weights to get stronger. As for the Dray issue, he was trying to keep him in his roll as a first off the bench player. I disagreed but I understand what he was doing. I will always regret not being able to see Haywood and Dray with CB or AJ at the 3 and one coming off the bench. I thought we could make some noise like that.

As for McGee. I don't know the kid personally. He does have a ton of talent but like Dray, he hadn't done all the work he could have been doing. Well Dray finally put in a good summer of work and he now hits the weights regularly. Dray even admitted it is only know that he is hearing some of the words of advice that AJ was giving him. Now we see a growing Dray who is not only tall but he often looks like one of the biggest dudes on the court. You can still see some of his youngness but he looks more vet than talented potential young knucklehead kid.. i.e McGee

But now I hear McGee is hitting the weights with Dray. That's good. But McGee sadly was brought to a team coach buy no D EJ and focused on a Big 3 ( not a team ) and with other goofballs like Gil, DS, Dray at the time, and Nick Noodles.

It's been a long road turning this franchise around and as I said a long long time ago - even when he were making it to the playoffs - this wasn't going to happen quickly. When MJ got here the inmates were running the show. Even Haywood was a big baby back then. And say what you will about all the reasons MJ got back on the court but it was clear these guys didn't know how to play the game with heart and even as old as MJ was, he did do that.

With Abe picking EJ we only delayed the process of turning things around by several years and today we are still paying the price and trying to recover and undo some of that mistake. Said it then and stand by it. EJ was fools gold and I truly believe just kicked the can down the road by not being harder on his players, specially Gil. Gil was coddled and allowed to get out of hand by EJ who wasn't a leader as much as he road Gil, CB and AJs coat tails. But again, I can see why he did it because it was in his best interest to stick around that way as long as possible so he would make it into the established coaching franchise so he could get another gig which he did $$$$. But now that he is being considered to be let go from Phili after only one year, that may be coming to an end. But smartly for EJ, he is set for life with millions in the bank. And while he may not get another head coaching job, he will like be considered for what he is, an assistant.

So back to Flip and McGee. Sure McGee needed more playing time to develop but he also needed to show the extra effort and signs of maturing to earn it over other players. I would personally have handled him and Dray differently but motivating is a funny thing. Some need modivated to put in more work. Gil didn't need that. He put in the work. Gil needed something else. Part love and acceptance and part a firm hand so that he put team first and tuned his game. Feeding the Agent Zero ego was exactly the wrong thing to do. Leaving Gil at PG was just as stupid.

McGee I think needs motivated in part to help him see he needed to put in the work and that just being a freak athlete isn't enough at this level. Do you want to be good, or great? Look at Howard. Same deal. He could coast on physical talent, but he would never be great unless he put in the work and he has an old school player in Ewing helping him. From what I hear, even Ewing doesn't always get through to him. But you can see Howard's post moves developing. What's still missing is a dominate court presence on a consistent basic.

McGee is a young freak 7-0 pr 7-1 talented kid with two parents that played the game and appears to be a mommas boy ie codded. It would be easy to see him to thinking he can just get by on his freak physical skills and pedigree. Add to that he got his start with no D EJ so his ship needs to get steered in a different direction. His upside is to great to delay him getting what he needs to do to get there. Sure he needs some minutes and some positive reinforcement, but he also needs his head cracked some so the light goes on. Your not great yet young man.

I was watching a little old school Redskins thing and the players were talking about Vince Lombardi. Dude was a hard sss. Called them scumbags. He was hard to please. He turned a disorganized franchise around. They said he would never tolerate the way some players are today. Now I know times have changed and you can't deal with players like you used to because of the CPA and the money they make, but there is gray between being a hard sss and letting them get away with way to much EFJ. Specially with young players that need molded.

So while I don't like everything Flip does, I'd rather have a Flip than and EFJ. I'd rather have Scott Skiles or Avery getting in their rsses and calling time outs after 2 minutes of the game because they are playing like high-schooler on the black top.

A half a session isn't enough to ease all the dysfunctionalness that has happened here. It isn't enough to erase EFJ. Then add that Flip started the season with a totally different mission. He was coaching a team of vets. A team that was trying to bring ego head flacky Gil back into the fold. A team that has seen lost all four of those vets and had it biggest paid player bring guns into the locker. One that lost two PG ( if you call either of them that ) in the process. A team that lost it's vet top 5 center. Then lost one of biggest vet talent they got in the trade to a MCL. A team that is now rotating in and out D Leaguers.

Hate on Flip if you want, but walk a mile in someones shoes or at least be fair is evaluating what that might look like. This team with all that I just described almost almost beat Boston and Atlanta in recent days. And with Howard, they did beat Denver. Dray is looking like an All Star next year and McGee is showing signs of progress. And those two are the main things that matter to this team.

So with this team having been though all it has this year, Flip has been throw a lot and he still has them playing most nights and the team has some sense of organization. They haven't folded and they are still fighting to get better. We could have done a lot worst then having Flip around while all this happened and the guy deserves some flack from the critics. He has handled a ton this year.

[dobrojim]

Thankfully I didn't watch the game. Who are these people that want to keep MM around next year. What an awful line. Only two good things come from this game: 1) more ping pong balls, 2) blatche kept his TO's down. Pretty much other than that epic fail everywhere. Epic fail for the Terps, epic fail for the skins, LJ, please guys, Vinny still calling the shots? That's a Joe Gibbs move if I ever saw one.

meekly raises hand

for the right price, I still think he could help us. I certainly wouldn't
break the bank for him though.

interesting to me how JM/7DD were much more effective against
ATL's frontcourt than they were against DET. Not sure what to make
of that as most would agree that ATl >>> then DET in the frontcourt.

We lost because we couldn't defend Bynum and DET was knocking
down the good looks that WB was getting them.

[Ruzious]

What exactly did Saunders say about McGee that has a few poster's panties in a bunch?

Saunders delivered some pointed criticism toward McGee after the game. "JaVale, as good as we thought he was [when he had a career-high 20 points against Atlanta], some would say the guy's got all-star potential. He might've been able to be a CBA all-star, if that [against Detroit]. As good as he was [against the Hawks], he was that bad [against the Pistons]. He had no energy, so we had no presence around the basket and they just outworked us."

I don't think it's a big deal. Flip is straight with his players. He doesn't hesitate to point out when they're bad, and that's fine with me. Let's face it. McGee got destroyed last night by Jason freaking Maxiell. You have to struggle to find words for positive reinforcement.

Flip doles our praise sparingly. I think that's good. On American Idol, nobody gives a crap about what Paula Abdul thinks. In the end, all they care about is pleasing Simon. EJ = Paula Abdul. Flip = Simon Cowell.

Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have said it to the press, but saying the truth is a good thing. If he hasn't gotten it yet, maybe it needed to be said publicly.

Still, like Jim said, we got beat by Will Bynum - is the bottom line. Dude is the greatest untalked about success story in the NBA.

[montestewart]

Thankfully I didn't watch the game. Who are these people that want to keep MM around next year. What an awful line. Only two good things come from this game: 1) more ping pong balls, 2) blatche kept his TO's down. Pretty much other than that epic fail everywhere. Epic fail for the Terps, epic fail for the skins, LJ, please guys, Vinny still calling the shots? That's a Joe Gibbs move if I ever saw one.

meekly raises hand

for the right price, I still think he could help us. I certainly wouldn't
break the bank for him though.

interesting to me how JM/7DD were much more effective against
ATL's frontcourt than they were against DET. Not sure what to make
of that as most would agree that ATl >>> then DET in the frontcourt.

We lost because we couldn't defend Bynum and DET was knocking
down the good looks that WB was getting them.

Miller's game has always been a complimentary one, and Jamison and Butler gone and Howard out leaves the Wizards short of scorers, and he hasn't really done much to fill the scoring void, but maybe that's just not his game, especially at this stage in his career. I want him to shoot more, and I cringe at some of his awkward passes and dribble penetrations (and literally falling down on his cuts), but he's playing hurt and he gives it his all and he can shoot, pass, and rebound. Not sure he's right for a rebuilding team, but for the right price, maybe, especially on a healthy team with adequate primary scorers.

[hands11]

Good points.

They said they wanted some vets around. So as said, for the right price, yes. But if not him, they will need someone to replace him. I like MM as a vet all around talent. A better version of DS with the right players as a starter or a nice piece off the bench if not.

You could do a lot worse than MM. But he best as a spot up shooter. That would take having a good PG. Because of the kind of player his is, CB of old in a way, he will fill what is missing to a large degree. So there isn't enough PG, then he ends up doing that.

Maybe he could be a better scorer. But right now he is most comfortable just spotting up, rebounding, passing and playing D. And he is a good dude. A professional. That's not a bad player to have.