Player of the Game - Wiz at Charlotte (4/3/11)

[pineappleheadindc]

.

For the second night in a row, the tank get rocked off its tracks. I don't even want to begin talking about Nate right now.

Here are the nominess for YOUR Player of the Game.




F/C Andray Blatche
25 points (10-19 fg, 5-7 ft), 17 boards, 2 dimes, 3 steals, 1 block, 1 turn, +8 in 35 minutes.



G Jordan Crawford
25 points (10-20 fg, 2-5 3pts, 1-1 ft), 5 boards, 3 dimes, 2 steals, 1 turn, +8 in 42 minutes.



G John Wall
18 points (7-12 fg, 0-1 3pts, 4-6 ft), 5 boardds, 5 dimes, 3 steals, 6 turns, 2 blocks, +18 in 42 minutes



C Javale McGee
15 points (7-16 fg, 1-2 ft), 7 boards, 2 dimes, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 1 turn, +10 in 36 minutes



Wizards Team Win



Flip Saunders
Head Coach



Nate33
Thread Starter


Or, nominate your place of the game in comments, below.

[hands11]

Dray
Craw
McGee

[dlts20]

craw actually had 23.

Dray
Craw
McGee

[nate33]

I want to give McGee some credit for his dramatic improvement on defense. He is really doing his job of protecting the paint without getting out of position. That bumps him ahead of Crawford in my book. Tough to give anyone other than Blatche the top position though.

1. Blatche
2. McGee
3. Crawford

[nuposse04]

I don't expect dray to ever be a 20/10 big man, but he really has played well as of late.

[Spence]

Baltche.

[jimij]

1. Blatche - WTF, again?!?!?!
2. Craw - ice in his veins
3. McGee - starting to get a clue

HM Wall - his stats weren't great but the +18 was very, very nice.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Blatche is doing all he can to keep the Wizards from drafting Derrick Williams.

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

McGee is who I've thought he is. Just wait until he drops several 30-point games in the future. Teams cannot stop him with the others playing like this.

I want to give a shout out to FLIP SAUNDERS. He's weathered the storm. The young guys are all playing well. The dead weight is either injured or no longer on the team. I see no reason for him to have to go now. Next season could be special on the road to rebuilding.

[TheBigThree]

Blatche has taken advantage of really good matchups for him over the past few games. Really hope he continues to play smart, because when he's on our offense looks like a legitimate NBA offense. Crawford continues to impress and his jumper is improving by the day, as I figured it would. Looked a little winded out there at times, but that is to be expected with the minutes he's playing.

1) Blatche
2) Crawford
3) McGee

[montestewart]

Blatchmo! More efficient than last game, more DRs, tough inside. GMs around the league will see this vote and know they're going to need to up their offer to pry the newly spry guy from the Wizards.

McGee! I think his brain is slowly adapting to multitasking, and this increasing trend of his not going for junior league jukes and not losing his man is long overdue but nonetheless appreciated. (But how did you let McGuire block you, big man?)

Crawford! Does he have some interesting body language? Hard to describe it, like a cross between insolent schoolboy and Keystone Cops. He looks loose. Pulled off some tough shot scores.

Wall had some lame TOs, but that's because he can see the future (like LeBJ) and his teammates can't, so they don't know where they're supposed to be in the future, or they would have set that pick or caught that pass. When the team catches up with Wall, look out!

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

I agree, its exciting to have those two rooks showing so much promise in the backcourt. And I agree they both have the potential to be GREAT. But how is Crawford's promising play somehow a knock on Wall? And I still don't get the Wall isn't competitive shtick. Maybe its because competitive can be measured in so many ways that its hard to define, especially in the context of a team that is far from "competitive" at this point. But the way Wall has played and improved over this wash of a season tells me a lot about his desire to compete.

[ST21]

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

I agree, its exciting to have those two rooks showing so much promise in the backcourt. And I agree they both have the potential to be GREAT. But how is Crawford's promising play somehow a knock on Wall? And I still don't get the Wall isn't competitive shtick. Maybe its because competitive can be measured in so many ways that its hard to define, especially in the context of a team that is far from "competitive" at this point. But the way Wall has played and improved over this wash of a season tells me a lot about his desire to compete.

i disagree i really havn't seen much improvement form wall over the course of the season. i mean his scoring has gone up towards the end of the year but his assists have also been going way down while his fg % has been around the same all year at about 39-41% which is quite bad. turnovers still very high, defensively still inconsistent and clutch factor still inconsistent. there isn't one area where i can say he has improved noticeably from where he was in the beginning of the season.

thats not a diss because where he was in the beginning of the season was still overall a very good player and arguably a top 10pg in the NBA. but i havn't seen much improvement. i'm more looking forward to the end of next season to judge his improvement. i think year 1 to year 2 will tell us a lot about his work ethic, character, leadership skills, and his overall potential. he's got to go hard this summer training and doing everything he can to improve his game. i think he has the drive to do that. i think he wants to be the leader of this team. just need to see him prove it.

by the way i voted for jordan crawford for his clutch shots in the 4th quarter.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

I agree, its exciting to have those two rooks showing so much promise in the backcourt. And I agree they both have the potential to be GREAT. But how is Crawford's promising play somehow a knock on Wall? And I still don't get the Wall isn't competitive shtick. Maybe its because competitive can be measured in so many ways that its hard to define, especially in the context of a team that is far from "competitive" at this point. But the way Wall has played and improved over this wash of a season tells me a lot about his desire to compete.

First of all, saying Crawford is more competitive does not say Wall is not competitive. I said the Wizards have two GREAT young players, and that included Wall, NBTW. So, I don't really know why you seem to be in a huff except someone dare objectify Wall's performance with some IMO balance.

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fa ... /11/30/432

John Wall's best performances from the link above came against Jrue Holiday, Ish Smith, and Mike Bibby up until December 7, 2010. He lost more matchup than he won and the names of the guards who outplayed him are listed on the right. Many times, the Wizards had Hinrich and Wall on the court and that skewed things a bit. Also, he suffered injury that first week of December and his performances were hampered by that. Overall, Wall played okay IMO. Just okay, winning 21 matchups and losing 29. His efficiency was 9th among all PGs, but his defensive efficiency had it been listed would have been near the bottom.

My criticisms of Wall were that the Wizards lose their matchup at PG with Wall more often than they lose it at C with McGee. More games are lost because of the PG matchups than the Cs; even when most here were lambasting McGee. Wall was not getting it done like Paul did as a rookie, even if he's that kind of talent. I think it has to do with him not slowing down yet and his outside shot needing to develop. Things that will come in time. But in terms of competitiveness, many times this season Wall took his lumps. (SO WHAT! But my point is just that.)

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fa ... /11/30/498

Same metric applied to Crawford shows he got killed by Monte Ellis, Dermar Derozan, and was outplayed by Wesley Matthews. He's 6-6 in matchups, however. (7-6 after today). He's kicked butts as well.


Won't say anything more than I like the way Crawford competes because he's more clutch and confident IMO, though not as freakishly athletic nor as gifted wth court vision than Wall. Crawford's also a couple years older, which IMO makes a difference.

[hands11]

Blatche is doing all he can to keep the Wizards from drafting Derrick Williams.

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

McGee is who I've thought he is. Just wait until he drops several 30-point games in the future. Teams cannot stop him with the others playing like this.

I want to give a shout out to FLIP SAUNDERS. He's weathered the storm. The young guys are all playing well. The dead weight is either injured or no longer on the team. I see no reason for him to have to go now. Next season could be special on the road to rebuilding.

There ya go. Weathering the storm is exactly what Flip has done. Same things EG had to do. But now he has his hands full trying to figure out how to get Wall and Crawford through the rotation to maximize both their talent. Once Nick is back, I suspect Flip will try to split is up even. I guess all three can do 32 minutes. Once Crawford has Nick to run with as the SG he should be able to gauge his game better knowing he will get 16 at PG and 16 at SG. Problem is, I think Craw works better when he is running the show with a spot up SG next to him. Should be interesting to see if he can adjust. The good thing is that Craw should be off the bench as the PG first. That should help him get a feel for the game before moving over to SG.

Looking forward to getting all three of them out there to get this party started. And once that gets rolling, things should be easier for Dray and McGee. Just to back Booker isn't still healthy. He would be perfect to add to that.

[doclinkin]

Dray. Putting the "BALL" in Baltche.

[waya]

Knick fan here coming to thank you guys for helping us clinch a playoff spot today.

Is Jordan as good as his numbers suggest?? I picked him up some time last month in my fantasy league and its paying off like crazy now You guys have some nice young talent

[dangermouse]

Didnt see the game yet, how was Wall defensively?

[verbal8]

Knick fan here coming to thank you guys for helping us clinch a playoff spot today.

Is Jordan as good as his numbers suggest?? I picked him up some time last month in my fantasy league and its paying off like crazy now You guys have some nice young talent

I think he will help in some fantasy categories(scoring, 3s with a few assists and steals). However the numbers suggest he is pretty inefficient. He seems to have the talent and drive to improve his efficiency, but it is not a sure thing.

[GhostsOfGil]

Didnt see the game yet, how was Wall defensively?

not great.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

Crawford is making me feel justified in critiquing Wall as a flawed rookie. John Wall is very talented but in a whole lot of ways Crawford is more competitive. It's a good thing, actually, as the Wizards have two GREAT young players. Crawford is the real deal.

I agree, its exciting to have those two rooks showing so much promise in the backcourt. And I agree they both have the potential to be GREAT. But how is Crawford's promising play somehow a knock on Wall? And I still don't get the Wall isn't competitive shtick. Maybe its because competitive can be measured in so many ways that its hard to define, especially in the context of a team that is far from "competitive" at this point. But the way Wall has played and improved over this wash of a season tells me a lot about his desire to compete.

First of all, saying Crawford is more competitive does not say Wall is not competitive. I said the Wizards have two GREAT young players, and that included Wall, NBTW. So, I don't really know why you seem to be in a huff except someone dare objectify Wall's performance with some IMO balance.

No sweat. I agree that Crawford has been a pleasant surprise and that Wall has been more a case of (cue Dennis Green's voice) "he was who we thought he was". Both are promising, and a lot of that promise is yet to be grasped. I simply misread your post as Crawford's play somehow reflected poorly upon Wall.

And if clutch = competitive, then I agree Crawford oozes it. He has no conscience, very Gil-esque in that regard.

Also, you'd mentioned elsewhere how McGee's good play may have been due to opportunity with Blatche being out. It's been super encouraging that even with Blatche back (and back in a big way) that McGee is still going strong. He even hit a Blatche with some passes in the post yesterday that were superb. I hope this continues, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!