Official Thread - Wizards vs Hawks (4/9/11)

[ST21]

Wall had the #1 play of the night on NBA.COM

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/top_p ... ef:nbahpt2

beautiful coast to coast finish.

[hands11]

My intent wasn't to troll. I said nothing bad about your team. I came here curious about washington's fanbase reaction to this late season surge. Sorry if I came across that way.

It was actually the other Raptor's fan who posted before you. I should have said that clearly - my apologies.

We are... of mixed feelings. Of course, we really love seeing our guys play hard and actually win some games. At the same time, we'd like to have a great draft pick because we know we need more pieces going forward.

In an ideal world, this late season surge leads to an inspired off-season, we get lucky in the lottery, and things start coming together next season. Alas, math and probability favor the weak and tankalicious.

We are Hugh

[hands11]

How the f**k did this happen?!?!?

Does anyone know where Nate was during the game? <suspicious>

Don't blame me. I didn't even post in the thread.

Why isn't there an angry lynch mob going after Pine?

BURN BURN BURN BURN BURN BURN BURN

[closg00]

Othyus Jeffers looks like he belongs in the NBA.

Others taking notice..

How can the Hawks play with Howard when they couldn't stop recent NBA D-League refugees Othyus Jeffers and Larry Owens?

"Those are the scariest dudes, man -- 'cause they're hungry. Those guys that haven't tasted the NBA lifestyle," Hawks forward Marvin Williams said. "They want to be here. They want to prove they can play at this level. Those are the most dangerous guys to me."

Andray Blatche scored 23 points, John Wall had 19, but it was Jeffers (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Owens (10 points) who stood out.

"It wasn't that we couldn't play in the NBA," Jeffers said. "Our time wasn't right."

By signing Jeffers and Owens for the remainder of the season, I believe the Wiz have 1st rights to these guys.

[LyricalRico]

Yeah but think how good we would be if Ernie hadn't signed them and we still had Gee!

[dobrojim]

feel good game last night to attend

biggest single positive - Kevin played extended minutes, was playing
actively/aggressively, without fouling.

Jeffers and Owens both deserve hard looks/contract consideration.
I like both those guys. Jeffers is just a junk yard dog who gets after it.
All the time. Not the most talented, but the hungriest. Owen surprised
me with shooting range and some nice moves.

We had had the longest losing streak to the Hawks of any team
so despite any lack of motivation and missing players they may
have had, the W was a good one.

Crawford overcame early foul trouble and poor shooting to still
contribute. McGee looked good except for another woeful night
shooting FTs. This is something he MUST improve on.

LastMonth/SeasonOver Dray had another very nice game and
for one night found his outside shot which was all net instead
of all iron for a change. Hopefully he'll remember NOT to
settle for jumpers Monday against KG.

We appease the tank gods. But we can still catch TOR or
they us with a couple games to go. The fact that we
still play CLE means TOR might have to win out to pass
us.

Wall had a better night than Griffin who's team lost.
If Wall hadn't gotten hurt earlier in the season, I think
the ROY contest might be a lot closer. And Wall is still
way ahead of all others not named Blake.

I wonder how much consideration Crawford will get for
all-rookie team. Booker too for that matter.

[Rafael122]

Atlanta is going to get blown out by Orlando in the playoffs. Possibly swept.

[nate33]

Wall had a better night than Griffin who's team lost.
If Wall hadn't gotten hurt earlier in the season, I think
the ROY contest might be a lot closer. And Wall is still
way ahead of all others not named Blake.

Nice post dobro, but I can't agree with this part. Griffin has been significantly better than Wall this year, it's not really close at all. Despite Wall's occasional flashes of brilliance, he has been an inefficient shooter and a poor defender all year. I'm not hating. I really like his progress and I think he's going to be a superstar, but he's just not there yet.

Griffin really benefited from having a year off before starting his "rookie" year. He got acclimated to NBA travel, and really had the opportunity to polish parts of his game.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Griffin really benefited from having a year off before starting his "rookie" year. He got acclimated to NBA travel, and really had the opportunity to polish parts of his game.

Which is why he should not be a candidate for ROY. It's total BS because the true ROY is Wall. Besides being on the court, Griffin got acclimated to probably every other issue that a rookie faces.

[JWizmentality]

Just think...we could have ended up with Evan frikkin Turner!

[Illuminaire]

Just think...we could have ended up with Evan frikkin Turner!

Now that's a sobering thought. ^_^

[The Consiglieri]

My intent wasn't to troll. I said nothing bad about your team. I came here curious about washington's fanbase reaction to this late season surge. Sorry if I came across that way.

It was actually the other Raptor's fan who posted before you. I should have said that clearly - my apologies.

We are... of mixed feelings. Of course, we really love seeing our guys play hard and actually win some games. At the same time, we'd like to have a great draft pick because we know we need more pieces going forward.

In an ideal world, this late season surge leads to an inspired off-season, we get lucky in the lottery, and things start coming together next season. Alas, math and probability favor the weak and tankalicious.

I don't really believe it's of any value other than mentality. I think young kids will feel better about the fall if they finish the season on a high note, especially with a butt kicking like this, on the other hand I don't believe it provides any boost to the following year. Was listening to Tolbert driving home from work the other day (former forward for the warriors that cohosts their afternoon drive sports talk) and he referenced playing for the warriors, magic, and clippers he never felt their was any carry over whatsoever to the next season if the team was lousy but won a few in the last two weeks in april. Said with the five or six months off, you just kind of let it go, and forgot about it, it never translated and with roster turnover it was even less likely than how little it might to begin with.

That's also how i feel, ive seen occasional examples of building momentum. atlanta '97/'98 in pro football totally had it happen, our own redskins '81/'82 were a big time example too, but in leagues with long seasons and tons of games, baseball, hockey, hoops, i just don't see it.

I'll take the ping pong balls thank you. It's strange, a part of me almost feels like if we're not going to land a top 2-3 pic, id rather land a ler pick where were more likely to take a Kantner (who appears to be slotting in at 5-8, rather than 3-4 where a lot of us have him, workouts could change a lot of things). The higher the better for sure though, of course. I would much rather pick ahead of the rapotrs obviously, and the atlanta win does nothing for me but piss me off. As others have mentioned though, if we're going to screw up, and actually win some meaningless late season games a la norv turner, at least we can do it against a team that can pay us back by giving us a higher draft pick. That pick is actually begining to look like it offers a shot at Singleton.

One other note, Biyack Biyombo sure as hell sounds like a great target if we get screwed in the lottery.

[cwb3]

I cannot bring myself to think about the Wizards losing for ping pong ball purposes. So this was an enjoyable game to watch. Only downer about it was that it was on CSN+ which has no HD alternative on Direct TV. I've grown so accustomed to HD sports watching that standard definition signal is definatly jarring. I shoulda saved my old (huge/heavy) Sony box TV (pre-HD era). Bet the picture woulda looked a LOT better!