How do you fix this team?

[queridiculo]

I can certainly understand the rational of keeping Blatche around, but my concern isn't so much with Blatche's lack of production, but the effect his chronic underachieving ways could have on team dynamics.

It's time we cut our losses and send that big baby packing.

[LyricalRico]

I can certainly understand the rational of keeping Blatche around, but my concern isn't so much with Blatche's lack of production, but the effect his chronic underachieving ways could have on team dynamics.

It's time we cut our losses and send that big baby packing.

[Ruzious]

Ruz -- I agree with you to a point. Especially early in the season, Seraphin and Booker weren't realistic options. However, in a developmental season, I think Flip could've just benched Blatche to make a point that his play wasn't good enough. The difficulty, of course, is that you're then putting Seraphin or Booker on the court before they're ready, and they maybe lose some confidence when they get thumped.

One thing's for sure -- Flip wasn't able to look down his bench and choose from good options. His choices for much of the season were to stick with Blatche, who was playing like crap, or switch to someone who was either not ready to contribute or incapable of contributing. When Booker showed he could compete, I think Flip had a reasonable option to giving Blatche big minutes, and I would have liked to see him use it to rein in Blatche's crap plays.

Fair enough. While I didn't see Booker as a real viable alternative, I understand why people disagree with me on that.

[Ruzious]

I'm a Blatche fan, but I've been talking about ow bad his defense has been for the past couple of games. He hasn't been rotating, doesn't try to cut off the guards lane when they get in the paint, and doesn't try hard enough to seal his man off for the defensive rebound. And his pick & roll defense has been TERRIBLE, and I blame a large part of this on the coaching staff. That's why earlier I said I don't think Flip is the right coach for this team in the long haul. He doesn't hold his players accountable (except for McGee earlier in the year), and he doesn't stress defense enough. Blatche makes the same mistakes on defense over and over again, but it's like the coaching staff isn't telling him anything because he does it over and over again. I would like to see Flip treat Blatche like he treated McGee earlier in the year.

+1

I posted long ago the problem with Blatche is he was allowed to be inefficient playing many minutes. That is on the coaches. When he is right is he a really good player. Less of him when he was not playing sound, team ball would have been better. Flip's alternatives to bad Andray were Booker and Seraphin--even when they were considered too inexperienced.

Come on CCJ. I respect you brother but you are kind of off on this drum you keep beating.

Seems you are altering history. They had nothing other than Dray. Yi was Yi. He played well in a few bursts but got injuries. Booker wasn't ready and he is undersized to play a lot of PF. It wasn't until Flip threaten to send him to the D League that he got his motor running. And even then, he has no outside shot. Lewis played there some and did well but then he was limping on the knee. Seraphin wasn't ready either and he has no outside shot.

There was and still isn't anything on the team that even remotely compared to Drays talent and he needed to play his way back into shape and find his way on this new team. He is the only player that is part of the longer term plan or even if he isn't, he was the player who has the most trade value if he could get his game going. Lewis healthy would have been an option but he wasn't for more that 5-10 games.

Acting like Flip has all these options if so fair form the truth.

Now there wasn't a ton of options at center either but there was Dray who played there some. McGee was always in foul trouble anyway. He got benched more by himself then by Flip.

Yup. And McGee did play a lot of minutes this season. The last time I looked (a few weeks ago), he was averaging virtually the same amount of minutes as Hibbert. They were 1 or 2 picks apart in the draft, so they should be roughly on the same trajectory.

[Nivek]

Top 10 centers in minutes per game this season:

1. Dwight Howard -- 37.6
2. Andrew Bogut -- 35.3
3. Brook Lopez -- 35.2
4. Al Horford -- 35.1
5. Joakim Noah -- 32.8
6. Marc Gasol -- 31.9
7. Emeka Okafor -- 31.6
8. Andrew Bynum, Tyson Chandler, Javale McGee -- 27.8
9. Roy Hibbert -- 27.7
10. Chris Kaman -- 26.2

[Ruzious]

Thanks, Kev. See - Javale was wayyyy ahead of Hibbert.

No Nene? Maybe he's considered a PF.

Speaking of Nene and Chandler (what, we weren't?) - both free agents this offseason. I wish they'd be free agents the next offseason - when it would make sense for the Wiz to acquire one of them. I'm a big proponent (fan?) of both of them.

[Nivek]

I just used the "center" button on the search function at b-r. If I do the search for all players 6-10 or higher, McGee is 30th. That top 30 includes guys like Odom and Rashard Lewis, though.

b-r must classify Nene as a forward -- he averaged 30.5 mpg this season.

[JonathanJoseph]

Take another look. Here's the same list but only counting players with a TS% less than .500:
1 Kevin Garnett 1998-99 (22)
2 Antawn Jamison 2000-01 (24)
3 Antoine Walker 1997-98 (21)
4 Antoine Walker 1998-99 (22)
5 Andray Blatche 2010-11 (24)
6 Antawn Jamison 1999-00 (23)
7 Cliff Robinson 1983-84 (23)
8 Antoine Walker 1996-97 (20)
9 Lionel Simmons 1990-91 (22)

Great. I believe every player on that list (except for Simmons who had injury problems) was an all-star at least once.

[closg00]

Send Seraphin to the D_League with an assistant for most of whatever season there is next year, give him 30 minutes a night playing-time and coaching.

Wasn't the team not sending him to the D-League part of the agreement for him to come over right away? Am I mis-remembering that?

Yes, that was the verbal agreement, but it would be in the orgs interest to "talk" to him about spending some time playing basketball for more than 5-8 minutes a night, he needs it.

[Nivek]

Using nate's list, let's take a look at their ortg that season; career ortg and peak ortg.

1 Kevin Garnett 1998-99 (22) -- season: 102; career: 111; peak: 118 (1st year in Boston)
2 Antawn Jamison 2000-01 (24) -- 104; 110; 122 (6th man in Dallas)
3 Antoine Walker 1997-98 (21) -- 98; 97; 101
4 Antoine Walker 1998-99 (22) -- 96; 97; 101
5 Andray Blatche 2010-11 (24) -- 100; 101; 103
6 Antawn Jamison 1999-00 (23) -- 100; 110; 122
7 Cliff Robinson 1983-84 (23) -- 99; 100; 102
8 Antoine Walker 1996-97 (20) -- 98; 97; 101
9 Lionel Simmons 1990-91 (22) -- 97, 101; 104

The Cliff Robinson at #7 is the one who had a two-year stint with the Bullets. Best year of his career was arguably 85-86 for Les Boulez. I like the name at the top of the list, of course. Blatche doesn't have that kind of drive or competitiveness, though. A Jamison who plays defense would be pretty good -- IF Blatche could be persuaded to defend. Walker, Robinson and Simmons are guys I wouldn't want on my team if they played for free and mowed my lawn during the summer.

Blatche has some Walker in him. There was nothing wrong with Walker that couldn't have been fixed with conditioning and a different mental approach. That stuff never got fixed though. Maybe it will with Blatche.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I'm a Blatche fan, but I've been talking about ow bad his defense has been for the past couple of games. He hasn't been rotating, doesn't try to cut off the guards lane when they get in the paint, and doesn't try hard enough to seal his man off for the defensive rebound. And his pick & roll defense has been TERRIBLE, and I blame a large part of this on the coaching staff. That's why earlier I said I don't think Flip is the right coach for this team in the long haul. He doesn't hold his players accountable (except for McGee earlier in the year), and he doesn't stress defense enough. Blatche makes the same mistakes on defense over and over again, but it's like the coaching staff isn't telling him anything because he does it over and over again. I would like to see Flip treat Blatche like he treated McGee earlier in the year.

+1

I posted long ago the problem with Blatche is he was allowed to be inefficient playing many minutes. That is on the coaches. When he is right is he a really good player. Less of him when he was not playing sound, team ball would have been better. Flip's alternatives to bad Andray were Booker and Seraphin--even when they were considered too inexperienced.

Come on CCJ. I respect you brother but you are kind of off on this drum you keep beating.

Seems you are altering history. They had nothing other than Dray. Yi was Yi. He played well in a few bursts but got injuries. Booker wasn't ready and he is undersized to play a lot of PF. It wasn't until Flip threaten to send him to the D League that he got his motor running. And even then, he has no outside shot. Lewis played there some and did well but then he was limping on the knee. Seraphin wasn't ready either and he has no outside shot.

There was and still isn't anything on the team that even remotely compared to Drays talent and he needed to play his way back into shape and find his way on this new team. He is the only player that is part of the longer term plan or even if he isn't, he was the player who has the most trade value if he could get his game going. Lewis healthy would have been an option but he wasn't for more that 5-10 games.

Acting like Flip has all these options if so fair form the truth.

Now there wasn't a ton of options at center either but there was Dray who played there some. McGee was always in foul trouble anyway. He got benched more by himself then by Flip.

Season's over and it is time to argue.

McGee's foul's were early but at no point did he average more than 3 fouls a game. 27.8 minutes and 2.9 fouls for the season. McGee didn't bench himself, Flip benched him when he played poorly. Unlike what he did to Blatche who blatantly played poorly with impunity because you and others say he had no other options.

Fine. I'm done with this, hands. You say I am altering history. Fine. I say you're just picking one today.

[hands11]

I can certainly understand the rational of keeping Blatche around, but my concern isn't so much with Blatche's lack of production, but the effect his chronic underachieving ways could have on team dynamics.

It's time we cut our losses and send that big baby packing.

And just what would that effect be ? Who is he going to pull down ?

I can't think of one player on the team who he is going to pull down. If anything, like he spoke about after he returned from his last injury, he see the direction the team is headed and he is trying to fit in.

All these new young motivated faces are going to lift Dray up, Dray isn't going to pull them down.

Sorry. But it makes zero sense to send Dray packing right now. He is only 24. If he was 27, maybe I could understand.

[hands11]

Top 10 centers in minutes per game this season:

1. Dwight Howard -- 37.6
2. Andrew Bogut -- 35.3
3. Brook Lopez -- 35.2
4. Al Horford -- 35.1
5. Joakim Noah -- 32.8
6. Marc Gasol -- 31.9
7. Emeka Okafor -- 31.6
8. Andrew Bynum, Tyson Chandler, Javale McGee -- 27.8
9. Roy Hibbert -- 27.7
10. Chris Kaman -- 26.2

'
Haywood would have been doing back Flips is EFJ would have played him 28 minutes.

Hey, Dray really raised his PER over the year considering the slow start he got.

Dray PER 16.9
McGee PER 17.4
Wall PER 15.9 not bad for a rookie
Booker PER 15.3 not bad for a rookie
Nick PER 14.5 AFG 0.50 he worked into a quality starter. Hit is stride. Then got injured and is numbers suffered.

Crawford need to become more efficient. But as a rookie who played few games on a depleted team, he did some really nice stuff. The triple double was amazing.

Mo. EFG of 0.50 Not bad for a role player

They have some interesting young pieces. This draft should add a couple more. Solid rebuild so far.

[Ed Wood]

Well certainly it's vastly better than having to pick up the pieces after a train wreck season by one or more of the young men. Booker is probably the guy who surprised me (in a good way) the most; while I realize he was a very good college player and his athleticism wasn't much in doubt his college numbers didn't scream undersized PERminator like say, DeJuan Blair's did and he was pretty PERty this year nevertheless, a little bit more work at the line and maybe a little more range and he's a rock solid rotation big (not a small forward).

Honestly there isn't one guy who really fell short of what we should have expected (even Andray, for whom PER is deceptively flattering, wasn't anything other than what we should have expected) and the fact that the team was terrible means that there is still considerable work to do. On the other hand I would have bet a fair amount of money on at least one of the players of interest on the team derailing this year (Kevin and Hamady especially don't count) and we went the year without an accident, more or less. I'll take it.

[Hoopalotta]

On the other hand I would have bet a fair amount of money on at least one of the players of interest on the team derailing this year (Kevin and Hamady especially don't count) and we went the year without an accident, more or less.

Weren't some of our guys involved in a Friday night fight at Denny's?

[Ed Wood]

On the other hand I would have bet a fair amount of money on at least one of the players of interest on the team derailing this year (Kevin and Hamady especially don't count) and we went the year without an accident, more or less.

Weren't some of our guys involved in a fight at Denny's?

G-Wiz is cooperating with the authorities.

[Hoopalotta]

I was thinking that you could see Captain Kirk in MF23's Youtube Denny's fight from the Hades thread. At first I wasn't sure if it was K-Honey, but the tell is that he was talking smack like he wanted to fight before then backing off when the melee was properly joined. I've got that as a near positive ID.

Likely it didn't get out due to an Ernie coverup. He'd learned his lesson and wasn't going to see Hinrich's trade value getting destroyed with an incident.

[DCZards]

McGee's foul's were early but at no point did he average more than 3 fouls a game. 27.8 minutes and 2.9 fouls for the season. McGee didn't bench himself, Flip benched him when he played poorly. Unlike what he did to Blatche who blatantly played poorly with impunity because you and others say he had no other options.

Fine. I'm done with this, hands. You say I am altering history. Fine. I say you're just picking one today.

I'm not in the Zards locker room, at their practices or on the bench during games, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the reason Flip (or any coach for that matter) treated McGee and Blatche differently is because they are different people and players, react differently to coaching and benching, have a different skill set, and play different roles for the Wizards.

A coach takes a lot of things into consideration when deciding when to bench, yell at, or do whatever to a player. And rarely do fans (even hardcore fans like those of us on the board) really know what went into those decisions. I'm not saying that coaches don't make mistakes (all of them do), but sometimes what we fans see as bad decisions by a caoch are things that are done for reasons, often very good reasons, that fans/outsiders will never, ever be aware of.

[BigA]

This looks like the best thread for a link to Mike Lee's interview with Ted Leonsis in today's WaPost:

Ted says rebuild has exceeded expectations so far.

And a stronger indication that both Ernie and Flip will be back.

[closg00]

This looks like the best thread for a link to Mike Lee's interview with Ted Leonsis in today's WaPost:

Ted says rebuild has exceeded expectations so far.

And a stronger indication that both Ernie and Flip will be back.

They are both under-contract, Ernie through the end of next season, and Flip for another year after that. Ted ain't paying these guys out during the re-build. Still, today it looks like at-least Ernie will be the new Wes Unseld of the organizations - Wiz employee for-life.