Andray Blatche - Resurgence Thread ( Merged )

[TheBigThree]

Blatche's injuries aren't the result of misfortune, but poor conditioning and laziness. Using them as a rationalization doesn't fly.

I'll have a change of heart on Blatche when he walks on the court with muscle definition in his arms and without a beer belly.

A broken foot is the result of laziness? I dunno.

There are a lot of reasons to hate on Andray, but his injury last offseason, according to most, ruined what had been an extremely productive offseason for him.

[JonathanJoseph]

Blatche's injuries aren't the result of misfortune, but poor conditioning and laziness. Using them as a rationalization doesn't fly.

I'll have a change of heart on Blatche when he walks on the court with muscle definition in his arms and without a beer belly.

A broken foot is the result of laziness? I dunno.

There are a lot of reasons to hate on Andray, but his injury last offseason, according to most, ruined what had been an extremely productive offseason for him.

Actually, I WOULD blame injuries on poor conditioning. But I do not blame Blatche as being out of shape and injury prone has been a constant around the Wizards for 5 years now.

[hands11]

why do so many diss Dray's percentage when he was hurt? People act like thats no factor? There is no way he shoots that percentage if he didnt miss the whole Summer and play pretty much the whole season hurt. Thats the biggest reason why his percentage sucked. I dont believe that he will shoot nearly that low if healthy

Because nothing has changed. As I said before.

There are enough facts to paint a picture of upside and hope and enough there to paint one the other way and anything in between.

Until he plays healthy again with this newly constructed team, there isn't going to be an answer. That supports those of us who have consistently said, to much talent and to young and on to dysfunctional of a team while he has been here to trade him before seeing more under more ideal conditions.

Some of us have been painting that picture ever since people started posting trade ideas in the trade thread over the last couple of years. But this is a BB. Fans on boards are impatient. I wouldn't bet $1000 that he will because a stud player but I wouldn't bet $1000 the other way either. But I would bet that he will be better next year then he was this year and I would lean toward him being better next year than any other year he played. That would raise his value and that at is point is all we need. At this stage it is about accumulating and increasing the value of assets. Then we can decide how much he has changed and if he fits what we need. They are still building stage I so most likely they don't want to win so much that they can't get another good draft pick. It likely will be that way for one more year/season. Then they will go stage II of the rebuild and start moving pieces and consolidating. Stage III will be the final pieces after they make the playoffs.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... ay-blatche
If you look at his numbers from Feb on, they look good. Specially after he had time off to recover from injury.

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... ay-blatche
Again, look at the Feb and March numbers. This was his first chance as a starter. Three crap games in April pulled down the monthly numbers but all the other games were solid .500%

So we have probably just as many mouth over the last two years showing him being really effective and cranking it up as we do he playing below par.

But there are those who will explain away these numbers because of the condition of the team at the time. Well, try using the same logic the other way around. At least that would be a balanced view.

[hands11]

Blatche's injuries aren't the result of misfortune, but poor conditioning and laziness. Using them as a rationalization doesn't fly.

I'll have a change of heart on Blatche when he walks on the court with muscle definition in his arms and without a beer belly.

What I remember is a Dray with an injured shoulder diving on the floor the ball like our own injury MM did. In that dive he re-injured that shoulder the point he couldn't go on. Dray may be a lot of things that frustrate people but the kid does not sit on the bench when he is injured. For all the bad things about him, he does show extreme toughness when it comes to playing injured. He also played through an injured hip.

But injured or not, one thing that has worried me about Dray since maybe the second year I saw him is that he seems to twist his ankle a lot. He just seems to have a bad ankle or ankles. That worries me. Something like that doesn't usually change. For a kid without a ton of lift, bad ankles don't help.

[Nivek]

When Dray hurt his shoulder, one of my first thoughts was that he might not have been hurt if he had been dedicated in the weight room and had the strength of a typical NBA power forward. Same thing with the ankles. If he actually worked on strength and balance, maybe he wouldn't have so many ankle issues.

Describing Blatche has having "extreme toughness" is absurd. Almost everyone plays with dings and aches and pains. You want extreme toughness, look at Bernard King when he went for back-to-back 50-point nights with two broken fingers on his shooting hand. Or the night Isiah went for 25 in a quarter in the Finals after nearly breaking his ankle. Or the time Isiah went to a game on crutches, but played.

Blatche doesn't deserve a medal because he winces and grimaces up and down the court with a sore hip or a few bruises (well, not so much when running to the offensive end; and the grimacing always gets greater after a missed shot or a turnover). Talk about a low bar.

[dlts20]

people forget Webber hurting his shoulder non stop when he was with us and he was in shape

[Nivek]

Webber dislocated his shoulder. Then, re-dislocated the same shoulder two more times. Re-dislocating the same shoulder is common.

Understand, I'm not saying Blatche hurt his shoulder because he's weak and out of shape. I don't know if that's the case. I know that when Webber hurt his shoulder, the thought never entered my mind -- because Webber was strong and in great shape. Whether or not Blatche's shoulder injury was caused by being weak and out of shape (for an NBA player) really doesn't matter very much. The point is that Blatche has been weak and out of shape for an NBA player throughout his career and, as of this most recent season, had not yet gotten serious about remedying the situation.

Maybe he's working hard on it right now.

[nate33]

FWIW, the numbers suggest that Blatche has actually been a very durable player. Prior to his injury last offseason, he had only missed 12 games due to injury in the previous 4 seasons combined.

[queridiculo]

When somebody mentions Blatche and working out, I always think of that hilarious workout video I saw posted here at some point. Can anybody dig that gem up?

[Dat2U]

I'll judge Blatche by this coming season, er, whenever the lockout ends and he puts on the Wizards uniform. Blatche is out of excuses IMO. To me this is his make or break year in terms of setting the plate for the rest of his career. Even if he plays well I'd still be willing to deal him for the right piece and if he does play well he increases his trade value. If he doesn't play well, oh well, his trade value probably can't get much lower than it is right now.

[verbal8]

I'll judge Blatche by this coming season, er, whenever the lockout ends and he puts on the Wizards uniform. Blatche is out of excuses IMO. To me this is his make or break year in terms of setting the plate for the rest of his career. Even if he plays well I'd still be willing to deal him for the right piece and if he does play well he increases his trade value. If he doesn't play well, oh well, his trade value probably can't get much lower than it is right now.

I agree this year is huge for Blatche. I there is still some hope that he might be a part of the Wizards future, but he is definitely out of excuses. I think if he flounders this year, he could end up bounce around a lot the rest of his career(like the Gooden comparison). If he does well, but doesn't seem to be the right fit he could be a valuable trade piece for needs in another area.

[jazzfan1971]

So, I acquired Andray Blatche in a keeper league. Seems like he's about as popular as herpes. Looking at his age/stats/size I really can't see why he's so disliked.

So you folks tell me, what have I got on my hands? Is he a 24 year old 6'11" 260lb monster who's allready putting up a 17 PER with a ton of upside? Or do I have a trainwreck of a guy who is going to bounce around the league never being any better than he is right now?

Or something else?

Let me have all the opinions on him.

[fishercob]

Happy reading: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=988148

IBTL

[7-Day Dray]

He's very talented. By his standards, he has a very poor season last year despite putting up pretty good numbers, but that show you just how talented he is.

Although he put up good numbers last season, but he wasn't very efficient, didn't play good defense, and was pretty turnover prone, but I blame this mostly on the injury he suffered last offseason. He broke his foot, and it was really bad because everybody said he was really working hard. But the injury caused him to come into the season out of shape and rusty.

He said recently that he's working on his body and wants to be an All-Star next season, and I think he can do it. I think he's an All-Star talent, and if he gets his body right and plays motivated, he'' put up very good numbers.

[7-Day Dray]

But IBTL

[theboomking]

He said recently that he's working on his body and wants to be an All-Star next season, and I think he can do it. I think he's an All-Star talent, and if he gets his body right and plays motivated, he'' put up very good numbers.

Where did he say that? Do you have a link or a quote? I'm not calling you out, just curious.

[7-Day Dray]

He said recently that he's working on his body and wants to be an All-Star next season, and I think he can do it. I think he's an All-Star talent, and if he gets his body right and plays motivated, he'' put up very good numbers.

Where did he say that? Do you have a link or a quote? I'm not calling you out, just curious.

On his charity trip to Jamaica.

“I’m still an up-and-coming player,” said Blatche, who bounced back from a broken foot to average 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds last season. “I just want to be mean and tough in the paint, work on my jump shot and become more consistent. Work on my body. My goal is to be one of the best players in the league.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/28/2 ... atche.html

[hands11]

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=988148&start=930

Or you could read it in the other Dray thread on this same page.

[nate33]

Blatche tends to post "empty stats". He can score, but not with enough efficiency to be a primary scorer. He can play decent defense at times, but not consistently enough to be considered a good defender. He's lazy at times on the court and has a less than perfect work ethic. So far in his career, he has been your typical "good player on a bad team". He's just good enough to lose with.

That doesnt make him a bad fantasy player though. He's going to get plenty of minutes because the team lacks any other big men with refined offensive skills. It's a pretty good bet that he'll average 16+ points per game and 8 or more boards while blocking a few shots and getting more steals and assists than an average PF.

[hands11]

Blatche tends to post "empty stats". He can score, but not with enough efficiency to be a primary scorer. He can play decent defense at times, but not consistently enough to be considered a good defender. He's lazy at times on the court and has a less than perfect work ethic. So far in his career, he has been your typical "good player on a bad team". He's just good enough to lose with.

That doesnt make him a bad fantasy player though. He's going to get plenty of minutes because the team lacks any other big men with refined offensive skills. It's a pretty good bet that he'll average 16+ points per game and 8 or more boards while blocking a few shots and getting more steals and assists than an average PF.

Hard to imagine him doing worse than that.

This could be an interesting team considering Nick averaged 17 pts last year and most believe Wall will be better this year.

While this team was really young and wasn't together the whole year, just look over the stats.

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/nam ... on-wizards

PG Wall 16.4 8.3 assits
SG NY 17.4 2.7 rebs
PF Dray 16.8 8 rebs

That's not so bad considering all are young. One was a rookie. One was starting for the first time and one was injured all year. Now they are surrounded by more tough guys and you also have Craw as scorers and if Lewis is healthy he should be good for 10-12 pts off the bench. Now if McGee can get a reliable move, that could start to gel.

Now with enough touches, I see no reason Nick can't go for 20 pts a game. Dray as the second option could be 17-20. Wall doesn't really need to do much more than he did. This could actually work when you consider the other people that can score and better D. If they are healthy.