it Wasn't Flip's Fault--Wages of Win Article

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I blame Flip for relying on Blatche. You guys who follow this board know how i felt about Flip. Here's another point of view.

This article says what most of you say: It wasn't Flip's fault.

Flip Gets the Blame…Again

http://wagesofwins.com/2012/01/26/flip- ... lameagain/

In what can only be described as an act of desperation, the Washington Wizards fired third year coach Flip Saunders after an abysmal 2-15 start. Firing coaches seems to be all the rage in big money sports these days. The reasoning behind it is simple: firing a coach is a lot easier than making good trades and free agency acquisitions, drafting well, and having patience. But while it’s relatively easy, firing coaches isn’t particularly helpful, at least in the NBA. In fact, it’s basically pointless. I

If Flip is one of the few productive coaches then what has been the cause of his firings?

Washington is pretty close to average in all categories except two: assists and shooting efficiency. These two are obviously related, but there is a correlation-causation issue. It could be that players are taking bad shots instead of passing to open teammates. It could also be that shots that would go in when taken by most teams aren’t going in for the Wizards, and since no assist is credited for a missed shot, the Wiz don’t record as many assists as most teams. Both are probably true to some extent.

But since we don’t know for sure, let’s focus on Washington’s effective field goal percentage, which is the second worst in the league (somehow Sacramento’s is even worse), and over 4% below the league average. To put it mildly, Washington’s shooting is absolutely terrible. Of its six players with the most minutes, only one, JaVale McGee, has an above average effective field goal percentage. John Wall and Andray Blatche are especially bad. Both have an effective field goal percentage over 10% below average! You can look at the rest of the team at The NBA Geek.

The article proceeds to rip Wizard management and Andray Blatche.

[BruceO]

Just to play devils advocate about this theory that changing the coach means nothing. Lets look at LA same players but offense is struggling because of different system and different emphasis. Flips offense is a jump shooting offense which according to philly defense is inefficient and is the shot they want other teams to take. Guess what they've pounded us a few times. Ball handling is pg heavy and doesnt have variety making it easy to key in on wall who's turnover prone already. Coaches determine System

[Ruzious]

Bruce, when players stink, it doesn't matter what system the coach uses; stats will suque, and the team will lose.

[closg00]

Thanks CCJ, I liked the summary.

The Wizards are really, really bad this year. Because of the team’s lack of success, it made a desperation move and fired its coach, Flip Saunders. But Saunders wasn’t the problem. The problem is that the team is riddled with bad players. And the team’s management has failed to remedy this problem by holding on to the bad players. Thus, Washington will continue to be bad in the absence of Saunders unless its management starts making good decisions. Unfortunately firing Flip doesn’t signal that the management understands this. Flip has been fired several times thanks to unrealistic expectations. While good moves can make a franchise good, unrealistic expectations seem to lead to bad franchises and fired coaches.

I disagree with the article in-that Flip often made a bad team worse. Ernie again buys time for himself and he has Ted's ear when it comes to the rebuild. Despite the media chorus calling for "The Architects" head, I predict Ernie will to get a new contract after the heat dies-down about surrounding how terrible they are.

[JWizmentality]

Um...nobody is blameless in this clusterf*ck.