I_Like_Dirt wrote:nate33 wrote:It's weird. Everyone credits us modestly for adding Okafor, Ariza and Beal, but they don't notice the addition of Nene, who is better than all of those guys. The conventional wisdom is: "hey, they went 20-46 with Nene so they're not that good." But in reality they went 7-4 with Nene, or to look at it pessimistically, they went 11-14 post trade (with Nene missing 14 of those games).
I don't think it's so much pessimistic to look at it as 11-14. Yeah, the team may have been holding out Nene in situations where he might have played due to the team being toast for the season anyway. Still, given the Wizards medical staff history, it isn't beyond the realm of reason to assume that Nene might suddenly miss more games as a Wizard than he would for the Nuggets.
More importantly, though, I do think a lot of people tend to take late season winning streaks by teams already out of the playoffs with a grain of salt. Especially last season, teams were tanking like crazy and the Wizards were no exception. Good teams were being extra careful with their stars due to the compressed schedule. Teams that had made the playoffs were just gassed and wanted to rest their players heading into the playoffs. Post-trade analysis is generally a decent way to look at things, but having it overlap with a late season surge of sorts under those circumstances really makes it tough to gauge the nature of the improvement. I remember the Chandler/Curry/Crawford Bulls constantly going on late-season winning streaks to finish with 33 wins on the season only to have everybody predict that they would break out next season as they were suddenly winning. Things are different towards the end of a normal NBA season and those differences were magnified last season.
I think the Wizards are improved more than some of the prognosticators suggest, but Iuntil they show their improvement when it matters and other teams are trying, I think it's pretty safe to put them in the same ballpark as teams like the Raptors, Cavaliers, Pistons, Bucks and maybe the Sixers.
They beat MIL who was playing for a playoff spot. That was legit. And for real in total or not, Im sure the players will use that winning streak as a mental edge going into the season. They have the same coach that lead them on that ride. Thats a good thing. With that you have some idea of how they will be coached, what is expected of them, how the coach will treat them and react to poor play and what the focus will be. Unlike a team that was lead by a Dray late season surge, this team has a legit chance to pick up where they left off.
Wall, Beal, Crawford, Trevor A, Nene, Okafor, Keven with Booker and Ves is not a talentless team. And on a team that should pride themselves on defense, you have to hope Chris Singleton, who was supposed to have been their defensive specialist pick, should be able to help.
Now if they can upgrade the back up PG ( Livingston ), I think they have something capable of being a solid playoff team. They should be able to keep most teams from scoring over 100. Maybe even under 90. They should be able to score in the post, fast break and from the line. We will see how much they improved their outside shooting. They added Beal and Trevor A but lost Mason and J Singleton. But what they did do is upgrade the outside shooting of player who could start for them this year and who will be ready to play all year. The other improved shooting will have to come from existing players getting better which I expect they did. I already saw Ves shooting better from outside. Booker got better last year. Singleton needs to show marked improvement. And there is WALL.
I say this team will have good team chemistry and a coach in Randy that will lead them.
I like their chances for a playoff run.
