fishercob wrote:I don't understand the controversy over the obvious statement that Irving is better than Wall. Irving is phenomenal. His game reminds me more of a prime Gilbert Arenas than of anyone I have seen since. I don't begrudge the Wizards for having the opportunity to draft Wall and not Kyrie, nor did many see Kyrie's dominance coming due to his injury-shortened lone college season.
Back to the game, a few more thoughts before moving on:
The Cavs are horrific after Irving and Varajeo (for now; they are well positioned to add talent). I hope we're healthy on 12/26 and blow them out.
Alonzo Gee is a phenomenal on-ball defender.
Terrible game by Booker. He cannot allow us to get bullied and outhustled on the boards. I don't care about his jumper or his up an under. If he can't rebound, particularly defensively, he's of marginal use.
Vesely looked better. He looks more comfortable at the 5. But he's still so weak that he has the ball stripped to easily and can't finish in any kind of traffic. I'm not sure if he can get strong enough to mitigate this issues, at least not without losing his quickness.
Agree with CCJ on the late-game subs being to our significant detriment (particularly Price over Pargo). I will cut Randy some slack. He's still getting to know these guys and trying to settle on a rotation. Price had won the job and the right to his minutes and Pargo had shown very little. The swap hurt us late, but I understand it.
Lastly, I have no problem with trading Javale McGee. Zero. I think it's nearly addition by subtraction. But if Nene's foot issues linger for months or, perish the thought, years, then the trade will be yet another abject Grunfail. I know he's a very good player. But he's got to play. I am hoping this he's back in a couple of weeks and it's the last we hear of it. But, as a Wizards fan, I obviously have a horrendous feeling about the situation.
Onward.
I agree on cutting the coach some slack. I believe he did a very good job getting everyone involved. My favorite coaches are the ones who are not afraid to try different combinations and who play a deep bench. To his credit, Randy Wittman stuck with the reserves for a very long stretch. Earl Barron played very, very well and Randy deservedly left him on the court. (
I wonder whether Randy could have played Barron at the end with Okafor?) Wittman did at least not play any favorites per se.
Surprisingly, Beal was a bit of a goat at the end. Coach Wittman couldn't have seen that coming. Price had won the starting spot as you said, fish. I questioned Ariza back in for Webster, but Ariza had played a pretty strong game. The thing I hope to see if they both have it going is Webster at SG.
This particular game Crawford was 4-13 FG and Price 2-13 FG. Not to knock coach Wittman at all, but I think Webster at SG would worked out better with Pargo. Just one game and I'm not mad. But it was very winnable.
