Post#218 » by dandridge 10 » Sun Nov 4, 2012 3:22 am
Was at the game tonight as usual. As I predicted, we lost a close one, but I was proud of how the guys (mostly the second unit fought). The biggest bright spot was Seraphin. Its good to see that he is still playing with confidence.
As others have mentioned, the starting five has to be changed. You just can't put out 4 non-scorers and a 19 year old rookie. Honestly, with the first two games, I think Witt has put Beal in a position that he can't succeed. Without another scoring option out on the floor, Beal is just not going to get open looks, especially when he is playing against opposing starters. At the very least, if Wittman is going to keep Beal in the starting lineup, he needs to add Seraphin and/or Webster in the starting line-up to take some pressure of Beal offensively.
With that said, Beal is also playing too tentative out there. He passed up a lot of open shots. Kid needs to get some more confidence. For that reason, I would start bringing him off the bench where he is not matched up against a starter. Personally, I would start:
Price
Crawford
Webster
Okafor
Seraphin
Bring in Pargo, Beal, Booker, Vesely, Singleton, and Martin in at different times during the game, instead of making wholesale substitutions with the starting five. Witt should always try to have at least 2-3 guys on the court that can score. Sit Ariza permanently until he can earn time back. No way should Ariza be starting over Martell, let alone playing more minutes than Singleton.
Although I did not like the Okafor and Ariza trade, I was willing to keep an open mind and give it a shot. Its still early, but if Okafor and Ariza continue playing like they have this will go down as one of the worst trades in Wizards history and should at least be the final straw to send Ernie Grunfeld packing. On a positive note, however, I liked that Witt did not play these guys in the 4th quarter though. Witt needs to make a change to the starting five, but at least he is, for the most part, rewarding playing time to those that are playing the best.
Finally, two things made me pissed off about the "game experience" tonight. First, why the heck did the arena play bagpipe music during the Celtics introductions. When did a home arena start catering to an opposing team? If anything, no music should have been played or some other music should have been played to drown out the Celtics fans. Second, it was embarrassing how loud the Celtic fan's "Let's go Celtics" chants were tonight and there was little reaction by the Wizards fans. Some fans booed but there was no counter, and louder "Let's Go Wizards" chants. I tried to start one up in my section and most people just sat there quiet. Embarrassing.
Anyway, overall there were some promising signs, particularly with our younger players. Too bad the vets that we brought in to teach the youngins something so far look like complete garbage.
