GT: 2/11 Wizards @ Bucks 8PM CSN......

[DCZards]

If one of wall, nene, or beal are out the team is 5-32. The wiz are enjoysble to watch when healthy and play great defense, which is refreshing,but this is a flawed team that needs everything working perfectly just to be slightly above average.

You can say the same thing about most NBA teams.

[closg00]

If one of wall, nene, or beal are out the team is 5-32. The wiz are enjoysble to watch when healthy and play great defense, which is refreshing,but this is a flawed team that needs everything working perfectly just to be slightly above average.

You can say the same thing about most NBA teams.

Ahhh NO.

*Chicago has won 30 games w/o Rose
*The Celts actually went on a 7-0 tear w/o Rondo until Barbossa went down injured last night.
*The Lakers are hanging around after having Nash out for an extended period and Dwight out also.
*Tim Duncan is out,( our 6th pick Kawhi Leonard lead SA to victory dropping 26 )

No Wall, No Wins.

[fishercob]

. the only real conclusion we can draw is how little depth this team has. If one of wall, nene, or beal are out the team is 5-32.

Yeah there is no margin for error with injuries. It isn't like the regular rotation guys are stars it is just that they have no replacements.

Sure. It also speaks to the fact that building a roster isn't JUST an exercise in collecting talent. Rather, the pieces have to fit together.

Take Steph Curry. He's a wonderful player. But you would never want to put 5 of him on the court together, right? You'd never stop anyone, you'd never get a rebound, you couldn't free any of your Curry clones with effective screens, etc.

Having players that do certain things will allows other players to focus on what they do well. It relates to Nivek's point of the importance of having players who play both ends of the floor -- after all, this isn't football were you get a break to put your defenders in. So with Nene creating, Okafor is freer to defend and rebound and pick his spots properly on offense. We all saw how lost he was at the start of the season without Nene and how ineffective he was trying to play outside his offensive limitations. Similarly with Ariza -- he's not finding himself with the ball in his hands late in the shot clock (unless he's set up for an open 3) close to as much, and he's not launching long fadeaway 2's with no shot of going in.

So yeah, this roster isn't deep with two-way talent. But I think we are seeing that all of the pieces fit together at least decently. Coach Wittman, to his credit, is playing the guys who are productive (and perhaps in the process shining a little light for ownership on how ineffective the bulk of the "young talent" EG acquired over the past few years is -- Seraphin and SIngleton had 15 minutes a piece last night and Steezus, Veseley and Booker got DNP's).

[tontoz]

If one of wall, nene, or beal are out the team is 5-32. The wiz are enjoysble to watch when healthy and play great defense, which is refreshing,but this is a flawed team that needs everything working perfectly just to be slightly above average.

You can say the same thing about most NBA teams.

No you can't. Most teams struggle without their best players but they dont' lose 84% of their games without them. There has only been one game all year when all 3 were out.

[bgroban]

Looks like Drummond is dealing with a bad back and will probably be out on Wednesday.

Good news for the Wiz.

[Ruzious]

Looks like Drummond is dealing with a bad back and will probably be out on Wednesday.

Good news for the Wiz.

Not only that - after the Prince trade, Detroit's starting forwards are Kyle Singler and Jason Maxiel. I've seen better forwards on sale at K-Mart.

[fishercob]

Looks like Drummond is dealing with a bad back and will probably be out on Wednesday.

Good news for the Wiz.

Not only that - after the Prince trade, Detroit's starting forwards are Kyle Singler and Jason Maxiel. I've seen better forwards on sale at K-Mart.

Greg Monroe is a beast. Villanueva has been red hot from three over the past couple games. Calderon is having a great year and has been fabulous with the Pistons so far. The Wiz are 20 games under .500 and have no right to be at all dismissive of anyone. Must show up and play well.

[nate33]

Sure. It also speaks to the fact that building a roster isn't JUST an exercise in collecting talent. Rather, the pieces have to fit together.

Take Steph Curry. He's a wonderful player. But you would never want to put 5 of him on the court together, right? You'd never stop anyone, you'd never get a rebound, you couldn't free any of your Curry clones with effective screens, etc.

Having players that do certain things will allows other players to focus on what they do well. It relates to Nivek's point of the importance of having players who play both ends of the floor -- after all, this isn't football were you get a break to put your defenders in. So with Nene creating, Okafor is freer to defend and rebound and pick his spots properly on offense. We all saw how lost he was at the start of the season without Nene and how ineffective he was trying to play outside his offensive limitations. Similarly with Ariza -- he's not finding himself with the ball in his hands late in the shot clock (unless he's set up for an open 3) close to as much, and he's not launching long fadeaway 2's with no shot of going in.

So yeah, this roster isn't deep with two-way talent. But I think we are seeing that all of the pieces fit together at least decently. Coach Wittman, to his credit, is playing the guys who are productive (and perhaps in the process shining a little light for ownership on how ineffective the bulk of the "young talent" EG acquired over the past few years is -- Seraphin and SIngleton had 15 minutes a piece last night and Steezus, Veseley and Booker got DNP's).

Good points here. Our problem is that everyone's role changes so dramatically when Wall isn't on the floor.

I think one of our biggest needs is an Isiah Thomas-like backup PG - one of those ultraquick, undersized guys that can make things happen at the offensive end, even if their lack of stature makes them a defensive liability. That way, the offense can essentially be run the same way with Wall out. The defense might suffer a bit, but we will be playing against backups so it should even out.

Hopefully, a guy like that will be available with our high 2nd round pick, or maybe we combine our 2nd rounders to move up to late in the 1st and get that PG.

[DCZards]

If one of wall, nene, or beal are out the team is 5-32. The wiz are enjoysble to watch when healthy and play great defense, which is refreshing,but this is a flawed team that needs everything working perfectly just to be slightly above average.

You can say the same thing about most NBA teams.

Ahhh NO.

*Chicago has won 30 games w/o Rose
*The Celts actually went on a 7-0 tear w/o Rondo until Barbossa went down injured last night.
*The Lakers are hanging around after having Nash out for an extended period and Dwight out also.
*Tim Duncan is out,( our 6th pick Kawhi Leonard lead SA to victory dropping 26 )

No Wall, No Wins.

You just named four of the best teams in the NBA--all of which have had tremendous continuity. And, in the case of the Celts, Lakers and Spurs, you named teams with probably at least 2 surefire NBA Hall of Famers.

I didn't say ALL teams would struggle without their best players.

BTW, how did the Clips do when Chris Paul was injured?

[tontoz]

BTW, how did the Clips do when Chris Paul was injured?

.500

They beat Memphis, Houston, Portland and lost by only 2 to Boston.


http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... chris-paul

[DCZards]

BTW, how did the Clips do when Chris Paul was injured?

.500

They beat Memphis, Houston, Portland and lost by only 2 to Boston.


http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... chris-paul

Yup, .500 ball after winning something like 20 straight with Paul in the lineup. I'd call that a dropoff. And didn't they just lose like 4-5 straight with Paul (Wall) and Griffin (Nene) out.

[Upper Decker]

The 76ers have been without Bynum all season and are still in contention for the playoffs. Curry has missed several games and bogut has missed almost all season and they're doing very well in the west. Dallas has been without Dirk nearly all year while relying on oj freakin mayo and a pair of 35 y.o. carter and marion to lead them and they're still within striking distance. Even the hornets and cavs have better records and they've been without gordon, Davis, irving, and varajeo for long stretched. Nearly all those players referenced are all stars and better than wall, Beal, or nene. Yet their teams are still performing better than the wizards.

Washington has no excuses for being historically bad when just one of their key guys is out for any period of time.

[TGW]

BTW, how did the Clips do when Chris Paul was injured?

.500

They beat Memphis, Houston, Portland and lost by only 2 to Boston.


http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... chris-paul

Yup, .500 ball after winning something like 20 straight with Paul in the lineup. I'd call that a dropoff. And didn't they just lose like 4-5 straight with Paul (Wall) and Griffin (Nene) out.

[tontoz]

Yup, .500 ball after winning something like 20 straight with Paul in the lineup. I'd call that a dropoff. And didn't they just lose like 4-5 straight with Paul (Wall) and Griffin (Nene) out.

First of all the Clips had lost 4 games in January where Paul played 30+ minutes before he went out hurt.

Secondly that is a droppoff but it isn't a train wreck. And Paul is arguably the best pg in the game. Nene and Wall are not All-Stars.

The Clippers were able to tread water without Paul because they had a capable backup that they picked up as an undrafted free agent. That is exactly the type of pickup EG has failed to make. he has gotten nothing out of all the high 2nd round picks and none of his first round picks outside the top 3 have made meaningful contributions.

[closg00]

The Lakers, Celts, and Bulls are not currently amongst the top teams, they were previously, but not currently. I'll give the Spurs though. In any case, your original point about most teams needing everything working perfectly to be average does not hold-up factually.

[fishercob]

Sure. It also speaks to the fact that building a roster isn't JUST an exercise in collecting talent. Rather, the pieces have to fit together.

Take Steph Curry. He's a wonderful player. But you would never want to put 5 of him on the court together, right? You'd never stop anyone, you'd never get a rebound, you couldn't free any of your Curry clones with effective screens, etc.

Having players that do certain things will allows other players to focus on what they do well. It relates to Nivek's point of the importance of having players who play both ends of the floor -- after all, this isn't football were you get a break to put your defenders in. So with Nene creating, Okafor is freer to defend and rebound and pick his spots properly on offense. We all saw how lost he was at the start of the season without Nene and how ineffective he was trying to play outside his offensive limitations. Similarly with Ariza -- he's not finding himself with the ball in his hands late in the shot clock (unless he's set up for an open 3) close to as much, and he's not launching long fadeaway 2's with no shot of going in.

So yeah, this roster isn't deep with two-way talent. But I think we are seeing that all of the pieces fit together at least decently. Coach Wittman, to his credit, is playing the guys who are productive (and perhaps in the process shining a little light for ownership on how ineffective the bulk of the "young talent" EG acquired over the past few years is -- Seraphin and SIngleton had 15 minutes a piece last night and Steezus, Veseley and Booker got DNP's).

Good points here. Our problem is that everyone's role changes so dramatically when Wall isn't on the floor.

I think one of our biggest needs is an Isiah Thomas-like backup PG - one of those ultraquick, undersized guys that can make things happen at the offensive end, even if their lack of stature makes them a defensive liability. That way, the offense can essentially be run the same way with Wall out. The defense might suffer a bit, but we will be playing against backups so it should even out.

Hopefully, a guy like that will be available with our high 2nd round pick, or maybe we combine our 2nd rounders to move up to late in the 1st and get that PG.

I'm torn. It's certainly less of a need than it is that Wall stay healthy. Is Thomas that much of an improvement over 12-15 mpg of Price? I don't know -- particularly since I expect Beal to be able to contribute more as a playmaker as his game grows. I have no qualms over upgrading Price, I just want to be sure that we really do if we're expending resources on it so if you know what I mean. We need more good players, and it would be nice if we could trade some of our bads ones for them, too

[TGW]

The 76ers have been without Bynum all season and are still in contention for the playoffs. Curry has missed several games and bogut has missed almost all season and they're doing very well in the west. Dallas has been without Dirk nearly all year while relying on oj freakin mayo and a pair of 35 y.o. carter and marion to lead them and they're still within striking distance. Even the hornets and cavs have better records and they've been without gordon, Davis, irving, and varajeo for long stretched. Nearly all those players referenced are all stars and better than wall, Beal, or nene. Yet their teams are still performing better than the wizards.

Washington has no excuses for being historically bad when just one of their key guys is out for any period of time.

Thank you. If every team in the league said "screw it, our record only applies when we're fully healthy," you'd have 25 playoff teams. Some teams are built to withstand injuries because of the organization around them, and some teams are not. I have no doubt in my mind that the Spurs without Timmy and Parker, or a team without Durant and Westbrook would fare better than 3-22 or whatever pathetic record the Wizards had with Wall and Nene out. And you have Chicago without Rose, Indiana without Granger, Philly without Bynum, and the list goes on...That's why I think it's silly to just take a snapshot of the season when they're healthy, and say "this is our team." No, it doesn't work that way...good teams deal with adversity and don't use excuses, bad teams crumble when their faced with it. This team is doing better in that sense, but by no means are they there yet.

[nate33]

Bradley Beal highlights:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO_KMQzZgbs[/youtube]

Nice to see Seraphin set a bone-crunching pick at the 0:39 mark.

[tontoz]

Good point about Seraphin. They were dogging him about setting a couple of illegal screens in the first half but i welcomed that. He had been slipping screens all season.

He also had 6 rebounds in only 15 minutes. Probably just a glitch in the Matrix but it could be that maybe he is getting a clue.

[doclinkin]

Nice to see Seraphin set a bone-crunching pick at the 0:39 mark.

You mean nice to see Seraphin's bone crunching offensive foul moving pick at the .39 mark. Dude needs to learn to set his feet. He'd be a really nasty weapon if he used his size appropriately. Usually he's already into the 'roll' before his guard has finished rounding the corner on his pick.