Wiz vs DET Game Thread 2/27/13 7PM - fake dagger game

[miller31time]

The Washington Wizards - Where cursed #1 overall picks happen

[AFM]

Yuck.

To be fair Tontoz, he did have 2 nice passes that became turnovers. One went off Okafor's face.

[miller31time]

Wall's postgame interview transcript, from BulletsForever:

REPORTER: John, another rough night. You've had a couple of them here. Is there anything consistent going through them.

WALL: Nope. Just not making shots. That's all I can say.

REPORTER: Where do you think the source of the turnovers is?

WALL: I don't know. I think you're seeing the same thing I'm seeing, so I can't really call it.

REPORTER: Jose Calderon came up to you after the game. What did he say to you

WALL: Just keep playing. [He told me] I'm a talented player and to just keep playing. Go forward with that.

REPORTER: Are you struggling with health at all? Are you 100 percent?

WALL: No health [problems] at all, just trying to play basketball and do my best to help my team win.

REPORTER: You got off to a bad start with your four turnovers in the first quarter. Was it hard to get on track after that tough start? Was that a part of it?

WALL: That wasn't it at all. They were great passes. It was just, some teammates couldn't catch them and some got tipped away. Just got to deal with it.

REPORTER: Randy [Wittman] was critical of some of the young players' attitudes today. Did you sense any of that?

WALL: Uh, I don't know. I didn't really see it. I just didn't think we played as a team like we usually do. It always happens when we play this team, and that's why we always get ourselves behind.

A couple of takeaways:

Wall isn't hurt. The knee isn't the issue. Rust may be, but he's not playing in pain so let's take that off the list of excuses.

Wall took a shot at his teammates. Whether true or not, a leader doesn't do that. At most, he can say, "we win and lose as a team so everyone bears some responsibility", but you don't say "they were great passes. It was just some teammates couldn't catch them".

Overall, this doesn't look good. You can dismiss undiplomatic comments out of a 20-year-old player in his first season after an emotional loss in a frustrating game, but a 3-year veteran who is supposed to be the face of the franchise needs to have better judgement.

That made me really sad to read. How unfortunate are those comments?

I'm not going to say Wall will never be a good/great player or anything because that's overreaction. But I will say we got the #1 pick (again) on the wrong year.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Wall's postgame interview transcript, from BulletsForever:

REPORTER: John, another rough night. You've had a couple of them here. Is there anything consistent going through them.

WALL: Nope. Just not making shots. That's all I can say.

REPORTER: Where do you think the source of the turnovers is?

WALL: I don't know. I think you're seeing the same thing I'm seeing, so I can't really call it.

REPORTER: Jose Calderon came up to you after the game. What did he say to you

WALL: Just keep playing. [He told me] I'm a talented player and to just keep playing. Go forward with that.

REPORTER: Are you struggling with health at all? Are you 100 percent?

WALL: No health [problems] at all, just trying to play basketball and do my best to help my team win.

REPORTER: You got off to a bad start with your four turnovers in the first quarter. Was it hard to get on track after that tough start? Was that a part of it?

WALL: That wasn't it at all. They were great passes. It was just, some teammates couldn't catch them and some got tipped away. Just got to deal with it.

REPORTER: Randy [Wittman] was critical of some of the young players' attitudes today. Did you sense any of that?

WALL: Uh, I don't know. I didn't really see it. I just didn't think we played as a team like we usually do. It always happens when we play this team, and that's why we always get ourselves behind.

A couple of takeaways:

Wall isn't hurt. The knee isn't the issue. Rust may be, but he's not playing in pain so let's take that off the list of excuses.

Wall took a shot at his teammates. Whether true or not, a leader doesn't do that. At most, he can say, "we win and lose as a team so everyone bears some responsibility", but you don't say "they were great passes. It was just some teammates couldn't catch them".

Overall, this doesn't look good. You can dismiss undiplomatic comments out of a 20-year-old player in his first season after an emotional loss in a frustrating game, but a 3-year veteran who is supposed to be the face of the franchise needs to have better judgement.

+1

Nobody who has 1 assist and 7 turnovers says that unless he is 100% full of himself.

Now I'm convinced.

[Ruzious]

WALL: That wasn't it at all. They were great passes. It was just, some teammates couldn't catch them and some got tipped away. Just got to deal with it.

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Yeah, I cringed reading that. A very unfortunate comment from JWall.

[sfam]

How did Wall feel about Jordan Crawford? How does Wall feel with Beal suddenly succeeding and improving? Who crowds around Wall's locker after Wizard games now? Wall had to learn about what David Falk said and Mike Lee quoted verbatim. That was much more crushing than what SVG said a while back.

The real problem with Wall is I don't see how he figures it out and improves. He is what he is.

Everybody goes through hard times. The question is how Wall responds. Does he sulk and never improve or does this light a fire in him to do whatever needs to be done to get better? I'm not ready to write the guy off yet.

[AFM]

I don't really think he's full of himself. He seems humble and soft spoken in most interviews. I think he's just really hard on himself and is trying to externalize it. I do it sometimes when I'm on the court.
Remember, he legit thought he was going to be an all star this year. And everything is going wrong. You can see his confidence is shaken by his body language.
He still shouldn't have said that, but I think it was more out of frustration than arrogance.

[montestewart]

If you make a great pass in the forest, and no one is around to catch it, do you get an assist?

[AFM]

Depends. If you do the same behind the back move on every fast break, does the defense eventually adapt?

[montestewart]

I don't really think he's full of himself. He seems humble and soft spoken in most interviews. I think he's just really hard on himself and is trying to externalize it. I do it sometimes when I'm on the court.
Remember, he legit thought he was going to be an all star this year. And everything is going wrong. You can see his confidence is shaken by his body language.
He still shouldn't have said that, but I think it was more out of frustration than arrogance.

That and he's not too articulate, Poor choice of words, but I'm not so sure that was his intended message.

[AFM]

If your only move consists of a hesitation look the other way cross over, will you ever develop a handle?

[truwizfan4evr]

Wall ruin his image with that comment i just think it was the heat of the moment. I hate to talk bad about wall i really want to see him do well but his turnover is getting out of control. Wall has no one else to blame but him self he just made a lot of careless plays and he needs to man up to them mistakes.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I don't really think he's full of himself. He seems humble and soft spoken in most interviews. I think he's just really hard on himself and is trying to externalize it. I do it sometimes when I'm on the court.
Remember, he legit thought he was going to be an all star this year. And everything is going wrong. You can see his confidence is shaken by his body language.
He still shouldn't have said that, but I think it was more out of frustration than arrogance.

That and he's not too articulate, Poor choice of words, but I'm not so sure that was his intended message.

He deflected blame. Dude did a Flip Saunders. John should have known he sucked and should have manned up to at least admit he had a bad night.

If I were his teammate he would want me off the team after tonight because I would flat out tell him he needs to take ownership. He sucked. He better not say they were good passes. He played like crap and he's a HUGE REASON THEY LOSE TO DETROIT.

I don't think he's hard on himself. I think he lacks insight and he is not the sharpest guy. Wall just said he thought they didn't play as a team. Say what? So, this is on Seraphin? Ariza? Who, John Wall? Beal?

That guy is NOT a leader.

[SizzlinSimms]

Why didn't Beal just attempt the layup?

That had two players waiting to take the charge. That closed it down.

Yeah I finally saw the replay due to it being uploaded on youtube cause of the announcer ha. He made the right choice two guys closed, the third was trailing behind.

[SizzlinSimms]

If your only move consists of a hesitation look the other way cross over, will you ever develop a handle?

Yeah I've noticed this too. It's almost as bad as Seraphin's hook shots. I don't see why Wall always does that hesitation, I would assume most defenders would know he's not going to pull up. Why not just blow by them? Wall still has the quickness and speed to beat most defenders on the first step.

[sfam]

I don't really think he's full of himself. He seems humble and soft spoken in most interviews. I think he's just really hard on himself and is trying to externalize it. I do it sometimes when I'm on the court.
Remember, he legit thought he was going to be an all star this year. And everything is going wrong. You can see his confidence is shaken by his body language.
He still shouldn't have said that, but I think it was more out of frustration than arrogance.

That's just it. We can keep saying "3rd year pro" but that actually translates to "Senior in College". Lots of college kids say stupid things, and lots of young folks who are embarrassed say rotten things when in the spotlight. I think its easy to make too much out of this. Bottom line, this is the pick we've been dealt. This is way too early to flush the toilet on the guy. 22 years old is hardly the end of the road in terms of learning.

Wall is clearly losing confidence. But again, I just don't see how we're certain this is a long term thing.

[DCZards]

Everybody goes through hard times. The question is how Wall responds. Does he sulk and never improve or does this light a fire in him to do whatever needs to be done to get better? I'm not ready to write the guy off yet.

+1000

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Ready to write him off?



All I need is the pen to go along with this monogrammed stationery ….



(You guys do know I will climb on the bandwagon if Wall does well. If he has 7 good games for every three huge disappointments that still gets it done, despite the inconsistency.)

[montestewart]

^
Wait, your initials aren't CCJ?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

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