GT #63: Bucks @ Wizards 7 PM CSN

GhostsOfGil · Post #61 » by **GhostsOfGil** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:32 am

AFM wrote:Wall's 3 on brandon after the crossover was pure nasty. Go back and look at it. He had Jennings dancing like he was doing the harlem shake

Post #62 » by **nate33** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:47 am

GhostsOfGil wrote:
AFM wrote:Wall's 3 on brandon after the crossover was pure nasty. Go back and look at it. He had Jennings dancing like he was doing the harlem shake

Way to crash that offensive glass, Okafor.
:lol:

Post #63 » by **nate33** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:50 am

SUPERBALLMAN wrote:
Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:Good to see Booker have a breakthrough. He can play and just needs to stay healthy.

Love Booker. Out of all the "?" he is the keeper IMO... Vesely, Singleton, Seraphin, etc... Booker is the most talented and most impactful. He is the ideal PF off the bench for a spark. He just needs to stay healthy. But can he is the question.

Booker has always been my favorite out of the rookie contract guys, but you can't count on him because he is so injury prone. If you keep him, it can only be as a 9th-12th guy at the end of the bench. If you rely on him to be part of your core 8-man rotation, you better have a backup plan.

dangermouse · Post #64 » by **dangermouse** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:59 am

GhostsOfGil wrote:
AFM wrote:Wall's 3 on brandon after the crossover was pure nasty. Go back and look at it. He had Jennings dancing like he was doing the harlem shake

I couldnt control my face after i saw this. I dribbled all over my shirt.

Great game, apart from when we let them back into it. Needed a shot of coffee there.

On a side note im off the "Trade Wall" bandwagon

Post #65 » by **nate33** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:08 am

The magic number is 8. The sum total of our remaining losses and Milwaukee's remaining wins cannot exceed 8 if we are going to make the playoffs.

On a more serious note, our tank is in major jeopardy. We are currently the 3rd worst team, but we are one game away from being the 8th worst team and just 3.5 games behind the 11th worst team.

The Consiglieri · Post #66 » by **The Consiglieri** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:45 am

looking at the remaining schedule, i found 4 or 5 home games where we'd be expected to win, or neutral, and 4 or 5 road games where we had a decent chance of winning. I think the high end final win total is 29 or 30, low end is probably 24-25. We should finish somewhere between 2nd, and 8th overall pre-lottery. Im hoping for top 4 which probably would require only 4 more wins (2 of those 9 possible/likely wins were the past two games). I think we're okay. Only thing im worried about is teams like chicago pulling an april a la '11 and '12 where they rest everybody and we steal an extra win or two which might genuinely screw us. Thing that makes me happy is that i can find 8 or 9 guys that basically fit the solid-good future tag for me in this draft, so i do think we'll be safe, especially since guys we wont draft (Smart, and Mclemore), will go ahead of us if we drop a bit.

Chocolate City Jordanaire · Post #67 » by **Chocolate City Jordanaire** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:27 am

DCZards wrote:
tontoz wrote:Tank worries aside it is definitely nice to see Wall have another strong game. I especially like the way he is using floaters in the lane more often rather than trying to force his way to the rim all the time. Also nice to see him taking 3s. Seeing him cross Jennings and then make a 3 was

Every time Wall made a floater I yelled "yes!" because that's a shot that can help make John a special player if he develops that shot the way that Tony Parker has.

This Wall transformation is just like what Beal did in between December and January, when Beal started hitting shots and making the game look easy after struggling to the point of making some wonder. Wall's crossover/step back three looked like a Kobe/Jordan move. That was a superstar move that you usually only see guys like Pierce, vintage Vince Carter, and among PGs only Westbrook and Paul make.

Wall not only played like a superstar, he acted like one. Wall went off on his own teammates:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/wall-helps ... --nba.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Washington Wizards point guard John Wall and coach Randy Wittman got in each other's faces. Then, after Wittman momentarily walked away, they got in each other's faces again.

''Oh, that's coaching. C'mon,'' Wittman said emphatically. ''I love that.''

As Martell Webster said of Wall, ''He is a competitor, and he feels like he has to be Superman.''

Webster, who scored 20 points, his third straight game with at least 17, noted Wall wasn't Wittman's only target.

''He was screaming at us like a father would to his children,'' Webster said. ''But the message we took was that, 'Hey, listen, we've got to play better. We can't keep doing this to ourselves.'We put our foot down right there,and that's when we decided to get back into the game.''

In five games without Beal, Wall is averaging 19.6 points and 8.0 assists.

''There was an instance tonight where I really saw a glimpse of greatness,'' Webster said.

If not-nice Wall plays like this, I like the mean John Wall! Leaders can't be nice all the time. As a matter of fact, i can't think of too many great leaders who did so without being very authoritative and at times intimidating in one way or another. But the effective leader is going to be one who gets people to raise their level of play.

John Wall was a great leader this game. :clap:

Post #68 » by **Rafael122** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:15 pm

nate33 wrote:The magic number is 8. The sum total of our remaining losses and Milwaukee's remaining wins cannot exceed 8 if we are going to make the playoffs.

On a more serious note, our tank is in major jeopardy. We are currently the 3rd worst team, but we are one game away from being the 8th worst team and just 3.5 games behind the 11th worst team.

Who cares, win as many ball games as you can.

Soup's Uncle · Post #69 » by **Soup's Uncle** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:56 pm

Love that Wall.

DCZards · Post #70 » by **DCZards** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:15 pm

Rafael122 wrote:
Who cares, win as many ball games as you can.

Right on! Losing/tanking sucks!

tontoz · Post #71 » by **tontoz** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:25 pm

DCZards wrote:
Rafael122 wrote:
Who cares, win as many ball games as you can.

Right on! Losing/tanking sucks!

So does mediocrity which is where this team is headed, if it improves. Just look at that Bucks. Do you want to be the team that is always trying to sneak into the playoffs to be first round fodder?

DCZards · Post #72 » by **DCZards** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:36 pm

tontoz wrote:
So does mediocrity which is where this team is headed, if it improves. Just look at that Bucks. Do you want to be the team that is always trying to sneak into the playoffs to be first round fodder?

I just have a hard time with the concept of "wanting" to lose...at anything, at anytime. It's just not in my DNA. As that esteemed poet Sly Stone has written, "different strokes for different folks."

tontoz · Post #73 » by **tontoz** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:58 pm

DCZards wrote:
tontoz wrote:
So does mediocrity which is where this team is headed, if it improves. Just look at that Bucks. Do you want to be the team that is always trying to sneak into the playoffs to be first round fodder?

I just have a hard time with the concept of "wanting" to lose...at anything, at anytime. It's just not in my DNA. As that esteemed poet Sly Stone has written, "different strokes for different folks."

If the Wizards had won more games last year they wouldn't have Beal. Which would you rather have, a few more wins last year or Beal?

Dat2U · Post #74 » by **Dat2U** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:02 pm

tontoz wrote:
DCZards wrote:
tontoz wrote:
So does mediocrity which is where this team is headed, if it improves. Just look at that Bucks. Do you want to be the team that is always trying to sneak into the playoffs to be first round fodder?

I just have a hard time with the concept of "wanting" to lose...at anything, at anytime. It's just not in my DNA. As that esteemed poet Sly Stone has written, "different strokes for different folks."

If the Wizards had won more games last year they wouldn't have Beal. Which would you rather have, a few more wins last year or Beal?

Exactly, who would you rather have? Bradley Beal or a late season feel good run and the rights to Jeremy Lamb?

DCZards · Post #75 » by **DCZards** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:24 pm

tontoz wrote:

If the Wizards had won more games last year they wouldn't have Beal. Which would you rather have, a few more wins last year or Beal?

The Zards could have won more games and still gotten the third pick, right? Heck, they could have won more games and gotten lucky enough to get the first pick.

Sorry, I just prefer to win rather than lose. Losing gives me the creeps.

DCZards · Post #76 » by **DCZards** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:26 pm

Dat2U wrote:Exactly, who would you rather have? Bradley Beal or a late season feel good run and the rights to Jeremy Lamb?

Or, they could have lost more games...gotten the second pick...and taken MKG over Beal, which would have been a mistake, imo.

Post #77 » by **nate33** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:30 pm

DCZards wrote:
Dat2U wrote:Exactly, who would you rather have? Bradley Beal or a late season feel good run and the rights to Jeremy Lamb?

Or, they could have lost more games...gotten the second pick...and taken MKG over Beal, which would have been a mistake, imo.

They would have taken Beal anyhow. It was obvious that his game is the perfect complement to Wall's whereas MKG is exactly the wrong type of player to pair with Wall.

tontoz · Post #78 » by **tontoz** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:30 pm

DCZards wrote:
Dat2U wrote:Exactly, who would you rather have? Bradley Beal or a late season feel good run and the rights to Jeremy Lamb?

Or, they could have lost more games...gotten the second pick...and taken MKG over Beal, which would have been a mistake, imo.

They still would have had the opportunity to pick Beal at 2. If they had won more games they wouldn't have had the opportunity at all.

DCZards · Post #79 » by **DCZards** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:48 pm

nate33 wrote:
They would have taken Beal anyhow. It was obvious that his game is the perfect complement to Wall's whereas MKG is exactly the wrong type of player to pair with Wall.

You're probably right. But if the Zards had picked second, MKG would have been an option and several folks on this board thought he should be our pick. Because the Zards "won" more games than N.O. and ended up picking third, MKG wasn't an option, taking the decision out of EG's hands...and I know you liked that.

My real point is that "tanking" guarantees nothing.

Post #80 » by **Rafael122** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:51 pm

tontoz wrote:
DCZards wrote:
tontoz wrote:
So does mediocrity which is where this team is headed, if it improves. Just look at that Bucks. Do you want to be the team that is always trying to sneak into the playoffs to be first round fodder?

I just have a hard time with the concept of "wanting" to lose...at anything, at anytime. It's just not in my DNA. As that esteemed poet Sly Stone has written, "different strokes for different folks."

If the Wizards had won more games last year they wouldn't have Beal. Which would you rather have, a few more wins last year or Beal?

a) This isn't last year
b) This year is a weak draft class)
c) There's always a chance that the team might move up in the lottery anyway

We haven't won more than 30 games since the 2007-2008 season. That's going on almost 6 years. At least set the benchmark to 30 win season this year. It's progress.