pancakes3 wrote:dckingsfan wrote:All have to be aligned to be successful - IMO. And clearly there have been multiple factors in play for the Wizards to fail so badly at drafting and developing young talent - it is clearly a systemic problem.
Nothing in the world is 100% but I think it's safe to say that at the professional level it's largely on the players to improve. In fact, barring something medical, I can't even think of a feasible scenario where management would be more at fault than a player not improving. How would management go about that? They would have to actively sabotage a player's improvements. Effusively praise Ves's play and make sure he practices only pull up 2's from just inside the arc. Worse yet, just tying Ves down and refusing Vesely the opportunity to practice.
Seriously though, what are you all envisioning? That our player development program is just a bunch of old stocky guys in grey sweatsuits sitting on their hands doing nothing? A rusted weightroom with leaky roofs and deflated basketballs strewn about a rickety court with bent double rims and no nets? Even if that was the case, how does that preclude the players from improving on their own? Do they just shine like a freakin diamond during practice only to sit on the bench game after game, and just shrug? Hey, the player development guy didn't tell me I had to improve my game so I guess that can't be the problem. Coach Witt just has it out for me.
The only reason people think it's a systemic problem is the heavy, heavy, heavy confirmation bias going on and the lack of an obvious cause.
Confirmation bias dating back to Jarvis Hayes, Ared Effries, Party John Ramos, and Kwame and dating to now with Mcgee, Young, Blatche, Ves, Singleton, and Seraphin. It seems improbable that these guys ALL happen to be lazy/untalented. Well... improbable but not impossible. What blows the "we can't develop players" myth to bits is that players HAVE improved. John Wall. Bradley Beal. Martel Webster. I guess they were the lucky ones that our incompetent player management decided to support at the expense of everyone else?
Thats more along the lines of what I was pointing out.
Its lots of things. Its picking good individual physical talent to start with. Its also team fit. You need some chiefs and you need some worker Bees. Its also the HC, systems, etc. Its also losing breads losing. That just basic mental programing and team building stuff.
Then you have your exceptional people. The ones that can over come all the negative around them and still succeed instead of allowing the environment to pull them down. Those are more rare. The real leaders. The ones that can bring the most not only out of themselves, but the most out of others. Duncan is this type. Zen Master and Joe Gibbs also. Darrel Green was that type. They focus on whats ahead and future success and they can convince others it is reachable. And they know how to connect to people at their level to help bring them there. They also now how to pick people that fit with in their system and goals.
People the right people is very important. But its not just because of physical talents. Its as important that they have the mental disposition to succeed and over come hard challenges .
Personally, I think Randy is pretty good at doing this as well. To judge Ves, Kevin and Singleton as failures right now I think is to soon. By team choice, the decided to do what was right for Wall and Beal which was to put vets around them. Wall over came a couple years on pure will power, but he needed help. That was at the cost of Ves, Kevin and Singleton. CCJ pointed this out lots of times. In the short term, the effect on those three would clearly be negative. That was the cost of helping creative a better environment for Wall and Beal who were higher priorities for the organization The net result on them was a huge positive. And since they are the core of the future of this franchise, it was a huge net positive for the franchise.
They made the right choice.
Now they have a developing young stars, some mid age vets, and some older vets. Now you can go back and see if you can bring players like Ves, Kevin and Singleton to the party. Will any of these three make it while on this team? Maybe not. They may do better with a fresh start some place else. But I'm not writing any of them off just yet. Not while they are still here.
But for players like Otto, Glen Rice and Maynor. They are coming into a much better situation then any that Wall, Beal, Ves, Singleton or Kevin came to. And that better situation will make it tons easier for them to develop more quickly and in the right ways.
Before this new group, Beal came into the better situation then Wall did. Both great talents. Beal developed faster. I think there is a connection here. I would expect Otto has a similar or better development curve then even Beal had.
Things are getting better. As for team design, Otto seems like a good fit to go with Wall and Beals talents and personalities. And he is someone Randy really likes. As for team design. I think they are doing a much better job now.
In time, people will let go of the past, and see more of what is going on correctly right now. Then more will look to the future with more positive outlook. Its already happening.
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