Game Thread #2 Wiz vs Philly Home Opener Nov 1, 7PM

[Spence]

you can't have good rotations, when all your bench players are horrible.

And that's a roster problem.

[montestewart]

lost because we have no half court offense.

76ers scored 109 points tonight and 74 of them came in the paint. I think that probably had something to do with the loss.

After the game, they showed a Sixers in the paint sequence that really drove home how porous the the defense was at times, from the perimeter inward, frequently allowing virtually unchallenged ball movement to within a few feet.

[GhostsOfGil]

Woooo glad I missed this one fellas!

[cdouglas]

The team needs to regroup and prepare themselves for the next game. Can anyone visualize Wall's best game tonight along with Ariza's best on Thursday and Beal's during the preason coming together in Miami? Hopefull this is what we will get in Miami. A win could really motivate this team.

[hands11]

Have the Wizards ever had a coach that didn't have horrible player rotations, according to this forum?

I'm not trying to troll, that's a serious question.

Coach is hired. RealGM forum complains about his player rotations. Says coach sucks.

Team loses. Coach is fired.

New coach hired. RealGM forum complains about his player rotations. Says coach sucks.

Team loses. Coach is fired.

New new coach is hired...

Kinda odd that something that seems so easy and obvious to RealGM forum members seems to escape one lifelong basketball coach after another.

Or maybe the roster is inferior, the talent isn't there and this rotation or that rotation or any rotation isn't going to fix a bad roster.

Actually, read the Randy thread. He got better at it in time last year.

[dandridge 10]

Just got back from the game and read some of the post in this thread. Couple of thoughts:

1. Yes, Beal was really bad tonight, but the Wizards should have still won despite his poor play.

2. Wittman was spot on in his post game remarks. This team jumped on the Sixers early and thought they could coast the rest of the game. The second half was particularly bad. They came out flat without any energy in the 3rd quarter. Halfway through the quarter I predicted to my wife that the Wizards were going to lose the game because they were allowing the Sixers just to hang around and "I've seen this movie before." I was right. The fact of the matter is that the Wizards MO for the last few years has been to play up to the good teams and play down to the bad teams. They did it once again.

3. I am not going to put all the blame on Wall for this game, but if he wants to become a great player he needs to become a better leader. Although he came out blazing and chest pumping at the start of the game, his intensity significantly dropped off in the second half and so did the intensity of his team. I never once saw him trying to light a fire under his teammates in the second half or give them encouragement to play harder. If any thing, as things started going bad, I began seeing him hang his head, look at others in disgust, or just try to do it by himself. Moreover, Wittman was right. In the first quarter, Wall was really pressuring Williams as soon as he crossed mid=court and caused a lot of turnovers. However, in the second half, Wall was picking Williams up at the free throw line. His defensive intensity clearly was lacking in the second half.

4. Regarding Wittman, I agree with another poster that if players are not giving the intensity that they need, he needs to pull them out. Instead, he simply shook his head and leaned back in his chair in disgust. I love how frank and honest Wittman is, but if he is seeing that players are coasting and not playing with the intensity they need, he needs to pull them out, even if it means putting less talented players in. He needs to send a message early to the players that he is not going to tolerate them coasting when playing bad teams, otherwise this constant cycle of playing down to bad teams will continue.

5. I don't have a problem with Wittman sitting Wall when he did, EVEN if Wall wasn't hurt or didn't ask to come out. He had to give Wall a break sometime and we were up by 12-13 points when he pulled him. Wall is a professional. He could have come back in with the same intensity as he started out with, but chose not to. I hardly think that Wittman pulling John out for a rest when he did is the reason the Wiz lost the game.

6. I do think some of our defensive woes when Gortat is in the game is due to him not fully understanding the schemes yet. There were many times that I saw confusion on the faces of Gortat, Booker and even Ariza on where they are supposed to be.

7. Regarding Nene, I think we are starting to see why Denver was reportedly so frustrated with him. I don't think he is fakes injuries. However, I do think he is somewhat of a prima donna and a wuss when it comes to playing with injuries. I have no doubt that he is going to be in and out of the line-up all season long. Unfortunately, all we really have behind him are some energy players that probably would get no more than 5-10 minutes on any other team and one aging vet, who lots older by the game.

Bottom line....The Wizards could have blown out the Sixers if they just continued to play with the passion and intensity they had in the first quarter. However, after jumping on them early, they relaxed and let the Sixers hang around. Then, when the game was close at the end, they basically folded under pressure.

[Hypnotizer]

It's a pretty much guaranteed 0-3 start too with us playing in Miami next game and Miami having lost their last 2 games. I see us getting blown out in that one.

We can't beat DET, we can't beat 76ers. Can we beat Pelicans at least?

[dandridge 10]

I'm a little surprised everyone seems so surprised by these results. I just never saw how this was a good team. Maybe they'll make the playoffs, maybe they won't. But if they do, it's not likely to be because they're a good team. They're not. Right now they're not even close. They may improve over the course of the season -- they probably will -- but I just never understood the optimism around this team. It's going to get very ugly if things go badly this season.

Did anyone else notice the Wiz could get only 17K and change into their gym tonight? That's the home opener. And whatever was left with 3 minutes left was booing pretty consistently -- and correctly so. Despite all the ridiculous hype I think it's clear a lot of fans are not convinced. Nor should they be. Wizards fans suffer from PTSD. I'm amazed anyone is capable of optimism when it comes to this franchise. One day they'll be good. Maybe soon. But it seems crazy to me to anticipate something that is almost completely unprecedented at this point.

No matter how I turn that roster over in my head I can't see a good team.

I see a starting five that can be a good, but not great, team. Unfortunately, when the reserves come in, I see a bunch of guys that could easily be playing in the D-league.

[popper]

At least in the past I could always look forward to the inevitable tank and chance at a high pick. Not this year. EG simply has no idea how to grade talent and build a roster. TL has made an expensive mistake by hanging on to him for this long. Sigh - another rebuild I'm afraid.

I wish someone would tell Wall to forego first quarter celebrations and trash talk and save it for a post game win. He looks silly doing it when there is three quarters of a game left to play.

[pancakes3]

Just got back from the game and read some of the post in this thread. Couple of thoughts:

:: many great points::

I think we armchair GM's get easily swept up in the details and miss the big picture flaws in favor of our pet theories. I think Dandridge's point about intensity is well taken. Sometimes that's all it really is - mental lapses. I also think the lack of a playmaker on the 2nd unit forcing us to rely on Harrington (basically an older Blatche) will cost us many games this year. However, I'll reserve judgement until Gortat has a couple weeks under his belt and we get Porter back. We're better than our record. It'll just take a couple growing-pain games to get there. The problem is that with a "max" player like Wall we shouldn't be having growing pain games. He certainly hasn't taken "the leap" like Westbrook and Rose had.

[dandridge 10]

Have the Wizards ever had a coach that didn't have horrible player rotations, according to this forum?

I'm not trying to troll, that's a serious question.

Coach is hired. RealGM forum complains about his player rotations. Says coach sucks.

Team loses. Coach is fired.

New coach hired. RealGM forum complains about his player rotations. Says coach sucks.

Team loses. Coach is fired.

New new coach is hired...

Kinda odd that something that seems so easy and obvious to RealGM forum members seems to escape one lifelong basketball coach after another.

Or maybe the roster is inferior, the talent isn't there and this rotation or that rotation or any rotation isn't going to fix a bad roster.

Spence, the grass is always greener on the other side. If the Wizards lose, many posters will just blame it on the coach not playing the right mix of players. I mean come on, isn't it just plain as day that Vesely the superstar could have saved this game or even the rookie Rice. If Wittman would have played them, we certainly would have won! All kidding aside, the only criticism I have of Wittman is that he criticized the team for coasting after the game (which was valid) but didn't do anything during the game to try to correct that, like taking someone like Wall out of the game for not playing with the same defensive intensity that he did in the first half or giving the team a tongue lashing during a timeout.

[hands11]

D10

I agree with most of what you are saying.

But I would highlight the following.

The lead and burst in the 1st was all Wall. Other than him, the offense sucked. Booker got creamed by Thaddeus Young and he was not what the Wizards needed to help the offense get going. He made a few nice post moves but if he was the kind focus to get the offense started, teams would shut it down. He tried to be a key offensive player to start last year and it was awful. He is what he is, I nice utility piece but nothing Randy should get stuck on.

So going into the 2nd, I expected they would struggle unless Wall could keep it going and Beal started to normalize.

First time I saw what looked like an offense is when they went to

Maynor, Webster, Trevor A, AH, and Kevin and they took a nice lead.

Then Randy changed the line up. Not sure to what, but they lost the lead soon after.

[dandridge 10]

D10

I agree with most of what you are saying.

But I would highlight the following.

The lead and burst in the 1st was all Wall. Other then him, the offense sucked. Booker got creamed by Thaddeus Young and he was not what the Wizards needed to help the offense get going. He made a few nice post moves if he did that for two games, teams would shut it down. He tried to be a key offensive player to start last year and it was awful.

So going into the 2nd, I expected they would struggle unless Wall could keep it going and Beal started to normalize.

First time I saw what looked like an offense is when they went to

Maynor, Webster, Trevor A, AH, and Kevin and they took a nice lead.

Then Randy changed the line up. Not sure to what, but they lost the lead soon after.

I don't know Hands. AH and Kevin did a few nice things, but they also did a bunch of sucky things too. AH looked old and slow out there. Although Kevin had a few nice scoring plays, he also had a lay-up blocked which should have been a dunk, had a bad defensive 3 second call, and did not box anyone out on some rebounds that the Sixers got put-backs on. I don't think that they were playing that particularly well.

In any event, although I don't think our offense was particularly good this game, I don't think it is what lost this game. I think what lost this game was the lack of defensive intensity and focus in the second half and the fact that the Wizards players lost their composure at the end when it was becoming apparent that they might lose their home opener to one of the worst teams in the NBA.

[cdouglas]

Looks like Saunders might have a good team in Minny, they beat OKC 100-81 and they're 2-0. Good thing that Rubio was already in place before Saunders was hire. I would hope if the Wiz do make the playoffs that they will still part ways with Grunfield. Don't wish anyone to lose their job but Leonsis has lost this city and won't fill seats until he brings in a new GM. It's really getting old watching a bench that should be in the DLeague or starters that would be benchwarmers on other teams. Dang, most of the Wizs in Arenas era are either no longer in the NBA or benchwarmers on other teams and we still have the same GM. Also, we have a coach that really should be an assistant coach not the Head coach. Fans are tired of the unproven GM who has regressed and made the city a laughstock and they're tire of being teased every year about how this franchise will make the playoff.

[jivelikenice]

Wall played less minutes than any starter other than Booker. If someone is on fire like he was, leave him in & don't wait so long to get him back in, especially when Beal looked like he was running in quicksand. H effectively cooled down Wall for the Sixers.

Beal was horrible today. Huge fan and think its just a speed bump, but he really hurt us. Poor shoot, turnovers, etc....he'll bounce back though. Would have been a nice day to have Shannon Brown on the roster though

Defense was horrendous. To give up that many points in the paint is embarassing. Why not give Ves a look at that point? He might block a shot or get a board to trigger our offense.

Maynor??....ughhhhhhh

[jivelikenice]

If this were the normal rotation, that would be one thing.

But he pulled him earlier than I've ever seen when he was hotter than I've ever seen.

WTF?

Witt pulled a Javale tonight. Just no feel for the game. But heck. What did we expect. Doesn't Witt have the worst w/l record in NBA history or close to it?

Wall said he asked to come out of the game. Stop blaming Wittman for things that are not his fault.

Doesn't mean you wait so long to bring him back in....

[jivelikenice]

Beal was 4-18 with five turnovers. Trevor got manhandled by Young. That's why we lost. Evan Turner was allowed to play his game....that's why we lost. You don't have to turn in your Beal fan card if you say he sucked tonight. Just a VERY bad game from him. I don't know how much the back spasms limited him. But this was a night we needed Wall to get 40. The shots just weren't falling for Ariza/Beal.

[bjack18]

Just a pathetic 2nd half performance in allowing 65 points... we are staring at a 0-8 start although its good to see only 17,000 showed up tonight which is actually 17,000 too many...if we want Ted to realize we are fed up with this crap then DONT GO THE FUC*ING GAMES, even when the Heat or OKC or any other upper echelon or superstar player comes to town...we can do this if only we realize we got Ted by the balls and not vice versa...quit getting milked by this all too content of an owner...whats he gonna do sell the team or have a fire lit under his fat ass and get rid of this below average coach and at best mediocre GM, probably the latter so stay home tune in to Buck and Phil... Leonsis will get the message...and when that championship banner is raised to the rafters youll feel like you had a hand in it...

[Upper Decker]

I just wonder what happened to Wall in the 2nd half. He had 23 points in the first half and was amazing. How does he only end up with 26? 2 of his 2nd half points were when the game was already decided.

How soon until it become painfully obvious the Drummond should have been picked over Beal? Drummond with another fabulous game 12/16/2/3.

[hands11]

Just got back from the game and read some of the post in this thread. Couple of thoughts:

:: many great points::

I think we armchair GM's get easily swept up in the details and miss the big picture flaws in favor of our pet theories. I think Dandridge's point about intensity is well taken. Sometimes that's all it really is - mental lapses. I also think the lack of a playmaker on the 2nd unit forcing us to rely on Harrington (basically an older Blatche) will cost us many games this year. However, I'll reserve judgement until Gortat has a couple weeks under his belt and we get Porter back. We're better than our record. It'll just take a couple growing-pain games to get there. The problem is that with a "max" player like Wall we shouldn't be having growing pain games. He certainly hasn't taken "the leap" like Westbrook and Rose had.

He also isn't a max player yet. He is $7,459,924 this year. The max kicks in next year.