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

[dckingsfan]

On the positive side - Ariza is showing he can rebound in a big way

He didn't seem too interested in boxing out Thad Young at the end of the game. Philly overall seemed to play harder wire to wire.

Valid point... just saying that we could have some time where Ariza slides to S4 and might be ok.

[dckingsfan]

I wish we had someone like Nate Robinson backing up Wall instead of Maynor. Our bench in general, outside of Webster is pretty terrible.

This...

[stevemcqueen1]

Wall does have to carry the team.

He's the only one capable of consistently creating offense right now.

I don't think the team is good enough to win when Beal plays that bad.

And our coach is horrible and our offense is pathetic and it kills me that a lame duck Flip Saunders and an incompetent Randy Wittman have been the ones in charge of developing Wall. **** you Ted. You kept the worst coach in the league because he's cheap. Wittman sets his players up to fail and we go into every game with a coaching disadvantage.

[stevemcqueen1]

They'll win 1-2 unexpectedly. Question is what happens to this team if they start 0-8? Does someone get fired and who is the replacement?

Ernie fires Whitman and is replaced by the assistant coach. The team feels responsible by the firing and wins enough games to make their first playoffs and are eliminated in the first round. After the Bulls are eliminated they fire their HC. Ernie meets w/the coach and then with Leonsis and DC has their new HC. Ernie receives a new contract.

The coach gets fired and Ernie gets a new contract after the new team gets marginal improvement out of Ernie's crap roster. This is what we have to come to expect at some point.

A real coach would get major improvement out of this roster. There are actually good players on this team now. But this team is way less than the sum of its parts right now.

[barelyawake]

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.

I've never complained much about rotations. Mostly because I understood we were tanking and hoping only to develop talent. And yes, our talent level now is at "just barely make the playoffs" level. We didn't make the big move and blow our cap. We tried to make the playoffs on the cheap to try to save our future options (pre-Gortat trade). We are down Porter and Nene. We have no leader. And Maynor was a mistake, especially for our roster.

But, many of the in game decisions this game were suspect and seem to be made by a coach who doesn't understand the psychology of the game, much less our players' limitations. AH, Webster, Beal, et al have trouble getting their shot. So, we either need to push the pace, pick and roll, have a slashing guard who needs to be doubled or have a big that needs to be doubled. Randy's solution to the above was to post Seraphin play after play. That seems insane to me. Push the action and put in the one guy who can create his own shot -- Rice. Or run picks that allow these players some separation from their man. We need space. Our players aren't Iso players -- except Wall and Rice.

We will be better once Nene is back and Porter is in the line-up. And Gortat understands his role. Not much better, but enough to get us into the playoffs. But, we need some moves as well. Once you decide to go all in, go all in. Our offseason was a mix of saving for the future and selling the future. Pick one.

And Btw (edit to add), I would not allow my franchise player to take himself out of the game, after a hot streak, four minutes into the game (especially after celebrating). I have a very large suspicion he did so to save his own ego. It's like sneak punching the fat guy and then claiming you won the fight. Wall needs to learn to not have highs and lows, but steady confidence. And it takes a coach standing up to him and telling him that for him to mature (since we traded our leader).

[GhostsOfGil]

Even the bobcats had a full house in their season opener win. Heat just lost their second in a row. Wiz are going to get trounced.

[closg00]

This will perhaps show my desperation for wanting a win last night, but I actually wanted to see Jan in the game in-place of Booker at points. I thought Booker did not look %100 (Despite getting almost a double-double)

Perhaps Jan's playing-time would have been a net-negative since he most-likely would not have been able to score the way the Book did, but Book lacked the type of energy that I am used to seeing him play at when he is fully healthy.

[hands11]

Wall does have to carry the team.

He's the only one capable of consistently creating offense right now.

I don't think the team is good enough to win when Beal plays that bad.

And our coach is horrible and our offense is pathetic and it kills me that a lame duck Flip Saunders and an incompetent Randy Wittman have been the ones in charge of developing Wall. **** you Ted. You kept the worst coach in the league because he's cheap. Wittman sets his players up to fail and we go into every game with a coaching disadvantage.

He is so hell bent on them running his system on offense but it doesn't appear he understand the basic components for success. Sure they need to move the ball, but you need line ups out there that compliment each other compared to what the other team has out there.

I was looking at the popcorn machine game flow thing. Here is a line up he used against Det to start the 2nd.

Maynor, Temple, Webster, AH, Gortat
vs
Bynum, Pope, Singler, Jonas, Drummonds

Ok, really ? That is a total miss-match athletically.

name the athletic person in that line up.
name the player that has handles and can drive

Sorry, like it or not, this team is too unathletic to not use Glen, Kevin and Ves more.

Should have been something more like

Maynor, Glen, Webster, Ves, Gortat
or
Maynor, Glen, Webster, Kevin, Gortat

or put Temple in for Maynor.

Randy was just out coached. Bynum went out at the 6:50 mark so he could start the 2nd against Maynor. Billups became PG with Pope in. Randy should have gone to Temple to cover Billups and rested Wall to match Bynum who returned 3 mins later to end the first and start the 2nd. Then when Singler came in he should have put Glen on him.

Randy always says, we need to just worry about what we do. Well there is some truth to that, but you also have to watch what other teams do. Its called coaching.

Now this doesn't even touch on the fact they should have gotten someone like Pierre Jackson or Siva as a bench PG to match up against this fast smaller PGs.

We will see. They banked on Otto being their gem from the draft and we haven't seen him yet. I felt this draft was loaded with players they could have stacked the bench with and should have done a reboot clean up the bench of Booker, Kevin, Ves and Singleton by adding picks, not consolidating. Just like the 2011 draft, this draft was deep. They could have gotten fresh talent on cheap rookie contracts.

But they drafted Otto and Rice instead. So play Rice already.

This the same as last year. They will lose to younger athletic teams because they don't match up. I expect them to look better against team like NY, Dallas, Brooklyn, etc.

[GhostsOfGil]

Then there's this:

https://twitter.com/Truth_About_It/stat ... 7028835328

Wall also says he's dealing w back spasms, 1st noticed them in 3rd Q, says he's never had them before but should be OK for Sunday.

[payitforward]

So i was at the game but had to come and see it on TV to see what actually happened. A couple things stood out.

1. Booker is terrible. I don't know he gets a free pass from a lot of you guys. He's like the avg looking girl who hangs out with the unattractive ones to look better. He benefits because unlike Jan/Seraphin, he doesn't do anything terribly embarrassing to himself. I'm tired of his one handed rebounds he has trouble corralling, I'm tired of his garbage defense, and I'm tired of him irresponsibly crashing the offensive glass which in turn leaves our transition defense scrambling. He is terrible....

When you came home and saw it on TV, did you see Booker go 5-7?

Did you see him get 8 boards in 28 minutes? Did you see the 2 blocks? How about the 2 steals?

How close is the game, do you think, if he doesn't shoot with that efficiency because we play someone else instead? How close is the game if he doesn't get all those boards?

If Gortat and Seraphin, for example, had split Booker's minutes last night, we'd have lost by 15-18 instead of 7.

Does nobody at all understand that you win games w/ efficient scoring and effective rebounding? Everything else is less important. Make a higher % of your shots and get more chances to shoot, and you win. Booker was our most effective player last night on a per-minute basis.

[Upper Decker]

I'm still sort of in shock about this team. This team has taken on too much of the personality of it's leader, Nene. There's no passion, no real effort, no concern whether they win or lose because they already got theirs. The only chance for this team to compete is if Wall is constantly, efficiently, and perfectly in attack mode. Even if he plays at 75% this team is out matched tremendously.

Also, the book on Gortat coming over is that he's not a post player. He's done nothing to dispel this assertion. Don't give him the rock with his back to the basket!

[AFM]

Why have we not hired George Karl?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wiz ... -playoffs/

“I think their expectation is to make the playoffs, and if I had to pick them, I would say they’re going to make the playoffs,” Karl said. “They beat us twice last year. And they beat us once at home and they beat us kind of right when we were playing really good basketball. So I have a lot of respect for their basketball team.”

Because Ted is cheap...

[hands11]

This will perhaps show my desperation for wanting a win last night, but I actually wanted to see Jan in the game in-place of Booker at points. I thought Booker did not look %100 (Despite getting almost a double-double)

Perhaps Jan's playing-time would have been a net-negative since he most-likely would not have been able to score the way the Book did, but Book lacked the type of energy that I am used to seeing him play at when he is fully healthy.

They are going to lose to DET and Philly all year unless they turn to their younger more athletic players. Can't lean on Maynor, AH, Webster, Booker combos and expect to match up against athletic teams. Expect them to lose to the Celtics as well. Basically, the same thing that hounded them last year.

Booker is a nice energy guy against slower front courts but he isn't an every day starter. Most nights, you would be better off starting Kevin or Ves then rotating to a 3 ball shooting line up with Glen, Webster, Trevor A, AH types out there.

But with Randy rotations, they will look better against older teams. Even Miami.

Problem is, this roster doesn't work for what Randy wants to do. To work, Nene would have to play center so Nene and Gortat are the centers and they play small ball with 3 pt shooters. This also allows them to get more athletic or bulkier when they need to with Ves and Kevin.

Wall, Webster, Trevor A, AH, Gortat

and get more athletic with

PG, Glen, Webster, Trevor A, ( Gortat or Nene)
PG, Glen, Webster, Kevin, ( Gortat or Nene)
PG, Glen, Webster, Ves, ( Gortat or Nene)

Randy's focused on defense and vets is killing this teams potential. They can take a step back defensively if it produces a better offensive team that doesn't need to fast break to score. Then you get a more balance offense where Webster and Beal can produce efficiently. Then they can control the pace better and its usually hard to get beat in transition after a made basket.

This team could be deep and pretty damn good if it was based on 24 minutes each of Nene and Gortat at center and way less Booker at PF and Glen getting at least 8-12 minutes a game at SG.

My view, Randy is just totally blowing it.

Ves should not be getting DNPs in the first two games to start the year because of Booker. Randy is a total ass for doing that. Way to take anything good Ves did over the summer and just flush it down the toilet.

I was fine with Randy last year even though he was terrible to start the year, but it looks like he is doing the same thing again. I wanted to believe in Randy and he has done some good things, but he isn't nimble enough with in game match ups. Its his job to get the most out of the roster and I don't feel he is.

[hands11]

Then there's this:

https://twitter.com/Truth_About_It/stat ... 7028835328

Wall also says he's dealing w back spasms, 1st noticed them in 3rd Q, says he's never had them before but should be OK for Sunday.

http://www.monumentalnetwork.com/videos ... me-11-1-13

Yeah, he looked like he wasn't feeling very good.

[AFM]

I still wish we had Crawford off the bench as the primary ballhandler. He could score and facilitate. Now we have Maynor who is somehow worse than AJ Price was. Who is going to score off the bench? Martell and who else? Porter?

[TGW]

I still wish we had Crawford off the bench as the primary ballhandler. He could score and facilitate. Now we have Maynor who is somehow worse than AJ Price was. Who is going to score off the bench? Martell and who else? Porter?

Any by "facilitate", you mean dribbling the ball up the court and taking a contested 25 footer with 18 seconds left on the shot clock?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Label me however you like CCJ. You have no problem calling it like you see it.....and neither do I.

And as for me offering my opinion on alternative lineups/moves, I'm reserving judgement until I see more of this team.

I wish more people were like you. If I make an enemy, and from time to time I have made what I THOUGHT was an enemy … I've learned that it's important to listen to my critics well. I can often learn something valid. The day I die I will be far from perfect but I do hope I'm humble enough to admit my error.

WP, I think I might not post for 10 games. At the very least, I won't have this kind of energy with each loss.

I am venting strong, early, in hopes they are reading. Fix what they can and ignore or prove me wrong.

You should definitely continue to post but you have to keep everything in perspective.

I understand where you're coming from but I say you should wait until at least 7 games in before you start to worry.

Personally, I'm not that concerned with the personnel. Yeah, we have some weaknesses, just like most teams but I think we'll be alright.

The real concern is the fact that Randy Wittman is a horrible offensive coach. His teams lack offensive creativity.

It's a shame that Ted/EG has entrusted Wall's career to this guy.


PS: I still think we made a mistake in not drafting Len.

If not Len, then Zeller, Olynyk, and almost certainly Nerlen Noel.

Randy's coaching is going to have to evolve quickly or things are going to go sour just as quick.

[tontoz]

Why have we not hired George Karl?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wiz ... -playoffs/

“I think their expectation is to make the playoffs, and if I had to pick them, I would say they’re going to make the playoffs,” Karl said. “They beat us twice last year. And they beat us once at home and they beat us kind of right when we were playing really good basketball. So I have a lot of respect for their basketball team.”

Because Ted is cheap...

I don't think Ted is cheap. I think he is just clueless about basketball and doesn't realize it.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Why have we not hired George Karl?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wiz ... -playoffs/

“I think their expectation is to make the playoffs, and if I had to pick them, I would say they’re going to make the playoffs,” Karl said. “They beat us twice last year. And they beat us once at home and they beat us kind of right when we were playing really good basketball. So I have a lot of respect for their basketball team.”

Because Ted is cheap...

This year's Wizards team doesn't have Okafor. Wall's now playing (IMO) under the added pressure of making all kinds of cheddar. Nene not being healthy, with Okafor gone, has changed everything about the front court. With Gortat and Harrington just coming in this is a very different team.

The new Wizards are going to have to succeed more on the basis of sound offense than they did last season, because last season they had a pretty stellar defense.

[Dark Faze]

I'm still sort of in shock about this team. This team has taken on too much of the personality of it's leader, Nene. There's no passion, no real effort, no concern whether they win or lose because they already got theirs. The only chance for this team to compete is if Wall is constantly, efficiently, and perfectly in attack mode. Even if he plays at 75% this team is out matched tremendously.

Also, the book on Gortat coming over is that he's not a post player. He's done nothing to dispel this assertion. Don't give him the rock with his back to the basket!

People laughed at me when I said I was seriously concerned about Nenes attitude following the first pre-season game. I stated I was super concerned about him accusing Brook of playing too hard and for claiming he was receiving too many minutes, and went as far as to compare it to being as bad as the attitude from our clown era players.

Two games into the pre-season and our backup bigs look charmin soft, Nene misses a game, and we lose two games almost completely because of how many second chance and flat out at the rim baskets we allowed.

Luckily only our backup bigs have caught Nenes disease so far, but if it spreads to our wing guys we're going to be Wiggins bad--which may be a good thing if it brings in a draft pick, new coach (george karl pls), and new gm.