Wizards Heat GT Nov 3, 2013

[hands11]

Maynor

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... ric-maynor

Not as bad as people make him out to be so far.

Season is still young though.

[payitforward]

Maynor

http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_ ... ric-maynor

Not as bad as people make him out to be so far.

Season is still young though.

Maynor had an outstanding 14 minutes vs. the Heat. If he played like that every night he'd be the best point guard in the league. First two games were different.

The guy's played a total of 36 minutes. Not enough even to think about. On the other hand, Eric Maynor has never been a good player for any season of his NBA career.

[pancakes3]

So he only has #1 and #3 of your 3 Wizards Criteria?

Wall has a quick first step but he can't use it because, he can't slow down after his quick first step. The whole point of a quick first step is that a defender has to rapidly accelerate to keep up with you. A quick first step means that a defender is always a step behind but if you can't stop and let a tackler run right by you....like in football...you let him crash into you because all he wants to do is catch up with you because of your speed. A defender has to go into over drive whenever he is a step behind and forcing a defender who is already in over drive to chase to dramatically stop...is what allows you to get clean looks. Wall may be his man with his first step but the defender is only a step behind him, wall is going to eventually have to slow down to release his shot and the defender is always going to aim where he thinks you are based on your previous speed. Since wall never can change up his speed, he always lets his defender catch up to him by letting his defender gamble and guess where he will be. Teh defender is almost right 95 percent of the time because wall doesn't have the athleticism after his quick first step completely stop his momentum.
Wall ..based on my guess was a track athlete growing up meaning you run in a straight line and you never worried about slowing down. If wall were a football player, like allen iverson, dwade, ---basketball players who are great at taking it to the hole were running backs in middle school, high school...running backs constantly stop and cut back and change direction. Since wall was a track athlete, his body isn't designed to change directions dramatically at full speed.

So wall meets my definition of having a quick first step. He sometimes can finish through contact. He is wizard material. However, for him to be the wizard's franchise player at point guard, he needs to some serious training in terms of ability to stop on dime after going full speed, and then after 2 seconds go right back to full speed. I am dissappointed that I haven't seen an evolution in wall's body control and handle going full speed in the half court setting. The other thing i hate is that he dribbles the ball like a small forward or a shooting guard. You can't make tight turns around corners if you dribble the ball high. In order to be effective on PNR, you have to be able to turn the court tightly and quickly pull up or explode.... wall has no control over the ball when he is turning the corner because the ball is in the air 80 percent of the time and touching his hand only 20 percent of the time because he dribbles the ball high. the closer you dribble the ball to the ground the less time the ball is traveling in the air and more time it is contacting your hand. Wall probably has the worst basketball to hand contact dribbling in the half court. You can't make subtle movements with the ball if its not contacting your hand the majority of the time while you are dribbling. He takes long slow bounces. To me, wall is more a shooting guard in the half court. We are better off making beal the point guard in the half court because you at least see beal using hesitations, and getting low to ground when he drives. Wall thinks he doing a 100 meter dash with an upright stance trying to drive to whole. You can't have a low center of gravity and make tight turns going full speed if are trying to run upright...you have to stay low the ground. You see Beal doing this and he is a shooting guard, wall seems to have no clue.
Again, watching the wizards would be much more enjoyable if Wall actually shows elite ability at being able to stop and go with full body control. If wall were elite, he would be able to go from 0-100 after just one step. Lightening quick arenas step, and if he were franchise player, he would be able to stop on a dime after hitting 100 in just one or two steps and not only have control the basketball but be in a position to read what direction his defender is going at after he has stopped on a dime. This ability would make wall a franchise...ROSE....type player.
Again, I see Beal as a better half court point guard in the future than wall. Scatterbrained, is the word someone used to describe wall...and again---that word perfectly describes his inability to stop his body with superior control of the basketball on a dime. Instead you see wall driving into the lane full speed and unable to stop he just jumps in the air and hopes that an opening will be created when he is in teh air for either a pass or shot.
What should really happen if he were elite is that he would blow past his defender in two steps with his left hand and with his defender a step behind him..stop on a dime...and force his defender to slow down and try to get back into defensive position... while defender is trying to settle his feet and a...you burst forward again for two steps....stop settle down. This how you wear a defender down. There is absolutely zero reason for Billups, with his bad ACL to be able to keep up with wall if wall were a true franchise point guard.
Stop and go in short a confined amount of space is the most deadly weapon of a point guard. A powerful franchise center like shaquile oneal uses his massive frame to knock his defender of balance. An elite point guard, knocks his defender off balance by making his defender rapidly stop..and then forcing him to speed up again. You do this to your defender 3 or 4 times in a row and if your defender is an inferior athlete, you take away his spirit because can't keep up with you unless he fouls you. Wall should have every starting point guard that is guarding him to be in foul trouble. Let's hope someone in Wizard franchise with clout understands this and has a plan to either transform wall into a franchise point guard or we trade an over valued wall for a true franchise talent.

Scrolling past is like watching the Matrix background.

[Ruzious]

A lot was made about the Wiz being a top 5 defensive team for much or all of last season. Where do they rank so far this season?

[Nivek]

A lot was made about the Wiz being a top 5 defensive team for much or all of last season. Where do they rank so far this season?

29th. Good thing they emphasized defense during training camp this year. Otherwise the defense might have been REALLY bad.

Mantra for Wizards fans: It's only 3 games. It's only 3 games. It's only 3 games.

No?

Lemme try it this way: over an 82-game schedule, a .500 team has a 99% chance of losing 3 in a row at some point during the season. The Wizards are just getting that 3-game losing streak out of the way early. To...umm...clear the way for 3-game winning streaks later.

[stevemcqueen1]

Seraphin's block on Wade was pretty awesome. It's unfortunate the loose ball went right to Wade's teammate. Seraphin had to hustle to get back in time to protect the rim. That was nice to see.

[Ruzious]

A lot was made about the Wiz being a top 5 defensive team for much or all of last season. Where do they rank so far this season?

29th. Good thing they emphasized defense during training camp this year. Otherwise the defense might have been REALLY bad.

Mantra for Wizards fans: It's only 3 games. It's only 3 games. It's only 3 games.

No?

Lemme try it this way: over an 82-game schedule, a .500 team has a 99% chance of losing 3 in a row at some point during the season. The Wizards are just getting that 3-game losing streak out of the way early. To...umm...clear the way for 3-game winning streaks later.

"Wait till 5 years from now" could be our catch-phrase, but it sounds overly-optimistic. It's still better than "9th seed or bust".

Wasn't that top 5 in D supposed to be something they were going to build on? But some might say, it's only 3 games, so I'll try to keep an open mind.

[Nivek]

Through 3 games, the Wizards this season vs. the Wizards last season...

Code: Select all

Season  Ortg    Drtg    Diff    PytW82
2013-14 102.7   112.4   -9.7    18.1
2012-13 92.3    99.0    -6.7    22.5


ortg = points allowed per 100 possessions
drtg = points allowed per 100 possessions
diff = ortg - drtg
PytW82 = number wins over an 82-game schedule (based on efficiency differential)

So, there you have it -- Wizards are off to an even worse start this year than they had last year. But hey, they'll be a lot better when Wall gets back. Umm...

[montestewart]

I remember when the argument was the Wizards are essentially adding Arenas, Haywood, Miller, and Foye to a playoff team that took the Cavs to six games. Or something like that. I can't believe I started to eat up that crap again. EG's roster building is one big Ponzi scam.

[Kanyewest]

This may be a crazy idea, but how 'bout waiting until Seraphin has more than one consecutive good game before crowning him The Answer to the Wizards' frontcourt woes? Especially when that one "good" game was not actually good.

So far this season, Seraphin has produced twice as many turnovers per minute as the average player and he's yet to record a single assist. He's fouling at an alarming rate, and he's now no longer rebounding like a SF -- he's rebounding like a PG.

Seraphin's offensive rating (points produced per possession x 100) against Miami was 107 -- an astoundingly BAD number considering he made 4-of-5 from the floor. Why was it so bad? No assists, no offensive rebounds, 2 turnovers (in only 7 possessions).

Right.... Only I wouldn't have counseled waiting for "more than one" good game -- lets wait for the first good game. Yes he went 4-5 and had 2 blocks. But in 15 minutes he managed a single rebound, that's it; he fouled 4 times, and turned it over twice.

Kevin is in his fourth NBA season. I *liked* him as a pick in 2010. He hasn't worked out. He hasn't progressed in any significant way. He's not an acceptable NBA player.

Any number of undrafted bigs from the last few years would be huge upgrades -- a good example would be Greg Smith of Houston (yes... the team that has Darryl Morey as its GM). I'd also certainly rather have Jordan Williams -- whom I assume is playing somewhere in the world (not in the league). Or James Singleton (by a lot!). Or Josh Harrellson (is he even on a team now?).

The worst part is that he only has 1 rebound. I would be interested to see Seraphin's fouls though- if they were good ones (ie fouling Chris Anderson who is a poor free throw shooter) or simply there were fouls because he was going against LeBron/Wade.

[Nivek]

Here are Seraphin's 4 fouls against Miami:

Code: Select all

FOUL    TYPE            AGAINST
1       Blocking        Cole
2       Offensive       Andersen
3       Personal        Andersen
4       Shooting        Bosh


Pretty safe to say a) his fouls were not well used; and b) they weren't because he was going against Lebron/Wade.

[jivelikenice]

Here are Seraphin's 4 fouls against Miami:

Code: Select all

FOUL    TYPE            AGAINST
1       Blocking        Cole
2       Offensive       Andersen
3       Personal        Andersen
4       Shooting        Bosh


Pretty safe to say a) his fouls were not well used; and b) they weren't because he was going against Lebron/Wade.

To be fair, he did have a good non-call v. Wade when he went straight up on a Wade drive to the hoop. The problem is the minute to minute, let alone game to game consistency from him.

[Ruzious]

Here are Seraphin's 4 fouls against Miami:

Code: Select all

FOUL    TYPE            AGAINST
1       Blocking        Cole
2       Offensive       Andersen
3       Personal        Andersen
4       Shooting        Bosh


Pretty safe to say a) his fouls were not well used; and b) they weren't because he was going against Lebron/Wade.

To be fair, he did have a good non-call v. Wade when he went straight up on a Wade drive to the hoop. The problem is the minute to minute, let alone game to game consistency from him.

Yeah, if 1 play per game was all that mattered, Javale McGee would be even better than Pam thought he'd be, and they'd promoting the wonders of cinnamon from here to France. And really, when a 6'4 30 some year old guard - even Wade - goes straight at a center, the center should be able to routinely block it - and sometimes actually... wait for it... consider trying to secure the rebound.

[hands11]

Seraphin's block on Wade was pretty awesome. It's unfortunate the loose ball went right to Wade's teammate. Seraphin had to hustle to get back in time to protect the rim. That was nice to see.

Falls into the ....

if you are going to make mistake, do it aggressively or at least at full speed.

I can live with that kind of mistake. That was a mugging how he blocked that shot. Two hands IIRC.

Kevin needs a more minute so we can see the results of the work he put in over the off season.

If Nene is out, I would start Webster at SF with Trevor A at PF or Trevor A and Kevin at PF.

[ottomattic]

I am quite embarrased to jump into this discussion not knowing all the advanced stats but did Eric Maynor not play well or what?? He can dribble and penetrate and deliver passes to the chest.

[Nivek]

I am quite embarrased to jump into this discussion not knowing all the advanced stats but did Eric Maynor not play well or what?? He can dribble and penetrate and deliver passes to the chest.

Maynor had a good game against Miami. That kind of performance has been extremely rare for him, however.

[rl25g]

Maynor has a PER of 23. Can any advanced stat guys explain how that is possible?

[Nivek]

Maynor has a PER of 23. Can any advanced stat guys explain how that is possible?

Tiny sample size. Even bad players can have good "runs" over a short period of time.

Think about it like this: in the course of his career, Maynor has 1030 FGA (so far). He's shot .401, which is bad. But, his odds of making 4 in a row at some point during those 1030 FGA is virtually 100%.

In terms of overall performance, Maynor is pretty well established as basically a replacement level player. But, a replacement level player can have a good week. He just won't have many of them.

[tontoz]

I saw Salim Stoudamire drop 24 points in quarter once. He was still a scrub though.

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=251118003

[DCZards]

In terms of overall performance, Maynor is pretty well established as basically a replacement level player. But, a replacement level player can have a good week. He just won't have many of them.

On the other hand...Maynor, who was coming off a serious knee injury last season, began playing better--not great--his last few weeks with Portland. Maybe this is a continuation of his above-placement level play.Not getting my hopes up....just sayin'.