GT #4: Wizards @ Sixers 7 PM CSN

[DCZards]

agreed. It's not so much that I love Maynor. I would have preferred to keep Price or
get someone even better - wet dream Eric Bledsoe...Jarret Jack. And the process
of signing him for 2 years on the first day seemed unnecessary and precluded other
possibilities.

But the criticism on the board is sometimes over the top.

People undervalue the importance of a PG who simply knows how to run the offense, make smart passes, instruct his teammates where to be on the court, and not turn the ball over...which is basically the kind of PG Maynor is. Maynor is never going to impress anyone with his scoring, D or athleticism.

After all, isn't it payitforward who constantly argues that we shouldn't look at what a player doesn't do but at what he does well.

[jivelikenice]

Amazing what a PF with size does for you. Thad Young goes from 14-20 for 29 points to 3-11 for 7 pts. I loved the overall game Beal played yesterday, but he has to figure out how to keep up the shooting in the second hald. 2-10 with two missed free throws on what were a lot of open looks is going to come back and haunt us against most teams. He could have buried the Sixers a lot earlier on in the second half.

[dobrojim]

Amazing what a PF with size does for you. Thad Young goes from 14-20 for 29 points to 3-11 for 7 pts. I loved the overall game Beal played yesterday, but he has to figure out how to keep up the shooting in the second hald. 2-10 with two missed free throws on what were a lot of open looks is going to come back and haunt us against most teams. He could have buried the Sixers a lot earlier on in the second half.

the weird thing about that to me is that on paper, you would think Booker would
be a decent matchup on Thad. They're both athletic tweeners.

[Ruzious]

Amazing what a PF with size does for you. Thad Young goes from 14-20 for 29 points to 3-11 for 7 pts. I loved the overall game Beal played yesterday, but he has to figure out how to keep up the shooting in the second hald. 2-10 with two missed free throws on what were a lot of open looks is going to come back and haunt us against most teams. He could have buried the Sixers a lot earlier on in the second half.

the weird thing about that to me is that on paper, you would think Booker would
be a decent matchup on Thad. They're both athletic tweeners.

Yeah, Thad's great inside against smaller players with his quick jumping ability, but against big guys, he's got to have his jumper working, and it wasn't. I still think if he was developed as a 3 in the NBA, he could have been a supastar.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I don't think Thad Young has the same scoring instinct as a Tobias Harris. Harris is about the same tweener size. IMO Harris can become a superstar playing the 3. I don't see that in Thad Young.

[stevemcqueen1]

Amazing what a PF with size does for you. Thad Young goes from 14-20 for 29 points to 3-11 for 7 pts. I loved the overall game Beal played yesterday, but he has to figure out how to keep up the shooting in the second hald. 2-10 with two missed free throws on what were a lot of open looks is going to come back and haunt us against most teams. He could have buried the Sixers a lot earlier on in the second half.

the weird thing about that to me is that on paper, you would think Booker would
be a decent matchup on Thad. They're both athletic tweeners.

Yeah, Thad's great inside against smaller players with his quick jumping ability, but against big guys, he's got to have his jumper working, and it wasn't. I still think if he was developed as a 3 in the NBA, he could have been a supastar.

He's a pretty unique player. And I definitely think he had the quickness and ball handling ability to play SF. I guess Philly was just overloaded with these tweener perimeter player types and the only way Young got burn was to play a lot of PF.

[TGW]

Amazing what a PF with size does for you. Thad Young goes from 14-20 for 29 points to 3-11 for 7 pts. I loved the overall game Beal played yesterday, but he has to figure out how to keep up the shooting in the second hald. 2-10 with two missed free throws on what were a lot of open looks is going to come back and haunt us against most teams. He could have buried the Sixers a lot earlier on in the second half.

the weird thing about that to me is that on paper, you would think Booker would
be a decent matchup on Thad. They're both athletic tweeners.

Yeah, Thad's great inside against smaller players with his quick jumping ability, but against big guys, he's got to have his jumper working, and it wasn't. I still think if he was developed as a 3 in the NBA, he could have been a supastar.

They tried him at the three when he was drafted. His handles and jumpshot never developed so they used him at the four. Made sense to me.

[payitforward]

Alas I couldn't watch the game last night and forgot to record it -- after suffering through 3 losses I didn't get the pleasure of seeing us win!!

From the line it looks like Gortat and Wall get game balls, and Ariza and Webster kept us from leaking the game away.

To win by 14 pts, we took 15 more shots -- which we got because of their turnovers and our steals -- and made 12 more 3-pointers. Not the usual formula for a win, but I'd like to do it every night!

Seraphin, Harrington and Maynor did not play well -- better hope Booker comes back quick; we're not going to be getting 29 minutes a night from Nene the rest of the season, you can be sure of that!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I watched the game. Harrington was solid IMO. He took a couple questionable threes, even if one went in. He had double figures in 17 minutes. He got a conventional three points on a strong drive. I liked Al's game against Philly.

I also thought Maynor was fine in the second half.

The story of the game was the three point shooting. Webster was really dialed in late, as was Wall. The great part was that even with Beal only shooting 7-20 the Wizards had plenty offense. Having so many players with range opened things up. Gortat was huge, late, with some key rebounds and put backs. Nene also did a lot of little things that helped.

I was pretty encouraged because the Wizards showed a lot of quickness and they spaced the floor and shared the ball well. This season, offense is going to have to win games. Even without getting foul calls, they darn near scored 120 points. Best offense I've seen in a while.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

people talk about Wall's J is what turned the switch on last year for him but you could argue it was the cross court passing. That became the most dangerous PG play in the league late last year. He was dissecting defenses with it and still is. No one can defend it and they still cant. He was getting Beal, Web, and Ariza a million wide open shots with it. Everyone is so focused on Wall or the big setting the pick then the guy in the corner is wide open but no other PG can consistently make that pass. Wall has the vision to see it, has the height to deliver it, has the strength to zip it there before the D reacts, and hits them right on the money. Sure it might lead to a to but he'll have like 9ast to 1to ratio with it and Ill take that all day

Other than Chris Paul, I think Wall is right up there as a distributor. I agree, dlts20, that the cross court passing and corner threes are going to be a strength of the Wizards.

As long as Wall doesn't try and force things, and if Beal doesn't get baited in to taking bad, contested shots; the Wizards have a lot of good shooters now. Someone's getting open or Wall can get right to the rim now. Gortat should have layups all the time, too.

The defense is a lot worse but the offense is potentially a lot better this season.

[Ruzious]

the weird thing about that to me is that on paper, you would think Booker would
be a decent matchup on Thad. They're both athletic tweeners.

Yeah, Thad's great inside against smaller players with his quick jumping ability, but against big guys, he's got to have his jumper working, and it wasn't. I still think if he was developed as a 3 in the NBA, he could have been a supastar.

They tried him at the three when he was drafted. His handles and jumpshot never developed so they used him at the four. Made sense to me.

If that was the reasoning, it was poor reasoning. He played 1 year of college ball and shot 42% from 3. He barely took any 3's as a raw rookie. In his 2nd and 3rd years, his 3 point shooting percentage was over 34%. Considering his age, he likely had no where to go but up. Since then, he's played effectively - but his range has gone away - probably from atrophy. And he's about the smallest PF in the game and physically can't defend the bigger PF's. If he stayed at the 3, he'd be one of the elite defenders there, and offensively he could mix in 3 point shooting and posting up smaller players.

[Ruzious]

I agree with CCJ on Harrington. While his defense is problematic, he seems to have some chemistry with Ariza. I noticed that first in the preseason. He looks for Ariza, and Ariza know it - setting up the passing lane for Harrington to see him. It's worked for a few wide open 3's for Ariza.

[Ruzious]

Alas I couldn't watch the game last night and forgot to record it -- after suffering through 3 losses I didn't get the pleasure of seeing us win!!

From the line it looks like Gortat and Wall get game balls, and Ariza and Webster kept us from leaking the game away.

To win by 14 pts, we took 15 more shots -- which we got because of their turnovers and our steals -- and made 12 more 3-pointers. Not the usual formula for a win, but I'd like to do it every night!

Seraphin, Harrington and Maynor did not play well -- better hope Booker comes back quick; we're not going to be getting 29 minutes a night from Nene the rest of the season, you can be sure of that!

Is Booker injured again???

[LyricalRico]

I agree with CCJ on Harrington. While his defense is problematic, he seems to have some chemistry with Ariza. I noticed that first in the preseason. He looks for Ariza, and Ariza know it - setting up the passing lane for Harrington to see him. It's worked for a few wide open 3's for Ariza.

Yeah, Al was a net positive last night. I don't think he'll regularly have "efficient" stat lines, but he can still do some things out there. And he's only going to get better as he gets his legs back. The key IMO will be keeping him in the 15-17 mpg range so he's usually the third or lower option. If he plays 20+ then he'll end up being counted on to score too much IMO.

[tontoz]

It looked like Booker dislocated his finger.

[Nivek]

I agree with CCJ on Harrington. While his defense is problematic, he seems to have some chemistry with Ariza. I noticed that first in the preseason. He looks for Ariza, and Ariza know it - setting up the passing lane for Harrington to see him. It's worked for a few wide open 3's for Ariza.

Yeah, Al was a net positive last night. I don't think he'll regularly have "efficient" stat lines, but he can still do some things out there. And he's only going to get better as he gets his legs back. The key IMO will be keeping him in the 15-17 mpg range so he's usually the third or lower option. If he plays 20+ then he'll end up being counted on to score too much IMO.

Umm, Harrington wasn't good last night. He shot the ball decently, but he managed just two rebounds in 17 minutes, and he committed two turnovers. In a game where the Wizards had an offensive rating of 114 (points per possession x 100), Harrington's ortg was 82. I sure hope he gets better as his legs come back.

[nuposse04]

I wonder what the quality of this win was. We beat the sixers on the road, which in a vacuum shouldn't even be worthy of discussion...But the sixers are playing good basketball (not sure if it is sustainable). So is the defensive woes more breakdowns on our part, or them going off. Particularly, I thought Evan Turner was straight balling out there. He was making some 1st option moves you can barely defend. I still want the the defense to get it together, but if a team is playing hot, I'm not sure you should expect to limit them, especially when the minutes distribution on your own roster are in flex and guys have to get re-acclimated on how to play with one another.

The home loss was awful though. If you lose fine, but if you let a team score that much in the paint, some effing heads must roll.

[AFM]

I agree with CCJ on Harrington. While his defense is problematic, he seems to have some chemistry with Ariza. I noticed that first in the preseason. He looks for Ariza, and Ariza know it - setting up the passing lane for Harrington to see him. It's worked for a few wide open 3's for Ariza.

Yeah, Al was a net positive last night. I don't think he'll regularly have "efficient" stat lines, but he can still do some things out there. And he's only going to get better as he gets his legs back. The key IMO will be keeping him in the 15-17 mpg range so he's usually the third or lower option. If he plays 20+ then he'll end up being counted on to score too much IMO.

Umm, Harrington wasn't good last night. He shot the ball decently, but he managed just two rebounds in 17 minutes, and he committed two turnovers. In a game where the Wizards had an offensive rating of 114 (points per possession x 100), Harrington's ortg was 82. I sure hope he gets better as his legs come back.

Are you dense, my good sir? Harrington was getting buckets.

That's what he does.

Gets buckets.


Free candy.

Al "I Won't Miss" Harrington.

[payitforward]

agreed. It's not so much that I love Maynor. I would have preferred to keep Price or
get someone even better - wet dream Eric Bledsoe...Jarret Jack. And the process
of signing him for 2 years on the first day seemed unnecessary and precluded other
possibilities.

But the criticism on the board is sometimes over the top.

People undervalue the importance of a PG who simply knows how to run the offense, make smart passes, instruct his teammates where to be on the court, and not turn the ball over...which is basically the kind of PG Maynor is. Maynor is never going to impress anyone with his scoring, D or athleticism.

After all, isn't it payitforward who constantly argues that we shouldn't look at what a player doesn't do but at what he does well.

Yup -- but what I mean is not to *eliminate* a player from consideration, or even downgrade him, based on what he *doesn't* do (or have: e.g. size). Look at what the guy does well; start your assessment there.

Then try to understand what his overall impact is on a game and its outcome. Because, when a player is on the court, you are going to get everything he does -- all of it, good and bad. Certainly, Bledsoe -- a young prospect who looks like he's turning into a top-tier NBA-er! -- would have been the absolute best choice (not saying we had a shot to do that). And Jarrett Jack is obviously a good player, a much better player than Maynor or Price or that ilk. He too would have been a great choice.

But this FO is not focusing on depth at PG; they're assuming only 10-15minutes a game will be available to a backup. And they know the team isn't really good enough to put $6+m into a guy like Jack -- we're not contending. So, because our $$ are tight, we save on that slot. I'd have saved more by retaining Price if I'd been making that call.

Instead we try to add depth elsewhere -- and we get Webster by over-paying (though not enormously). The results don't make me think the strategy is working, though I think a good GM could have made it work a lot better than we did.

[payitforward]

Alas I couldn't watch the game last night and forgot to record it -- after suffering through 3 losses I didn't get the pleasure of seeing us win!!

From the line it looks like Gortat and Wall get game balls, and Ariza and Webster kept us from leaking the game away.

To win by 14 pts, we took 15 more shots -- which we got because of their turnovers and our steals -- and made 12 more 3-pointers. Not the usual formula for a win, but I'd like to do it every night!

Seraphin, Harrington and Maynor did not play well -- better hope Booker comes back quick; we're not going to be getting 29 minutes a night from Nene the rest of the season, you can be sure of that!

Is Booker injured again???

Just my assumption -- i.e. I noticed he had a finger injury vs. the Heat and concluded they'd kept him out for that reason.

Maybe not? Maybe they just wanted to give him a day off? He'd played heavy minutes the first 3 games. ??