GT #43: WAS 21-21 in UTA 14-29, Sat Jan 25th 9pm, CSN+

[The Consiglieri]

At some point we got stop putting all the blame on Whitman.

This is a horrible team they just lost to. Last 2 losses were against crap tanking teams. At some point we got put the blame on the players. Gortat plays **** defense all night long on Kanter, Wall only feels like he wants to play in the last possessions. His defense on Burke was bad too (another midget rookie going 4-5 on 3pt shots)

Beal disappeared, Webster with an airball and bad defense also. Temple not knowing his place and trying to do too much on the offensive end.

And above it all, blame should be on the players because it's another wasted opportunity to break the .500 mark and they just choked again. Don't they have any pride? It's beyond embarrassing, it's beyond frustrating.

+1

I do blame Wittman, there's no evidence he's any good, but I do believe quite firmly that the fundamental truth is this team is horrendously constructed (everyone recognizes that), and this team lacks talent. The Wiz basically have a couple of veteran players of league average, and above average talent, a couple of youngsters with talent, and that's it, it's not a good team, at all. It's a bottom 10-12 team in the league benefitting from its presence in the East, where there are only 2-3 teams, maybe, that could compete for a playoff spot in the East. This team is bad, it's never going to be good, and it can only aspire to mediocrity barring some free agent developing delusions of grandeur concerning its potential.

[Zonkerbl]

I wasn't able to watch last night's game, tho I recorded it (but probably won't bother with the pain of watching a last quarter loss). Our three starting bigs went 23-42 in 103 minutes; the rest of the team shot 16-49 in 137 minutes. Don't have to look much beyond that to see where the problems were on offense.

It also looks like we had no answer for Favors and Kanter, either on the boards or scoring. In a combined 64 minutes, they went 14-21 from the floor, 7-9 from the line, and grabbed 19 rebounds.

With Wall unable to put the ball in the bucket, and given Utah's unreal TS% in this game, it's kind of amazing we kept it close! Credit offensive rebounding and lack of TOs for that.

Hey, Utah was coming off of 3 days rest and eating home cooking; we were on the 2d night of a back-to-back on the road. We couldn't quite get it done in the 4th quarter -- yet, if Ariza makes w/ 10 seconds left we have a chance to win.

I'm not blaming anybody for this kind of loss!

There you go again, pif, trying to be reasonable and factual. You know these game threads are all about white-hot emotion, hate and blame. You can't reason with that kind of stuff.

But you're right. If you're going to blame anyone it's EG and this team's utter lack of depth.

I agree with PIF. The Wizards weren't hitting from the perimeter. Utah's bigs were on fire. And despite that, we were in the game all night and really could have won it if Beal hit that wide open 3 with about 1:30 to go in the 4th. That would have tied it up and changed the outcome in the last minute.

It wasn't a great game by the Wizards, but it wasn't awful. I chalk this one up to randomness. Some days, the other team hits shots and you don't, and you end up losing. Move on to the next game.

That was my feeling, watching the game. I was on the bullets forever chat and was surprised at the enormous amount of negativity. The zards got the shots they wanted and they didn't fall, they played the defense they wanted but Utah's shots fell. It happens.

What has me so depressed is that this team is clearly a sub .500 team. The starting five seems solid, but the bench is clearly trash. Then I thought back on the history of our current bench -- Vesely, Singleton, and KS are disappointments, if not outright busts. Booker is barely adequate. Blatche got run off the team. Jordan Crawford got run off the team. I mean, that is a string of monumental failures there. Just imagine if we were getting any production, any at all, from the assets that used to be Blatche and Jordan Crawford. Smeg, what if those two were just ON THE TEAM now? You know how deadly a backcourt of Wall, Beal, and Crawford would be? You know how deadly a frontcourt of Nene, Gortat, and Blatche would be?

Why have we allowed this to happen? The bad blood EG created by his mishandling of gungate is STILL hurting us. Why is he still running the team?

[dobrojim]

[snip]

A better goal is to finish 3-6. 3rd or 4th is preferred, but really anything but the 7th or 8th seed is OK.

If we get the 7th or 8th seed we'll simply be embarrassed and lose in 4 or 5 games. It'd be nice to make the playoffs. But 7th or 8th has to be considered a failure.

Agree. Ideally we avoid 7-8. I think we'd have a better chance against MIA than IND so
depending on which of those finishes 1/2, we'd have a different matchup (under the
presumption that we make it to the 2nd round) depending on whether we finish 4/5 or 3/6.
The 4/5 winner plays the 1/8 winner. I actually think I'd rather face MIA than IND. Things
could obviously change between now and April/May.

[stevemcqueen1]

[snip]

A better goal is to finish 3-6. 3rd or 4th is preferred, but really anything but the 7th or 8th seed is OK.

If we get the 7th or 8th seed we'll simply be embarrassed and lose in 4 or 5 games. It'd be nice to make the playoffs. But 7th or 8th has to be considered a failure.

Agree. Ideally we avoid 7-8. I think we'd have a better chance against MIA than IND so
depending on which of those finishes 1/2, we'd have a different matchup (under the
presumption that we make it to the 2nd round) depending on whether we finish 4/5 or 3/6.
The 4/5 winner plays the 1/8 winner. I actually think I'd rather face MIA than IND. Things
could obviously change between now and April/May.

I don't know that we win a series against Toronto and it would probably be tough to win a road series against Brooklyn and Chicago. Atl is an unknown.

Regarding Mia vs Indy, I would much rather face Miami than Indy. Miami is worn down. They don't have size. We'd have big advantages in the front court assuming Nene and Gortat play. And we can stick Ariza on LeBron and feel like we're not going to get demolished.

Indy is unstoppable at home and they have a decided front court advantage over us. Really the only spot we'd have a marked advantage at is PG. They'd beat us everywhere else. And they are young and energetic and a lot more physical than Miami. They can completely defend us better than anyone else in the league. They cover the perimeter, stop teams in transition, and have one of the best rim protectors in the league. It's a worse match up for us specifically. We'll lose a series to either, we just have more of a chance to keep ourselves from getting embarrassed against Miami.

[payitforward]

How will we avoid being #7 I wonder?

I see little reason to think we'll climb past Atlanta or Toronto, and certainly not Miami or Indiana. Brooklyn and Chicago are playing better and better as the weeks pass -- don't see much chance to end up in front of them.

On the other hand, none of the other 8 teams looks to have much chance to pass us.

At #7, whichever we play of Miami or Indiana will bounce us easily -- 5 games? Maybe 4....

A 6 game series would be a triumph.

So there you go; there's our ceiling. Followed by no cap flexibility, no... oh forget about it.

[Nivek]

Last I checked, 7th would be IN THE PLAYOFFS. I mean !!!

What an achievement.

After reaching such a lofty goal -- dare I say "pinnacle" -- I wonder if Grunfeld would retire. You know, to go out on top. Top-ish. Well, in the middle, but still.

[fishercob]

Last I checked, 7th would be IN THE PLAYOFFS. I mean !!!

What an achievement.

After reaching such a lofty goal -- dare I say "pinnacle" -- I wonder if Grunfeld would retire. You know, to go out on top. Top-ish. Well, in the middle, but still.