Game Thread Wizard vs CHI SAT, Apr 5 @ 7:00PM -

[Zonkerbl]

Oh, I love to bash EJ. I know he was good on offense and he got a bunch of players paid, players whose offense declined significantly after they left.

But EJ TAUGHT his players to gamble for steals. EJ played Etan Thomas over Brendan Haywood.

He made it clear throughout his career that he didn't understand the defensive side of the ball AT ALL.

I liked EJ's offense, but I hated his defense. His inability to teach normal defensive principles to the team is the main reason they failed in the playoffs. Besides all the ridiculous injuries, sheesh.

[LyricalRico]

But EJ TAUGHT his players to gamble for steals. EJ played Etan Thomas over Brendan Haywood.

He made it clear throughout his career that he didn't understand the defensive side of the ball AT ALL.

Yep, remember "pack the paint"?

[Zonkerbl]

But EJ TAUGHT his players to gamble for steals. EJ played Etan Thomas over Brendan Haywood.

He made it clear throughout his career that he didn't understand the defensive side of the ball AT ALL.

Yep, remember "pack the paint"?

OH MY GOD

[hands11]

But EJ TAUGHT his players to gamble for steals. EJ played Etan Thomas over Brendan Haywood.

He made it clear throughout his career that he didn't understand the defensive side of the ball AT ALL.

Yep, remember "pack the paint"?

LOL Ohhh.. Team would rain 3s on us. Nightly. Specially NY.

And lets be honest. What was the offense. Pass, handoff, pass, weave .. time running out, Gil, CB or AJ go one on one. They rarely scored running the Princeton

The reason these players numbers went up was EJ played them all max minutes and gave all the green light to shoot whenever they wanted. They never passed to Haywood in the post. You had 3 offensively talented players who got up a lot of shots and played a lot of minutes and wasted ZERO energy on defense. They left that to Haywood to do on his own and DS on the perimeter.

Flawed design. That team was never going anywhere. Healthy Gil or not.

This team is designed much better. Pure PG. Pure SG Long Defensive SF with 3 ball Beast PF who defends, drives and pass and PnR center. What they had/have been missing is a better bench. A defensive sub center. A back up SG with handles.

[Zonkerbl]

But EJ TAUGHT his players to gamble for steals. EJ played Etan Thomas over Brendan Haywood.

He made it clear throughout his career that he didn't understand the defensive side of the ball AT ALL.

Yep, remember "pack the paint"?

LOL Ohhh.. Team would rain 3s on us. Nightly. Specially NY.

And lets be honest. What was the offense. Pass, handoff, pass, weave .. time running out, Gil, CB or AJ go one on one. They rarely scored running the Princeton

The reason these players numbers went up was EJ played them all max minutes and gave all the green light to shoot whenever they wanted. They never passed to Haywood in the post. You had 3 offensively talented players who got up a lot of shots and played a lot of minutes and wasted ZERO energy on defense. They left that to Haywood to do on his own and DS on the perimeter.

Flawed design. That team was never going anywhere. Healthy Gil or not.

This team is designed much better. Pure PG. Pure SG Long Defensive SF with 3 ball Beast PF who defends, drives and pass and PnR center. What they had/have been missing is a better bench. A defensive sub center. A back up SG with handles.

I disagree that this team is designed better. All the pieces were there for EJ to build a more balanced team. He had defensive talent that he failed to teach/utilize properly.

Kinda the same thing is happening with Witt now on the offensive side, with his overreliance on long twos. I'm amazed how many professionals involved in the NBA now still don't get basic arithmetic. Three is more than two. Witt doesn't get it on the offensive side. EJ didn't get it on the defensive side. Witt is more forgiveable -- mainly because Wall bails him out by manufacturing so many wide open threes. But Witt could easily teach Beal to aim for the three point line when he comes off of screens. On the other hand, what do I know? Maybe Witt is teaching Beal to be comfortable first, and then take threes later. Maybe that's why Love is so comfortable with the three point shot now, because Witt taught him to get comfortable taking long twos first. I hate to second guess Witt - if he's taking the long view, isn't that kinda what we want? With EJ it was obvious there was no long range plan -- he just didn't get it, full stop.

[DCZards]

Kinda the same thing is happening with Witt now on the offensive side, with his overreliance on long twos. I'm amazed how many professionals involved in the NBA now still don't get basic arithmetic. Three is more than two. Witt doesn't get it on the offensive side. EJ didn't get it on the defensive side. Witt is more forgiveable -- mainly because Wall bails him out by manufacturing so many wide open threes. But Witt could easily teach Beal to aim for the three point line when he comes off of screens. On the other hand, what do I know? Maybe Witt is teaching Beal to be comfortable first, and then take threes later. Maybe that's why Love is so comfortable with the three point shot now, because Witt taught him to get comfortable taking long twos first. I hate to second guess Witt - if he's taking the long view, isn't that kinda what we want? With EJ it was obvious there was no long range plan -- he just didn't get it, full stop.

I'm not a fan of the long 2 and would like to see Beal take fewer of the them---or none at all. But, as you suggest, I do believe that one of the reasons that Beal has the green light to take 2 pt shots--especially midrange jumpers--is that the Zards want him to grow comfortable and confident with that shot, which I think is a smart long term strategy. That shot needs to be in arsenal...along with three pointers and shots at the rim.

[dobrojim]

Kinda the same thing is happening with Witt now on the offensive side, with his overreliance on long twos. I'm amazed how many professionals involved in the NBA now still don't get basic arithmetic. Three is more than two. Witt doesn't get it on the offensive side. EJ didn't get it on the defensive side. Witt is more forgiveable -- mainly because Wall bails him out by manufacturing so many wide open threes. But Witt could easily teach Beal to aim for the three point line when he comes off of screens. On the other hand, what do I know? Maybe Witt is teaching Beal to be comfortable first, and then take threes later. Maybe that's why Love is so comfortable with the three point shot now, because Witt taught him to get comfortable taking long twos first. I hate to second guess Witt - if he's taking the long view, isn't that kinda what we want? With EJ it was obvious there was no long range plan -- he just didn't get it, full stop.

I'm not a fan of the long 2 and would like to see Beal take fewer of the them---or none at all. But, as you suggest, I do believe that one of the reasons that Beal has the green light to take 2 pt shots--especially midrange jumpers--is that the Zards want him to grow comfortable and confident with that shot, which I think is a smart long term strategy. That shot needs to be in arsenal...along with three pointers and shots at the rim.

It should be in the arsenal as a last resort. By design, we should go after the shots
that produce the highest net points per attempt. We all know that's not long 2s.

[advaita]

pls win ~ Toronto