GT #46: Wizards @ OKC Thunder 8 PM (CSN/99.1 FM) [2/1/16]

[bondom34]

Good game Wiz, best to you the rest of the way.

[stevemcqueen1]

Marcin Gortat is a major disappointment, he doesn't give this team anything on defense.

That is simply not true. Gortat is the only one who can defend the rim. Hard to do when you've got matadors playing guard and letting free dribble penetration into the paint. Teams are teeing off on us with the PnR and there is literally nothing March can do about it.

He's been our only regular that's been worth a damn on defense this season.

[ozthegap]

What room for growth? They have kd, Westbrook, ibaka, kanter, adams, and waiters all up on free agency or extensions in the nxt 3 yrs. And thats just off the top of my head. If they resign/extend all those guys they have no money to improve. If they let them go, their team is still based in Oklahoma. Their draft picks are low value whether they keep or trade them. How will they grow?

Ibaka 26, Kanter 23, Adams 22, all with potential to improve and positive trade value, what's so hard to understand?

Tell me a team that can offer Durant a better starting unit to step into, certainly not the **** Wizards, and certainly no other team in the East.

Also Cameron Payne is our best bench player and he is a rookie. We aren't going to improve to some otherworldly heights, but we do have some good room for growth internally.

Yeah but that can be a problem after a certain point. If the team doesn't have any change in their level of success after a few yrs, it might have a psychological effect on the players. A stagnant team might breed complacent players, especially if kd, westbrook, and ibaka continue to incur injuries at the same frequency they have throughout their careers.

[queridiculo]

Marcin Gortat is a major disappointment, he doesn't give this team anything on defense.

That is simply not true. Gortat is the only one who can defend the rim. Hard to do when you've got matadors playing guard and letting free dribble penetration into the paint. Teams are teeing off on us with the PnR and there is literally nothing March can do about it.

He's been our only regular that's been worth a damn on defense this season.

[AFM]

Amazing win for the Wiz, really proud of our boys for the gutsy comeback

[WallToWall]

so... this game went the way almost everyone predicted. Tough to see a way the Wiz could have won this one. We are just not at the same level as OKC. Having said that, we should make some changes this season, because our "savior" will not be here next year. And, we will not be winning anything if we are not at the level of OKC, at least. That too is pretty obvious.

[montestewart]

so… this game went the way almost everyone predicted.

Westbrook gets a quadruple double (points, rebounds, assists, minutes holding the ball)

See the future, be the future.

[dlts20]

I was at the game last night. I recently talked about how I hated that Witt left the shorter Beal on Kobe and Harden while they were shooting right over him with the longer Porter guarding a non factor. Last night I was upset at Patch from the jump because he had Wall guarding Westbrook instead of having Temple on him and Wall on Waiters.

All great coaches try to save there stars on D until important moments or until they have to because they are the best option. You would love to see Wall take the challenge but most guys don't like to if they know someone else should be guarding theplayer. Still wall was far too submissive to Westbrook.

You can always tell if we have a chance to win from the start. If Wall plays with energy and aggression then we can win but we mostly suck if he doesn't. I expect to see him be much more aggressive against GSW but it will be alot easier if we start Beal. Wall is great but he is streaky, Temple is a backup defensive player, and Porter is always iffy with underwhelming 3pt range. I love Dud but you can't count on him to get 20. Get a scorer like Beal in the starting lineup.

Why is he still on the bench anyways? Its ridiculous, minutes restriction or not. He can easily play the first 8 minutes of the half and the last 6 minutes to get to 28. Its actually harder to manage his minutes on the bench. Last night patch was horrible with his sub patterns. He kept bench guys just after they made 2 shots in a row. He played Beal 9 minutes in the first half and like 20min in the 2nd half. He did crazy stuff with Porter also. He's not the coach to replace Witt. Just because you coach under Pop doesn't mean that you will be great.

Again I just want to see our normal lineup for once so we can truly judge. You can't start 3 guys who aren't real scorers unless Wall is in MCPHERSON mode but he's not right now and probably won't get back there until Beal is starting again