Hands11 caught trying to rehydrate the sponge (credit to Sluggerface)

[doclinkin]

Oh man I wish. But personally I'd never sell a 2nd rounder, and generally would like extra round 2 picks to get a free try at players whose stats catch my eye. (Richaun Holmes, Jae Crowder, Chandler Parsons, Patty Mills/Danny Green/DJ Blair, Marc Gasol/Ramon Sessions)

And would have fired Ernie myself for not picking Stef Curry.

[montestewart]

Oh man I wish. But personally I'd never sell a 2nd rounder.

And would have fired myself for not picking Stef Curry.

No one's saying you're EG. Owners don't fire themselves. They make sweet, sweet brownies from foul, fetid feces. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. You can do it Toc!

[doclinkin]

Oh man I wish. But personally I'd never sell a 2nd rounder.

And would have fired myself for not picking Stef Curry.

No one's saying you're EG. Owners don't fire themselves. They make sweet, sweet brownies from foul, fetid feces. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. You can do it Toc!

Missed the edit, sorry.

[doclinkin]

But the future is bright! All is going according to plan! The lottery is a crapshoot! Pick proven talents and you can succeed in the league! We have a core! Our starters are set! Young developing players who have not yet peaked! Fill in with solid veterans! We have money to recruit a team built around our strengths! Smart savvy moves to select solid veterans behind our young talent! There are plans and back up plans! We often uncover undervalued talents like Ariza, Webster, etc.! And find ways to make Carons out of Kwames! We are building from within! A new coaching staff has the opportunity to help shape the team they like! Make happy pixels!

[montestewart]

Oh man I wish. But personally I'd never sell a 2nd rounder.

And would have fired myself for not picking Stef Curry.

No one's saying you're EG. Owners don't fire themselves. They make sweet, sweet brownies from foul, fetid feces. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. You can do it Toc!

Missed the edit, sorry.

And remember, you're really, really rich.

[doclinkin]

Ernie does tend to do better selecting slightly used veterans who may be undervalued by their teams for reasons other than ability. Latrell Sprewell is an example. Caron Butler seen as a tweener. Antawn Jamison ditto. Free agency has not been as successful as trades, as a recruiter he's no hard sell, at this point playing next to John Wall is the only selling point.

But trust in Ernie! There are bargains to be found! Trust our new coaching staff! Scott Brooks is a canny and thoughtful guy who has been watching the league carefully in the year he's been out. He has good ideas how he wants this team to play. Ballhandlers, outside shooting, interior attacking players who can drive from the perimeter!

[doclinkin]

There's room for positivity!

[AFM]

I'm all out of room daddy

[montestewart]

There's room for positivity!

Cruex of Decision. Best novel I've read in years.

[montestewart]

I'm all out of room daddy

Maybe weed is the answer for Kief. Let him play stoned, sort of a variation on Jackie Chan's Drunken Fist style. Suddenly he's a 6'10" Klay Thompson.

[AFM]

I'm all out of room daddy

Maybe weed is the answer for Kief. Let him play stoned, sort of a variation on Jackie Chan's Drunken Fist style. Suddenly he's a 6'10" Klay Thompson.

I feel you

Some ganja would have saved Vesely's career honestly
dude had free throw anxiety

[BigA]

Thought we could use a little diversion from the conversation about how the Wizards' two max players hate each other.

I'm doing a couple tests of posts written by milellie111 and hands11 with an online author attribution tool to see if anything interesting comes up. I'm using the AICBT Online Authorship Attribution Tool. With this tool, you put in text from two authors who are known and compare them with text from an unknown author to see if you can attribute the unknown author's text to one of the two known authors.

TEST 1:

Text from hands11 (Author 1): And that is what the entire season was about. A GM that is amazing at drafting might be able to get away with drafting a team from scratch that can get to the playoffs, but usually you see young talent go to waste as the crap team with bad front office draft players that never make it to the playoffs and get traded to other teams where they play well and get that experience.

Philly was stupid to trade Nikola V. Tobias Harris was also picked up by ORL.

But most these high pick team have high picks for a reason. They have bad front offices and they aren't likely to pick well year after year or know how to put enough vets around their young players so they develop with playoff experience. See and CLE and SAC so far.

EG has wasted a ton of assets, but ensuring they aren't wasting Wall and Beal as assets by getting them into the playoff is smart. Specially this being Wall 4th year.

Text from AWIZZINGBULLET (Author 2): They seem to have pretty good chemistry already. My big concern was that egos might get in the way of what's important, that is, winning one game at a time by any means and getting the team's record to match the team's roster/talent a bit more.

The article about them ironing things out is big to me and I'll be waiting to see what they look like as a duo starting with the game against the Raptors. I don't feel they need three or four full seasons worth of play together in order to put petty individual goals aside.

Don't steal shots from your teammate.

Don't baller "block" if you see your teammate balling out of control but find yourself struggling.

Leaving egos outside of the arena for the good of the team is a concept I think they should be able to grasp right now, especially considering the way the team's been teetering at .500.

I don't know if by chemistry you mean, it becoming second nature for Wall and Beal to know where the other will be on the court, but if so, that's not what I mean.

My concern has more to do with player egos. I'm hoping they're able to put it aside. I'm feeling like there's a good chance they do.

Text from milellie111 (Unknown Author):I believe Ernie Grunfeld deserves some credit for such a well balanced team he has put together. The best backcourt in the league with Wall and Beal, one of the best overall small forwards in the East (Ariza),a legit starter in Booker,and a serviceable center in Gortat.The bench is also deep. Garrett Temple is a gem and one of the best defensive backup pgs in the league, Nene is a top 10 power forward in the league when healthy, Martell Webster could be a starter on another team, Vesely is a rebounding freak and has lots of potential and Otto Porter has star potential. Most importantly this team has chemistry, the guys look as if they all mesh and have fun playing together and there are no knuckleheads/problem childs on the team.

There is a reason Grunfeld still has his job....Because he knows what he's doing!! Constantly im reading on here and hearing from Wizards fans they want Grunfeld gone. Ernie actually needs an extension. This team is built to hang with anyone in the East and the future looks bright with the money we have to sign a free agent. Most importantly, Ernie chose the right coach in Whittman. He could be a candidate for coach of the year if the team keeps playing like it is. Whittmans coaching style is working and the guys are responding. Whittman has turned Wall into a star right under our eyes and possibly the best all around point guard in the league (offensively and defensively). Quiet as kept, Ted Leonsis is one of the best owners in the league compared to some other guys (mark cuban). Ted cares about this team and is committed to winning. Also, he is one of the most down to earth individuals out there.

The future looks bright for this team and i hope everyone is retained on the coaching and management staff as i see this team being one of the best in the NBA.

RESULT: INCONCLUSIVE - The software compares three aspects of the texts: function word analysis lexical analysis, and punctuation analysis. The first two were neutral in attributing the milellie111 text to one of the two other authors, while the punctuation analysis had the milellie111 text as being more likely written by Author 2 (AWIZZINGBULLET) than Author 1 (hands11).

[BigA]

Authorship attribution, hands11 vs. milellie111

TEST 2:

Text from hands11 (Author 1): And yet I still enjoy reading his posts.

So what. He took a position in support of the team. Lets go hang the dude.. Oh the outrage. A fan of a team was positive about the team he is a fan of.

Its easy pickings to beat down on the team when things aren't going well. That's takes not great talent or emotional courage.
And its easy pickings to jump on the bus when things are going well. Same as above.

I have no issue with people having the balls to be positive about the bigger picture and hoping that things work out for a player or coach. Hell. I wanted things to work out for Randy and he showed some glimpses. And he does have his strengths. Its just at times, I have no idea why he does what he does because it just doesn't make sense. Its like he lives in a bubble.

The team, the coaches... We are learning who they are or aren't over time. Randy is better then many projected. He just isn't as good as we want or need right now. And I'm not sensing its in his personality to adjust to what is needed. Being stubbornly committed can be a strength sometimes if you vision requires patients. Its can also be a huge liability is you are wrong. He seems to be more the type to double down something and force it to work as best as it can then to adjust to the talents of the players he has. And I don't think he is noticing the changing trend in the league regarding motion offenses and 3 ball shooting.

So no. I'm not down on Milli for having hope and drinking some Kool-aid. He has his positive view and he voiced it. Hell, he even had to balls to do it here where negative seems to win the day. Hell, he even had the balls to do it even though he was negative on the team in the past but excepted the changes he saw. And he hasn't backed down from answering question even though others have shown little intelligence in addressing him. Or courtesy.

Here is a question. Why is it so much worse here for someone to be very positive and wrong then it is for those that have been consistently negative and wrong. Where is the outrage over those people ?

Text from Chocolate City Jordanaire (Author 2): It's not how you start. It's how you finish. Five straight losses and 4 wins, eight losses over the last 12 are the reasons for my discontent.

Seraphin hasn't taken a leap. That is a perception that I don't believe you can justify using actual objective measures. If you say he rebounds better or passes better I will show you what he does worse. But I will be the first to say I think Seraphin at PF and Gortat at C is something that Wittman needs to try.

Milellie111, I believe Pierce and Humphries are great pieces of the roster success. The problem is more with how this coach utilizes the roster he has. How is Gortat doing since getting his deal? Is Humphries taking away or adding to Marcin Gortat? Same with Pierce? You want Seraphin to replace Gortat?

Washington is losing consistently to teams that go small and pick apart slow defensive rotation. Perimeter defense is not like it was last season with Ariza. Wall is having a great season but opposing guards are getting to the rim with regularity against the Wizards.

Instead of building on youth like Rice and Porter after they dominated summer league, the Wizards brought in Butler and Temple. Good for the short term but are they winning now?

Look at teams like Charlotte, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Boston. They are currently behind the Wizards but they don't have a bunch of players over 30 who aren't going to get better.

Milellie111, of those 4 teams can you assure me that Washington will finish stronger than all four? Forget Atlanta. Cleveland has a loaded roster now. Toronto seems to have Washington's number. Chicago has problems with Washington but I still like Rose in a series if he's healthy. The Wizards need to be better than the rest. Are they?

Text from milellie111 (Unknown Author): Not trolling here, just looking at this thing from both sides of the coin.Sure, losses suck but let's not hang our heads down too low. These past 3 losses were 8 points or less and one was in overtime. We are not totally getting blown out or dominated. The loss to Phoenix in Phoenix is nothing to be ashamed of. The Suns have beaten some quality teams this year including San Antonio, Golden State and recently Cleavland and Chicago.

Losing only by 4 in overtime to Toronto shows that in a 4 game series it will be close and will be determined by who stays hot. Toronto was unbelievably hot last game but they won't shoot like that every single game in a 4 game series.

Last night was just a bad loss at home, but Charlotte is no lottery team. They themselves have recently beat Toronto, New Orleans and Miami.

So yes, I'm saying the sky isn't falling, this is not the time to panic and make a desperate trade or "clean house". Our current group of guys have built a chemistry. Wall is hurt/banged up and the team could use some needed rest approaching all star break to regroup and come back out with a vengeance. Gortat did not all of a sudden forget how to play center within the last month neither has Rasual Butler forgotten how to make a 3 pointer. Guys will settle down, these slumps happen around the league with other teams and players too.

Do not lose faith yet wondering if we are still a good team or not. This is still a 50+ win playoff team.

RESULT: INCONCLUSIVE - On function word analysis, the software says that the milellie111 text is slightly more likely to have been written by Author 2 (CCJ) than Author 1 (hands11). In the lexical and punctuation areas, the software is neutral.

[BigA]

Maybe this software is too limited with writing lengths that we have available. I just ran a quick test using two posts by hands11 as Author 1 and the Unknown Author and another post in the same thread from someone else as Author 2. On function word analysis the software was uncertain, on lexical analysis it strongly attributed the Unknown Author's text to Author 2, and on punctuation analysis it correctly attributed the Unknown Author's text to Author 1 (hands11).

[BigA]

Just bumping one of the greatest threads in Wizboard history because it's the offseason and people are mostly posting just in the politics thread.

[montestewart]

Just bumping one of the greatest threads in Wizboard history because it's the offseason and people are mostly posting just in the politics thread.

Hands? Is that you?

[payitforward]

I still miss Hands. Can't help it.

Is he still active on BF??

[closg00]

I still miss Hands. Can't help it.

Is he still active on BF??

If you miss him, you can catch him over at the BF. Still the same, multiple accounts, shilling for Ernie, and encouraging everyone to just "sit back"

[Zonkerbl]

Politics suck!

[montestewart]

Politics suck!

Imagine Hands vs Trump. The politics thread would be Ringling Brothers meets War and Peace