Official Thread -- Wizards vs Cavs (2/6/17)

[nate33]

I don't think so, Smith has been alright, but he doesn't roll as a center, so we don't create as much other than mid range jumpers. Mahinmi fits the first unit blue print of screen AND roll plus rim protection and rebounding.

Who cares if it's a pick-and-pop versus a pick-and-roll as long as Smith continues to shoot 59%?

What I'm trying to say is, Smith has been good put up some nice numbers, but his impact is somewhat overstated IMO. Mahinmi can be a huge boost.

I think Mahinmi will definitely be worse than Smith on offense. His D will have to be much better than Smith's to earn those minutes. That's certainly possible. We shall see. The main thing we need is a rim protector who can jam up those pick and rolls. Gortat positions himself well in PnR defense, but he lacks the length and/or athleticism to block the shot when the PG gets to the rim.

Brooks had zero issue re benching Oubre after he had 10 or so really good game earlier this year, Satoransky put up a nice double double then gets benched for more TREY BURKE the next few games. I have a hard time seeing Jason smith disappear from the rotation, which should happen. IMO

Oubre was horrible in help defense early in the season and it was understandable when Brooks benched him. He's better now. Brooks is rewarding him. Don't worry about Brooks. He's not Wittman. He doesn't reflexively play veterans over young players. He understands that his long term job is to groom guys like Oubre and Sato.

[Ruzious]

We lost (duh), but did the game show that the Wiz are a healthy Mahinmi plus fill in the blank 3rd guard away from being the 2nd best team in the East? Specifically, if they acquired Lou Williams without giving up a rotation player, would that make them arguably able to compete with Cleveland?

Personally, I think Cleveland's going to win the East, but if one of their big 3 went down, the Wiz could compete with them if they stay healthy and get Mr. Teardrop. Does that chance change your view on what they should do?

I'm not sure I get the fascination with Lou Williams as some kind of savior.
Sure he can get hot and steal a game for you on an occasional basis.
I worry about his impact in those other games.

I would agree with you except that he's having easily his best year this season - at age 30 - not only in production (crazy 29.6 points per 40 minutes) but also in efficiency (excellent eFG and TS%). He's a better player than he was when he won 6th Man of the Year. And he could fit at the Wiz 2 biggest weaknesses - backup PG and SG - in 1 player. Also, I think Wall and Beal are playing too many minutes. Getting Williams would change that.

[queridiculo]

Man, it still irks me that the Wizards gave this one away.

Quite a few breakdowns on that final play I feel like. What did we save our timeout for, why didn't we play the inbounds aggressively?

Great shot obviously, but those are the kind of situations you want to have everybody ready for, Morris doesn't even make an effort to get on the inbounder and I still don't understand why you don't go for the miss in that situation.

[NatP4]

I don't think so, Smith has been alright, but he doesn't roll as a center, so we don't create as much other than mid range jumpers. Mahinmi fits the first unit blue print of screen AND roll plus rim protection and rebounding.

Who cares if it's a pick-and-pop versus a pick-and-roll as long as Smith continues to shoot 59%?

What I'm trying to say is, Smith has been good put up some nice numbers, but his impact is somewhat overstated IMO. Mahinmi can be a huge boost.

I think Mahinmi will definitely be worse than Smith on offense. His D will have to be much better than Smith's to earn those minutes. That's certainly possible. We shall see. The main thing we need is a rim protector who can jam up those pick and rolls. Gortat positions himself well in PnR defense, but he lacks the length and/or athleticism to block the shot when the PG gets to the rim.

Brooks had zero issue re benching Oubre after he had 10 or so really good game earlier this year, Satoransky put up a nice double double then gets benched for more TREY BURKE the next few games. I have a hard time seeing Jason smith disappear from the rotation, which should happen. IMO

Oubre was horrible in help defense early in the season and it was understandable when Brooks benched him. He's better now. Brooks is rewarding him. Don't worry about Brooks. He's not Wittman. He doesn't reflexively play veterans over young players. He understands that his long term job is to groom guys like Oubre and Sato.

Yes, to your last point, I do understand that, earlier in the season it wasn't clear, but now i see his planning.

My point was simply that Mahinmi rolling, just like Gortat, prevents switching, we don't have a single guard that can really attack switches, other than Brad I guess, similar to when Morris plays the 5, out offense sucks, Wall gets confused. The roll threat opens up our shooters. The difference is then that Sato can actually find the roll guy or the open shooter, and draw help. Burke does NOTHING.

Our strength will ALWAYS always always be pick and roll with spacing. Like the Paul pierce at the 4 days, it fits around John Wall. Satoransky and the 2nd unit should be similar.

Mahinmi is actually pretty good offensively rolling and finishing IMO. Satoransky and Mahinmi can make a dynamite PNR combo and give our 2nd unit real structure on both ends.

[J-Ves]

We lost (duh), but did the game show that the Wiz are a healthy Mahinmi plus fill in the blank 3rd guard away from being the 2nd best team in the East? Specifically, if they acquired Lou Williams without giving up a rotation player, would that make them arguably able to compete with Cleveland?

Personally, I think Cleveland's going to win the East, but if one of their big 3 went down, the Wiz could compete with them if they stay healthy and get Mr. Teardrop. Does that chance change your view on what they should do?

I'm not sure I get the fascination with Lou Williams as some kind of savior.
Sure he can get hot and steal a game for you on an occasional basis.
I worry about his impact in those other games.

He would make this years Wizards team much better. I'm not advocating the Wiz trade a first for anyone because I understand the value of having a player on a 4 year deal for dirt cheap, but Lou is basically a lesser version of IT.

[dobrojim]

Man, it still irks me that the Wizards gave this one away.

Quite a few breakdowns on that final play I feel like. What did we save our timeout for, why didn't we play the inbounds aggressively?

Great shot obviously, but those are the kind of situations you want to have everybody ready for, Morris doesn't even make an effort to get on the inbounder and I still don't understand why you don't go for the miss in that situation.

One other thing on the last play in regulation

1st we threw the ball out of bounds with nobody touching it. Cavs ball.

Then they did the same thing except John caught the ball way out of bounds.
We/he should of let it go. It would have been our ball all over again with 0.3. No biggie really
but you never know.

[nate33]

A 45-page game thread in the middle of February!

[tontoz]

That was an awesome game.

I have been trying to get my cousin into the NBA for years. He is a big U of Md basketball fan, watches all their games and had season tickets for years. I have been talking to him a lot about the Wizards lately. His wife went to a game recently and got on TV. He was watching last night and was like... .

[CobraCommander]

That was an awesome game.

I have been trying to get my cousin into the NBA for years. He is a big U of Md basketball fan, watches all their games and had season tickets for years. I have been talking to him a lot about the Wizards lately. His wife went to a game recently and got on TV. He was watching last night and was like... .

That's a WIn....

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Keep giving Oubre a crack at Lebron. One is getting better as the other ages.

Agreed. What I saw was that KO was every bit as annoying to LBJ as he is to most players.

Oubre did a nice job in ball denial, but once Lebron got the ball and could square up against him, he just lowered his shoulder and bullied his way to the rim. Oubre provided no resistance and got into foul trouble.

I'm not hating. Lebron can do that to most players. I'm just saying that the notion that Brooks committed some kind of mistake by not having Oubre on Lebron at all times just doesn't hold up. Oubre needs more experience before he can be a dependable lock down defender. He's not there yet.

Agreed. Might not take him long, though, nate.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Why do I feel more confident in the team


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Because you logical...NatP4...please listen and learn...

I don't disagree, but in fairness I'll add a caveat (and some around here may not even be old enough to remember it), but this is the same line of thinking we used to console ourselves when Jordan's bulls swept us in '97, but had to use every last trick in the book to win 3 consecutive tight games (and after which, Jordan complimented us on being an Eastern Conference team of the future, should have known not to make him GM in '01 simply based upon that quote alone), and going even further back, the '87-'88 playoffs against the Pistons that was tightly contested (or the less tightly contested '86-'87 series where we began the process of repeatedly losing huge playoff games by a basket-did it in that series, again in '87-'88, again in '96-'97, 3 1 point playoff losses to the cars in '05-'06.

Moral victories only matter if you end up turning them into something tangible over time. For us, that has not ever happened in our lifetimes period. These have all been moments of NBA playoff Iron Pyrite for us. Fools Gold.

I don't know whats happening going forward, but I do know we were a bottom 7 team in the league 2 months ago, and now we're playing like a top 2 team in the East, as we finish the season on that epic road trip, we'll see if things go pear shaped, for now I'm happy, and being competitive in games like this is nice, but don't take it anywhere beyond that. We've all seen that movie before, the mega home winning streak, and not this game, is what has impressed me, and definitely not something we've seen before (at least in recent decades).

Okay.

It's not how you start, but how you finish.

I just happen to believe this team is improving and bound to finish strong.

We shall see, Consiglieri.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Pardon the blue language, but bring it on.

Watch on YouTube

(New song to strut to at 24 Hr Fitness ... (If ... I pray and God says it's okay for me to rock out to this ...)

My new theme song!

[CobraCommander]

Why do I feel more confident in the team


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Because you logical...NatP4...please listen and learn...

I don't disagree, but in fairness I'll add a caveat (and some around here may not even be old enough to remember it), but this is the same line of thinking we used to console ourselves when Jordan's bulls swept us in '97, but had to use every last trick in the book to win 3 consecutive tight games (and after which, Jordan complimented us on being an Eastern Conference team of the future, should have known not to make him GM in '01 simply based upon that quote alone), and going even further back, the '87-'88 playoffs against the Pistons that was tightly contested (or the less tightly contested '86-'87 series where we began the process of repeatedly losing huge playoff games by a basket-did it in that series, again in '87-'88, again in '96-'97, 3 1 point playoff losses to the cars in '05-'06.

Moral victories only matter if you end up turning them into something tangible over time. For us, that has not ever happened in our lifetimes period. These have all been moments of NBA playoff Iron Pyrite for us. Fools Gold.

I don't know whats happening going forward, but I do know we were a bottom 7 team in the league 2 months ago, and now we're playing like a top 2 team in the East, as we finish the season on that epic road trip, we'll see if things go pear shaped, for now I'm happy, and being competitive in games like this is nice, but don't take it anywhere beyond that. We've all seen that movie before, the mega home winning streak, and not this game, is what has impressed me, and definitely not something we've seen before (at least in recent decades).

I agree with you. This isnt winning a ring. Its February...Monday night NBA game. But here is my retort. JW was talking and letting people know the Wizards are coming. John isnt shying from the challenge and the rest of the Wiz showed up to play. This is a mile marker. When you look at this Wizards roster with ONE Allstar.... think about that ...one allstar...the cavs have so many more decorated players that deserve to be more decorated and they won a game that they should win against the wiz. But think about this. Everyone (people more knowledgeable than us) are talking about John being the best guard in the East conf and the Wiz being the team to challenge the Cavs this year. That is something to BUILD UPON. Beal showed up big time, Otto had a good offensive game, Morris was bad and gortat was solid but is aging but we have validation with that game that we are a team on the come up. This isnt Gilbert Arenas and his squad against Lebron and his or Webber against Jordans Bulls. Lebron was in his prime and we ALL knew that Lebron was going to be standing in Gil's wizards way forever and Webber and Howard had a lot of other issues that prevented them from being champions (injuries and bad contracts). Beal is possibly our worse contract...and he is avg 22 points a game and is REALLY young.

The same way Lebron is saying he needs more help to get over the hump....the Wiz can legitimately say they are 1-3 pieces away from being a contending team and with those Webber and Gil teams, as I remember it, we were trying to make it happen with what we had. In other words we had our hand and we were trying to play it and hope it beats the other teams. BUT WE ARE NOT THERE with this squad. We all know that the roster needs improving but we also know we have a few guys on the roster that we would like to keep long term- Wall, Beal, Otto and Kelly are keepers...Gortat (if in his 20s or any younger would' be a keeper but could be a solid backup as he ages because his contract in this NBA isnt bad).

In my mind we are young at our best positions... Younger than anyone else that is better than us at those positions in the east and we can build on that.

The coach seems to know what he is doing....I like that...

I dont know about yall but I am thinking long term and I feel extremely positive about the team....much more positive Than before the game.

ALso I would ask yall to watch espn and fox and listen to/read national news (including boston and Toronto) stating that the WIZARDS are for real and are CLEARLY the second best team in the east. Lebron is 32 and they may have 2 more elite years with him...if we can improve and keep our core, we can grow up and beat them...as long as we can keep Philly and Milwaukee (and maybe Miami) at bay while we get better and improve our roster.

I am buying this STOCK...you guys can do what you want... Go wiz

[dangermouse]

That was like a playoff game. One for the ages right there. I was disappointed we lost, especially when we let Kyrie dominate with Lebron fouled out. But when it was all said and done I enjoyed the game so much I didnt care. We showed we are legit, too.

[dobrojim]

So I re-watched the game last night and came away more encouraged.

Yes Beal and Porter played 'well above average' and were clearly helpful to
the cause, but neither Wall nor Gortat played well. Oubre missed a couple easy
shots (easy for me to say). Morris was average Morris.

LBJ is not going to play much better than he did. Neither is Love. Or Thompson.

It's possible we could beat them. Not saying we should be favorites
but I am saying it could be done.

We flubbed a number of key opportunities, any number of which would
have resulted in a W.

PS - in sharp contrast to their traditional editorial comments about the zards,
they (TNT media people) were almost glowing in their praise for our team.

[payitforward]

That was an awesome game.

I have been trying to get my cousin into the NBA for years. ...

How tall is he? Or, do you think he can play backup point guard?

[tontoz]

We have 3 legit stars now out of the blue. I always thought the only way we could land a star was through free agency/trade. Building a team is a lot easier when you already have 3 stars who play both ends of the court, complement each other and have played together for years.