GT: Wizards vs Pacers Feb 16, 1:00 AM CET

[Mojo Amok]

Exclusive photo of Marcus Smart's hand on the Grassy Knoll:

Spoiler:

[doclinkin]

Ibaka is 27th in RPM among 4s. Morris is now....

11th. I am sure he wasn't even top 40 around New Years.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM/position/6

And Patrick Patterson is 8th. Allowing substitution between him and Ibaka will improve their squad.

Plus minus stats are noisy since they depend on teammates, and the sample size since January is a tiny handful of minutes for real sampling. Morris has been playing primarily with the starters which would tend to make his numbers look good (dito playign in Orlando will suppress Ibakas) Yes Keef has been playing better, but sub Patterson or Ibaka in with the Wizards core 4 and they''d also look pretty good.

Which goes to nates point that our starters may have the edge on theirs -- but bench depth is not insignificant. We already play our starters more than any other team in the league. This gives fresher legs for the playoffs, less fatigue. We've got young starters, so maybe it doesn't matter, knocking wood and crossing fingers. But we've seen how players giving max effort in the regular season may mean a team hits their ceiling in the post season since there's no 'nother level. Our second half season gets tougher in strength of schedule, in road games, in back to backs, in West Coast swings. Its gonna be real work between now and then.

We've also seen how in the post season outside shooting can become deemphasized for grittier tougher play underneath. Adding big bodies in the front court helps a ton. Especially bigs who can shoot from range so you can space the floor without having to go small. Keef is key for us for that reason. Same way Patterson and Ibaka will be for Toronto. Actually by the numbers those three are fairly interchangable. Now if Markeif had an identical doppleganger who could sub in for him in the front court then, hey. But its not like we can clone him and make another Morris to tag in and out as needed. If he had like an identical twin or something then we'd be alright. They're good. They got better.

Anyway. I like our squad, Im just saying you really can't play our core players 40 minutes a night on the road back to backs fighting for seeding, and then also play them every minute of the playoffs. Not an expect them to raise their game to a playoff level with that extra gear required. Toronto has been playing strong. They just improved their depth in a position that is key for their play style, and emphasized in the playoffs. And loaded up an additional 6 fouls with a big body they can throw at LeBron. It's not an insignificant thing.

[tontoz]

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Wouldn't surprise me too much if Markieff maintains at like 36% from deep moving forward--Wall has always made guys better shooters for whatever reason.

Yep. The John Wall effect. It's real.

Kevin...I'm looking at you!

[Tricky_Kid]

This game in Chicago was disgracefull. Refs screw Boston in big way. Butler iso was horrendeus and He wasn't fouled at all. Not even close.

Sent from my HUAWEI CAM-L21 using RealGM mobile app

We need boston to lose...so im good with the phantom call. But I do know this... if we were playing ball and you grazed my elbow ever so slightly and we were playing in Barry Farms...I wouldn't call the foul.

I'm happy too that Boston lost and karma for Smart for non stop floping is good feeling but those refs were wrong. Waiting to see if Butler makes his shot just proves they wanted Bulls win

[Kanyewest]

From Reddit on why the call wasn't late.

1) The ref waited to see if the shot was made or missed before calling the foul
Response: This is just not true. In fact, the ref calls the entire play quickly and accurately. His handling of the play could literally be used as a teaching example in the NBA Video Rulebook.
Here is a frame-by-frame breakdown of the action, from the time the foul occurs to the conclusion of the play. The stills are pretty blurry, if you want a better view of what happened, just pause this video at the corresponding times. https://streamable.com/4egn5

0.9 sec
- The ball is still in Butler's hand.
- Smart makes light contact with Butler's elbow.
- The baseline referee is looking directly at the play.

0.4 sec
- The ball is roughly half way between Butler and the basket.
- This is the last moment that the ref is still looking at Butler. It has been 0.5 seconds since the foul occurred and 0.4 seconds since the ball left the shooters hand.

0.3 sec
- The ref begins to turn away from the players, and starts tracking the ball moving toward the basket.
- He does this because it's his responsibility to call if the shot was made or missed. He's performing his job exactly as he should. He is not doing this to see if the ball goes in or not before making the call.

0.2 sec
- The ball is still roughly 4 feet from the basket.
- This is the last moment that the ref could conceivably be reacting to, before deciding to call the foul. Anything that happens after this point isn't registered by the ref's brain in time for him to respond.
- If he somehow is deciding to call the foul because he thinks the shot is going to come up short, this is the point where that decision is being made.

-0.1 sec
- The ball has yet to reach the rim.
- The ref begins to bring his arm up to call the foul. This is last meaningful moment of the play.
So in about 1.0 seconds, the ref sees the foul, registers what is happening, makes his decision, and begins signalling the foul. He even starts calling the foul before the ball reaches the basket. I just don't see how you could possibly call that a late whistle, or expect refs to work any faster than that.

[J-Ves]

http://stats.nba.com/teams/four-factors/#!?sort=OPP_EFG_PCT&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=01%2F14%2F2017

Over this 15-2 stretch the Wizards have the best opponent EFG% in the NBA at 48.4%. On the season they are a pedestrian 51.4% (rank 19th).

[Illmatic12]

Ibaka is 27th in RPM among 4s. Morris is now....

11th. I am sure he wasn't even top 40 around New Years.

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM/position/6

And Patrick Patterson is 8th. Allowing substitution between him and Ibaka will improve their squad.

Plus minus stats are noisy since they depend on teammates, and the sample size since January is a tiny handful of minutes for real sampling. Morris has been playing primarily with the starters which would tend to make his numbers look good (dito playign in Orlando will suppress Ibakas) Yes Keef has been playing better, but sub Patterson or Ibaka in with the Wizards core 4 and they''d also look pretty good.

Which goes to nates point that our starters may have the edge on theirs -- but bench depth is not insignificant. We already play our starters more than any other team in the league. This gives fresher legs for the playoffs, less fatigue. We've got young starters, so maybe it doesn't matter, knocking wood and crossing fingers. But we've seen how players giving max effort in the regular season may mean a team hits their ceiling in the post season since there's no 'nother level. Our second half season gets tougher in strength of schedule, in road games, in back to backs, in West Coast swings. Its gonna be real work between now and then.

We've also seen how in the post season outside shooting can become deemphasized for grittier tougher play underneath. Adding big bodies in the front court helps a ton. Especially bigs who can shoot from range so you can space the floor without having to go small. Keef is key for us for that reason. Same way Patterson and Ibaka will be for Toronto. Actually by the numbers those three are fairly interchangable. Now if Markeif had an identical doppleganger who could sub in for him in the front court then, hey. But its not like we can clone him and make another Morris to tag in and out as needed. If he had like an identical twin or something then we'd be alright. They're good. They got better.

Anyway. I like our squad, Im just saying you really can't play our core players 40 minutes a night on the road back to backs fighting for seeding, and then also play them every minute of the playoffs. Not an expect them to raise their game to a playoff level with that extra gear required. Toronto has been playing strong. They just improved their depth in a position that is key for their play style, and emphasized in the playoffs. And loaded up an additional 6 fouls with a big body they can throw at LeBron. It's not an insignificant thing.

Kyle Lowry is leading the league in minutes (and he's 31yo):

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/minutes

and Derozan is playing more than any of our starters other than John. Who's gonna be tired in the playoffs again?