Ian Mahinmi

[tontoz]

We should probably have a thread about this guys game.

Based on what little we have seen he has legit center size, good athleticism and a good motor which can make him a real impact player on defense.

Looks a bit clumsy at times on offense. Wall will probably be a bit more careful with passes to him than he is with Gortat. He will probably get more putbacks than Gortat though. Having two playmaking PGs should help him a bit.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

[Mojo Amok]

Reacting to dribble penetration:

Watch on YouTube

Weakside Help defense:

Watch on YouTube

[TheKingOfVa360]

He is going to be a force in the playoffs. I could see him destroying Boston due to their lack of rebounding and lack of athletic bigs.

[sfam]

Mahinmi is really rounding into form. Its pretty cool seeing an impactful defensive big on our team. I'm surprised about his offense around the basket. He has decent finishing moves. Unlike Gortat, he doesn't really move without the basket, but maybe this changes in time.

He's help defense is extraordinary, which in today's game where everyone sits at the perimeter, really makes an impact. I'm not seeing a 30+ point differential every night, but wow, he really can change the game.

Agree with 360 that Mahinmi's impact will be magnified in the playoffs.

[nate33]

Unlike Gortat, he doesn't really move without the basket, but maybe this changes in time.

It sure would be nice if he picked up some of Gortat's pick-and-roll techniques while playing against him in practice.

[tontoz]

Ian and Smith came up big last night with a combined 18/13 shooting 9-10 from the field. Ian definitely looks like he is starting to get comfortable and should be a big asset in the playoffs.

[Mojo Amok]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

While it would be unfair to put all the blame on any one player....

GORTAT'S FAULT!!!

....there would be a lot to be said for some actual rim protection and general ship-swallowing Bermuda Triangle like disruption from the pivot. Or, you know, at least having a center in the opposing team's highlight real dunks out of half-court sets doing something other than looking up at the rim like he just put down the Sunday morning crossword puzzle with oatmeal caked on his lapel.

Gortat does a lot right and had a good game overall last night, but his "help defense" *clears throat* is starting to become really problematic. Morris is a culprit here too, but our only real option given personnel there is a quick hook for Smith, which is really situational at best depending on matchups (though a good idea all the same).

Either way you've got about 20 minutes from Mighty Yawn and plenty of minutes for Marcin, but I'm seeing the value with the starters for Mahinmi and there's not much more time to cement a lineup with the playoffs nigh. The bench is looking like it needs more scoring pop anyway and you've got Jennings as a reasonable vessel through which to work pick and roll juju.

#makethechange

[J-Ves]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

http://on.nba.com/2mzALFu
Since March 5th (5 games) the Wizards have the 3rd worst defense in the NBA. They have the best offense over that stretch. Interesting enough, Portland has the second best offense since that date.

[krii]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

While it would be unfair to put all the blame on any one player....

GORTAT'S FAULT!!!

....there would be a lot to be said for some actual rim protection and general ship-swallowing Bermuda Triangle like disruption from the pivot. Or, you know, at least having a center in the opposing team's highlight real dunks out of half-court sets doing something other than looking up at the rim like he just put down the Sunday morning crossword puzzle with oatmeal caked on his lapel.

Gortat does a lot right and had a good game overall last night, but his "help defense" *clears throat* is starting to become really problematic. Morris is a culprit here too, but our only real option given personnel there is a quick hook for Smith, which is really situational at best depending on matchups (though a good idea all the same).

Either way you've got about 20 minutes from Mighty Yawn and plenty of minutes for Marcin, but I'm seeing the value with the starters for Mahinmi and there's not much more time to cement a lineup with the playoffs nigh. The bench is looking like it needs more scoring pop anyway and you've got Jennings as a reasonable vessel through which to work pick and roll juju.

#makethechange

you do realize that Gortat played significantly lower amount of minutes compared to pre-AS schedule? so if there is anything that is statistically relevant in here, it is completely opposite to what you state.

[Mojo Amok]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

http://on.nba.com/2mzALFu
Since March 5th (5 games) the Wizards have the 3rd worst defense in the NBA. They have the best offense over that stretch. Interesting enough, Portland has the second best offense since that date.

Yeah, you're right - Wizards were actually 16th in DRTG from February 24th to March 4th, so it's really just the last week when the majority of the damage has been done.

you do realize that Gortat played significantly lower amount of minutes compared to pre-AS schedule? so if there is anything that is statistically relevant in here, it is completely opposite to what you state.

Gortat losing minutes over the course of a defensive slide by no means equates with him being innocent of defensive wrongdoing.

He in fact has a DRTG of 117 over the last six games on 26.7 minutes, which is 11 per hundred possessions worse than Ian over the same stretch (though admittedly, that's not particularly good by Mahinmi's normal standards either and it's also not a fool-proof stat by any means):

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/WAS/2017.html

Aside from the view from the slide rule, my lying eyes are telling me that Gortat's providing zero rim protection against dribble penetration on a disturbingly large number of possessions. He's not even attempting to get into the equation on many of these, which is not easy to overlook.

[europeanfan]

I think he made a strong case during this trip. Only thing is he needs to cut down the dumb offensive fouls/TOs but he's a beast defensively.

You can't win a championship without a top 10 defense.

Start Ian, send a message.

People don't want to hurt Gortat's feelings or something but he didn't care about the bench's feelings when he called them out. There's an issue and that seems like the obvious fix.

[80sballboy]

I think he made a strong case during this trip. Only thing is he needs to cut down the dumb offensive fouls/TOs but he's a beast defensively.

You can't win a championship without a top 10 defense.

Start Ian, send a message.

People don't want to hurt Gortat's feelings or something but he didn't care about the bench's feelings when he called them out. There's an issue and that seems like the obvious fix.

I don't mind starting Gortat but if the team is giving up 35 points in the first quarter consistently, maybe you get Mahinmi in during the first media TO at around 6:00 mark. The problem with starting him is what you just mentioned-he's foul-prone. He'll foul out if you start him (and play him 30mpg) and you'll need him late in the game against a decent offensive center.

[leswizards]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

While it would be unfair to put all the blame on any one player....

GORTAT'S FAULT!!!

....there would be a lot to be said for some actual rim protection and general ship-swallowing Bermuda Triangle like disruption from the pivot. Or, you know, at least having a center in the opposing team's highlight real dunks out of half-court sets doing something other than looking up at the rim like he just put down the Sunday morning crossword puzzle with oatmeal caked on his lapel.

Gortat does a lot right and had a good game overall last night, but his "help defense" *clears throat* is starting to become really problematic. Morris is a culprit here too, but our only real option given personnel there is a quick hook for Smith, which is really situational at best depending on matchups (though a good idea all the same).

Either way you've got about 20 minutes from Mighty Yawn and plenty of minutes for Marcin, but I'm seeing the value with the starters for Mahinmi and there's not much more time to cement a lineup with the playoffs nigh. The bench is looking like it needs more scoring pop anyway and you've got Jennings as a reasonable vessel through which to work pick and roll juju.

#makethechange

Bogdanovic has been playing 24.8 mpg since the All Star game. His defensive rating is 113. Gortat, Smith, Porter, Morris, Oubre and Satoransky have all seen their minutes cut to get Bogdanovic those 24.8 mpg. While none of those players are great defensive players, they are all better defenders than Bogdanovic. The drop in the defensive rating has more to do with the addition of Bogdanovic than anything else.

[nate33]

We've actually gone from about 10th in DRTG to 14th in what seems like a fairly rapid clip - a few weeks, was it? How bad do you have to be defensively to drop four slots in a few weeks? Certainly bottom ten.

While it would be unfair to put all the blame on any one player....

GORTAT'S FAULT!!!

....there would be a lot to be said for some actual rim protection and general ship-swallowing Bermuda Triangle like disruption from the pivot. Or, you know, at least having a center in the opposing team's highlight real dunks out of half-court sets doing something other than looking up at the rim like he just put down the Sunday morning crossword puzzle with oatmeal caked on his lapel.

Gortat does a lot right and had a good game overall last night, but his "help defense" *clears throat* is starting to become really problematic. Morris is a culprit here too, but our only real option given personnel there is a quick hook for Smith, which is really situational at best depending on matchups (though a good idea all the same).

Either way you've got about 20 minutes from Mighty Yawn and plenty of minutes for Marcin, but I'm seeing the value with the starters for Mahinmi and there's not much more time to cement a lineup with the playoffs nigh. The bench is looking like it needs more scoring pop anyway and you've got Jennings as a reasonable vessel through which to work pick and roll juju.

#makethechange

Bogdanovic has been playing 24.8 mpg since the All Star game. His defensive rating is 113. Gortat, Smith, Porter, Morris, Oubre and Satoransky have all seen their minutes cut to get Bogdanovic those 24.8 mpg. While none of those players are great defensive players, they are all better defenders than Bogdanovic. The drop in the defensive rating has more to do with the addition of Bogdanovic than anything else.

Here are the respective DRtg's of our starters since the All-Star break:

Wall - 114
Beal - 116
Otto - 111
Morris - 112
Gortat - 113

It doesn't seem right to single out Bogdanovic based on DRtg.

[Mojo Amok]

Bogdanovic has been playing 24.8 mpg since the All Star game. His defensive rating is 113. Gortat, Smith, Porter, Morris, Oubre and Satoransky have all seen their minutes cut to get Bogdanovic those 24.8 mpg. While none of those players are great defensive players, they are all better defenders than Bogdanovic. The drop in the defensive rating has more to do with the addition of Bogdanovic than anything else.

Here are the respective DRtg's of our starters since the All-Star break:

Wall - 114
Beal - 116
Otto - 111
Morris - 112
Gortat - 113

It doesn't seem right to single out Bogdanovic based on DRtg.

Good numbers.

And sure, it's true that Bogey has been bad defensively, but he's obviously not alone.

And it gets worse if we look at right when the defensive slide really started to get bad - the second Toronto game. We were still 9th by DEFRTG as of March 1st and are now 16th; the play from March 3rd to March 14th having been the 27th worst DEFRTG in the league.

http://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/#!?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=03%2F02%2F2017

(Note: DEFRTG is calculated differently from DRTG - you also have to mess around with the filter on that link to see all those dates properly).

We're also 24th for opponent points in the paint from March 3rd till now and were actually tied for 2nd worst in the league over about a one week period this month:

http://stats.nba.com/teams/misc/#!?sort=OPP_PTS_PAINT&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=03%2F03%2F2017

And then here's some DRTG numbers from March 3rd till now:

Wall - 119
Beal - 118
Otto - 115
Morris - 117
Gortat - 116
Bogey - 121
Mahinmi - 107

But the worst of it to me is interior defenders being in position to challenge a shot as a help defender to at least some extent and just doing absolutely nothing. That's been starting before Bogey even gets on the floor. There's no foundation to what you're doing while that's going on and that affects how the wing defenders are going to play things (not to say this is Bogey's issue as he probably doesn't fully understand our scheme and would be bad regardless, but the rest of them are affected).

[tontoz]

I remember Kevin posting that individual DRTG is a pretty worthless stat.

[krii]

Bogdanovic has been playing 24.8 mpg since the All Star game. His defensive rating is 113. Gortat, Smith, Porter, Morris, Oubre and Satoransky have all seen their minutes cut to get Bogdanovic those 24.8 mpg. While none of those players are great defensive players, they are all better defenders than Bogdanovic. The drop in the defensive rating has more to do with the addition of Bogdanovic than anything else.

Here are the respective DRtg's of our starters since the All-Star break:

Wall - 114
Beal - 116
Otto - 111
Morris - 112
Gortat - 113

It doesn't seem right to single out Bogdanovic based on DRtg.

Good numbers.

And sure, it's true that Bogey has been bad defensively, but he's obviously not alone.

And it gets worse if we look at right when the defensive slide really started to get bad - the second Toronto game. We were still 9th by DEFRTG as of March 1st and are now 16th; the play from March 3rd to March 14th having been the 27th worst DEFRTG in the league.

http://stats.nba.com/teams/advanced/#!?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=03%2F02%2F2017

(Note: DEFRTG is calculated differently from DRTG - you also have to mess around with the filter on that link to see all those dates properly).

We're also 24th for opponent points in the paint from March 3rd till now and were actually tied for 2nd worst in the league over about a one week period this month:

http://stats.nba.com/teams/misc/#!?sort=OPP_PTS_PAINT&dir=-1&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&DateFrom=03%2F03%2F2017

And then here's some DRTG numbers from March 3rd till now:

Wall - 119
Beal - 118
Otto - 115
Morris - 117
Gortat - 116
Bogey - 121
Mahinmi - 107

But the worst of it to me is interior defenders being in position to challenge a shot as a help defender to at least some extent and just doing absolutely nothing. That's been starting before Bogey even gets on the floor. There's no foundation to what you're doing while that's going on and that affects how the wing defenders are going to play things (not to say this is Bogey's issue as he probably doesn't fully understand our scheme and would be bad regardless, but the rest of them are affected).

So what made you think that Gortat by himself is a problem?

[nate33]

I remember Kevin posting that individual DRTG is a pretty worthless stat.

I tend to agree - particularly with respect to guards and wings.

[Mojo Amok]

I remember Kevin posting that individual DRTG is a pretty worthless stat.

Individual defensive stats are pretty questionable in general, but DRTG is at least worth something. With the collapse of the team defense we can identify that we have a problem and when literally ALL of the starters have a poor DRTG, it's not purely an individual stat anymore.

I should note that the whole discussion started up from me eyeballing Gortat providing no help defense around the rim on a large number of possessions rather than a statistical analysis.

I suspect he's wearing down from the high minutes on the season and is thinking "I can't stop that cleanly and I don't want to get into foul trouble." If so, that would be a big mistake as we have three Six'eleveners on the roster with 18 fouls and Gortat being in foul trouble isn't nearly as big of a problem as offering promotional Free Layup Wednesdays.