Howard signs a 2 year deal for the tax MLE with a player option per Woj

[prime1time]

Wall averaged 26/10 in the playoffs, he looked committed to me. What about the guy who was talking about wanting to retire in Orlando in the middle of a season, how committed was he?

John had every right to complain about Gortat and his presence on the team. Why was he a starter on a team that had playoff aspirations? A slow/lazy big who doesn't defend the PnR, doesn't rebound, doesn't set screens and actively holds the team back in the playoffs.

What you don't seem to understand is that no franchise committed to winning would give a 5yr contract to a 30yo unathletic center who can't do anything other than PnR and set illegal screens.

While it is certainly true that Wall put up good numbers in the playoffs, they came at the expense of the ball movement offense that worked well while John was injured. Ball movement dissapeared, and we turned to the Beal and Wall show. Porter was reduced to a spot up shooter, and Wall called his own number way too many times. Eventually the offense devolved in to John driving with reckless abandon to the hoop with the goal of drawing fouls instead of finishing. Other than the random series against the Hawks 2 years ago and a couple other random games, any time you talk about Wall scoring a lot of points the team is worse off. Porter is drastically more efficient than Wall, but Wall insists on calling his own number. If John Wall bought into the team concept where he might sometimes not be the "star" this team would be drastically better off. Hopefully as he matures, his superman complex will fade away.

What you mean to say is that Otto completely disappeared in the playoffs - you can say his injury was a factor- and the Wizards had no chance at advancing in any playoff series we’ve ever had without Wall & Beal going insane .

I just have one question - are you trying to troll to be funny or to get a reaction? Was the team better off when Otto got outplayed by a rookie Taurean Prince in a playoff series? And the team was worse when Wall dropped 40 in a close out game on the road?

Watch on YouTube

This playoffs when Beal fouled out of Game 4 and John played out of his mind to carry the team, we were worse off? Can anyone else tell me if this guy is serious or a troll

Watch on YouTube

I can tell you didn’t watch the Raptors series or don’t understand basketball if you think John was somehow hurting the Wizards team. The funny thing is you’ve exposed yourself by even saying these things. Wall was the only reason Washington even won 2 games vs Toronto, and his play in the postseason over the past few years has been masking a lot of the problems with the team. If John played like Kyle Lowry usually does and we kept losing on the first round, players like Gortat and Otto would have been traded from this roster a long time ago.

Calm down. Let's take your points one by one. John Wall will never be an efficient enough scorer to be consistently relied on to score. It is what it is. Does he have games where he gets streaky? Yes. Let's break down that Raptors series. What happened to the Wizards offense? The Wizards average 106.6 ppg in the regular season. The year before, they averaged 109.2 in the regular season. But to be honest, that doesn't do the Wizards justice. The bench was terrible so the starters did the majority of scoring. Look at the Celtics series two years ago. The Wizards starters played very well, but the bench was a disaster and the starters got tired out.

We can agree to disagree, but the Wizards are at the best when Wall is creating for others. 12+ assists for Wall is a great barometer for how the whole team will be playing. When Wall creates corner 3's and open easy shots for the big man, the Wizards are a vaunted team. But the reality is that John Wall controls the Wizards offense. He decides what play will be called. He decides if it's going to be a pin down for Beal, a post up for Morris or Otto will get the ball on the wing. Every time John decides to not run a play and launch an off the dribble 3 or shoot a mid-range jumper it is bad for the team. Every time John attacks the hoop recklessly and focuses more on drawing contact than making the layup it hurts the team.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it is intellectually dishonest to talk about solely cite John Wall's stats and say that he had a good game. John is a pg who controls the Wizards offense completely. Which means that when other players don't get into a flow offensively due to a lack of shots the blame falls, at least somewhat on him. You can talk all you want to about Otto being out played by Taurean Prince, but Otto can't call his own number. When the Wizards lost in game 5, Otto had only 9 shots! Otto averages 50% from the field. At some point as the leader of the offense, Wall has to realize that it is his responsibility to get other people into the flow of the game.

You mentioned game 4, lets talk about Game 4. Wall had 24 shots, Beal who fouled out had 19 shots. Otto Porter had 8 shots. Did the Wizards win this game yes. But let's be realistic, if this is the kind of shot breakdown that we see next year, we won't be going far. John isn't Kobe. He's not MJ. He's not even Westbrook. His scoring ability is not nearly good enough to take over games on his own. And the fact that you cited that game as a testimony to John's greatness is telling.

You want to know why the Wizards have the potential to be good? It's not because John Wall can take over games. It's because we have multiple players who can score, so that when the defense keys in on stopping one guy, we can attack them with someone else. When we run the pick and role with John and Otto, and the team switches. We should go to Otto. When the team puts a SG on Morris we should go to Morris. We should be moving the ball, and exploiting the fact that we have multiple skilled players. When Otto Porter only gets 8 shots, it's because Wall and Beal have dominated the offense, limited ball movement and don't get the rest of the team involved. Can we win some games playing this style of basketball? Yes. But can we come anywhere near matching our potential? No.

Maybe 15 or 20 years ago teams could get by with one player going into a phone booth and coming out with a Superman cape. But in these days, teams are simply too good for that to be a viable option. The Wizards lost to a team that got swept. And that team lost to a team that got swept. Quite frankly I'm shocked that any Wizard fan is defending the style of basketball we played in the playoffs. It was a disaster.

*Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have the time to proof read.

[trast66]

Gortat sucked the last 2 years and he has limited this period...name a worst starting center

Gortat was far from the worst starting Center in the NBA. Not even I'll go that far.

Name worse one...warriors dont count

Dwight Howard. Robin Lopez.

[DCZards]

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it is intellectually dishonest to talk about solely cite John Wall's stats and say that he had a good game. John is a pg who controls the Wizards offense completely. Which means that when other players don't get into a flow offensively due to a lack of shots the blame falls, at least somewhat on him. You can talk all you want to about Otto being out played by Taurean Prince, but Otto can't call his own number. When the Wizards lost in game 5, Otto had only 9 shots! Otto averages 50% from the field. At some point as the leader of the offense, Wall has to realize that it is his responsibility to get other people into the flow of the game.

You mentioned game 4, lets talk about Game 4. Wall had 24 shots, Beal who fouled out had 19 shots. Otto Porter had 8 shots. Did the Wizards win this game yes. But let's be realistic, if this is the kind of shot breakdown that we see next year, we won't be going far. John isn't Kobe. He's not MJ. He's not even Westbrook. His scoring ability is not nearly good enough to take over games on his own. And the fact that you cited that game as a testimony to John's greatness is telling.

You want to know why the Wizards have the potential to be good? It's not because John Wall can take over games. It's because we have multiple players who can score, so that when the defense keys in on stopping one guy, we can attack them with someone else. When we run the pick and role with John and Otto, and the team switches. We should go to Otto. When the team puts a SG on Morris we should go to Morris. We should be moving the ball, and exploiting the fact that we have multiple skilled players. When Otto Porter only gets 8 shots, it's because Wall and Beal have dominated the offense, limited ball movement and don't get the rest of the team involved. Can we win some games playing this style of basketball? Yes. But can we come anywhere near matching our potential? No.

Maybe 15 or 20 years ago teams could get by with one player going into a phone booth and coming out with a Superman cape. But in these days, teams are simply too good for that to be a viable option. The Wizards lost to a team that got swept. And that team lost to a team that got swept. Quite frankly I'm shocked that any Wizard fan is defending the style of basketball we played in the playoffs. It was a disaster.

There's a lot of truth to what you say here. A whole lot. The Zards are indeed a better team when Wall looks for and sets up his teammates and when he himself takes fewer ill-advised shots, especially early in the shot clock. Despite all he typically does to carry this team, including making clutch shot after clutch shot, John is simply not good enough of a shooter to be taking a ton of mid- and short-range jumpers. It's long past time for John to learn that.

On the other hand, I'm not going to blame Wall (or Beal) for Porter only taking 8 or 9 shots. A LOT of that is on Otto. There are shots there for OP but he too often plays it safe...only shooting when he's wide open. That might make him his #s look good when it comes to efficiency but it also lets defenses off the hook. OP has to be more aggressive than that and, yes, hunt for shots from time to time...even if that means him occasionally taking a bad shot or two.

Porter's offensive output is also limited by the fact that he's not very good--at least not yet--at putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket. Improving that aspect of his game would make OP much more of an offensive threat.

[queridiculo]

Wall averaged 26/10 in the playoffs, he looked committed to me. What about the guy who was talking about wanting to retire in Orlando in the middle of a season, how committed was he?

John had every right to complain about Gortat and his presence on the team. Why was he a starter on a team that had playoff aspirations? A slow/lazy big who doesn't defend the PnR, doesn't rebound, doesn't set screens and actively holds the team back in the playoffs.

What you don't seem to understand is that no franchise committed to winning would give a 5yr contract to a 30yo unathletic center who can't do anything other than PnR and set illegal screens.

Gortat may be many things, but he's certainly not lazy.

The same cannot be said for John Wall and how he applies himself on the defensive end, which is really at the core of what started the beef with Gortat.

Wall hasn't put forth effort on the defensive end going on 4 years now and the needless switching and lack of hustle is plain and obvious for anybody watching these games.

What we do know based on the few things that have slipped out is that John didn't take kindly to being called out for his lack of defensive effort, so let's not act as if Wall is some kind of victim here.

Defending the PnR, much like any other play, requires a cohesive team effort, communication and hustle.

Wall's pettiness played a large role in why the team couldn't get on the same page last year, no excuses for our franchise player this year.

[JWizmentality]

Wall averaged 26/10 in the playoffs, he looked committed to me. What about the guy who was talking about wanting to retire in Orlando in the middle of a season, how committed was he?

John had every right to complain about Gortat and his presence on the team. Why was he a starter on a team that had playoff aspirations? A slow/lazy big who doesn't defend the PnR, doesn't rebound, doesn't set screens and actively holds the team back in the playoffs.

What you don't seem to understand is that no franchise committed to winning would give a 5yr contract to a 30yo unathletic center who can't do anything other than PnR and set illegal screens.

Gortat may be many things, but he's certainly not lazy.

The same cannot be said for John Wall and how he applies himself on the defensive end, which is really at the core of what started the beef with Gortat.

Wall hasn't put forth effort on the defensive end going on 4 years now and the needless switching and lack of hustle is plain and obvious for anybody watching these games.

What we do know based on the few things that have slipped out is that John didn't take kindly to being called out for his lack of defensive effort, so let's not act as if Wall is some kind of victim here.

Defending the PnR, much like any other play, requires a cohesive team effort, communication and hustle.

Wall's pettiness played a large role in why the team couldn't get on the same page last year, no excuses for our franchise player this year.

Another "lazy" talking point. Wall didn't get where he is today by being lazy. That term gets thrown around here too often. Wall faults = lazy. Meanwhile I see Patty Mills out jump Gortat for a defensive rebound.

[JWizmentality]

Gortat was far from the worst starting Center in the NBA. Not even I'll go that far.

Name worse one...warriors dont count

Dwight Howard. Robin Lopez.

Salty Gortat fan club.

[queridiculo]

Another "lazy" talking point. Wall didn't get where he is today by being lazy. That term gets thrown around here too often. Wall faults = lazy. Meanwhile I see Patty Mills out jump Gortat for a defensive rebound.

You can misrepresent what I wrote all you want, it doesn't change what Wall has put on film.

[JWizmentality]

Another "lazy" talking point. Wall didn't get where he is today by being lazy. That term gets thrown around here too often. Wall faults = lazy. Meanwhile I see Patty Mills out jump Gortat for a defensive rebound.

You can misrepresent what I wrote all you want, it doesn't change what Wall has put on film.

No worries, I'm not here to change perception. But hey, at least we have a far better Center now.

[Illmatic12]

Calm down. Let's take your points one by one. John Wall will never be an efficient enough scorer to be consistently relied on to score. It is what it is. Does he have games where he gets streaky? Yes. Let's break down that Raptors series. What happened to the Wizards offense? The Wizards average 106.6 ppg in the regular season. The year before, they averaged 109.2 in the regular season. But to be honest, that doesn't do the Wizards justice. The bench was terrible so the starters did the majority of scoring. Look at the Celtics series two years ago. The Wizards starters played very well, but the bench was a disaster and the starters got tired out.

We can agree to disagree, but the Wizards are at the best when Wall is creating for others. 12+ assists for Wall is a great barometer for how the whole team will be playing. When Wall creates corner 3's and open easy shots for the big man, the Wizards are a vaunted team. But the reality is that John Wall controls the Wizards offense. He decides what play will be called. He decides if it's going to be a pin down for Beal, a post up for Morris or Otto will get the ball on the wing. Every time John decides to not run a play and launch an off the dribble 3 or shoot a mid-range jumper it is bad for the team. Every time John attacks the hoop recklessly and focuses more on drawing contact than making the layup it hurts the team.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it is intellectually dishonest to talk about solely cite John Wall's stats and say that he had a good game. John is a pg who controls the Wizards offense completely. Which means that when other players don't get into a flow offensively due to a lack of shots the blame falls, at least somewhat on him. You can talk all you want to about Otto being out played by Taurean Prince, but Otto can't call his own number. When the Wizards lost in game 5, Otto had only 9 shots! Otto averages 50% from the field. At some point as the leader of the offense, Wall has to realize that it is his responsibility to get other people into the flow of the game.

You mentioned game 4, lets talk about Game 4. Wall had 24 shots, Beal who fouled out had 19 shots. Otto Porter had 8 shots. Did the Wizards win this game yes. But let's be realistic, if this is the kind of shot breakdown that we see next year, we won't be going far. John isn't Kobe. He's not MJ. He's not even Westbrook. His scoring ability is not nearly good enough to take over games on his own. And the fact that you cited that game as a testimony to John's greatness is telling.

You want to know why the Wizards have the potential to be good? It's not because John Wall can take over games. It's because we have multiple players who can score, so that when the defense keys in on stopping one guy, we can attack them with someone else. When we run the pick and role with John and Otto, and the team switches. We should go to Otto. When the team puts a SG on Morris we should go to Morris. We should be moving the ball, and exploiting the fact that we have multiple skilled players. When Otto Porter only gets 8 shots, it's because Wall and Beal have dominated the offense, limited ball movement and don't get the rest of the team involved. Can we win some games playing this style of basketball? Yes. But can we come anywhere near matching our potential? No.

Maybe 15 or 20 years ago teams could get by with one player going into a phone booth and coming out with a Superman cape. But in these days, teams are simply too good for that to be a viable option. The Wizards lost to a team that got swept. And that team lost to a team that got swept. Quite frankly I'm shocked that any Wizard fan is defending the style of basketball we played in the playoffs. It was a disaster.

*Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have the time to proof read.

Do I agree about John taking too many midrange 2s? Yes that's been a problem he has had, he tries to take on the pressure of the team on his own at times. But I would looove for one of his teammates other than Beal to step up and show that they can take some of that pressure, and in the 8 years of Wall's tenure with the Wizards no one else has done that. I mean, we have fundamentally different views of basketball if you're trying to paint Porter's disappearing acts in the playoffs as being Wall's fault.

In a postseason setting, defenses are tougher and it becomes harder to create offense. Players who are not aggressive or physical are going to fade to the background, and that's what we've seen from Otto Porter many times . At a certain point, it's not a coincidence or something you can blame on anyone else. It's on Otto himself to develop the ability to put the ball on the floor and help make his teammates better by pressuring the defense or creating something. When I watch Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum play, those guys aren't just standing around waiting to be spoonfed their offense. They are aggressive and try to make something happen for their team.. why can't Otto do that? A perfect example is when he scored 0 points in Game 6 vs the Celtics in 2017, then he was so motivated by his goose egg that he came out in Game 7 and had his best ever playoff game.

Watch on YouTube

That's the Otto Porter we need to see more often. But it shouldn't take him being embarrassed after a horrible performance to play with that kind of fire and determination.


Just look at last year's playoffs. The teams that did well had multiple aggressive players who could make things happen 1v1. Houston, Cleveland, GS and Boston were all in the top 7 in isolation frequency.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/isolation/?sort=Time&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Playoffs&PerMode=Totals


The idea that all these teams in the playoffs are "moving the ball freely" is becoming more of a myth. Why? Because modern NBA switching defenses are evolving to the point where that style of play goes away in the postseason. Look at the Houston vs Golden State series, which is a matchup of two of the greatest basketball teams in the modern era (by SRS) and the entire series was an isolation fest. At the highest level you NEED multiple who can get their own and make things happen. And that's what we need from Otto (if not him, then Rivers or someone else) this season if we're going to go further in the playoffs this time around.

There's a reason why Scott Brooks told Otto he needs to work on putting the ball on the floor. And Otto himself said at SL that he's been working with Kevin Durant's trainer and wants to improve his handles and Pnr game this offseason. Unlike the people on here who make excuses for him, fortunately Otto has always had a no excuses mentality - he knows he needs to evolve his game if this team will get to the next level.

[Illmatic12]

Wall averaged 26/10 in the playoffs, he looked committed to me. What about the guy who was talking about wanting to retire in Orlando in the middle of a season, how committed was he?

John had every right to complain about Gortat and his presence on the team. Why was he a starter on a team that had playoff aspirations? A slow/lazy big who doesn't defend the PnR, doesn't rebound, doesn't set screens and actively holds the team back in the playoffs.

What you don't seem to understand is that no franchise committed to winning would give a 5yr contract to a 30yo unathletic center who can't do anything other than PnR and set illegal screens.

Gortat may be many things, but he's certainly not lazy.

The same cannot be said for John Wall and how he applies himself on the defensive end, which is really at the core of what started the beef with Gortat.

Wall hasn't put forth effort on the defensive end going on 4 years now and the needless switching and lack of hustle is plain and obvious for anybody watching these games.

What we do know based on the few things that have slipped out is that John didn't take kindly to being called out for his lack of defensive effort, so let's not act as if Wall is some kind of victim here.

Defending the PnR, much like any other play, requires a cohesive team effort, communication and hustle.

Wall's pettiness played a large role in why the team couldn't get on the same page last year, no excuses for our franchise player this year.

Gortat wasn't lazy??? Maybe that was true in previous years, that definitely wasn't the case last season. He gave minimal effort on the boards - had the worst contested rebound % of his career - and was completely lackluster at moving his feet defensively. He got ended in the postseason by Valanciunas (a player he usually had success against in the past)

The team couldn't get on the same page last year because Wall was injured. If he's healthy we're going to see a different player, especially now that the fastest player in the league isn't saddled by one of the slowest & least athletic starting centers in the NBA.

[Kanyewest]

Calm down. Let's take your points one by one. John Wall will never be an efficient enough scorer to be consistently relied on to score. It is what it is. Does he have games where he gets streaky? Yes. Let's break down that Raptors series. What happened to the Wizards offense? The Wizards average 106.6 ppg in the regular season. The year before, they averaged 109.2 in the regular season. But to be honest, that doesn't do the Wizards justice. The bench was terrible so the starters did the majority of scoring. Look at the Celtics series two years ago. The Wizards starters played very well, but the bench was a disaster and the starters got tired out.

We can agree to disagree, but the Wizards are at the best when Wall is creating for others. 12+ assists for Wall is a great barometer for how the whole team will be playing. When Wall creates corner 3's and open easy shots for the big man, the Wizards are a vaunted team. But the reality is that John Wall controls the Wizards offense. He decides what play will be called. He decides if it's going to be a pin down for Beal, a post up for Morris or Otto will get the ball on the wing. Every time John decides to not run a play and launch an off the dribble 3 or shoot a mid-range jumper it is bad for the team. Every time John attacks the hoop recklessly and focuses more on drawing contact than making the layup it hurts the team.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it is intellectually dishonest to talk about solely cite John Wall's stats and say that he had a good game. John is a pg who controls the Wizards offense completely. Which means that when other players don't get into a flow offensively due to a lack of shots the blame falls, at least somewhat on him. You can talk all you want to about Otto being out played by Taurean Prince, but Otto can't call his own number. When the Wizards lost in game 5, Otto had only 9 shots! Otto averages 50% from the field. At some point as the leader of the offense, Wall has to realize that it is his responsibility to get other people into the flow of the game.

You mentioned game 4, lets talk about Game 4. Wall had 24 shots, Beal who fouled out had 19 shots. Otto Porter had 8 shots. Did the Wizards win this game yes. But let's be realistic, if this is the kind of shot breakdown that we see next year, we won't be going far. John isn't Kobe. He's not MJ. He's not even Westbrook. His scoring ability is not nearly good enough to take over games on his own. And the fact that you cited that game as a testimony to John's greatness is telling.

You want to know why the Wizards have the potential to be good? It's not because John Wall can take over games. It's because we have multiple players who can score, so that when the defense keys in on stopping one guy, we can attack them with someone else. When we run the pick and role with John and Otto, and the team switches. We should go to Otto. When the team puts a SG on Morris we should go to Morris. We should be moving the ball, and exploiting the fact that we have multiple skilled players. When Otto Porter only gets 8 shots, it's because Wall and Beal have dominated the offense, limited ball movement and don't get the rest of the team involved. Can we win some games playing this style of basketball? Yes. But can we come anywhere near matching our potential? No.

Maybe 15 or 20 years ago teams could get by with one player going into a phone booth and coming out with a Superman cape. But in these days, teams are simply too good for that to be a viable option. The Wizards lost to a team that got swept. And that team lost to a team that got swept. Quite frankly I'm shocked that any Wizard fan is defending the style of basketball we played in the playoffs. It was a disaster.

*Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have the time to proof read.

Do I agree about John taking too many midrange 2s? Yes that's been a problem he has had, he tries to take on the pressure of the team on his own at times. But I would looove for one of his teammates other than Beal to step up and show that they can take some of that pressure, and in the 8 years of Wall's tenure with the Wizards no one else has done that. I mean, we have fundamentally different views of basketball if you're trying to paint Porter's disappearing acts in the playoffs as being Wall's fault.

In a postseason setting, defenses are tougher and it becomes harder to create offense. Players who are not aggressive or physical are going to fade to the background, and that's what we've seen from Otto Porter many times . At a certain point, it's not a coincidence or something you can blame on anyone else. It's on Otto himself to develop the ability to put the ball on the floor and help make his teammates better by pressuring the defense or creating something. When I watch Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum play, those guys aren't just standing around waiting to be spoonfed their offense. They are aggressive and try to make something happen for their team.. why can't Otto do that? A perfect example is when he scored 0 points in Game 6 vs the Celtics in 2017, then he was so motivated by his goose egg that he came out in Game 7 and had his best ever playoff game.

Watch on YouTube

That's the Otto Porter we need to see more often. But it shouldn't take him being embarrassed after a horrible performance to play with that kind of fire and determination.


Just look at last year's playoffs. The teams that did well had multiple aggressive players who could make things happen 1v1. Houston, Cleveland, GS and Boston were all in the top 7 in isolation frequency.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/isolation/?sort=Time&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Playoffs&PerMode=Totals


The idea that all these teams in the playoffs are "moving the ball freely" is becoming more of a myth. Why? Because modern NBA switching defenses are evolving to the point where that style of play goes away in the postseason. Look at the Houston vs Golden State series, which is a matchup of two of the greatest basketball teams in the modern era (by SRS) and the entire series was an isolation fest. At the highest level you NEED multiple who can get their own and make things happen. And that's what we need from Otto (if not him, then Rivers or someone else) this season if we're going to go further in the playoffs this time around.

There's a reason why Scott Brooks told Otto he needs to work on putting the ball on the floor. And Otto himself said at SL that he's been working with Kevin Durant's trainer and wants to improve his handles and Pnr game this offseason. Unlike the people on here who make excuses for him, fortunately Otto has always had a no excuses mentality - he knows he needs to evolve his game if this team will get to the next level.

Otto was injured in the postseason, hopefully he can stay healthy and be as productive as he was during the first 19 games without John Wall and with Satoransky in the starting lineup where Porter had an offensive 129 and averaged 19 ppg, 7 rpg, 2.8 apg, and 1.5 spg with a 65 TS%. Unfortunately Porter suffered a nasty collision with Wade and was not the same after that. Hopefully, the Wizards going forward let Otto heal rather than have him play through injuries especially since the Wizards have more depth with guys like Oubre, Brown, and Green who can all play the 3.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Gortat wasn't lazy??? Maybe that was true in previous years, that definitely wasn't the case last season. He gave minimal effort on the boards - had the worst contested rebound % of his career - and was completely lackluster at moving his feet defensively. He got ended in the postseason by Valanciunas (a player he usually had success against in the past).

I'm going to suggest another explanation. Gortat, in his age 33 season, wasn't as good as he was in his 20s and early 30s, and struggled against a player who he had normally dominated, until he aged and the other player entered his prime at age 25. I don't think laziness can be ascribed here.

As for Wall, I don't actually think he's lazy, either. He works hard to maintain elite levels of conditioning and skill, and while he hasn't added a jumper to his game, I don't think that's for lack of effort on his part in the least. I think that he has an absolutely monster ego and doesn't think particularly highly of anyone he doesn't see as an equal. This isn't to say other players, including Gortat don't have monster egos, because they generally do, but in Wall's case, it has a sort of weird interaction with his personality.

Wall, like any other star player (or player in general), can't go full-tilt all the time all season long. He needs to figure out how to conserve energy so that he can go full-tilt when it matters most. The truly elite players are masters of figuring out the easiest way of doing something. Heck, they often take criticism for it and get called lazy as a result because they won't expend energy in a lost cause and don't really care how they look. James Harden, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, even Lebron now later in his career. Lesser players like Chris Bosh and Kevin love sometimes figure this out, though it's tougher for them as they don't have the elite level physical tools some of these other guys have so aren't elite even if they figure this out. There are freaks like early career Lebron and KG, for example, who seem to be able to go full-tilt whenever they're on the floor, and that's amazing and helps, but isn't energy efficient. Wall has never figured that part of the game out to the same degree those other guys have, and he also isn't able to play off the ball much, so the end result is a weird divide between what appears to be him disinterested and him interested, when I get the impression he's doing his best to conserve energy as he sees best, and his condescending attitude exacerbates things a bit.

[payitforward]

Just look at last year's playoffs. ...Houston, Cleveland, GS and Boston Minnesota, Indiana and Milwaukee were all in the top 7 5 in isolation frequency.

https://stats.nba.com/teams/isolation/?sort=Time&dir=1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Playoffs&PerMode=Totals

Fixed.

[Illmatic12]

Gortat wasn't lazy??? Maybe that was true in previous years, that definitely wasn't the case last season. He gave minimal effort on the boards - had the worst contested rebound % of his career - and was completely lackluster at moving his feet defensively. He got ended in the postseason by Valanciunas (a player he usually had success against in the past).

I'm going to suggest another explanation. Gortat, in his age 33 season, wasn't as good as he was in his 20s and early 30s, and struggled against a player who he had normally dominated, until he aged and the other player entered his prime at age 25. I don't think laziness can be ascribed here.

As for Wall, I don't actually think he's lazy, either. He works hard to maintain elite levels of conditioning and skill, and while he hasn't added a jumper to his game, I don't think that's for lack of effort on his part in the least. I think that he has an absolutely monster ego and doesn't think particularly highly of anyone he doesn't see as an equal. This isn't to say other players, including Gortat don't have monster egos, because they generally do, but in Wall's case, it has a sort of weird interaction with his personality.

Wall, like any other star player (or player in general), can't go full-tilt all the time all season long. He needs to figure out how to conserve energy so that he can go full-tilt when it matters most. The truly elite players are masters of figuring out the easiest way of doing something. Heck, they often take criticism for it and get called lazy as a result because they won't expend energy in a lost cause and don't really care how they look. James Harden, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, even Lebron now later in his career. Lesser players like Chris Bosh and Kevin love sometimes figure this out, though it's tougher for them as they don't have the elite level physical tools some of these other guys have so aren't elite even if they figure this out. There are freaks like early career Lebron and KG, for example, who seem to be able to go full-tilt whenever they're on the floor, and that's amazing and helps, but isn't energy efficient. Wall has never figured that part of the game out to the same degree those other guys have, and he also isn't able to play off the ball much, so the end result is a weird divide between what appears to be him disinterested and him interested, when I get the impression he's doing his best to conserve energy as he sees best, and his condescending attitude exacerbates things a bit.

I can agree with your point about Wall, in that he is a rare player in his style of play, and I think it's a combination of physical and mental fatigue that wears him down over a full season. The other point that doesn't get discussed enough is that for the majority of John's Wizards tenure, he's used to feeling like he's the only one on the team who can actually handle the ball, and knows that the team usually doesn't have a great chance of winning if he's not playing heavy minutes.. over the years that wears on a player mentally and can cause bad habits. Grunfeld is heavily complicit in this , when you look at the pupu platter of backup Gs like Eric Maynor, Trey Burke, Tim Frazier etc it's complete malpractice what Ernie has done and I put a significant portion of the blame on him.

Other than maybe Lebron, I'm not sure if there's any single player who's been solely relied upon more than Wall over the past 8 years. I mean when you go down the line, is it even debatable? Even Lebron had Wade + Bosh, and then Irving + Love. Westbrook had KD and Harden. Lillard had Aldridge in his first few years. Kawhi was only unleashed by Coach Pop in the last year or so. Curry & Durant nowadays rarely play a full season's worth of games, nor do they have to. Easier to conserve energy when you're only putting in ~60 games a season. And James Harden's secret .. well not really a secret... is that he expends zero energy on one side of the floor. He also cleverly draws a lot of FTs, which is awful to watch BUT is smart, bc spending a lot of time at the foul line helps him get rest throughout the game.

I don't think John can necessarily emulate all those guys style of play (I've seen moments where John looks like he's attempting to emulate Harden's style, but it doesn't fit him) . But the good news is, it seems he has reached the point in his career where he realizes that getting himself into the best shape possible is the only way for him to hit the next level. Like you said, the upper tier elite players are usually able to pace themselves through an 82 game season and I think conditioning and diet is a big part of that. John has never been "out of shape" per se, but he's never been super cut-up like a prime Lebron, Wade or Westbrook, or even like Arenas used to be. He's now working with Dwyane Wade's trainer who also helped Victor Oladipo with his transformation last summer, and we should be hoping to see that pay dividends this season:

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I think John is also pleased with finally having an NBA-level competent bench. He knows the effect all these minutes have on his body and finally feels like he doesn't have to burn himself out just to get his team into the playoffs.

"Just with the starters coming back, those guys (the bench) -- hopefully everybody will come back healthy and in better shape -- we can focus and understand what we want to be," Wall said on the podcast. "It's a good opportunity where (the starters) won't have to play as many minutes ... that's the key.

"At the end of the year, you're kind of fall short because you're fatigued -- and nobody uses that as an excuse, you play and you try to get in the best shape possible. But when you play 24 minutes of the whole [first] half and 24 minutes of whole other half, you kind of get tired at some point. I think those guys can take a little of the burden and pressure off us sometimes."

[FAH1223]

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[payitforward]

I think John is also pleased with finally having an NBA-level competent bench. ...

Our bench wasn't "NBA-level" last year, but it is this year? I'm trying to figure out what you have in mind....

Jeff Green in place of Mike Scott -- no real difference there.
Austin Rivers -- I take it you see him as the primary backup at... the 2? Both 1 & 2? (Man, what a nightmare that would be!)

Or, do you mean something different?

Frazier & Sessions combined for @1050 minutes last year, & they were both quite good. Frazier gets no credit here, b/c he didn't score much -- & people seem to think that scoring is all that matters. But, he was very effective in other ways: for example, add up his rebounds & steals & subtract his turnovers -- he was a plus 5 per 40 minutes on the floor. That's 5 extra possessions for the team.

For comparison, John (in an injury year...) was 1.4. Brad was 3.5. For the clips last year, Rivers was 2.25.

There are ways to be effective that aren't about individual scoring.

Unless Thomas Bryant and/or Troy Brown Jr. contribute, I don't see how our bench has been improved.

[Illmatic12]

I think John is also pleased with finally having an NBA-level competent bench. ...

Our bench wasn't "NBA-level" last year, but it is this year? I'm trying to figure out what you have in mind....

Jeff Green in place of Mike Scott -- no real difference there.
Austin Rivers -- I take it you see him as the primary backup at... the 2? Both 1 & 2? (Man, what a nightmare that would be!)

Or, do you mean something different?

Frazier & Sessions combined for @1050 minutes last year, & they were both quite good. Frazier gets no credit here, b/c he didn't score much -- & people seem to think that scoring is all that matters. But, he was very effective in other ways: for example, add up his rebounds & steals & subtract his turnovers -- he was a plus 5 per 40 minutes on the floor. That's 5 extra possessions for the team.

For comparison, John (in an injury year...) was 1.4. Brad was 3.5. For the clips last year, Rivers was 2.25.

There are ways to be effective that aren't about individual scoring.

Unless Thomas Bryant and/or Troy Brown Jr. contribute, I don't see how our bench has been improved.

Jodie Meeks played 1119 backcourt minutes last season. This season, that number should be close to 0 minutes.
That alone is a major improvement.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

While it is certainly true that Wall put up good numbers in the playoffs, they came at the expense of the ball movement offense that worked well while John was injured. Ball movement dissapeared, and we turned to the Beal and Wall show. Porter was reduced to a spot up shooter, and Wall called his own number way too many times. Eventually the offense devolved in to John driving with reckless abandon to the hoop with the goal of drawing fouls instead of finishing. Other than the random series against the Hawks 2 years ago and a couple other random games, any time you talk about Wall scoring a lot of points the team is worse off. Porter is drastically more efficient than Wall, but Wall insists on calling his own number. If John Wall bought into the team concept where he might sometimes not be the "star" this team would be drastically better off. Hopefully as he matures, his superman complex will fade away.

What you mean to say is that Otto completely disappeared in the playoffs - you can say his injury was a factor- and the Wizards had no chance at advancing in any playoff series we’ve ever had without Wall & Beal going insane .

I just have one question - are you trying to troll to be funny or to get a reaction? Was the team better off when Otto got outplayed by a rookie Taurean Prince in a playoff series? And the team was worse when Wall dropped 40 in a close out game on the road?

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This playoffs when Beal fouled out of Game 4 and John played out of his mind to carry the team, we were worse off? Can anyone else tell me if this guy is serious or a troll

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I can tell you didn’t watch the Raptors series or don’t understand basketball if you think John was somehow hurting the Wizards team. The funny thing is you’ve exposed yourself by even saying these things. Wall was the only reason Washington even won 2 games vs Toronto, and his play in the postseason over the past few years has been masking a lot of the problems with the team. If John played like Kyle Lowry usually does and we kept losing on the first round, players like Gortat and Otto would have been traded from this roster a long time ago.

Calm down. Let's take your points one by one. John Wall will never be an efficient enough scorer to be consistently relied on to score. It is what it is. Does he have games where he gets streaky? Yes. Let's break down that Raptors series. What happened to the Wizards offense? The Wizards average 106.6 ppg in the regular season. The year before, they averaged 109.2 in the regular season. But to be honest, that doesn't do the Wizards justice. The bench was terrible so the starters did the majority of scoring. Look at the Celtics series two years ago. The Wizards starters played very well, but the bench was a disaster and the starters got tired out.

We can agree to disagree, but the Wizards are at the best when Wall is creating for others. 12+ assists for Wall is a great barometer for how the whole team will be playing. When Wall creates corner 3's and open easy shots for the big man, the Wizards are a vaunted team. But the reality is that John Wall controls the Wizards offense. He decides what play will be called. He decides if it's going to be a pin down for Beal, a post up for Morris or Otto will get the ball on the wing. Every time John decides to not run a play and launch an off the dribble 3 or shoot a mid-range jumper it is bad for the team. Every time John attacks the hoop recklessly and focuses more on drawing contact than making the layup it hurts the team.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is that it is intellectually dishonest to talk about solely cite John Wall's stats and say that he had a good game. John is a pg who controls the Wizards offense completely. Which means that when other players don't get into a flow offensively due to a lack of shots the blame falls, at least somewhat on him. You can talk all you want to about Otto being out played by Taurean Prince, but Otto can't call his own number. When the Wizards lost in game 5, Otto had only 9 shots! Otto averages 50% from the field. At some point as the leader of the offense, Wall has to realize that it is his responsibility to get other people into the flow of the game.

You mentioned game 4, lets talk about Game 4. Wall had 24 shots, Beal who fouled out had 19 shots. Otto Porter had 8 shots. Did the Wizards win this game yes. But let's be realistic, if this is the kind of shot breakdown that we see next year, we won't be going far. John isn't Kobe. He's not MJ. He's not even Westbrook. His scoring ability is not nearly good enough to take over games on his own. And the fact that you cited that game as a testimony to John's greatness is telling.

You want to know why the Wizards have the potential to be good? It's not because John Wall can take over games. It's because we have multiple players who can score, so that when the defense keys in on stopping one guy, we can attack them with someone else. When we run the pick and role with John and Otto, and the team switches. We should go to Otto. When the team puts a SG on Morris we should go to Morris. We should be moving the ball, and exploiting the fact that we have multiple skilled players. When Otto Porter only gets 8 shots, it's because Wall and Beal have dominated the offense, limited ball movement and don't get the rest of the team involved. Can we win some games playing this style of basketball? Yes. But can we come anywhere near matching our potential? No.

Maybe 15 or 20 years ago teams could get by with one player going into a phone booth and coming out with a Superman cape. But in these days, teams are simply too good for that to be a viable option. The Wizards lost to a team that got swept. And that team lost to a team that got swept. Quite frankly I'm shocked that any Wizard fan is defending the style of basketball we played in the playoffs. It was a disaster.

*Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have the time to proof read.

HOF Post IMO

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Single point of failure basketball...

One guy holds the ball. One guy goes hero and either forces up a hope shot or he bails on his shot and throws a zinger of a pass with the clock expiring. Wall passes to Beal and sometimes Morris. Otto Porter only gets the ball as a last resort.

Brooks is a bad coach. Wall has LOW IQ IN CRUNCH TIME. That is a terrible flaw for a PG.


PERHAPS the alley oop to Dwight Howard will change things. I doubt it...

[cdouglas]

I think Dwight was making a statement to the Wiz in this game. The guy wants to be here unlike so many others. I'm excited about this new look team and hope those who are upset over the Gortat trade can now see it was for the best of the team.

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