Wizards vs. the Warmth in 2d Preseason Tussle Tonight

[DCZards]

Morris is awful at PF and ghastly as center.

This can be true with it also being true that playing Morris at center is a good thing. This is because the alternative to Morris at center is Jason Smith.

Morris was 3 for 5 from 3 pt. range against the Heat. A center who can knock down 3s like that is a real asset in today's NBA.

Keef also had 13 pts, 10 rebs in 26 minutes.

[JWizmentality]

Morris is awful at PF and ghastly as center.

This can be true with it also being true that playing Morris at center is a good thing. This is because the alternative to Morris at center is Jason Smith.

Morris was 3 for 5 from 3 pt. range against the Heat. A center who can knock down 3s like that is a real asset in today's NBA.

Keef also had 13 pts, 10 rebs in 26 minutes.

+1000

For as much crap Kief gets (mostly justified though), he can be solid when he wants to be. Consistency....sigh.

[Ruzious]

Does anyone else think Troy Brown Jr could be the best passer on the team? Dude has vision and timing like an elite pg

He does.

I was thinking — why not groom him to be a point guard? He’s a small forward only because he made the switch himself, in his senior year of high school (if memory serves) — an effort to broaden his game and appear more versatile to NBA decision-makers.

But clearly he still thinks and behaves like a point guard. And he has great length besides. I don’t know, the thought really intrigues me, and if this is in part why they drafted him then I like the pick even more.

At the very least they oughtta groom him to be a point forward.

As a high school jr. before switching to forward, Brown was like the second or third ranked PG in his class. So, yes, his vision and passing are legit and are probably a big reason why the Zards (and apparently other teams like the Spurs) ranked him higher than the pundits who do the mock drafts.

No way is Brown as good a passer as Wall, but I expect it to soon become apparent that he's the team's second best passer and playmaker.

My expectations for him Iin his ROOKIE YEAR aren't high - but mainly because he just turned 19 a couple months ago and needs a lot of work on his 3 point shot - and not a lot of rookies contribute much in their rookie year. But considering he seems like a hard-worker with good all-around skills, and a great attitude, he should Develop into a fine player.

[payitforward]

As a high school jr. before switching to forward, Brown was like the second or third ranked PG in his class. So, yes, his vision and passing are legit and are probably a big reason why the Zards (and apparently other teams like the Spurs) ranked him higher than the pundits who do the mock drafts...

Just noticed the above.

Zards, any time anyone here claims to know how various teams ranked players they didn't pick you are quick to point out that in fact they don't & can't know that. You ask whether the person making the claim was in on conversations those teams had, etc. &, in a sense, that's fair.

Now, you've just done the same thing you complain about. You have no idea where any team except the Wizards ranked Tony Brown Jr. -- other than knowing (obviously) that each of the 14 teams that picked before the Wizards had someone else rated higher than Brown.

Not only that, but you proceed to use this "knowledge" (which you don't & can't have) to cast a further aspersion on the, as you call them mockingly, "pundits," who had him ranked lower than #15 in their mock drafts. That's rhetorically clever, but it just compounds your invented claim to knowledge.

In candor, my friend, am I not correct? Is this not exactly what you've done here?

...No way is Brown as good a passer as Wall, but I expect it to soon become apparent that he's the team's second best passer and playmaker.

That would be great! But, if that is "to soon become apparent," how come you don't want to give him minutes? I'd say we could use that set of skills, wouldn't you?

[payitforward]

Morris is awful at PF and ghastly as center.

This can be true with it also being true that playing Morris at center is a good thing. This is because the alternative to Morris at center is Jason Smith.

Morris was 3 for 5 from 3 pt. range against the Heat. A center who can knock down 3s like that is a real asset in today's NBA.

Keef also had 13 pts, 10 rebs in 26 minutes.

Morris had a positive game vs. the Heat. Not a really good game, but he did contribute something.

In fact, you could say that his game approached being as good as the game had that night by Yante Maten, an undrafted rookie whom Miami has signed to a 2-way contract. Not "almost" as good, not that close, but on the way to that.

Morris played 26 minutes, Maten 27. Both guys took 9 shots. Morris got 11 points out of those shots, Maten got 12 points. Morris got to the line 2 times & made both FTs. But Maten got to the line 6 times & made 5 of them. In short, he logged 4 more points than Kieff in 2 more offensive possessions.

Kieff got 10 boards, Maten only 7 -- advantage Kieff. But not much of an advantage, b/c 2 of Maten's rebounds were offensive (an offensive rebound has about the value of 2 defensive rebounds); Kieff got 1 on offense, the rest were defensive.

Maten had 2 assists, Kieff didn't record any that night. Maten blocked a shot; Kieff didn't. Maten turned it over once; Kieff turned it over twice.

As you've just written in another thread, it's just pre-season. No one would want to conclude that Yante Maten is a better player than Kieff. Similarly, there's nothing to conclude about Kieff as a player from this game.