Preseason Game 4: Wizards vs Pistons 7PM

[vege]

Oh well, it's just pre season, but I hate what I see.

[The Moose]

Johnson 8-36 fg
He just doesn't have any scoring ability, can't shoot, can't finish

[DetroitPistons]

Dangelo Russell and now Wall. Every game there is one guy that no matter how well we play defense they burn us. So annoying. Overall we played back to back good preseason games aside from those bouts of really poor shooting. I am encouraged by this preseason. The only game that was bad was the Spurs game. I feel like this team could be pretty good with a good wing player.

[aad]

Good game but why did luke only play 8 minutes

[DetroitPistons]

Johnson 8-36 fg
He just doesn't have any scoring ability, can't shoot, can't finish

Yikes. I think he should be designated to full time backup PF and that's only because we don't have a competent backup PF right now. I want more Kennard though... seriously what the heck.

[DTP]

I understand being cautious with Blake but would've liked to see him finish tonight. At some point we got to get used to closing games with Dre & Blake on the floor together....guess we're going to have to wait until the regular season for the experiment. Yeah they played at the end last season but that was a different coaching staff.

[Manocad]

Don't forget that preseason is the opportunity to play around with different rosters, see who gels with who and potentially gets better together than separately, blah blah blah. Look at it this way--if you're the coach and Kennard blows the roof off every time he plays, how many minutes do you expect him to play after it seems pretty clear he's going to go full animal every time he's on the floor? Probably not a lot, right? You know what you've got and you don't want him to get hurt. Preseason is not about winning games per se. It's about finding out what will win you games and likewise what will lose you games.

[whitehops]

through four preseason games, it's pretty clear that casey has been emphasizing the "houston rockets" shot selection.

we've shot 39.75 threes a game, which is more than 10 more than we shot last season. we've taken 93.25 shots a game so 42.6% of our shots have come from the three point line. that would rank second most among teams last year (houston shot a whopping 50% of their shots from 3). brooklyn was the only other team to shoot over 40% (41.1%).

another benefit with the "paint and 3's" strategy is an increase in free throw attempts, which has been a problem for us in recent years. besides the brooklyn game, we've taken a good amount of threes and would rank right around the top of the league (free throw attempts/field goal attempts= ~30%).

it's going to be a process and obviously the next step will be to work on execution (and making shots) but it's encouraging that they are clearly playing the way casey wants them to.

[The Moose]

through four preseason games, it's pretty clear that casey has been emphasizing the "houston rockets" shot selection.

we've shot 39.75 threes a game, which is more than 10 more than we shot last season. we've taken 93.25 shots a game so 42.6% of our shots have come from the three point line. that would rank second most among teams last year (houston shot a whopping 50% of their shots from 3). brooklyn was the only other team to shoot over 40% (41.1%).

another benefit with the "paint and 3's" strategy is an increase in free throw attempts, which has been a problem for us in recent years. besides the brooklyn game, we've taken a good amount of threes and would rank right around the top of the league (free throw attempts/field goal attempts= ~30%).

it's going to be a process and obviously the next step will be to work on execution (and making shots) but it's encouraging that they are clearly playing the way casey wants them to.

I think the next step should be acquiring the personnel/roster to play this style effectively. There is a reason why it works so well for Houston, and not so much for the Nets

[flow]

I miss SVG already and the real season ain't even started yet

I didn't see the game, but there's nothing that could have happened to make you miss SVG. The team could not possibly have stood around any more; RJ could not possibly have pounded the air out of the ball any more; Drummond could not possibly have taken more horrible bricks and made more terrible plays, and the defense could not possibly have run around the court like a chicken with its head cut off any more than it did under SVG.

If you said Casey reminded you of SVG, I could probably buy that. But he's making you miss him? Come on.

[Drwho17]

SVG/Casey coaching wise aren't that different, but Casey is a much better human being for whatever that brings, SVG was just a prick, fighting his battles in the media and such, Casey at least will keep some of that stuff in house.

[DBC10]

I understand being cautious with Blake but would've liked to see him finish tonight. At some point we got to get used to closing games with Dre & Blake on the floor together....guess we're going to have to wait until the regular season for the experiment. Yeah they played at the end last season but that was a different coaching staff.

I'm going to predict they're going to be heavily staggered even in crunch time. I don't think defensively and spacing wise, it's going to work. Blake is getting adjusted to stretching the floor more preemptively now and both Blake & Dre has never been great on defense.

If this team shows life, I can see them making trades to fill out the holes as they become more apparent or plugging in smaller lineups to emphasize shooting and flexible defense.