GT #49: Bullets @ Raptors 7 PM (NBCSW/1500 AM) - TANKATHON

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

We lost?!?!

Oh, yeah!

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Just gonna skip and watch the NCAA final tonight?

The NCAA Final is at 9 PM.

Baylor 23 Gonzaga 8

12 Minute left, first half. Looking bad for Rui’s mates.

[80sballboy]

Anyone really think we will lose to the magic?

Depends on who plays, but Orlando has won two of four. Now they lost two straight but to Utah and Denver. Seems like they are sitting everybody out including Otto, who never plays for anybody. My guess is if Beal plays, the Wiz win by double-digits, though he could also be rusty.

[Dolevi]

Just one mind-boggling bad shot after another. Seriously, some of the lowest bball IQ plays I have ever seen.

And he does the same thing every game. This is a part of the "Russ's show", and then we all just need to decide if we want a ticket for it I will prefer not

Now seriously. Even when he really played good and made buckets. It's always bad basketball, bad attempts. Even when he made the shots everything is not good yet. Cause he might be shooting well, but the others aren't in the flow of the game when you starting play Hero Ball like today. Who cares about his triple doubles. In the end the team always losses with him.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

At his worst is Russ better than John Wall at his worst?

[80sballboy]

Wow, Suggs is having a rough game. Baylor's guards have been great all year and even better in the first half.

[FAH1223]

Someone on the trade board had suggested Marcus Morris, Luke Kennard, Pat Beverly and the Clippers first for Westbrook. I would do that in a NY minute.

Uh, in a heartbeat

Have you guys looked at the contracts of Morris and Kennard? They are paid a combined $32M a year after Westbrook's contract is over. Kennard is paid another $15M the year after that! The guy doesn't even play for the Clippers right now.

Kennard is playing right now and he’s actually been playing well!

[nate33]

Uh, in a heartbeat

Have you guys looked at the contracts of Morris and Kennard? They are paid a combined $32M a year after Westbrook's contract is over. Kennard is paid another $15M the year after that! The guy doesn't even play for the Clippers right now.

Kennard is playing right now and he’s actually been playing well!

Fair point. His per minute numbers are pretty good. But it's odd that the Clippers have him coming off the bench and he ultimately compiled several DNP-CD's.

As I said, I might do it if Morris could be flipped elsewhere. Kennard is probably only a slightly negative value, and he is young and probably movable. Morris is the guy I don't want on the roster. He strikes me as a guy who needs solid leadership around him to keep him in line.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Baylor has been crushing Gonzaga.

NC

No Contest

[9 and 20]

At his worst is Russ better than John Wall at his worst?

Is this rhetorical? Russ at his worst is probably the most actively negative player in the league with the way he dominates the ball and shoots long jumpers early in the shot clock.

Russ at his best is an all-time great, though. Way better than Wall has ever been.

[Kanyewest]

So Neto/Smith lineups are still OK?

No. Those lineups suck too. Neto or Ish at PG, but never together. Westbrook can play the 2 alongside one of them, but he shouldn't play the 3.

I wouldn't have minded Westbrook playing the 3 had the Wizards drafted Halliburton. Still, it's tough to not play Ish and Neto together though if you start Matthews and don't play Robinson although yeah no reason why Westbrook should be playing that many minutes- but at this point I am for the tank so 3 point guard lineups are the best.

[tecumseh18]

So Neto/Smith lineups are still OK?

No. Those lineups suck too. Neto or Ish at PG, but never together. Westbrook can play the 2 alongside one of them, but he shouldn't play the 3.

I wouldn't have minded Westbrook playing the 3 had the Wizards drafted Halliburton. Still, it's tough to not play Ish and Neto together though if you start Matthews and don't play Robinson although yeah no reason why Westbrook should be playing that many minutes- but at this point I am for the tank so 3 point guard lineups are the best.

I come in peace from the Raps board. I have recently been converted to being a hard-core tanker, and am not here to talk about this monstrosity of a game. Insincere congratulations on winning the "tankathon".

Here's my question. In the context of you blowing a 19-point lead tonight, while developing the youth by playing Hutchison and Gill, do you believe Wizards management is actively trying to lose at this point, six weeks before the season's end? Have there been any clues to suggest this? Is Beal being held out of action for tanking purposes, or because the plan is to trade him in the summer and you don't want him to get hurt?

I'm confused about the Raptors' intentions.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

They’re tanking but I think doing a tremendously good job by not letting Westbrook in on it.

[9 and 20]

There are like 4 or 5 contradictory approaches among the coach, the gm, the players, and the owner. Nobody knows, probably because this is a horribly run organization. The owner, for example, made a lame backhanded dig in a tweet at John Wall as Wall was traded right before the year started.

Before the season, the approach was going to be winning as much as possible while developing youngsters. We have mostly accomplished neither. But - we do lead the league in both minutes played with a lineup that includes 3 old point guards and in minutes played by Jerome Robinson.

[Ruzious]

Thing is - if Russell would just improve his shot selection, he could be so much better. He should never take jump shots over 18 feet early in the shot clock - yet he did that how many times in the 4th quarter alone? He did that 3 straight times (all misses) as Toronto caught up. Granted, he did follow that up with some scores, but the damage was done. He does do a lot of good out there, but the poor shot selection - particularly in crunch time - takes the life out of what would have been fine performances.

Having a coach who's an enabler for his primary deficiency doesn't help things.

[pcbothwel]

Side note for those who seem to hate on Bertans. He just quietly put up a +12 with 17/5/2 on only 8 shots (96% TS) with 2 steals and 1 turnover. The guy is like an Elite Closer/RP in baseball... you always undervalue them until they dominate a team in a short spurt. Also like a RP, their trade value always peaks at trade deadlines in the middle of a hot streak.

[doclinkin]

No. Those lineups suck too. Neto or Ish at PG, but never together. Westbrook can play the 2 alongside one of them, but he shouldn't play the 3.

I wouldn't have minded Westbrook playing the 3 had the Wizards drafted Halliburton. Still, it's tough to not play Ish and Neto together though if you start Matthews and don't play Robinson although yeah no reason why Westbrook should be playing that many minutes- but at this point I am for the tank so 3 point guard lineups are the best.

I come in peace from the Raps board. I have recently been converted to being a hard-core tanker, and am not here to talk about this monstrosity of a game. Insincere congratulations on winning the "tankathon".

Here's my question. In the context of you blowing a 19-point lead tonight, while developing the youth by playing Hutchison and Gill, do you believe Wizards management is actively trying to lose at this point, six weeks before the season's end? Have there been any clues to suggest this? Is Beal being held out of action for tanking purposes, or because the plan is to trade him in the summer and you don't want him to get hurt?

I'm confused about the Raptors' intentions.

The GM assembled a roster of international players since he enjoys smart team play, and for years has been the director of international scouting or whatnot (participating in Basketball without Borders etc). His CEO also directs him to select nice guys who are hard workers. The CEO believes you are best prepared to succeed if you 'do well by doing good'. That's the double bottom line. SO, pick good guys and you will win. When in doubt select for character over talent. So far there is a dubious track record of this as a winning strategy in basketball or the world in general, but it makes him feel good about himself and makes for a congenial locker room even on perennially losing teams. He does vocally state that his team will "never tank, ever" despite all evidence that the ONLY way to build a dynasty is to Suck to Get Lucky in the right year, and land the next generational player. Fortunately for him, the team has managed to suck sufficiently that we have landed top 3 players in 3 of the last 10 years. And lottery picks in 6 of the last 10 years. (Lets not mention that we also traded away draft picks in 2 of those 10 years). Of those top 3 high picks only 1 is still with the team. We do have 2 recent lottery picks with the team, but only one of them actually plays. The one who is still learning how to play basketball since he was a baseball fan into highschool and was playing in a country that pretty much ignores basketball since they have no human beings over 6 foot tall in their population.

The current GM was the selection by default after a 70 person focus group ranged far and wide to select the next figurehead of the team. After the last guy spent 14 years squandering the teams future by doing just enough cover-your-ass moves and last second desperation trades for veterans to make it look like he actually gave a crap about his job. The GM search failed when it was made clear that every significant final decision would be vioted on by a board including everyone from the guy who replaces urinal cakes all the way up to billionaire widow Laurene Powell Jobs who bought a partial share in the team when she was convinced it was a good idea by a local politician she was dating. She likes philanthropy, maybe she can help save the orphans and stateless denizens of the District of Columbia by pouring a drop or two of her inexhaustible funds into a long time losing venture that on paper looks like it has a suppressed value. It is underperforming and somehow still worth nearly 2 billion dollars. Anyway. All sensible NBA GM candidates declined to take the position. We were left with an optimistic cheerleader GM who was in the vice-president chair of the last GM for a decade and a half. He has made a couple savvy moves while handicapped by the philosophy that only good guys win. That this is more important than talent. You want both of course, but when in doubt pick the team player. He admires this mindset since that's what works well in Europe. Guys who play well together. Otherwise the coaches will bench them. There are no stars in Euroball. But we do not have a Euroball coach. Who gameplans to make their team stronger than the individual players. We have the other kind of guy.

This GM did not pick the coach, who is in the last year of the contract. The coach is known mostly for being unable to take a team with 3 MVPs deep into the playoffs. But he was friendly-ish with Kevin Durant so the former GM figured that was enough to bring KD home. Despite all evidence to the contrary. KD left home and has stayed far away from home eery choice he has had.

The coach's chief short-coming: he was a scrappy scrub PG who fetishizes two things: star NBA talent, and scrappy scrub role-players. The shorter the better. The sad thing is he is actually trying to win, perhaps to save his job, or set himself up for his next job. He thinks giving the ball to 2 players and letting everyone else stand aside is the best way to do so. And if you are behind you should just throw as many scrappy scrub role-players on court and hope desperately they will bring the energy to make things happen. They do, they make their team lose. He simply does not have a roster that is scrappy enough, apparently, as he has driven away and misused a couple players who were in the smart high-IQ category, but who were more cerebral and less feisty. The roster is incomplete, but is not being used to its best advantage. It was not assembled to play like this.

Before the season the star player was seen on social media partying during a pandemic and throwing up gang signs, after he has spent 2 years rehabbing. The 'CEO' of the team decided he had had enough and forced a trade of the formerly pass-first point guard. The only available matching contract was for a disgruntled former MVP on a team in Houston with a roster that had zero gruntles left to dis. The swap was made, the team gave up a pick to gain him, victory declared. The one thing Westbrook brings with him is all the gruntling in the world. He brings energy to everything, including his terrible shot selection. It is both inspiring and wrongheaded. But a weak coach gets runover by this energy like a donkey on a train track. He still has all-nba talent, but he needs a smart tough coach to focus it.

Meanwhile we have computers watching our players for control and load management and analysis of efficiency. We hired the Godfather of Basketball Analysis in Dean Oliver. We apparently ignore his advice because our coach notably is the least prepared coach in the league, according to a former scout. He writes nothing on the white boards before games. Does not believe in reading scouting reports or gameplanning for particular teams. He believes in upping the usage rate to his stars while everyone else watches. Behind the scenes that stat svengali approaches the players during halftime and says, "Hey you know what i have noticed? When you do this one thing then suddenly you are scoring easy. Maybe try that a bunch in the second half and see if they can stop it. Whaddaya think?" Our tier 2 star has notably excellent 2nd half adjustments, But the team has not found a way to turn that into wins. Just valiant losses clawing back from the deficit of starting out woefully unprepared to play basketball.

However, we do have a director of medical et cetera who will enforce load management from time to time. Bradley Beal is legit injured, though he could probably play. To preserve his career, in case he chooses to stay with us out of misguided loyalty or belief that the owner has a plan behind his jolly personable flim-flammery, the team will enforce some play restrictions to try to prevent the sort of injury by overuse that put our former star player out for 2 years. That's why we hired a medical maven for the squad. To save our biggest assets from the coaches that tell them how and when to play.

The hope against hope is that we can poach your current GM with a huge offer, and perhaps promises of control and a really fancy title that has been researched as being even more important sounding than GM. (Emperor of All Things including Basketball. World Chief of Basketball Operations and Future Worldshaping). Whatever will make Daryl Morey jealous. The secret weapon on our side is that his wife has family in the area and he is friendly with a former US president who is still hanging out in the area sometimes. It's pretty much the "please save us from ourselves!!!" plan that was cleverly enacted to recruit Kevin Durant to the squad. Nice, maybe it works, if the CEO can keep his sweaty meddling paws away from the team and allow the guy to do his job, whether or not Ms Jobs notices or cares or votes on his decisions.

That's pretty much it. In short, yeah they started the year trying to win. Even now the coach would love to win. They are just doing it wrong. In a year where there are a handful of potential all-star players available in the top of the lotto, and a mess of really good players sprinkled lower down. Maybe not generational game-changing talents, but maybe enough that a good GM and coach combo could make something special out of the raw materials we got. Maybe despite all else lined up against us, we suck to get lucky. Which is pretty much the only hope for Wizards fans. Though when Hope and Luck are your only strategy, generally you end up without one or the other.

[Dat2U]

I wouldn't have minded Westbrook playing the 3 had the Wizards drafted Halliburton. Still, it's tough to not play Ish and Neto together though if you start Matthews and don't play Robinson although yeah no reason why Westbrook should be playing that many minutes- but at this point I am for the tank so 3 point guard lineups are the best.

I come in peace from the Raps board. I have recently been converted to being a hard-core tanker, and am not here to talk about this monstrosity of a game. Insincere congratulations on winning the "tankathon".

Here's my question. In the context of you blowing a 19-point lead tonight, while developing the youth by playing Hutchison and Gill, do you believe Wizards management is actively trying to lose at this point, six weeks before the season's end? Have there been any clues to suggest this? Is Beal being held out of action for tanking purposes, or because the plan is to trade him in the summer and you don't want him to get hurt?

I'm confused about the Raptors' intentions.

The GM assembled a roster of international players since he enjoys smart team play, and for years has been the director of international scouting or whatnot (participating in Basketball without Borders etc). His CEO also directs him to select nice guys who are hard workers. The CEO believes you are best prepared to succeed if you 'do well by doing good'. That's the double bottom line. SO, pick good guys and you will win. When in doubt select for character over talent. So far there is a dubious track record of this as a winning strategy in basketball or the world in general, but it makes him feel good about himself and makes for a congenial locker room even on perennially losing teams. He does vocally state that his team will "never tank, ever" despite all evidence that the ONLY way to build a dynasty is to Suck to Get Lucky in the right year, and land the next generational player. Fortunately for him, the team has managed to suck sufficiently that we have landed top 3 players in 3 of the last 10 years. And lottery picks in 6 of the last 10 years. (Lets not mention that we also traded away draft picks in 2 of those 10 years). Of those top 3 high picks only 1 is still with the team. We do have 2 recent lottery picks with the team, but only one of them actually plays. The one who is still learning how to play basketball since he was a baseball fan into highschool and was playing in a country that pretty much ignores basketball since they have no human beings over 6 foot tall in their population.

The current GM was the selection by default after a 70 person focus group ranged far and wide to select the next figurehead of the team. After the last guy spent 14 years squandering the teams future by dong just enough cover-your-ass moves and last second desperation trades for veterans to make it look like he actually gave a crap about his job. The GM search failed when it was made clear that every significant final decision would be vioted on by a board including everyone from the guy who replaces urinal cakes all the way up to billionaire widow Laurene Powell Jobs who bought a partial share in the team when she was convinced it was a good idea by a local politician she was dating. She likes philanthropy, maybe she can help save the orphans and stateless denizens of the District of Columbia by pouring a drop or two of her inexhaustible funds into a long time losing venture that on paper looks like it has a suppressed value. It is underperforming and somehow still worth nearly 2 billion dollars. Anyway. All sensible NBA GM candidates declined to take the position. We were left with an optimistic cheerleader GM who was in the vice-president chair of the last GM for a decade and a half. He has made a couple savvy moves while handicapped by the philosophy that only good guys win. That this is more important than talent. You want both of course, but when in doubt pick the team player. He admires this mindset since that's what works well in Europe. Guys who play well together. Otherwise the coaches will bench them. There are no stars in Euroball. But we do not have a Euroball coach. Who gameplans to make their team stronger than the individual players. We have the other kind of guy.

This GM did not pick the coach, who is in the last year of the contract. The coach is known mostly for being unable to take a team with 3 MVPs deep into the playoffs. But he was friendly-ish with Kevin Durant so the former GM figured that was enough to bring him home. Despite all evidence to the contrary. His chief short-coming: he was a scrappy scrub PG who fetishizes two things: star NBA talent, and scrappy scrub role-players. The shorter the better. The sad thing is he is actually trying to win, perhaps to save his job, or set himself up for his next job. He thinks giving the ball to 2 players and letting everyone else stand aside is the best way to do so. And if you are behind you should just throw as many scrappy scrub role-players on court and hope desperately they will bring the energy to make things happen. They do, they make their team lose. He simply does not have a roster that is scrappy enough, apparently, as he has driven away and misused a couple players who were in the smart high-IQ category, but who were more cerebral and less feisty. The roster is incomplete, but is not being used to its best advantage. It was not assembled to play like this.

Before the season the star player was seen on social media partying during a pandemic and throwing up gang signs, after he has spent 2 years rehabbing. The 'CEO' of the team decided he had had enough and forced a trade of the formerly pass-first point guard. The only available matching contract was for a disgruntled former MVP on a team in Houston with a roster that had zero gruntles left to dis. The swap was made, the team gave up a pick to gain him, victory declared. The one thing Westbrook brings with him is all the gruntling in the world. He brings energy to everything, including his terrible shot selection. It is both inspiring and wrongheaded. But a weak coach gets runover by this energy like a donkey on a train track. He still has all-nba talent, but he needs a smart tough coach to focus it.

Meanwhile we have computers watching our players for control and load management and analysis of efficiency. We hired the Godfather of Basketball Analysis in Dean Oliver. We apparently ignore his advice because our coach notably is the least prepared coach in the league, according to a former scout. He writes nothing on the white boards before games. Does not believe in reading scouting reports or gameplanning for particular teams. He believes in upping the usage rate to his stars while everyone else watches. Behind the scenes that stat svengali approaches the players during halftime and says, "Hey you know what i have noticed? When you do this one thing then suddenly you are scoring easy. Maybe try that a bunch in the second half and see if they can stop it. Whaddaya think?" Our tier 2 star has notably excellent 2nd half adjustments, But the team has not found a way to turn that into wins. Just valiant losses clawing back from the deficit of starting out woefully unprepared to play basketball.

However, we do have a director of medical et cetera who will enforce load management from time to time. Bradley Beal is legit injured, though he could probably play. To preserve his career, in case he chooses to stay with us out of misguided loyalty or belief that the owner has a plan behind his jolly personable flim-flammery, the team will enforce some play restrictions to try to prevent the sort of injury by overuse that put our former star player out for 2 years. That's why we hired a medical maven for the squad. To save our biggest assets from the coaches that tell them how and when to play.

The hope against hope is that we can poach your current GM with a huge offer, and perhaps promises of control and a really fancy title that has been researched as being even more important sounding than GM. (Emperor of All Things including Basketball. World Chief of Basketball Operations and Future Worldshaping). Whatever will make Daryl Morey jealous. The secret weapon on our side is that his wife has family in the area and he is friendly with a former US president who is still hanging out in the area sometimes. It's pretty much the "please save us from ourselves!!!" plan that was cleverly enacted to recruit Kevin Durant to the squad. Nice, maybe it works, if the CEO can keep his sweaty meddling paws away from the team and allow the guy to do his job, whether or not Ms Jobs notices or cares or votes on his decisions.

That's pretty much it. In short, yeah they started the year trying to win. Even now the coach would love to win. They are just doing it wrong. In a year where there are a handful of potential all-star players available in the top of the lotto, and a mess of really good players sprinkled lower down. Maybe not generational game-changing talents, but maybe enough that a good GM and coach combo could make something special out of the raw materials we got. Maybe despite all else lined up against us, we suck to get lucky. Which is pretty much the only hope for Wizards fans. Though when Hope and Luck are your only strategy, generally you end up without one or the other.

HOF quality post!

[nate33]

No. Those lineups suck too. Neto or Ish at PG, but never together. Westbrook can play the 2 alongside one of them, but he shouldn't play the 3.

I wouldn't have minded Westbrook playing the 3 had the Wizards drafted Halliburton. Still, it's tough to not play Ish and Neto together though if you start Matthews and don't play Robinson although yeah no reason why Westbrook should be playing that many minutes- but at this point I am for the tank so 3 point guard lineups are the best.

I come in peace from the Raps board. I have recently been converted to being a hard-core tanker, and am not here to talk about this monstrosity of a game. Insincere congratulations on winning the "tankathon".

Here's my question. In the context of you blowing a 19-point lead tonight, while developing the youth by playing Hutchison and Gill, do you believe Wizards management is actively trying to lose at this point, six weeks before the season's end? Have there been any clues to suggest this? Is Beal being held out of action for tanking purposes, or because the plan is to trade him in the summer and you don't want him to get hurt?

I'm confused about the Raptors' intentions.

No. The Wizard are absolutely not trying to tank (much to our chagrin). Beal is legitimately hurt, taking a nasty fall on his hip a few games ago. He could probably play if this was a playoff game or something, but it's totally reasonable to wait for it to fully heal given the low stakes of these games. Hachimura and Bryant are also hurt, which means 3 of our 4 best players are out.

Gill played because three of our centers and our only natural power forward are hurt (Bryant, Lopez, Gafford and Hachimura).

[nate33]

The GM assembled a roster of international players since he enjoys smart team play, and for years has been the director of international scouting or whatnot (participating in Basketball without Borders etc). His CEO also directs him to select nice guys who are hard workers. The CEO believes you are best prepared to succeed if you 'do well by doing good'. That's the double bottom line. SO, pick good guys and you will win. When in doubt select for character over talent. So far there is a dubious track record of this as a winning strategy in basketball or the world in general, but it makes him feel good about himself and makes for a congenial locker room even on perennially losing teams. He does vocally state that his team will "never tank, ever" despite all evidence that the ONLY way to build a dynasty is to Suck to Get Lucky in the right year, and land the next generational player. Fortunately for him, the team has managed to suck sufficiently that we have landed top 3 players in 3 of the last 10 years. And lottery picks in 6 of the last 10 years. (Lets not mention that we also traded away draft picks in 2 of those 10 years). Of those top 3 high picks only 1 is still with the team. We do have 2 recent lottery picks with the team, but only one of them actually plays. The one who is still learning how to play basketball since he was a baseball fan into highschool and was playing in a country that pretty much ignores basketball since they have no human beings over 6 foot tall in their population.

The current GM was the selection by default after a 70 person focus group ranged far and wide to select the next figurehead of the team. After the last guy spent 14 years squandering the teams future by dong just enough cover-your-ass moves and last second desperation trades for veterans to make it look like he actually gave a crap about his job. The GM search failed when it was made clear that every significant final decision would be vioted on by a board including everyone from the guy who replaces urinal cakes all the way up to billionaire widow Laurene Powell Jobs who bought a partial share in the team when she was convinced it was a good idea by a local politician she was dating. She likes philanthropy, maybe she can help save the orphans and stateless denizens of the District of Columbia by pouring a drop or two of her inexhaustible funds into a long time losing venture that on paper looks like it has a suppressed value. It is underperforming and somehow still worth nearly 2 billion dollars. Anyway. All sensible NBA GM candidates declined to take the position. We were left with an optimistic cheerleader GM who was in the vice-president chair of the last GM for a decade and a half. He has made a couple savvy moves while handicapped by the philosophy that only good guys win. That this is more important than talent. You want both of course, but when in doubt pick the team player. He admires this mindset since that's what works well in Europe. Guys who play well together. Otherwise the coaches will bench them. There are no stars in Euroball. But we do not have a Euroball coach. Who gameplans to make their team stronger than the individual players. We have the other kind of guy.

This GM did not pick the coach, who is in the last year of the contract. The coach is known mostly for being unable to take a team with 3 MVPs deep into the playoffs. But he was friendly-ish with Kevin Durant so the former GM figured that was enough to bring KB home. Despite all evidence to the contrary. KD left home and has stayed far away from home eery choice he has had.

The coach's chief short-coming: he was a scrappy scrub PG who fetishizes two things: star NBA talent, and scrappy scrub role-players. The shorter the better. The sad thing is he is actually trying to win, perhaps to save his job, or set himself up for his next job. He thinks giving the ball to 2 players and letting everyone else stand aside is the best way to do so. And if you are behind you should just throw as many scrappy scrub role-players on court and hope desperately they will bring the energy to make things happen. They do, they make their team lose. He simply does not have a roster that is scrappy enough, apparently, as he has driven away and misused a couple players who were in the smart high-IQ category, but who were more cerebral and less feisty. The roster is incomplete, but is not being used to its best advantage. It was not assembled to play like this.

Before the season the star player was seen on social media partying during a pandemic and throwing up gang signs, after he has spent 2 years rehabbing. The 'CEO' of the team decided he had had enough and forced a trade of the formerly pass-first point guard. The only available matching contract was for a disgruntled former MVP on a team in Houston with a roster that had zero gruntles left to dis. The swap was made, the team gave up a pick to gain him, victory declared. The one thing Westbrook brings with him is all the gruntling in the world. He brings energy to everything, including his terrible shot selection. It is both inspiring and wrongheaded. But a weak coach gets runover by this energy like a donkey on a train track. He still has all-nba talent, but he needs a smart tough coach to focus it.

Meanwhile we have computers watching our players for control and load management and analysis of efficiency. We hired the Godfather of Basketball Analysis in Dean Oliver. We apparently ignore his advice because our coach notably is the least prepared coach in the league, according to a former scout. He writes nothing on the white boards before games. Does not believe in reading scouting reports or gameplanning for particular teams. He believes in upping the usage rate to his stars while everyone else watches. Behind the scenes that stat svengali approaches the players during halftime and says, "Hey you know what i have noticed? When you do this one thing then suddenly you are scoring easy. Maybe try that a bunch in the second half and see if they can stop it. Whaddaya think?" Our tier 2 star has notably excellent 2nd half adjustments, But the team has not found a way to turn that into wins. Just valiant losses clawing back from the deficit of starting out woefully unprepared to play basketball.

However, we do have a director of medical et cetera who will enforce load management from time to time. Bradley Beal is legit injured, though he could probably play. To preserve his career, in case he chooses to stay with us out of misguided loyalty or belief that the owner has a plan behind his jolly personable flim-flammery, the team will enforce some play restrictions to try to prevent the sort of injury by overuse that put our former star player out for 2 years. That's why we hired a medical maven for the squad. To save our biggest assets from the coaches that tell them how and when to play.

The hope against hope is that we can poach your current GM with a huge offer, and perhaps promises of control and a really fancy title that has been researched as being even more important sounding than GM. (Emperor of All Things including Basketball. World Chief of Basketball Operations and Future Worldshaping). Whatever will make Daryl Morey jealous. The secret weapon on our side is that his wife has family in the area and he is friendly with a former US president who is still hanging out in the area sometimes. It's pretty much the "please save us from ourselves!!!" plan that was cleverly enacted to recruit Kevin Durant to the squad. Nice, maybe it works, if the CEO can keep his sweaty meddling paws away from the team and allow the guy to do his job, whether or not Ms Jobs notices or cares or votes on his decisions.

That's pretty much it. In short, yeah they started the year trying to win. Even now the coach would love to win. They are just doing it wrong. In a year where there are a handful of potential all-star players available in the top of the lotto, and a mess of really good players sprinkled lower down. Maybe not generational game-changing talents, but maybe enough that a good GM and coach combo could make something special out of the raw materials we got. Maybe despite all else lined up against us, we suck to get lucky. Which is pretty much the only hope for Wizards fans. Though when Hope and Luck are your only strategy, generally you end up without one or the other.

Yeah. This!