GT #23: Knicks @ Bullets 7 PM [2/12/21]

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

One thing I can appreciate is how close to perfection Westbrook is. 2-14 is not far from 0-16

[TGW]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

[FAH1223]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

That’s why it was critical to get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019.

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[80sballboy]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

Who has said that, Nate? I think most of us gave him a pass on last season and this off-season he built the least athletic roster by re-signing Bertans, adding RoLo, adding Neto, drafting Deni, and signing Gill (ugh). Losing Bryant made us even slower and less athletic. Brooks doesn't have many options. Everyone screams for Troy Brown, but he's not the most athletic wing and doesn't have the quickest first step and Bonga is long but pretty average athletically. That's why Jordan Bell jumped out like a cat at a dog show. Unfortunately, he's a poor man's Noel and gives no offense.

[80sballboy]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

That’s why it was critical to get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019.

Ted kinda, sorta tried with fake love for Masai and Connolly. It shows that he and Zach are really the ones running things. Until he adds a legit one or an assistant from a big-time winner who will be allowed to bring in his own guys, we're going to be up Schitt's Creek for a long time.

[WallToWall]

At the postgame press conversation a media person should ask Russell if he can drive a tank.

“How about you, Coach Brooks? M1 or Sherman? Which one is your favorite tank?“

Jagdtiger was, arguably, the worst tank of WW2. We got one. The best one. Roll on, my friends.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

At the postgame press conversation a media person should ask Russell if he can drive a tank.

“How about you, Coach Brooks? M1 or Sherman? Which one is your favorite tank?“

Jagdtiger was, arguably, the worst tank of WW2. We got one. The best one. Roll on, my friends.

Hey, thank you, WTW. I learned something new despite the Wizards same old.

[BrianInPhilly]

Tough loss. It's just so hard for the Wizards to compete w/o Beal. Defensively, if it wasn't for Len/Lopez I don't even want to think how bad they would be ... There's practically no physicality and/or defensive skills from anyone outside of the center position. The Wizards are incredibly weak at the forward spots & it seems like a lot of Randles/Robinson points came from them alternating and going at the player who wasn't Len/Lopez or they exploited a lack of rotation from 1 of the forwards. Since I've just been following the team since Len got here, can someone inform me why the Wizards have such limited physical options at the forward spots? Everyone there are perimeter players and don't appear to want to mix it up inside at all on either end; I don't see how a roster can be constructed without at least a couple guys willing to do some dirty work who play ANY position from SG - PF, and are solid enough to get run each night.

Anyhow, don't want to overreact to one game but this issue was on full display tonight & given the roster construction the Wizards have limited answers to this. Luckily for them at least, most PF's in the NBA aren't "inside" guys like Randle so the issue probably won't be as pronounced as it was tonight.

[queridiculo]

Since I've just been following the team since Len got here, can someone inform me why the Wizards have such limited physical options at the forward spots? Everyone there are perimeter players and don't appear to want to mix it up inside at all on either end; I don't see how a roster can be constructed without at least a couple guys willing to do some dirty work who play ANY position from SG - PF, and are solid enough to get run each night.

The Wizards front office is clueless and doesn't have coherent a plan. It pretty much comes down to that.

[penbeast0]

At the postgame press conversation a media person should ask Russell if he can drive a tank.

“How about you, Coach Brooks? M1 or Sherman? Which one is your favorite tank?“

Jagdtiger was, arguably, the worst tank of WW2. We got one. The best one. Roll on, my friends.

The Jagdtiger was too heavy and too slow, it got bogged down easily which made it a target. It would be as if Coach Brooks decided to go with Rolo, Len, and Wagner as a front line with Deni at guard intead of the 4 guard lineups he seems to favor.

The USA made a version of the Sherman tank with rivets that would pop loose and fly around the interior if there was a hit on the armor, even if the armor stopped it. One nickname was "the Rolling Coffin."

[WallToWall]

At the postgame press conversation a media person should ask Russell if he can drive a tank.

“How about you, Coach Brooks? M1 or Sherman? Which one is your favorite tank?“

Jagdtiger was, arguably, the worst tank of WW2. We got one. The best one. Roll on, my friends.

The Jagdtiger was too heavy and too slow, it got bogged down easily which made it a target. It would be as if Coach Brooks decided to go with Rolo, Len, and Wagner as a front line with Deni at guard intead of the 4 guard lineups he seems to favor.

The USA made a version of the Sherman tank with rivets that would pop loose and fly around the interior if there was a hit on the armor, even if the armor stopped it. One nickname was "the Rolling Coffin."

I harken back to my 7th grade book report, constructed from my hasty reading of a few select sentences from one or two chapters of a book on tanks, to postulate that the iso-ball run by the knicks, placing our slowest two small persons against their two average players, is akin to the Jagstiger against, well, anything really. Its a reason for a beat down like no other. Knicks scored at will, and we couldnt defend. Commander Brooks had no answers, but he was a model spectator.

[payitforward]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

That’s why it was critical to get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019.

Exactly! & the problem was that it proved impossible to "get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019."

Nobody wanted the job. It was hard to get anyone to come for an interview!

[SUPERBALLMAN]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/wizards/2019/07/22/washington-wizards-inside-look-x-front-office-structure/1794556001/

[montestewart]

Let me be more specific about how Westbrook stinks:

He is not good when on the floor --
He never stops trying to score
Except when tossing an errant pass.
On defense, he looks entirely gassed.
A 3-ball to Westbrook's far too tempting,
His teammates' better shots preempting.
The ball is dribbled off his knee,
Now watch him shout at the referee.
I'm not sure when he lost his lift,
But now his game is mostly ****.

HOF

Got me thinking about Sam I am

Done!

Re: Wiz-Board Rules, Links, Traditions and HOF Posts Thread

[DCZards]

Exactly! & the problem was that it proved impossible to "get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019."

Nobody wanted the job. It was hard to get anyone to come for an interview!

PIF, you keep repeating this without any proof that it’s true. In fact, from all indications, just the opposite is true. Danny Ferry and Troy Weaver sought the job. Both had two interviews.

The only person we know for sure who turned down the job was Connelly, who from all accounts has a pretty nice situation in Denver.

I’m not sure whether Masai turned down the job or if he even interviewed for it. (He was still under contract with Toronto at the time.)

Masai’s contract is up this year so there may now be an opportunity for the Zards to truly pursue him as GM.

[payitforward]

Now you guys get to see Sheppard's roster sans Beal looks like. Pretty effing pathetic. I don't understand why people say Sheppard should keep his job or has done a good job. This roster without Beal is arguably the worst roster in the NBA.

Sigh... Sheppard does have to go -- but not b/c of the players he's brought in. He needs to go, because we need someone who has authority with Ted.

Which is not to disagree altogether about the roster!

But, look at who was on this team at the end of 2018-19, when Tommy took over.

Aside from Wall, Beal, Bryant (whom Shepp brought in) & Brown we had: Tomas Satoransky, Bobby Portis, Jabari Parker, Sam Dekker, Devin Robinson (2way), Jordan McRae, Chasson Randle, Trevor Ariza, Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith, Wes Johnson, & Dwight Howard (injured).

5 guys came back: Wall, Beal, Bryant, & Mahinmi & McRae. 4 had guaranteed contracts (in Bryant's case a new contract).

Which of those other guys would you have wanted to keep? Ariza? He was a FA & went somewhere else.

We weren't in a position to sign an expensive FA. & we had nothing whatever to trade. I thought Tommy did an outstanding job of starting to rebuild -- e.g. he got Bonga, Wagner & a R2 pick for nothing. Ditto Bertans.

Of course it would have been great if he'd gotten even better players than those guys for nothing. But... do you have a list of better players who were available for nothing? I don't.

I didn't much like Tommy's pick of Rui -- but he isn't a bum; he's not a bust. Ish was worth the $$ he made. IT was a cheap experiment, the right thing to do.

In short, overall, I thought Tommy had a very good first year as the Wizards' GM -- given the roster Ernie left him & the paucity of means to get better which Ernie also left him.

The only real missed opportunity was failing to trade Bertans for a R1 pick -- but I think there were no more than 3-4 people here who agreed with me when that went down. I don't recall whether you were one of them. Were you?

The problems started this off-season. Signing Neto was perfectly all right. But Lopez was awful. & giving Anthony Gill a roster spot (instead of Yoeli Childs or some other undrafted young prospect) was foolish. Minor but foolish all the same. Plus, it would have been nice to get another player out of what looked like a deep R2.

The 2 real problems were

1. Re-signing Bertans for a ton of $$ -- again, I don't recall more than a couple of people agreeing with my negative view of that. & again, I have no recollection of what you wrote on the subject.

2. The idiotic decision to trade Wall & a R1 pick for Westbrook. & I'm pretty sure that came down from Ted (tho of course I could be altogether incorrect about that).

& there you have the real reason Tommy has to go. He doesn't have the authority to shape the franchise. We need someone who can & will tell Ted to go sit in a corner & count his $$$. That's plenty of reason.

[payitforward]

Exactly! & the problem was that it proved impossible to "get a new GM from outside the organization in 2019."

Nobody wanted the job. It was hard to get anyone to come for an interview!

PIF, you keep repeating this without any proof that it’s true. In fact, from all indications, just the opposite is true. Danny Ferry and Troy Weaver sought the job. Both had two interviews.

The only person we know for sure who turned down the job was Connelly, who from all accounts has a pretty nice situation in Denver.

I’m not sure whether Masai turned down the job or if he even interviewed for it. (He was still under contract with Toronto at the time.)

Masai’s contract is up this year so there may now be an opportunity for the Zards to truly pursue him as GM.

Zards -- I don't know why, but I didn't know that Ferry & Weaver were in the running...

...or, more likely, I'm just being old & forgetful, since a little googling turned up plenty on the subject from back then!

I wonder whether either of them got an offer. It's possible that such an offer included terms that weren't acceptable -- e.g. the issue I raised of Ted wanting to have direct access to everyone in the Wizards organization. I don't know, & it's unlikely any of us will ever know.

OTOH, it's hard to imagine why one would hire Tommy Sheppard over either of those guys. I'd have been happy if we'd hired either of those guys -- especially Troy Weaver. I bet he'll do a great job with the Pistons. Danny Ferry was a little bit under a cloud back then. He's just joined SA as a consultant.