Interim Coach Eddie. Tapscott appreciation thread.

[doclinkin]

Meet the new Coach Eddie.

Tough situation to be in, hard to take over for a popular coach, rough to take the reins for no extra pay and my sense is this is not a spot that Tapscott wanted. But I just wanted to get in an early 2 cents appreciation for Ed Tappscott. Basketball lifer, smart, understands the game inside and out.

I expect him to do a decent job keeping the team afloat. His job is not to haul them into the playoffs, instead he's meant to nursemaid a wounded team and develop the team for the future. He'll help us along to a losing record if that's what's needed but not at the expense of developing the youngsters, since his job is not in jeopardy, ultimately.

Thing is, I expect him to really enjoy it. This is a guy who thinks the game of basketball, and you never know he might surprise himself and others by really doing alright.

So welcome home (again) to the new Coach Eddie.

[Munson79rip]

Watch the flood of love and/or hate to begin at 7:05 pm tomorrow night

[WashWiz54]

Some words from Ed:

"We're better than 1-10. We know it and we're all responsible. So, we're going to preach accountability and unity on this team. We all have to be accountable for what we do, we have to have greater unity. I really believe we've got to get better defensively. The numbers say that, our peformance says that. We have to play with a greater physical presence. We need to guard the rim, guard the lane and be a more physical team."

"First of all, we have to protect the rim and the lane. We've been a little sievelike. Many people go down the lane. If you don't protect the rim and the lane, people will continue to drive it on us. And then as we try and scramble and catch up, squeeze in, out goes the pass to the three-point line and needless to say, there have been a barrage of three-point shots attempted and made against us. So, our philosophy will be to protect the rim and the lane. Fold out and run people off of the three-point line and make people take contested two point shots contested off the dribble. That's the most difficult shot to make in the NBA."

[yungal07]

I like what I'm hearing, but I'm wondering if we have the personnel necessary to be able to protect both the rim and the perimeter.

The one thing that he said that stood out: "We have to play with a greater physical presence. We need to guard the rim, guard the lane and be a more physical team." That sounds as though we may see a bigger lineup coming in the future. Hopefully, when he says "be a more physical team" he doesn't mean more Etan.

[Kanyewest]

Some words from Ed:

"We're better than 1-10. We know it and we're all responsible. So, we're going to preach accountability and unity on this team. We all have to be accountable for what we do, we have to have greater unity. I really believe we've got to get better defensively. The numbers say that, our peformance says that. We have to play with a greater physical presence. We need to guard the rim, guard the lane and be a more physical team."

"First of all, we have to protect the rim and the lane. We've been a little sievelike. Many people go down the lane. If you don't protect the rim and the lane, people will continue to drive it on us. And then as we try and scramble and catch up, squeeze in, out goes the pass to the three-point line and needless to say, there have been a barrage of three-point shots attempted and made against us. So, our philosophy will be to protect the rim and the lane. Fold out and run people off of the three-point line and make people take contested two point shots contested off the dribble. That's the most difficult shot to make in the NBA."

Sounds like Eddie Jordan.

[nate33]

The difference is that EJ reportedly spent most of his practice time on offense. Tapscott spent the entire day on defense.

[go'stags]

Also, i believe it was Kev who said that anytime youu run a guy off the thee point line its a sucess. We hardly ever did that under EJ. It's good to hear, we'll see if it actually happens.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Watch the flood of love and/or hate to begin at 7:05 pm tomorrow night

At 7:05pm tomorrow night, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Stevenson, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, McGee

At 7:05pm on approximately April 1st, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Blatche, Haywood

... That bench: Young, Jamison, McGee would be pretty good and the starters would be big and athletic enough to do just what Tapscott said the team needs to do to defend the perimeter (defend the dribble penetration, defend the rim and rotate).

[Zerocious]

Watch the flood of love and/or hate to begin at 7:05 pm tomorrow night

At 7:05pm tomorrow night, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Stevenson, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, McGee

At 7:05pm on approximately April 1st, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Blatche, Haywood

... That bench: Young, Jamison, McGee would be pretty good and the starters would be big and athletic enough to do just what Tapscott said the team needs to do to defend the perimeter (defend the dribble penetration, defend the rim and rotate).

Oh i get it, April fools, surely DS won't be in the starting line up ?!?

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Watch the flood of love and/or hate to begin at 7:05 pm tomorrow night

At 7:05pm tomorrow night, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Stevenson, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, McGee

At 7:05pm on approximately April 1st, I'd love to see the following on my Comcast screen:

Wizards Starting Lineup:

Arenas, Stevenson, Butler, Blatche, Haywood

... That bench: Young, Jamison, McGee would be pretty good and the starters would be big and athletic enough to do just what Tapscott said the team needs to do to defend the perimeter (defend the dribble penetration, defend the rim and rotate).

Oh i get it, April fools, surely DS won't be in the starting line up ?!?

As a partner for Arenas, I like DS... w/o a healthy Gil, not so much.

When healthy, DS has shown that he can stick the uncontested shot, play adequate perimeter D, guard a variety of positions and has some toughness and leadership.

When having to be a scorer, he is a one in seven guy... one really good game in seven.

[bulletproof_32]

The defensive philosophy sounds the exact same as it did under the old regime. In fact, the quote above is exactly what Tapscott said during the open practice. So while the philosophy sounds good in theory, it remains to be seen if Tapscott has a magical formula to get the player's to execute it in reality (that is, if we even have the right personnel both on the perimeter and interior to execute it.)

[closg00]

Where's the quote about a 8-man rotation, that had me worried, and his comments about protecting the lane etc could have been said by EJ. Perhaps we need to send Tap to deprogrammed.

[MJG]

I don't expect him to last more than the year (if that), so if nothing else, I figure that as long as he isn't doing blatant damage to our young players, I probably won't complain about him much. Not exactly "appreciation", but better than nothing.

[BanndNDC]

I agree with ET (just as i did with EJ) about the need to protect the rim, play tough and cut off penetration. I also think we will see (just like with EJ) that the problem of that philosophy is that we dont have the players to pull it off. as long as we have CB and AJ as our forwards we need to gimmick the defense since their (to pull a WizardsDynasty) lack of lateral quickness and length makes it impossible for them to cut off the penetration and then get out to the shooters. i think we have one of two options on scheming for this problem, either A) relying on (and demanding) the guards to cut off penetration or B) (the imo better option) having one of the forwards (pref AJ) cut off the penetration and having the guards (and other forward) rotate into a perimeter zone to cut off the kick out. unfortunately i think this gimmick would only be passable with BTH and completely ineffective without his inside presence and ability to communicate. on the down side we'll still have problems on the boards. on the plus side i think having McGee and BTH in at the same time makes it a lot easier to to follow the philosophy because of McGee's shot blocking ability, length and quickness.


the rotation thing really worries me though. an 8 or 9 man rotation screams heavy minutes for CB and AJ and zero minutes for thomas (no problem but since we should be tanking im in favor of force feeding him 10 pts a game), McGuire, Pech, and Brown. i think we should play the full roster all season so we can determine whether some of these guys can play and so the key pieces dont get extra wear and tear during a wasted season.


i actually think EJ was doing things right (except for the yo yoing of blatche) for a washed out season. playing vets like thomas at the beginning of the season until they failed (which allows the youngins to naturally take over), using the full roster and pulling CB and AJ early when they werent on or doing things the right way.

[Scabs304]

I thought Eddie TapScott was a crossover porn star who was just taking a shot from dude on dude to Dude on women. Maybe I'm really mistaken.

[Zerocious]

[doclinkin]

Bump for a positive start, good effort from some who had been slacking. Credit EG for dropping the axe and laying the threat maybe but still. Nice mark to set for the 'dead cat bounce'.

Andray Blatche definitely responded. And I like the rotations, minutes distribution, keeping one of CB or Tawn on the floor at all times. Etc. Lots to appreciate in what could have been a very tough situation. Solid work from ETap.

[FreeBalling]

I thought Eddie TapScott was a crossover porn star who was just taking a shot from dude on dude to Dude on women. Maybe I'm really mistaken.

I take it from your comments you have gay porn? How else would you know.

I remember Ed from the ComCast post game show, never thought he would become the coach, we have to be happy with the game play last night.

Nice job Ed.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Nice job Ed.

After last night's virtuoso performance, Ed is too pedestrian a name for him. From here on, he is "Tap."

Yes, yes, I know it is only one game, but for the first time in a very long time I found myself thoroughly enjoying a Wiz game. Highlights:

1. Rotations, rotations, rotations. Loved the big lineups... especially when DSteve was running the point and McGee and Blatche were in the front court. For the first time in, I dunno, six years, we were the aggressors in creating match up nightmares for the opponents. I loved it when Antawn posted up Crawford.

2. Songalia in spot duty. When McGee picked up his third foul with two minutes left in the first half, I muttered to myself, as I have so many times in the past few years, "now would be a good time to bring in Songalia"... and, shocked, I looked at my tv and Tap did just that.

3. Etan. Perhaps contributed more in a Wiz uniform than in any other game in his tenure.

4. Defending the rim, closing out shooters.

5. Tap ripping Mcguire after he jacked one out of the flow of the offense late in the game after the outcome was already determined. Do you think that we could see the beginning of the development of good habits?

6. And of course TJ's alley-oop to Hops. Swagger, excitement, aggression, athleticism. I jumped out of my chair and pumped my fist.

[nate33]

This team is still fundamentally a jump shooting team. There's no changing that until Arenas gets back and starts driving the lane. Accordingly, there are going to be some games that we simply can't win because guys won't make shots, and there will be some surprising wins when all the shots are falling.

But the important thing is that we will no longer be shooting ourselves in the foot. Eddie T isn't going to put stupid lineups out there with DSong at center or Etan getting major minutes. He's going to be disciplined with the rotations. He's not going to sit both Butler and Jamison so that the youngsters have no veteran to stabilize things. He's not going to leave the starting unit on the floor for an entire quarter and then be faced with a choice of playing dog-tired starters or end-of-the-bench scrubs down the stretch. He's going to put in the players that give us the best chance of success. At the very least, he'll make sure that the youngsters get ample opportunity and experience.

I'm sure Eddie T has his faults. By all accounts, Eddie Jordan is an innovative offensive strategist. Perhaps Tapscott won't be as crafty with the half court offense. There may be subtle changes detracting from our offensive efficiency that most of us won't even notice.

At this point, that's a trade-off I'm willing to accept. I've had enough of the obvious player rotation errors that a basketball novice like me can so easily recognize. Hopefully Eddie T will get the big things right, even if he misses some of the nuances. I'm hoping that improved defense will lead to more fast breaks which should offset any falloff in our half-court offensive efficiency.