So a lot has happened over the last few days. A strange victory over Oklahoma City. JaVale's mama airs her greivances. Flip gets fired. Randy Wittman moves into the head spot as interim coach. Vesely starts! Two wins versus the Bobcats. A road victory! Let's get it!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Amar'e to the Wizards?
Moke Hamilton of SheridanHoops.com recently posted a column suggesting five trade proposals for Amar'e Stoudemire, one of which landed him in Washington.
If you would, indulge with me in the hyperbole that is this scenario. The trade would make us instantly credible, give us a star to pair with Wall, and would turn the 'rebuilding' process into a 'what do we need to be a major contender' process. Not sure how Amar'e and McGee would work defensively, but I could imagine not worse than things are with Blatche. While I'd love to get rid of Blatche and Young and end up getting an All-star in Amar'e, I'm a bit conflicted on this trade that will never happen. Maybe it's worth the risk, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea of the Wizards taking on the risk of Amar'e's uninsured contract, with his bad knees and all. And Marvin Williams is Atlanta's Andray Blatche.
In the short-term, the trade would be a disaster for Atlanta, but for a team in NBA purgatory that has a couple of bad contracts and is in no way a title contender, this gets them out of the woods. Even though he's a good player, that Joe Johnson contract is well on its way to becoming the worst in the league. This would offer them the chance to get rid of that cap-crippling deal, and a prospect in the hometown Shumpert. Not sure what Cleveland gets out of the trade. The Knicks would have a void at power forward with these swaps, but would get an upgrade at two other positions.
Would this be worth the risk for the Wizards? As much as I try to sound all rational and sensible about the pros and cons, if this trade were to actually occur, I would most likely be through the roof at our overnight return to relevance.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Yourrrrrrrr Washington Wizards - January 18, 2012
Man...we SUCK! It's frustrating when all I have to write about is losing. Even I, a person that always tries to find the positive in things, am losing hope and interest. Oh yeah, we did win a game this week, so to that I say...who the F#^! cares, we're 1-12! If I'm a bit ornery in this post, can you blame me? Anyway, my thoughts below the jump...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
2011-12 NBA Playoff Power Rankings: Western Conference - v1
OK, I've put this off long enough. Let's get to it. With a couple of exceptions, the West is basically split into two factions (Uh, no not THOSE two factions): One group consists of teams with old legs, hoping that they can stick it out through this condensed grind of a regular season and get into the playoffs, where experience has historically offered a huge advantage. The other group consists of young teams that go 8-10 deep. Coaching may be more important than ever this season, as some teams with great talent may lose due to poor decision-making. Anyway, click below for my thoughts on the Western Conference to this point.
Monday, January 16, 2012
The 'OKC Model'
Let's be clear: The 'OKC model' is actually the "have the #2 pick in draft & #1 team doesn't pick transcendent player" model, or as I like to call it, the "team after Portland's pick" model. Any model involving drafting Michael Jordan or Kevin Durant has a good shot of being a successful model. Nice work, Portland. OK, to be fair, Portland had the #2 pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, as Houston took Olajuwon with the top pick. Twitter
Friday, January 6, 2012
Yourrrrrrrr Washington Wizards - January 6, 2012
Happy New Year! When I last wrote, our favorite band of misfits had yet to win a game in the NBA season. Where are we a week later????? Oh.
We did get a couple of games where there was effort. Still, two complete no-shows, two competitive losses, and one players-only meeting later, the Wizards stand at 0-7. But like JaVale said earlier this week, "U lookin at the glass 99% empty! What about it being 1% full!" My observations to this point:
Seven feet of excuses. I didn't really get out my frustrations with Andray Blatche and his Twitter rant last week. He complained that he's not getting the ball in the post enough. That irked me for a number of reasons, but the biggest is that the tweet seems to continue a trend of cop outs and excuses. Why can't he adjust positioning so that he is in the post more when he's ready to receive the ball? If he gets the ball out of the paint, why can't he just back his way down there? Isn't he pretty much a face-up player? What about rebounding? What about defense? What about conditioning? What frustrates everyone so much about Blatche is that you can see that he has talent, but you can't help but think that he'll never mentally be there. Maybe that's just in this organization, where losing and dysfunction happens.
Rashard Lewis. If this wasn't clear last week, I don't understand why Rashard Lewis is getting minutes. He's done, man. I mean done. I'm running out of ways to play devil's advocate in rationalizing why he starts. I'm not going to even dignify the contract rationale, although that could very well be the reason. Veteran leadership. C'mon. If he was displaying so much leadership, why did Mo Evans have to call the players-only meeting? Frontcourt perimeter scoring. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: this ain't Rashard Lewis from the 2009 Playoffs. This is the post-suspension Rashard Lewis. I'm not accusing him of taking something. That's not my place, and I'm in no position to speak on it. What I can say is that ever since that suspension to start the 2009-10 season, the guy has been a shell of what he was. Is that a coincidence? I no longer see evidence of a consistent jumper. He's not a great defender. He's tall, but I don't see a lot of rebounding. I just see a guy keeping a younger, more energetic player(s) on the bench. We've come out lethargic in almost every game so far. and while I'm not blaming that on him, if things need to be shaken up, he needs to be the first guy that needs to be removed from the starting lineup.
Chris Singleton. CHRIS SINGLETON SHOULD BE STARTING! He just provides a spark out there. He has a lot of confidence and obviously has the confidence of the coaching staff, as he's been left on an island against Paul Pierce and Carmelo Anthony in the last week. Yeah he's been torched a bit, but he's learning. I don't know that he's the long-term answer at SF, but I like him. He brings energy. And, in a stat that stunned me, he's brought much better long-range shooting than Lewis. I know that seven games is a very small sample size, but Singleton is 7-13 from beyond the arc, while Lewis is 4-18. Again, why are we starting Rashard? The bigger question is why are we NOT starting Chris?
The Franchise. I had some extreme thoughts about our franchise player the other day, but I'm going to hang on to these thoughts for a while. I don't know if I'm being irrational or not yet.
The Javalevator. Hey! I see improvement! He doesn't seem like a chicken with his head cut off out there. All we can ask for is that he is trying to get better. I haven't seen any coast-to-coast dribbling exhibitions, and while it's still tough to watch, he has developed a couple of post moves. He's coming on and really starting to show some signs that he can be a part of the NBA's 'Really light-skinned, skinny, athletic, and very active centers" club (See Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby. They're like a really tall Debarge).
The Brass. Same as last week. I think Flip needs to go. And even though I don't think he's been the worst GM ever, really starting to feel like Ernie should go too. My feeling on this isn't as strong as it is for Flip, but there are just too many 'projects' on this team. Stay tuned on this.
The Rest. Nick started hot, but has been chilly lately. Seems like a funk, though. I'm not going to kill him for it. Jordan Crawford is already elite at something: shooting too much. Oh, and taking minutes from Shelvin Mack. Booker T doesn't strike me as ever being a long-term starter, but there should at least be a threat to Blatche there. You see signs on occasion, but I don't think Seraphin is or ever will be very good. Ready to see what Jan Vesely can do!
We did get a couple of games where there was effort. Still, two complete no-shows, two competitive losses, and one players-only meeting later, the Wizards stand at 0-7. But like JaVale said earlier this week, "U lookin at the glass 99% empty! What about it being 1% full!" My observations to this point:
Seven feet of excuses. I didn't really get out my frustrations with Andray Blatche and his Twitter rant last week. He complained that he's not getting the ball in the post enough. That irked me for a number of reasons, but the biggest is that the tweet seems to continue a trend of cop outs and excuses. Why can't he adjust positioning so that he is in the post more when he's ready to receive the ball? If he gets the ball out of the paint, why can't he just back his way down there? Isn't he pretty much a face-up player? What about rebounding? What about defense? What about conditioning? What frustrates everyone so much about Blatche is that you can see that he has talent, but you can't help but think that he'll never mentally be there. Maybe that's just in this organization, where losing and dysfunction happens.
Rashard Lewis. If this wasn't clear last week, I don't understand why Rashard Lewis is getting minutes. He's done, man. I mean done. I'm running out of ways to play devil's advocate in rationalizing why he starts. I'm not going to even dignify the contract rationale, although that could very well be the reason. Veteran leadership. C'mon. If he was displaying so much leadership, why did Mo Evans have to call the players-only meeting? Frontcourt perimeter scoring. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: this ain't Rashard Lewis from the 2009 Playoffs. This is the post-suspension Rashard Lewis. I'm not accusing him of taking something. That's not my place, and I'm in no position to speak on it. What I can say is that ever since that suspension to start the 2009-10 season, the guy has been a shell of what he was. Is that a coincidence? I no longer see evidence of a consistent jumper. He's not a great defender. He's tall, but I don't see a lot of rebounding. I just see a guy keeping a younger, more energetic player(s) on the bench. We've come out lethargic in almost every game so far. and while I'm not blaming that on him, if things need to be shaken up, he needs to be the first guy that needs to be removed from the starting lineup.
Chris Singleton. CHRIS SINGLETON SHOULD BE STARTING! He just provides a spark out there. He has a lot of confidence and obviously has the confidence of the coaching staff, as he's been left on an island against Paul Pierce and Carmelo Anthony in the last week. Yeah he's been torched a bit, but he's learning. I don't know that he's the long-term answer at SF, but I like him. He brings energy. And, in a stat that stunned me, he's brought much better long-range shooting than Lewis. I know that seven games is a very small sample size, but Singleton is 7-13 from beyond the arc, while Lewis is 4-18. Again, why are we starting Rashard? The bigger question is why are we NOT starting Chris?
The Franchise. I had some extreme thoughts about our franchise player the other day, but I'm going to hang on to these thoughts for a while. I don't know if I'm being irrational or not yet.
The Javalevator. Hey! I see improvement! He doesn't seem like a chicken with his head cut off out there. All we can ask for is that he is trying to get better. I haven't seen any coast-to-coast dribbling exhibitions, and while it's still tough to watch, he has developed a couple of post moves. He's coming on and really starting to show some signs that he can be a part of the NBA's 'Really light-skinned, skinny, athletic, and very active centers" club (See Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby. They're like a really tall Debarge).
The Brass. Same as last week. I think Flip needs to go. And even though I don't think he's been the worst GM ever, really starting to feel like Ernie should go too. My feeling on this isn't as strong as it is for Flip, but there are just too many 'projects' on this team. Stay tuned on this.
The Rest. Nick started hot, but has been chilly lately. Seems like a funk, though. I'm not going to kill him for it. Jordan Crawford is already elite at something: shooting too much. Oh, and taking minutes from Shelvin Mack. Booker T doesn't strike me as ever being a long-term starter, but there should at least be a threat to Blatche there. You see signs on occasion, but I don't think Seraphin is or ever will be very good. Ready to see what Jan Vesely can do!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Yourrrrrrrr Washington Wizards - December 31, 2011
These have been the summations of each Wizards game so far, in succinct question format:
Game 1: So when we have bad games, we go to Twitter and basically throw our entire organization under the bus instead of finding fault in our own performances now?
Game 2: How in the *%#$ is Atlanta's whole starting lineup +22 or better and our whole starting lineup is -16 or worse?
Game 3: Did they really just sub in Roger Mason and he's not on the active roster?
Such is the life of a Wizards fan. This thing is a train wreck and every year I do the same thing: build up some form of faux-excitement about player improvement, thinking things like, "There's no way this guy can be this dumb FOUR years in a row, right?", or "If we trade these seven guys, we might actually have something going here!", or worse, "Big deal, the guy likes 14th Street hookers, that doesn't make him a knucklehead". I was legitimately excited about the thought that we may win 25 games this season! Beside the fact that through three games that already seems laughable, let's look at the fact that I was EXCITED about the Wizards potentially winning 25 of 66 games. I'm pretty sure I have the symptoms of Battered Fan Syndrome (I think I'll write an entry about the signs. Be on the lookout, Skins fans.). Anyway, I'm convinced that we need to make some serious adjustments. Below are a few early thoughts and observations.
* Fire Flip Saunders! My friends Donte' and Joe (check out Guido's Gripes! Yes that WAS a shameless plug! No I don't think this an overuse of exclamation points!!!) have been saying this for a while, and I've been non-committal. I know Flip was brought in to coach a veteran team, but a gun here and a gun there changed the dynamic. I didn't think though that he's been to blame for all of this. But he shouldn't be absolved either. I mean his player rotations are awful, and while he has definitely helped the careers of Nick Young and JaVale McGee, how much of that development would have naturally occurred anyway? I think the best thing for everybody is to put Flip, the players, the fans, everybody out of their misery and move in another direction. And who do you put in as a replacement? Funny you should ask...
* Hire Sam Cassell on an interim basis. With the chance to remove the interim tag. Look, I am not an Xs and Os guy. My opinions are based upon watching basketball my whole life, gathering observations and memories along the way. I don't know for certain that Sam Cassell is a good coach, but I have a feeling about him. I don't care that he looks like a martian. Hell, maybe that works to his advantage. He was practically a player/coach his last few seasons in the league. He always struck me as a very smart player that knew where everyone needed to be and generally made the right decision. And he was one of those guys that didn't clam up in crunch time. In fact, he even stole a celebration made SPECIFICALLY to highlight this skill set. What's the worst that could happen? He gets a bigger voice in what's going on, maybe instills some heart in these guys, which is sorely lacking, and we see some hard-nosed play on the court. Or we continue to spiral toward the top pick in the 2012 draft, which A.) we're headed towards anyway and B.) maybe isn't a bad thing. Can't lose by moving E.T. up. See what you've got with him.
* Trade Blatche. Listen Dray, we've been through a lot. All the arguments. Hookers. Fights at nightclubs. I hate you. You hate me. I think you could be great. You want to spend your entire career here. Who are we fooling? We're not going anywhere together. The stress in this relationship is just too much. You know what? It's not you. It's me. Let's keep in touch though.
* Bench Rashard Lewis. PLEEASE!!!! What does everyone see in this guy? He has the worst contract in the NBA, so you can't amnesty him when his awful contract is this close to being a valuable trade asset. But why do we have to start him? Don't give me the money thing. Did they start Gil before he was traded last year? I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Maybe it's a coincidence, but this guy hasn't been the same since he got suspended for allegedly doping. I don't see how he's earned a place in the starting lineup. Veteran schmeteran, we need to see results. And you want veteran presence on the court? Put Turiaf in the starting lineup.
* Start Turiaf and Singleton until you get something better. If we're gonna stink, can we at least stink and be good defensively? I like the way these two play, and I think Turiaf can help McGee's awareness. Maybe his energy rubs off on JaVale and good things can happen. The lineup of Wall, Young, Singleton, Turiaf, and McGee intrigues me.
I'm tired of writing about these guys for now. Don't worry, I'll have plenty more to complain about.
Game 1: So when we have bad games, we go to Twitter and basically throw our entire organization under the bus instead of finding fault in our own performances now?
Game 2: How in the *%#$ is Atlanta's whole starting lineup +22 or better and our whole starting lineup is -16 or worse?
Game 3: Did they really just sub in Roger Mason and he's not on the active roster?
Such is the life of a Wizards fan. This thing is a train wreck and every year I do the same thing: build up some form of faux-excitement about player improvement, thinking things like, "There's no way this guy can be this dumb FOUR years in a row, right?", or "If we trade these seven guys, we might actually have something going here!", or worse, "Big deal, the guy likes 14th Street hookers, that doesn't make him a knucklehead". I was legitimately excited about the thought that we may win 25 games this season! Beside the fact that through three games that already seems laughable, let's look at the fact that I was EXCITED about the Wizards potentially winning 25 of 66 games. I'm pretty sure I have the symptoms of Battered Fan Syndrome (I think I'll write an entry about the signs. Be on the lookout, Skins fans.). Anyway, I'm convinced that we need to make some serious adjustments. Below are a few early thoughts and observations.
* Fire Flip Saunders! My friends Donte' and Joe (check out Guido's Gripes! Yes that WAS a shameless plug! No I don't think this an overuse of exclamation points!!!) have been saying this for a while, and I've been non-committal. I know Flip was brought in to coach a veteran team, but a gun here and a gun there changed the dynamic. I didn't think though that he's been to blame for all of this. But he shouldn't be absolved either. I mean his player rotations are awful, and while he has definitely helped the careers of Nick Young and JaVale McGee, how much of that development would have naturally occurred anyway? I think the best thing for everybody is to put Flip, the players, the fans, everybody out of their misery and move in another direction. And who do you put in as a replacement? Funny you should ask...
* Hire Sam Cassell on an interim basis. With the chance to remove the interim tag. Look, I am not an Xs and Os guy. My opinions are based upon watching basketball my whole life, gathering observations and memories along the way. I don't know for certain that Sam Cassell is a good coach, but I have a feeling about him. I don't care that he looks like a martian. Hell, maybe that works to his advantage. He was practically a player/coach his last few seasons in the league. He always struck me as a very smart player that knew where everyone needed to be and generally made the right decision. And he was one of those guys that didn't clam up in crunch time. In fact, he even stole a celebration made SPECIFICALLY to highlight this skill set. What's the worst that could happen? He gets a bigger voice in what's going on, maybe instills some heart in these guys, which is sorely lacking, and we see some hard-nosed play on the court. Or we continue to spiral toward the top pick in the 2012 draft, which A.) we're headed towards anyway and B.) maybe isn't a bad thing. Can't lose by moving E.T. up. See what you've got with him.
* Trade Blatche. Listen Dray, we've been through a lot. All the arguments. Hookers. Fights at nightclubs. I hate you. You hate me. I think you could be great. You want to spend your entire career here. Who are we fooling? We're not going anywhere together. The stress in this relationship is just too much. You know what? It's not you. It's me. Let's keep in touch though.
* Bench Rashard Lewis. PLEEASE!!!! What does everyone see in this guy? He has the worst contract in the NBA, so you can't amnesty him when his awful contract is this close to being a valuable trade asset. But why do we have to start him? Don't give me the money thing. Did they start Gil before he was traded last year? I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Maybe it's a coincidence, but this guy hasn't been the same since he got suspended for allegedly doping. I don't see how he's earned a place in the starting lineup. Veteran schmeteran, we need to see results. And you want veteran presence on the court? Put Turiaf in the starting lineup.
* Start Turiaf and Singleton until you get something better. If we're gonna stink, can we at least stink and be good defensively? I like the way these two play, and I think Turiaf can help McGee's awareness. Maybe his energy rubs off on JaVale and good things can happen. The lineup of Wall, Young, Singleton, Turiaf, and McGee intrigues me.
I'm tired of writing about these guys for now. Don't worry, I'll have plenty more to complain about.
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