Caron Back for Sundays Game we be 41-41 or 42-40

[hands11]

We will make the playoffs. Next 2 out of 3 at home and Caron coming back.

Lets look forward here. This is actually great.

What have we gained this year.

Gil has gotten even better. SG/PG 29pts 6 assists
Caron grow a ton and will be here a while racking it up. SF/SG 17 pts 6 rbs
AD is a solid PG is a grove with this team. Vet PG/SG Feb/March 14ps

Jefferies is finally finding his balls and remembering he is a professional basketball play and that includes shooting and scoring. Ive been waiting for this to happen. He needs to not take a back seat mental and play some ball. He has had as many double digit scoring game in the last 10 games as he has all year in total. SF/PF

Jamison returned to form averaging 20 pts and 9RBs PF/SF - he will eventually get signed for less and come off the bench. He is shooting the 3 very well. .394%

IF. and that's a big IF, Jefferies will continue to shot and play his game when Caron returns, we will actually be better off going into the playoffs then we have been all year. We will have 5 scorers and one year of playoff experience behind us.

Jamison is better when he has more established scorers around him so he can flow, spot up and get some transition points. When he doesn't try to lead the team in scoring, he scores more efficiently and usually more.

Players that are still here one day and gone the next are Etan and Haywood. Etan seems to do better as a starter so start him and bring in Haywood.

Now it up to the coach to play the right players at the right time and to get them to play their respective games for the team to be its best. Id say EJ is about 70-75% good at doing this up from 45-50% good at doing it last year.

Next year, we add more talent with Blatche getting some minutes and Ramos will finally see the court. That's 10 players with 2 spots left for a player we may add or Ruffin, B Thomas, Storey, or D Taylor. With Ramos getting minutes at center, I would start Etan at center, bring Haywood in quickly and move him to PF. Bring in Ramos behind Haywood. That's a lot more fouls available from the centers so they can play a lot more aggressive. You'll have a ton of big bodies with Ramos, Haywood, Blatche and Jefferies. All 6-11 and up. Etan is more muscle at 6-10. We are already loaded at G and SF.

There is really only one position for us to add this off season that makes sense to me, and that is PF so EG will find a nice talented player. We can start to save our draft picks for several years and use then later when this team starts to age or we loose player to FA or injury. But I think we can keep everyone we want. I wish we could have seen Fuller this year. 6-9 250

We are still you and on the upswing. We have time to build a team that will continue to contend for a long time while other teams around us age. Kidd is getting old, Shaq is slowing down. We will battle Cleveland for a while.

We are over the hump and headed in the right direction.

[the burgundy and gold]

thats huge that Caron is coming back

[skinfan2k]

i think the wizards suprise everyone and draft kevin pittsnogle or josh boone

[Gamebreaker]

I really hope so. I had us winning that game last night, but I also thought Butler would be back. Our next game is the Cavs, their riding high right now. The Milwaukee again on Tuesday. At the very least, I feel like they'll lose one of these games. Which means they will absolutely have to beat Detroit on the road for the last game.

That is a difficult last 3 games, but they've made it that difficult.

[Warhead36]

The Cavs should be resting Bron since he's hurt and they've iced the #4 seed anyway.

And I think we can beat the Bucks at home.

Pistons may be resting their starters in the finale as well, so we got a good shot at winning out.

[justin_totti10]

thank lord all mighty now if haywood could play like he did last night we would be set.

[turtle]

Glad to hear he's coming back. Hopefully he will shake the rust off quick.

[hands11]

alright, looking good.

[Winslowalrob]

I wanna beat Cleveland's and Detroit's A squad, forget their scrubs. We got this.

[GOSKINS_08]

The game against detroit will be the last game of the regular season right? Will they play all their starters?

[TheREALJBird]

I think we can win our last 3 with Caron back

[hands11]

so now that most are seeing we will be in the playoffs.

How about some comments on my first post which is what this thread is about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6041500897.html

here is more confirmation that Caron is coming back.

So now if AJ will return to his regular rule/game

and

JJ will keep his level of play at this higher level. Then we are a stronger team going into the playoffs then before the injuries.

[Nighthawk]

I'm not as patient as your are. I've seen enough of JJ to know he won't or can't improve.

This is his 4th year in the league and he just can't seem to get over the hump. I would have expected to see him improve year by year but I haven't seen it.

I don't know if the Wizards have the luxury of waiting to see if he does. If the Wizards are just content to make the playoffs (which I don't think they are) then fine but we need more balanced scoring from a 4th player, whoever that might be.

The drop from our 3rd leading scorer to our 4th is too great to overcome some games. 17.3 PPG to 9.6 PPG isn't going to cut it in this league.

You saw what happened with Caron out. Daniels come in but we have nobody behind him to give us points of the bench especially when you can't count on any scoring production from the 5th spot, whoever it might be between Haywood and Thomas.

Thomas is the albatross around our necks. He isn't going anywhere and neither is Haywood.

Also, we might be young across the board, but Jamison isn't getting younger and he's been in the league a long time. Age = injuries so we can't afford to put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to him.

EG needs to get creative and come up with another gem this year for the Wizards.

Each year we've brought in another key to our core nucleus. Arenas, '03. Jamison, '04. Butler, '05.

[arenasisgod]

Jeffries is a nice complimentary player, remonicent of Tayshawn Prince. Jeff has made a couple of layup blocks that were sick. I do wish he could hit a free-throw though.

I like this squad a lot. Especially the emergence of Butler, Ernie giving him that contract before the season started was an under-reported coup. I bet his market value rose significantly after this season (not to mention his value to the wiz) and knowing that he is locked up makes me feel much better about next year. Consistency is something this team has been sorely missing for YEARS, unless you are talking about Juwan, and I don't ever want to talk about Juwan.

[hands11]

The game against detroit will be the last game of the regular season right? Will they play all their starters?

Right, that was my 42-40 senerio

[hands11]

Nighthawk.

It doesnt seem like you followed my post. There will be a transition over the next couple of years where AJ will get a smaller contract and come off the bench. Im looking for us to add a young PF that can grow, not a big name.

Ramos and Haywood at Center. Etan at Center and PF with JJ, Blatche, Caron, AJ and Hayes also playing F. Then Caron will get some minutes at SG with Gil and Hayes and Gil and AD will also run the PG. Thats a nice blend of players who can play 2 possitions.

If you dont think JJ is getting better, your not watching the same games I am and your not reading the stats.

Haywood played well in the playoffs last year so lets see if they do a better job getting him the ball this year. Without Superman ball hog on the team, I think we will have more balance this year.

Also, AD does a good job of balancing out the scoring with Caron, AJ and Gil.

I think this team will do better in the playoffs this year then last years team.

Keep in mind, when Caron went out it wasnt just him. Etan went down and AD missed a few games. Plus Gil hurt his back so it wasnt just about Caron not playing.

I like what we have. Sit tight and watch what happens in the playoffs. I think you will like what you see.

[Nighthawk]

hands, I followed your post, I just didn't agree with all of it and no, I don't think JJ is getting better regardless of what the end of the year stats might say. I want to see that in the beginning of the year, not just at the end. If he had a track record to fall back on, then I would be encouraged by the stats but I'm not. I would love to be wrong, believe me and I hope I'm proven wrong because I don't think Jeffries is going anywhere. He's RFA this offseason and I think the Wiz will ride out another year with him so here's hoping he has a big playoffs and comes back next year playing as well as he is at the end of this one.

By the way, to the guy who said that JJ is reminiscent of T. Prince must be thinking back to college because since they've been in the league, Prince has clearly outshined JJ. If we got the production out of Jeffries that the Pistons get from Prince, I would just sit back and enjoy the games and not have has many doubts as I do.

I don't know what you consider a big name or not, but I'm not one that just wants the Wizards to sign a big name. If that was the case I would have wanted them to sign Antoine Walker last offseason. I want guys who have shown something, anything , that can be improved upon here with a better surrounding cast of players.

With the addition of Arenas three years ago and with Earnie trading for AJ and Butler in consecutive years and signing of AD, I'm encouraged by the offseasons know unlike previously. This team is light years ahead of where they were under Unseld.

I also like the blend of players that the Wizards have with Arenas, Daniels and Butler which is why it would be nice to be able to consistentally depend on someone else to step up and become part of that blend.

Just putting names to positions isn't enough. When will Hayes be healthy or consistent enough to be counted on?

When will Jeffries prove he can do it over the course of 82 games? Let me ask you, do you think his problem is conditioning? Maybe he doesn't eat right. The kid should be a force. (Damn, you know you're getting old when you call people "kid")

One of those two, if not both, need to step up and not be a question mark but an exclamation.

I do think this team is better than last years team and that playing together for an entire season this year will only make them better next year.

Let the playoffs begin!

[hands11]

Interesting read. Thanks for an intelligent conversations.

Hmm. Well with JJ I think its a lot things. He isn't the type of player/person/personality to just come on and lead a team. He started off really well as a rookie. I actually thought he was really advanced in his game right out of the gate. Then he got hurt. Then the team totally changed around him. Coaching, players, etc. So we started to gel under Gil, Hughes and AJ put that team had a ton of injuries and those 3 together took the lead with games on the line and the playoffs in the picture for the first time in a very long time. They got us there so EVERYONE took a back seat to them.

But JJ always did what was asked of him to make the team better. First it was just rebounding and defense, then they added ball handing and now he is taking some more shots and we have some more PG play who knows his comfortable game which is slashing and fast breaks. So yeah, its been slow but part of that has to do with the team around him, injuries, etc.

He has been adding to his game every year so that's what I'm seeing.

As for Hayes, I was never a fan of how overrated he was and how he got to start over other players I thought were better. BUT, as a SG, 3 pt specialist and extra 3 for cheap, I would like to see what he adds to this team coming off the bench. He has been in the system for a while so he should be able to fit in and give us a good 10-12 minutes off the bench behind Caron, Gil and AD.

I haven't said the Prince comparison for JJ but I have said for sometime that he could become a Pippen like player. It will be another couple of years but I can see him having that kind of game. Not exactly the same but something similar. A tall, athletic, good ball handing, good defensive player who can slash, and dunk. Now he has to work on his shot. If he can add that, then we have something special. He has it, but it something mental with him. He just doesn't have the confidence. Hey, even Pippen wasn't Pippen right away. Jordan grow his confidence. I believe the kid with make it. I also think Hayes will fit in with less expected from him. We don't need him to start and I have long said I didn't want him starting. But as a bench player, he adds nice depth, which we need.

So given we Gil, AD, Caron and AJ are now and should be starting next season, I excited to see what these second level players can add. It will be their turn to step up around a solid core of players. It will be the year for JJ, Hayes, Etan and Haywood while Blatche and Ramos get their feet wet. Then add a Ruffin or 2 other new players. Hopefully a PF and that a solid team that will make the playoffs and take another step in maturity. We are 1 or 2 years from the finals which out have to really add much.

Lets see how far this group gets in the playoffs. I can actually see them maybe making it to the 3rd round. That was be assume.

[hands11]

well, the kid does it again. 42-40. Never a worry.

Looks like EJ learned his lesson about shutting it down to early and waited longer to pull the starters.

Congrats WIZ. Look out Cleveland. :applause: