Current Perspective

[CMonster]

How bad is it?

We are now 3-14 in our last 17 games, which is a 17% winning percentage. Over our last 23 games, we are 7-16, which is a 30% winning percentage. Arenas has missed only 11 of those games.

A 17% win % translates to 14 wins, which would be second worst in NBA history and a 30% win % translates to 24 wins, which would make us the second worst team in the NBA this season.

Keep in mind that the 3 victories were over Milwaukee without Redd, Atlanta without Joe Johnson, Childress, Pachulia, and Josh Smith, and Indiana without O'Neal, Tinsley and Foster. The last team we beat at full strength was Philly on March 28th, almost a month ago, which started over at midseason by trading AI.

The two wins prior to Philly, vs Seattle and NOLA, Blatche played 30 and 32 minutes averaging 11pts, 7 rebs, 2.5 assists, 1 blk and shot 11-18 from the floor, but has played more than 20 minutes only once since.

Jarvis Hayes is now 8-28 in this series, 28%. In 73 minutes he has managed 23 points 6 rebounds and 3 assists....total. Not average. Total. That's 1 rebound every 12 minutes. And despite being paper thin at guard, hasn't played 1 minute at the 2 but has played a number of minutes at the 4......and the Wizards have been badly outrebounded.

Why did we lose game 2.....it's quite obvious. The Wiz were outrebounded 56-38. That's enormous....But I'm sure Eddie Jordan's smallball strategy had nothing to do with that.

Haywood: 19 minutes
Thomas: 16 minutes
Blatche: 0 minutes

Z: 37 minutes
Gooden: 32 minutes
Varejo: 21 minutes

That tells the story right there....coaching. This is a meltdown of epic proportions and yet Jordan will not even TRY the big lineup.

[CMonster]

Not one response so far, huh?

Well, I'm going to keep ranting....Given that anyone with half a brain realizes that this season is a wash, a coach should start getting ready for next season.....

As Haywood and Blatche continue to rot on the bench, I'll go ahead and play the role of Ernie Grunfeld.

Haywood- At $5M/year, Haywood is a frickin bargain. People don't realize that not only is Haywood statistically effective, but he'd probably the most cost effective center in the league. Kwame Brown is getting $9M/year, Theo Ratiliff gets $11M/year, Ben Wallace gets $15M/year, Ilgauskas gets $10M/year, Dampier gets $9M/yr, Adonal Foyle gets $9M/yr, Mark Blount gets $7M/yr, Jason Collins $6M/yr, Sam Dalembert $9M/yr, Tyson Chandler $10M/yr, the Knicks are paying Jerome James and Jerome Williams more than Haywood and Stromile Swift makes close to $6M/yr with Memphis.

Heck, Calvin Booth is still earning over $6M from Milwaukee.

We should be going out of our way to keep Haywood, but EJ can't figure that out.

The other source of improvement next year would come from Blatche, but EJ is alienating him too. Since it's clear that we aren't winning the NBA championship much less a playoff series or a playoff game a smart coach would be developing young players and giving them playoff experience....but Eddie Jordan doesn't seem to be a smart coach. He'd rather give minutes to Michael Ruffin who probably won't be in the NBA the next time the Wizards play a meaningful game.

Sorry to keep ranting, but the sheer stupidity of Eddie Jordan is killing me.

Please feel free to say what you will, but I haven't criticized coaching on this site since Steve Spurrier and I think that Spurrier did a better job than Eddie Jordan is doing right now. Yes...I think it's that bad.

[arenasisgod]

Eddie is just trying to fire Brendan up. He responded by playing well last night before his immaturity took over. The wiz have a lot of veterans and while the season may be hopeless at this point, its important to set examples for these young guys. Blatche, in his limited playing time, has been turnover and foul-prone. Eddie goes to the small lineup for scoring because his #1 and #2 scorers are out. Blatche averages under 10 points a game and is not a shooter. Neither is Brendan. The small lineup was integral to the late-game comeback last night.

[twenty-eight]

Dude. You CAN'T give up. Playing dray 30 minutes a game is basically giving up. I want to see him get minutes but EJ isnt a moron for not giving him 30 mins a game. Have yuo seen how bad Blatche has been in the limited minutes he's received(since he's been back from injury). I know he wasnt 100%, maybe he is now. Sure I want him to get experience but I dont want to throw in the towel. Clev should be blowing us out. I think EJ has done a good job getting these guys up to play. Like you, I want haywood to get more time(but obviously there is something between wood and EJ, and it's been going on for a couple years now). Who the **** do you want EJ to play, our roster is depleted. But yeah it's all his fault:rolleyes:...I'm just amazed that we keep finding things to blame on eddie. You'd have a hard time finding someone who could do a better job at this point. We're a team without a heart and soul

[mboyd784]

Can anyone explain why Cal Booth can't get a minute in a playoff series where we're getting killed on the boards. I'm not saying he's great. But..

He's big
He's fresh
He has skills

Is he not even worth a look, while AJ tries to guard Z in the post?

[twenty-eight]

Is he not even worth a look, while AJ tries to guard Z in the post?

:gus:



We are who we thought we were!!

[mboyd784]

:gus:



We are who we thought we were!!

Crown our ass!

[arenasisgod]

Cal isn't 100% either

[Mooka]

We ran some big lineups last night. One had Ruffin, Songaila and Haywood in there. Actually was working pretty well. Not that Eddie's helping the situation with great gameplans, lineups or anything, but we shouldn't be complaining about that now. We don't have the players even if Eddie was coaching perfectly. Maybe you don't realize how terrible of a team we have right now.

Etan
AJ
Jarvis
Deshawn
AD

That's friggin pathetic. Let's compare that to the worst team in the league, Memphis.

Gasol
Hakim Warrick
Mike Miller
Rudy Gay
Damon Stoudamire

Hell I'll even take away their two best players, Pau missed about 20 games anyway.

Stromile Swift : Etan --> push. Both average identical numbers, both play with energy, both are undersized bigs, both have had injury problems.
Hakim Warrick : AJ --> Twan doubles Hakim's production.
Dahntay Jones : Jarvis --> Dahntay, he slighty edges out Jarvis, he shoots a higher %. About the same production.
Rudy Gay : Deshawn --> Obviously Rudy is the more physically gifted and talented, Deshawn is a more polished defender. Push. Deshawn is a better shooter, Gay is a better rebounder, they average about the same production.
Stoudamire : AD --> Damon actually averages more assists per minute then Antonio does. AD has a better shot selection, Damon chucks it up there too much. Push. Both average the same production.



There you have it, I just took the worst team in the league and even took away their two best players. They don't have a player capable of carrying the offensive load like Twan, but man for man their starting 5 wouldn't be too much worse then ours. Let's just watch us play hard. We can give some confidence to guys like AD, Deshawn, Songaila and Etan. There were stretches where Songaila was our only option on offense, and he called for the ball every time and made something happen. Promising.

[GOSKINS_08]

What is Eddie Jordan going to go out there and shoot jumpshots?

Stevenson was off again and he needs to step up, you cant take him out though, who would come in? Roger Mason was in and he made some nice plays but he was in for Antonio Daniels..So that leaves you either Stevenson or Donnell Taylor to come in, who do I want in? Stevenson.

As for Hayes, its either Blatche or Songaila coming in for Jamison and or Hayes..So when Songaila is in he took over for Hayes but got into foul trouble, so that leaves you Blatche or Hayes..Blatche is better defensivly blocking shots wise, but Hayes has a better shot when he's on and actually has shut lebron down pretty well..So my point is the bench is so damn short now you have to stick with your players, and no other coach is going to change how short the bench is.

[CMonster]

No one is denying that the team is depleted. However, smart management would negate as much of that deficit as possible.

Here is what an intelligent coach would do....When you don't have as much pure talent as your opponent, you try to find other areas where you can have an edge....such as size and athleticism. EJ is making the situation worse by going small and slow.

There is ZERO doubt that size has been our biggest problem in the first 2 games...in game 1 Z fouled out Songaila and scored 11 in the 4th and in game 2 we were outrebounded by EIGHTEEN.

The no brainer is to go:
1-AD
2-DS
3-AJ
4-AB
5-BH

This lineup makes us BIGGER AND MORE ATHLETIC than Cleveland. And for all of Eddie Jordan's "protect the paint" mantra, this is the best defensive bigman lineup we have. This takes Jamison off of Gooden (who abused AJ last night) and put him on Pavlovic and have Blatche on Gooden (bigger) and BH on Z (equal). Let DS guard LBJ close and let LBJ drive the lane into the 6'1'' AB and 7'0'' BH. That's how to "protect the paint".

Then, you have Jarvis Hayes play ONLY the 2 off the bench. Since he can't get any rebounds, why are we playing him at a forward and sometimes power forward?

Bring in Booth at the 5 and Songaila to rotate with AJ and AB at the 3/4.Give DT or RM a couple of minutes in the backcourt and.....voila. A big, athletic lineup.

Is it enough to win this series? Probably not. But it's past time to find out since we are a horrific 3-14 with the small ball and EJ's favorites (Hayes, Ruffin, Thomas). The definition of insanity is to keep trying the same thing and expecting different results and that's exactly what EJ is doing.

[skins_warrior26]

agreed, i'd rather lose and improve with that lineup then see us hanging on for no reason.

[Gary Clark Fan]

can we just forget about this series and look forward to the offseason........jarvis is gone.....eton should go as well...........bring in a brad miller or danny fortson. More scoring off the bench can be addressed in the draft. Lets not forget we have the russian coming next year to who should be able to contribute.

[Mooka]

We aren't being out-rebounded due to lack of size. Sure that's one problem, but we're being killed on the defensive glass because we have constantly double Lebron and Z.

Size is not our biggest problem, our biggest problem is that we SUCK right now. I'd love to see your lineup Cmonster, but it aint gonna happen, and we'd still get our asses handed to us in this series.

[Warhead36]

You can only do so much when your two best players are out. It is what it is. We suck without them, ESPECIALLY Gil.

[Sticksboi05]

You can only do so much when your two best players are out. It is what it is. We suck without them, ESPECIALLY Gil.

AND CARON!!!

[mboyd784]

AND CARON!!!

Thank You. This team has TWO All-stars!

[MonkFan8]

AND CARON!!!Did you miss the "we suck without them" and "two best players are out" parts? :cool:

[Predicto]

You can only do so much when your two best players are out. It is what it is. We suck without them, ESPECIALLY Gil.


That is the whole story.

That is why my Warriors were one of the worst teams in the league early in the season and had to get red-hot the last six weeks just to make the playoffs. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson were out for a long time and they simply had insufficient talent to compete.

[Mr. Grundle]

That is the whole story.

That is why my Warriors were one of the worst teams in the league early in the season and had to get red-hot the last six weeks just to make the playoffs. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson were out for a long time and they simply had insufficient talent to compete.

I dunno man....maybe Don Nelson is just a horrible coach?

[Winslowalrob]

I dunno man....maybe Don Nelson is just a horrible coach?

But that is crazy talk Grundle! Everyone knows that a good NBA coach does not NEED a good roster. A good NBA coach can take guys from a playground and make them legit! Don Nelson sucks obviously.

[method man]

can we just forget about this series and look forward to the offseason........jarvis is gone.....eton should go as well...........bring in a brad miller or danny fortson. More scoring off the bench can be addressed in the draft. Lets not forget we have the russian coming next year to who should be able to contribute.

Man I would be so happy to bring in Fortson with the LLE. Even if he is the 13th or 14th man and a supposed cancer, he brings it every night and he scares even Shaq.