Wizard rising in the polls EPSN and WIZ MAG

[hands11]

Channel 27 ABC Sports has NBA inside stuff on right now 12:30

They are doing the LAC

They have my boy Simmons.
Ive seen him a few times already.
They talked about how good the 19 yr old Livenston is but he is hurt and in rehab. They said he may be like a Magic Johnson. Well see.

One thing that does stand out is this. We had a solid SF/SG back up. Simmon is such a solid player. Great Fts %, 3%, and FG % and grabs rebounds. This means he makes great decissions
http://www.nba.com/clippers/stats/index.html

Hayes is taller 6-7 va 6-5, and still may end up being better in the long run. This is only his second season.

I just always like Simmon heart and focus.
I actually think Profit is similar to Simmons only Simmons is a little bigger right now. I hope we give him a shot.

This is just more evidence to keep what we have more often instead of always thinking the grass is green somewhere else.
I would be happy if we didnt even draft a player next year. I want to see our players develop. We have so much talent that just need more time.

Seems we have a couple young up and coming teams in LAC, the Suns and the Wiz.


WIZ MAG did a piece on Haywood. Very impressive.

They were showing him lifting weights. Wow.
Dude has massive vain popping out of his shoulder and biceps.
You only get that from tons of lifting. Im someone how has done a good bit of work with the weights. Brendon would have to really really be working hard to get that kind of vain structure.
Im impressed with his dedication.

If this is what he continues to do, he is going to be massive.
I believe he is focus on the goal of becoming a dominate center.
I missed most the interview, but I what he is focused on is being on the floor in the 4th quarter. This really seemed to bother him last year. Jordan seems to have been straight up honest with Haywood about what he needs to do and what he needs to work on, and Brendon has excepted the input and challange.

I think he is shooting to be a muscular 300 pounder. He isnt fast to start with so he may as well be massive and strong. They talked about how it takes longer to develop a centers post game. He is still working on this. I believe he will continue to make modest gains in this area.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/brendan_haywood/index.html?nav=page

He is ranked this year for blocks and offensive rebounds.

We are ranked 4th in rebounds per game as a team.

Etan will help us improve on this even more. He grabs a 2.4 a game in 24min.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/etan_thomas/index.html?nav=page

They are putting the pieces together.

The bar for each player is being raised. If you want to get minutes on this team, you have to put in the work.

[Bugs']

Nice post Hands....and I agree that we are an up and coming team....I just hope they don't mess with the chemistry or the coach or the GM. Let the players play, get minutes, get better, or if certain players don't get better then maybe look at moving them at some point or replacing them with a draft pick...but give them ample time to try to show what they have (unlike what they did with Simmons)

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

If I remember correctly, Simmons was a casualty of the great Stackhouse trade. I always liked him too, but I'm more than happy with Jarvis.

[hands11]

Originally posted by Bugs'
Nice post Hands....and I agree that we are an up and coming team....I just hope they don't mess with the chemistry or the coach or the GM. Let the players play, get minutes, get better, or if certain players don't get better then maybe look at moving them at some point or replacing them with a draft pick...but give them ample time to try to show what they have (unlike what they did with Simmons)

Thanks Bugs.

Wiz Mag is coming on again at 9PM tonight if your around.

Check this out. I hear the Jefferson music in the background.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2005&week=7

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2005&week=0

We started ranked 27th. We are now ranked 12th.

Not back rabbit, not bad.

[hands11]

If we can take MN we will definatly climb so more.

[hands11]

Stuck at 11. Week 8

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams/powerranking?team=was

Just look at the teams head of us. WOW.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2005&week=8

I think we may have hit the ceiling for now. We are stuck here until we add something new to our mix. We need more then Gil, Hughes and Jamison.

Blake will have an impact if Jordans figures out how to change the rotations.

Next Etan comes back early January.
Hayes is hurt, bench him or put him on IR, this improves us.
Then you have the X factor, Kwame.
Jefferies game is showing signs that he may be ready to estabish a new bench mark for himself.

Once we get these players blended, we can start to challange teams like Dallas, Cleveland and Detriot.

Look out for Indiana starting to climb.

We could get to 8th with in 2-3 weeks.

[Bugs']

I am surprised that Orlando is ranked so much higher than us....let's see what happens to them once Grant Hill goes gimpy again...they are only 6-6 in the conference compared to 11-6 for Washington and they are only 1-4 in the division where the Wiz is 4-4...:mad:

[Gamebreaker]

Also Bugs', we BEAT Orlando...yet no one outside of D.C. wants to admit that.

[Bugs']

Originally posted by Gamebreaker
Also Bugs', we BEAT Orlando...yet no one outside of D.C. wants to admit that.

Great point! What gives? Why no respect?

[hands11]

Sixers may end up being in the mix

Wed 22 @ Indiana W 102 - 90 11-14 A. Iverson 40
C. Williamson 8

Mon 27 @ Portland W 111 - 104 12-14 A. Iverson 28
A. Iguodala 10

Tue 28 @ Seattle W 114 - 107 13-14 A. Iverson 34
A. Iverson 9

[hands11]

Week 9 dropped from 11th to 14th

Mon 27 Charlotte W 106 - 87 15-11
Wed 29 Detroit L 105 - 107 15-12 G
Fri 31 @ Boston L 103 - 108 15-13
Sun 2 Atlanta W 104 - 101


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams/powerranking?team=was

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2005&week=9

9 (16) Pacers
11 (15) Lakers
12 (18) Rockets
13 (22) Grizzlies
14 (11) Wizards

These are the teams that jumped us.

[Bugs']

Weren't we undefeated last week? How can teams jump us when we go undefeated and beat teams like Seattle and Minn.?

:tantrum:

[hands11]

Week 10. Predictions. We were 14th but we will climb.
We are 19-13

Week 9 dropped from 11th to 14th

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams...anking?team=was

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/power...son=2005&week=9

9 (16) Pacers
11 (15) Lakers
12 (18) Rockets
13 (22) Grizzlies
14 (11) Wizards

Games since last Mondays ranking.

Tue 4 New Jersey W 112 - 88 17-13
Thu 6 Seattle W 107 - 96 18-13
Sat 8 Minnesota W 117 - 114 19-13


Memphis is still on a roll. Won 6 but they are only 18-17
Houton will drop below us.
So will LA and Indi. and MN.

We could hit a new high. New Ranging 8-11. We will be no lower then 11. We should have the 8th best record but Im not sure folks are ready to say we are better then Indi, Detriot and Memphis. We won some nice games. This ranking should be real interesting.

[hands11]

Originally posted by hands11
Week 10. Predictions. We were 14th but we will climb.
We are 19-13

Week 9 dropped from 11th to 14th

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams...anking?team=was

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/power...son=2005&week=9

9 (16) Pacers
11 (15) Lakers
12 (18) Rockets
13 (22) Grizzlies
14 (11) Wizards

Games since last Mondays ranking.

Tue 4 New Jersey W 112 - 88 17-13
Thu 6 Seattle W 107 - 96 18-13
Sat 8 Minnesota W 117 - 114 19-13


Memphis is still on a roll. Won 6 but they are only 18-17
Houton will drop below us.
So will LA and Indi. and MN.

We could hit a new high. New Ranging 8-11. We will be no lower then 11. We should have the 8th best record but Im not sure folks are ready to say we are better then Indi, Detriot and Memphis. We won some nice games. This ranking should be real interesting.


2005 Power Rankings: Week 10
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking

We hit 8th. Someone is going to write an article about this.

We are ranked, you ready for this, better then

9 (13) Grizzlies
10 (5) Kings
11 (8) Timberwolves
12 (16) Magic
13 (9) Pacers
14 (11) Lakers
15 (12) Rockets


When we the last time the Wizards were the 8th rated team in the league. Funny thing is, I can see us higher then this.
I think we are going to end up being better the Det and Cleveland but we need us guys all healty.

That would put us at 6th, with only Suns, Spurs, SuperSonics, Heat, and Mavericks left on the board after that.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We play the Sun, Spur, Mav, Cleveland, and Indi all in the next 8 games. What if we win a few of these ?

Please visit the " How many games will we win forum " and change your predictions.

Sweeeeeeeeat.

[hands11]

Spurs 28-8 lost the Utah 12-24 yesterday.

97-96

Cleveland is loosing the Bobcats right now
Bobcats 10:57 76
Cavaliers 4th Qtr 66

Pistons 9:13 49
Nets 3rd Qtr 43


Miami is going to loose the the Suns.... :)
Heat 9:00 pm ET
Suns Preview

This drops them to 27-10 ( man they have played a lot of games )


We have 2 games we should win coming up.

Wed 12 Portland 0.483 ( win )
Fri 14 @ Milwaukee 0.321 ( win )


We should be 21-13 soon.

[hands11]

Bobcats 98
Cavaliers OT F 100

Owww, so close.

Cavs almost lost to the Bobcats. That would have been sweat.

[Fatty P For The Pulitzer]

Originally posted by hands11



2005 Power Rankings: Week 10
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking

We hit 8th. Someone is going to write an article about this.



Wiz are also 9th in Foxsports.com rankings, 10th in CBS Sportsline, and 11th in SI.com's rankings. Not too bad. Keep it up Wiz, with Etan coming back, and if Kwame ever does, we're only gonna get better.

[Bugs']

Originally posted by hands11
Bobcats 98
Cavaliers OT F 100

Owww, so close.

Cavs almost lost to the Bobcats. That would have been sweat.

Something is going on in Charlotte....the T'Wolves lost to them last week and they are playing some good ball....

[hands11]

Originally posted by Bugs'


Something is going on in Charlotte....the T'Wolves lost to them last week and they are playing some good ball....

and Chicago

Streak 5, they are now the 8th seed.
This is thier second streak.

15-8 over these games from 2-10 to 15-18 while beating the Lakers, Cleveland, MN, loosing to Dallas by 1, Indi, @ Det

Hmmmmm.

http://www.nba.com/bulls/schedule/

Wed 1 L.A. Lakers W 92 - 84 2-10

Fri 3 Miami L 81 - 105 2-11

Sat 4 @ Washington L 88 - 95 2-12

Mon 6 San Antonio L 75 - 91 2-13

Wed 8 Cleveland W 113 - 85 3-13

Fri 10 Philadelphia L 88 - 93 3-14

Sat 11 Minnesota W 99 - 88 4-14

Mon 13 Dallas L 93 - 94 4-15

Wed 15 @ Memphis W 96 - 88 5-15

Thu 16 Milwaukee W 85 - 77 6-15

Sat 18 Indiana W 85 - 71 7-15

Mon 20 Portland W 92 - 87 8-15

Wed 22 @ Detroit W 89 - 82 9-15

Sun 26 @ Milwaukee L 92 - 99 9-16

Tue 28 New Jersey L 80 - 84 9-17

Sat 1 Orlando W 105 - 90 10-17

Mon 3 Detroit L 80 - 87 10-18 .

Wed 5 @ New Orleans W 95 - 89 11-18

Fri 7 Utah W 84 - 78 12-18

Sat 8 Boston W 102 - 91 13-18

Mon 10 Golden State W 94 - 85 14-18

Wed 12 Philadelphia W 110-78 15-18

[hands11]

Week 13. What drugs was this guy on this week ?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2005&week=13

Dropped from 8th to 13th but we have a better record then everyone up to 7th place 25-20, except we has the same record as Cleveland who is at 10th and we beat them.

We won Sat 22 @ Indiana and Mon 24 @ Cleveland

So we lost to Orlando twice. They were close games and mostly we lost because of Fts. Come on, we when 12-4 in January and lost 2 close games with one of our 2 main stars hurt and we drop 5 places with this as the comment.

The eight-game home winning streak is gone, and they've taken a dip, but Wiz are hanging in without Hughes (4-4). And Arenas' All-Star case only gets stronger."

Chicago at 22-20 are ranks right below us ?

We have to take out Detriot tomarrow. Once we get past them, then we have a great chance to taking the remaining 3

Fri 4 @ Toronto
Sat 5 Milwaukee
Mon 7 Indiana

Next Monday we will be 7th. Some people still dont believe.

Dropping us to 13th was overreacting.

[Erigion]

Obviously they're expecting some sort of collapse and are just hedging their bets.

[hands11]

Originally posted by Erigion
Obviously they're expecting some sort of collapse and are just hedging their bets.

Well, we should have gotten the benefit of a doubt until the other shoe actually feel off. We have a better record then those teams for a reason.

Had we beat Orlando once, we probably wouldnt have move down at all. So one game made us drop that much ?

We would have been 13-3 in January. How many teams would have had a better Jan then that ?

It was a bad ranking this week.

[Erigion]

Yes, but until we win something we'll never get the respect from rankings and sportscasters. I still can't believe that people are saying that the Bulls are a more surprising team than the Wizards.

[Bugs']

Raising in the rankings without Hughes? Nice!@



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Every Monday during the regular season, ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein takes the pulse of the league by ranking all 30 teams. Click here to comment on the rankings and click here to submit questions for Stein's weekly chat. In each chat, Marc will take a few rankings-related questions.

That's it. Our patience has been exhausted. The committee (of one) has been forced to respond to Minnesota's latest backslide with a steep 11-spot drop in Marc Stein's NBA Power Rankings. That's because the unraveling Wolves, after a 5-0 spurt, have lost five straight games -- four of them at home. Thus they go tumbling from No. 9 to No. 20, which Minny's underachieving players will undoubtedly blame on coach Flip Saunders, like everything else.


2005 Power Rankings: Week 14
Rank (Last Wk) Team Rec. Comment
1 (1) Spurs 38-10 This will be Pop's first All-Star game, but this is far more important: Pop and Larry Brown are the only active coaches with a championship ring now that Rudy T. has resigned.

2 (2) Suns 38-11 Knowing Nash, whether or not he gets to start in place of an injured Kobe, he's seriously bummed that D'Antoni won't get to return to Denver as the West's coach.

3 (3) SuperSonics 32-13 Sonics have to hold firm up here, with a fat division lead and a 7-2 record vs. Spurs, Suns, Kings, Mavs and Heat.

4 (5) Heat 35-14 Shaq can make all the jokes he wants about Don Nelson being ''the Jack Haley of his era,'' but the irony is this: Heat can only wish they had a sixth man as reliable as Nellie was.

5 (6) Mavericks 31-15 Nellie returns Tuesday vs. Chicago after Avery's splash as a fill-in, and here's his first task -- Dallas must improve on its dismal 1-5 record vs. Spurs, Suns, Sonics and Kings.

6 (4) Kings 32-15 First it was Brad Miller, and now Bibby is trying to make West coaches take notice of how he's carrying injury-ravaged Kings.

7 (11) Rockets 28-21 The only team this season besides Seattle to beat San Antonio twice just completed a 4-0 week, with three of those victories on the road. Looks like they're getting it.

8 (7) Grizzlies 27-21 Furious George is getting all the fresh pub in Denver, but don't sleep on Czar Fratello, who was 22-28 in his Cleveland farewell (lockout season of '99) ... and who's 22-10 with Grizz.

9 (8) Pistons 28-19 Whine all you want to, Detroiters, but you have some nerve complaining to us about our All-Star picks given the rankings respect the champs always get here, at just a half-game ahead of Wiz.

10 (10) Cavaliers 27-19 So, East coaches, tell us: Do you regret leaving LeBron off last February's All-Star roster yet?

11 (13) Wizards 27-19 You want weird? Since Hughes went down, Washington is actually scoring almost one point more per game (nearly 103 ppg) and shooting the 3 better (up to 37 percent from 34).

12 (12) Magic 25-22 It's safe to say Magic have noticed that, in spite of Boston's recent surge, they'd be in first place by a game and a half if they didn't get relocated to the Southeast.

13 (14) Bulls 22-22 Can't say it better than gritty, gutty Scotty Skiles, who says: ''We're not an 0-9 team, but we're not an 18-4 team, either.'' Maybe this month's heavy road schedule will clarify things.

14 (17) Clippers 23-24 San Antonio's seven-game, rodeo-induced road trip is getting all the attention, but don't ignore how Clips are in the midst of a stretch featurning nine in a row on the road.

15 (16) Nuggets 21-26 There's a reason Nuggets will keep getting linked with a possible Payton trade: Andre Miller has only five double-digit assists games all season, zero since Karl took over.

16 (15) Lakers 24-21 Laker players would be wise to let all of us focus on the coaching stuff, because they have 23 roadies left and only 14 games at home. In other words, they need Kobe back ASAP.

17 (18) Celtics 24-24 They're not the Patriots yet -- or the Red Sox -- but life ain't so bad after three straight road wins, five straight wins at Minnesota and a leap to .500 for the Atlantic leaders.

18 (20) Nets 20-27 The only team in the Atlantic that hasn't led the division yet is the one that scares everyone right now, with Vince -- dare we say it -- looking worthy of his All-Star spot. Ditto for J-Kidd.

19 (19) 76ers 22-24 Sixers are getting closer, but they still haven't seen .500 since Nov. 26 (6-6) and haven't been above .500 since 4-3.

20 (9) Timberwolves 24-24 All Wolves need now is a 34-0 finish to match last season's record. Anyone out there like their chances?

21 (21) Pacers 22-24 At just 15-22 since The Malice of Auburn Hills, Indiana has seemingly done the impossible ... give the Atlantic Division hope of sending two teams to the playoffs.

22 (23) Trail Blazers 20-26 There's no truth to the rumor Cheeks is trying to win favor with the committee by starting two little lefties together in the backcourt. But we don't deny liking the NVE-Damon combination.

23 (22) Raptors 20-28 After six straight weeks with no Pape references, we couldn't resist. But (I guess) we can understand Raps' reluctance to play him, so long as the playoffs remain a possibility.

24 (26) Bucks 17-28 It's getting to the point when a good day is simply getting through 24 hours without a new Redd rumor.

25 (24) Jazz 16-31 10-30 record since a 6-1 start makes for some hard-to-believe reading. And Kirilenko clearly isn't a cure-all just yet.

26 (25) Knicks 18-29 For those wondering why Steph won't make even the East's All-Star snubbed list, don't forget New York is, uh, 2-16 in 2005.

27 (29) Bobcats 10-34 As long as it's not another back injury. Bobcats can live with Emeka's ankle trouble. Especially since they quietly scored victory No. 10 without him, long before anyone expected.

28 (27) Warriors 13-34 In yet another wasted season, the only solace is that half of the $200-plus million spent over the summer -- the J-Rich and Murphy half -- is making a game effort to live up to its price tag.

29 (30) Hawks 9-37 With 12 double-doubles in 19 games, 'Toine is trying to get noticed for All-Star consideration. Atlanta simply loses too much.

30 (28) Hornets 8-39 They've slipped below Bobcats again, but Lord Byron refuses to betray any regret about not waiting for a Laker interview. ''I'm extremely happy where I am,'' he insists.

[BayouBrave86]

From Sportsline.com

8 This week Washington Wizards 10 Last Week
Two words: for real.

[hands11]

Well the ESPN ranking was dumb the week before. Im not that impressed we got back to 11th when we dropped from 8th to 13th for no good reason. We should have never dropped below 11th to start with so its a fake climb. We are really just holding steady, which is fine. Gil is getting a lot better though. I cant wait to see him and Hughes running together again.

We should have beaten Toranto. Thats the kind of loss that hurts your ranking.

I understand the other losses because of match up problems with us not having Hughes.

Anyway, we are still injured. We will jump past a lot of these team once we are full strength.


With Hughes and Kwame healthy, I think we are the best in the conference. Miami will be the only tough team and thats just because of Shaqfu. Until I see we have an answer for him, we dont.

I do see how we could handle him with all our pieces.