The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Duckus]

Fire flip. Let Sam coach the rest of the year. If he does well, good. If not, we find someone else. I would rather go to the lottery with Sam than Flip.

[Warhead36]

Moe Williams just owns us. If he played us 82x a year he'd be the greatest player of all-time.

No but really, this is a young team that is going to lose and lose a lot. I think we would have been better off letting Flip go and getting a young HC that can grow with these guys. Flip is better suited coaching veteran teams. I don't know if Sam I Am is the answer just yet though, I'd prefer he develop a bit more on the bench. We should have gone after someone like Brian Shaw.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Moe Williams just owns us. If he played us 82x a year he'd be the greatest player of all-time.

No but really, this is a young team that is going to lose and lose a lot. I think we would have been better off letting Flip go and getting a young HC that can grow with these guys. Flip is better suited coaching veteran teams. I don't know if Sam I Am is the answer just yet though, I'd prefer he develop a bit more on the bench. We should have gone after someone like Brian Shaw.

+1

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

Seems pretty obvious that we have no intention of winning games this year. Thornton left the game at 9:51 in the 4th, never came back in. McGee has his best game of the year but gets benched for Armstrong who grabbed 1 rebound all game. Yi and Armstrong both combined for about 28 minutes in total.

Flip is a dumbass but at this point seems like the perfect coach to get us the #1 overall pick back to back years.

McGee was dominating the defensive paint - that block where he jumped up and scooped the floater out of the air at its highest point was awesome.

If we get a top 3 pick again next year and draft a top PF or SF/SG, we will be set for a while.

Wall
Arenas
Howard / Thornton
Draft Pick
McGee

[StillUnknown]

count me with those who are tired of Flip

[Hubbs]

Fire flip. Let Sam coach the rest of the year. If he does well, good. If not, we find someone else. I would rather go to the lottery with Sam than Flip.

Actually... This might be a very good idea. I'd kind of like Sam as head coach. He seems like a smart guy. Plus, then he can do his giant testicle dance again.

[Upark25]

McGee was dominating the defensive paint - that block where he jumped up and scooped the floater out of the air at its highest point was awesome.

If we get a top 3 pick again next year and draft a top PF or SF/SG, we will be set for a while.

Wall
Arenas
Howard / Thornton
Draft Pick
McGee

Lol WTF?? Arenas won't be here much longer. Blatche will be the PF for atleast the forseeable future. If anything I say we draft a new SF to replace Howard/Thornton, although Thornton has played well recently I think its just a flash in a pan.

I hope Flip eventually gets fired so a new coach that's better with younger players and starts playing Nick Young/Trevor Booker more so we can start planning on what else we need to build around Wall.

[Backpack3r]

Doesnt bother me when they lose it is expected. We could get a high lottery pick next year, which would be pretty good.

[Warhead36]

In the long run I think Blatche, and maybe even McGee, might be best suited as energy guys off the bench. I'd kill to have Harrison Barnes but I doubt the gods would bless us with back to back #1 picks.

[stevemcqueen1]

Put about 75% of this on the coach. Going with a 2-3 zone to finish out the game was a great move. Great move towards tanking another game.

Seems pretty obvious that we have no intention of winning games this year. Thornton left the game at 9:51 in the 4th, never came back in. McGee has his best game of the year but gets benched for Armstrong who grabbed 1 rebound all game. Yi and Armstrong both combined for about 28 minutes in total.

Flip is a dumbass but at this point seems like the perfect coach to get us the #1 overall pick back to back years.

I think we used up a decades worth of Karma winning the lottery for Wall. Knowing our luck, we'll need about 50% of the lottery balls to get the first overall pick.

Even if we won it, who do you take? This strikes me as a year where most of the top players are going to be freshmen. Who knows if the top pick won't be another point guard or something?

I have a hard time pinning down our needs. Every time I think we could use a perimeter scorer or another big man, McGee and Blatche have good games and Thornton looks great. Then when I think we've got something great with them moving forward, they'll struggle.

What do you see being our biggest need?

[Kosher Ham]

You need big men.

And have for a decade it seems.

You need a big guy that can get you 18 and 10.
A more versatile player like Odom or Dirk at that size would be ideal. But unlikely since the other teams won't likely let those guys go easily.

[stevemcqueen1]

In the long run I think Blatche, and maybe even McGee, might be best suited as energy guys off the bench. I'd kill to have Harrison Barnes but I doubt the gods would bless us with back to back #1 picks.

I'd settle for the first or second pick. I think we're probably bad enough to deserve them.

Barnes would be great, and I think he makes the most sense for us at the top of our draft board from a need/talent consideration. UNC does a good job of holding onto their star players though, and sometimes their freshmen can have a hard time getting minutes.

I like Perry Jones though. He kind of reminds me a bit of Durant in how freakishly long he is for his position. He's the type who could be an absolute beast of a wing player with a PG like Wall to facilitate him. Plus he gives you the ability to play in the post a bit too when Blatche and McGee sub out. With all three of them out there, you'd have a ton of size on the floor. That'd be a nice team. If You can get 14-16 points a night from McGee and Blatche, that would probably give us enough to win with alongside Wall's production and Jones' 25 points a game.

I would still prefer we ended up with an elite center though. Has anyone heard about this kid Andre Drummond from Mt. Vernon, NY? He's only a HS senior this year, so he won't be available until 2012. If we were going to win the lottery again, I wish it would be the year he comes out.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

You need big men.

And have for a decade it seems.

You need a big guy that can get you 18 and 10.
A more versatile player like Odom or Dirk at that size would be ideal. But unlikely since the other teams won't likely let those guys go easily.

I actually think Blatche will develop into a "18 and 10 guy".

Now what we do need is presence in the middle.

McGee is incredibly athletic but he's not physical enough. At least not now.

Ideally, he'd be the perfect center to run with the second unit.

[Warhead36]

Haywood was a real good C, but he's starting to age a bit and it was time for us to unload him since he's not of much use on a rebuilding team. I think a lot of Wiz fans didn't really appreciate Haywood but he was one of the better defensive Cs in the league.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Haywood was a real good C, but he's starting to age a bit and it was time for us to unload him since he's not of much use on a rebuilding team. I think a lot of Wiz fans didn't really appreciate Haywood but he was one of the better defensive Cs in the league.

I think we appreciated Haywood when he gave us a reason to appreciate him. When it was Etan vs Todd, they both sucked. Hell there was a point there where a good majority of fans thought Etan was the answer. (Remember Brenda?) But eventually Haywood moved past all of that and stepped up big time.


Anyway, just finished the game. ****ty loss but whatever. Anything short of John Wall blowing out his knee isn't going to get me down this year. I'm not gonna ***** and complain, what is, is. Just as long as we show proper improvement from game 1 to game 82, I'm happy.

Some thoughts on the game, in no particular order...

I still got a little faith in Javale McGee. He's just so freaking athletic. I can't think of a center like him in the league. Dwight is just as athletic but he's just the ultimate power athlete. Nobody like him. Javale is long athletic. That one where he grabbed the floater out of there was a goaltend though, lol.

I found it hilarious that the one time in his career that Blatche decides he wants to man up and dunk the ball the **** is straight up rejected. Then
5 seconds later he decides to do a finger roll, lol. Maybe he's had it right all along. But yeah, great game from him. Played hard. Fought on D, fought down low, fought for rebounds. That's what I want to see.

Our defense is just maddening. There are points where I just close my eyes. I don't even need to watch to know what's going to happen. This is the NBA. Wide open shots are gonna be made 80% of the time. I'm not sure whether they don't understand how to play defense (yet, hopefully) or if they just can't. To me it seems different then the teams of the past few years. The past few years Gil, Caron, AJ, et al just looked slow on D. Like they couldn't. This team looks like they can but don't know how to? I don't know. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Gil still sucks at D. One on one, Wall isn't much better at times. But he can get there. He's got the athleticism, the length and, most importantly, the energy/heart to step it up. He is aggressive (too much at times). Defense means something to him.

More on Wall, he's gonna be absolutely unstoppable once he gets his shot down and builds up his confidence in it. You saw glimpses of it tonight. After the Philly game, the last two teams--the Knicks last night, the Cavs tonight--made a point of doubling him, playing off of him, shutting down his paths to the basket. Daring him to shoot. And he didn't shoot a lot tonight but when he did he drained them. I heard something on the radio about some guy on ESPN doing a study on Wall and found that his shooting has gotten better each and every game. It's coming.

One gripe with Wall: he picks up his dribble way too early way too often. You see him standing there struggling to find somewhere to pass it, five feet outside the three point line. He'll learn.

Here's the difference between Wall and Evan Turner. Wall has stuff to work on, no doubt. But it's stuff that anyone can get better at. Not picking up the dribble, not getting overly aggressive on D, shooting the ball (I'm a firm believer anyone can learn how to shoot. Decently anyway), not forcing passes, taking better care of the ball, etc. Really most of his issues are him trying TOO HARD and him finding himself on the biggest stage in the game. On the other hand, Turner has all of that down. He's a polished player. But he doesn't have that jaw dropping potential that Wall does. I know it's a small sample size but I saw enough Tuesday night. Sometimes you can just tell. Don't get me wrong, he'll be a nice player. But he's not a star. He's not a #1 that can lead a team to a championship. I think Wall does. (Yup, full blown man crush in effect. Biggest ever.)

See Wall's coast to coast dunk to end the first half. It ultimately didn't count but still. I can't remember seeing something like that since Tyus Edney's coast to coast game winner in the NCAA Tourney way back in 1995. And Edney didn't dunk it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHceOvR464s

And I've got to give props to Kirk Hinrich. After the first three games I was starting to worry that we had gotten a washed up player. But he really put it together tonight. He is a GREAT addition. He's a hardnosed pure point guard, a decent to good shooter, and our best on ball peremiter defender. Plus he's a leader. Don't know if they showed it on TV or not but before the home opener Tuesday, they gave him the mic and he said a few words to the crowd. Basically thanking us for coming out and promising us a great season. Good guy.

Also, good game from Al Thorton. He brought it tonight. I'm not sure if he's just an inconsistent player or if his opportunities game to game come inconsistently. Him not getting burn at the end after the way he played all game, I'm leaning toward the latter.

I'm not gonna cry about Flip. He'll either get it done or he'll be gone. Abe (RIP) isn't here anymore. Coaches aren't gonna be sticking around because Ted likes them personally.