The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

A potential lockout doesn't effect my long term strategy because we're a young team who won't be good for a few years anyway. It'd be nice to get both of our key starting forwards in this year's draft though. Then you can have them playing with Wall sooner rather than later and you can put your team building plan on a fast track. Any combination of Barnes / Sullinger / Kanter is my ideal because I think you get two excellent starters out of that group. I assume it would take either Blatche or McGee and our Atlanta first round pick to achieve that. Each are high IQ tough players with a high floor. None are franchise caliber superstars, but that's not what we need now that we have Wall. But they'd be the type of pieces you need to be a contender.

I have two problems with this rebuilding plan.

1. I'm not convinced Wall is the guaranteed all-world player you are making him out to be. Operating under the assumption that he is going to be as good if not better than Derrick Rose is a little dangerous. I think he's good. I think he's talented. But he is really really raw in my view. And the idea of having a raw talent on a bad team for a few years worries me. This is how you end up with Stephon Marbury instead of Russel Westbrook.

2. I think Sullinger is probably the safest pick in the draft, but I think he is going to be a player like Paul Millsap - except slightly more grounded. He just strikes me as the dirty work power forward that good teams need, but I don't know if you want to spend a top three pick on him. I'm big on value.

And I know, someone has to go in the top three - it's a rule.

---------- Post added March-16th-2011 at 11:04 AM ----------

It's really the yell and the crazy celebration. I'm not sure anyone else in the league would have done that. He should have just gone all the way and had someone drive a car onto the court so he could jump over it.

Getting the points was fine. If he had just saluted and run down the court, he would have made the ESPN highlights and gotten praise around the league for the unusual triple-double. By celebrating like a schoolgirl, he turned a pretty cool accomplishment into a sad joke.

I only knew of this because Deadspin linked to it and called it the Second Worst Triple Double Ever.

Ricky Davis is never losing the title for the worst. You would have to block your own teammate's shot and then jam in the rebound to beat Ricky.

[Destino]

Do we know if there is going to be a draft in the NBA? Everyone says the lockout is near certain and the situation is far worse than the NFLs (which is true). Add to that the fact that even in a lock out players get paid into November so they don't have the cash concerns the NFL players did.

[SiCkSoULjA]

Triple Double I don't agree, was it the greatest thing in the world NO it was harmless but whatever.

Now that quote about Starbury and Westbrook was interesting I agree some but Wall has a level head and overall a good kid, Starbury on the other hand is not the brightest star in the galaxy by a long long shot.

The Wizards need to draft there rookies this year and sit down and think who do you want to be apart of this rebuilding project.

Javale, Blatche or Young all three have the basketball IQ of about 50 and you can't win with all 3 on your team let alone all 3 starting LOL!! With a good team these guys can shine but the Wizards have no leaders on this team and they run around doing what they want to do. All 3 are very talented with McGee imo having the highest ceiling by far.

---------- Post added March-16th-2011 at 02:42 PM ----------

I can't name five players who would have done that.

I can name 3 on the wizards alone LOL!! and you can't deny that

[No Excuses]

I've talked to GACOLB about this already and we're trying to put together one last ES Wizards game meet up. Initially we discussed the Miami game on the 30th but I checked my schedule and I have a ****ing Organic Chemistry test the following day.

These are the remaining home games of the year:

March 20 (Sunday): vs. New Jersey
March 30 (Wednesday) vs. Miami
April 1 (Friday) vs Cleveland
April 5 (Tuesday): vs Detroit
April 9 (Saturday): vs. Atlanta
April 11 (Monday): vs. Boston

I can do any of these games except for the Miami one.

[skinfan2k]

i cant do boston, but i could do every night else. the only game worth watching out of those might be atlanta then

[No Excuses]

I wouldn't mind the game vs. Cleveland. Student night, won't be any bandwagon fans and it will be competitive LOL.

[skinfan2k]

lowers for 9 bucks against the cavs(qty 3)

[No Excuses]

lowers for 9 bucks against the cavs(qty 3)

We should be able to find good tickets for this game, especially on craigslist. We should look for them when we have a better idea of how many people will go.

[Burgold]

We should be able to find good tickets for this game, especially on craigslist. We should look for them when we have a better idea of how many people will go.

If you play your cards right someone may pay you some pretty good money to take their tickets off their hands. Pay for tickets? No, fans should be paid at this point.

[StillUnknown]

another road loss

good games from Booker & Crawford though

[stevemcqueen1]

We played well on the whole. I thought we might take it there at the end of the game, but the way the night was going, I didn't really expect it to happen. I don't really have any major gripes about anyone's performance. Jianlian maybe. He wasn't great but he's a stiff so it's not surprising. The reason we lost that game is because those ****ers couldn't miss. Sometimes you can play well and whup a team in the paint and still lose because it's their night.

At least we didn't embarrass ourselves in front of Samuel L. Jackson.

[Thinking Skins]

Harrison Barnes here we come!

[stevemcqueen1]

I really liked what I saw from Booker and Crawford. Booker is special and he's going to be an exciting player to watch as he develops with Wall. Wall complimented him after the game so you can tell he likes playing with him. As far as I'm concerned, Booker should be our starter at SF from now on because he's been excellent (and we've got absolutely nothing else). We play well when we're actually getting production from the 3.

Crawford is quick and talented and I think he looks like a keeper too. I don't know his college background, but he's been tremendous for a rookie. It'll be interesting to see how he and Young share time when they take Young out of mothballs. I don't trust his 3 pointer yet and it seemed like he missed several last night. But he might prove a better long term starter than Young. Given that, Young might be better in his original role as a sixth man shooting specialist who you put in at the 2 (or 3 when you want to go small) when you need to make your shots. We need a backup point, but aside from that, I really like the way our backcourt looks in another year or two.

Javale had an efficient performance and I like him when he gets to play the shot. He's already a top tier finisher and above the rim force. 7 O rebounds and 4 blocks is what he could be doing on a nightly basis if we have good, smart, unselfish play from our forwards. Booker gives us that IMO and his rebounding skill is a terrific fit at that spot for our defense. Our biggest long term need, by far, has got to be PF. We don't play well with Blatche because he's soft and selfish. We need a tough, high IQ player who has a gifted offensive skillset and can be a rebounding machine on the defensive end at PF to truly unlock McGee's potential. Basically, we need a taller Trevor Booker.

More than ever, we have got to get Jared Sullinger. He'd be absolutely perfect for us because he hits all those marks--smart, tough, strong, gifted rebounder, extremely well developed post game, constant winner, great work ethic.

Barring that, we've got to get Enes Kanter. I've read he's like a slightly taller version of all that, but he's risky because of the healthy of his knees.

I'll be extremely excited if we trade Blatche and come away with one of those two players on draft day. After that, I think you can look to fill our backup SF and PG positions with our other draft picks. Josh Selby or Brandon Knight would be nice with our late first.

[Warhead36]

Crawford and Booker's futures are coming off the bench for contenders IMO.

I can't see Crawford and Young ever playing at the same time, they're too similar of players. But Crawford is the type of guy you want coming in off the bench for instant offense.

Booker is not quick or athletic enough to guard opposing 3s and not big enough to guard opposing 4s. Coming off the bench though he can go up against guys with similar measurements and dominate.

Assuming we can resign Young for cheap, we need full time starters at the 3 and 4. Hopefully our lotto pick lands us one...

[skinfan2k]

i wish the wizards get someone like derrick williams. he would be a great PF better than jared sullinger in my opinion