The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Destino]

It all comes down to scoring with this team. Wall and Young were 20+ points and McGee put up another double double. As a result we're a three pointer from Carmelo (that he got off because he elbowed singleton in the face) away from winning. Mid 90s scoring is typical for teams to win. You aren't going to see a lot of 87-83 victories from this young team.

They have to keep it up and others have to improve.

[WALL-LE]

walls free throw % has been trash this year too. All in all he's regressed from last year and there is no debating that point.
Still can turn it around though, and i hope he does

[stevemcqueen1]

It all comes down to scoring with this team. Wall and Young were 20+ points and McGee put up another double double. As a result we're a three pointer from Carmelo (that he got off because he elbowed singleton in the face) away from winning. Mid 90s scoring is typical for teams to win. You aren't going to see a lot of 87-83 victories from this young team.

They have to keep it up and others have to improve.

We win this game if our forwards don't ****ing blow. Seriously, we've got to have the worst starting forwards in the NBA. This is a forward driven league offensively. We're going to lose to the team with elite forwards 9 out of 10 times because we can't stop them and can't keep pace with them.

Sit Blatche and Rashard and start Singleton and Booker as our forwards. What can it hurt? Are they truly any worse offensively? They're already better defensively.

I truly think we need to make finding a legit PF our #1 priority from here on out. Everything will be so much easier if we do.

---------- Post added January-7th-2012 at 04:29 AM ----------

WALL IS NOT OVERRATED. He is a young developing point guard surrounded by mainly trash and being coached by a terrible coach. How are you supposed to succeed as a true point guard when you have ZERO reliable scorers. You put Wall on a playoff caliber team and he'd be a top 3 pg in the league.

Fans misdirect their anger and frustration when the team is losing. They get tunnel vision, prisoner of the moment, lose rational perspective, so on and so forth.

Our esteemed and ever thoughtful fan base wanted to cut Perry Riley after one game where he had a pair of costly bad plays on special teams as a rookie. Now look at the fools. We could dredge up those threads and laugh at the idiots making such stupid knee jerk complaints but then we'd find it would involve most of the board...

Same dynamic working here.

---------- Post added January-7th-2012 at 04:59 AM ----------

Just to drive home the ascendance of the scoring forward in today's game, half the top 24 scorers in the league this season are forwards.

Fifteen of the top 25 scorers from last season were pure forwards. Seventeen if you count Kevin Martin and Andrea Bargnani as forward types, which is fair. Thirteen from the year before that (seven of the top ten), but really it's fifteen or sixteen considering Stephen Jackson, Joe Johnson, and Tyreke Evans are all listed as guards but are clearly more forward types.

We're currently getting 21.1 PPG from our starting forwards this season. A great scoring team with great forwards like the Knicks gets more than twice that (49.1 PPG to be exact).

There's our main problem. We have no margin for error because we can't score consistently because our two most important offensive positions feature our two worst starters. We have no go to scorers. No team can win in the NBA like that.

How does Vesely help that right now? Does offer hope for scoring at the three or four long term? Doubt it. What's his ceiling realistically? What was the plan in drafting him? "Dammit, everyone else decent got taken before we could pick because we got ****ed by the lottery once again..."

[Chachie]

Wall dropped 22 and 9 and made a ton of baskets late to bring us back. I'd hardly call it choking. Sucks he missed that open 3 though.

Singleton played a good game, as did Booker. Melo just took over though, that's what superstars do.

Good loss. Almost had the W. Oh wells...

Agreed. Melo was clearly the physically strongest man on the court. At least stronger than any Wizard. That guy has stepped it up this season already and his physical strength played a big role in being able to manhandle anyone covering him last night. (He also had the refs in his pocket.) Booker played better D against him than Singleton did but Anthony was still able to get shots to fall when he needed them to. Man, he was dominant. He and Ray Allen have had the best games against us so far this season.

[No Excuses]

Chris Singleton's three point game is a very pleasant surprise. Honestly did not know that he had this in his game. He's a legitimate NBA starter.

Seriously add Kevin Love to this starting line up:

Wall
Young
Singleton
Love
McGee

This is a playoff team and potentially a top 3-4 seed in the East. I really think this team is a quality PF away from contending in the East.

[Warhead36]

Is Love a FA in 2012? I like him but I don't know if he'd come here and not sure he's worth the max.

[No Excuses]

He's restricted so the T-Wolves will be able to match. I would absolutely give him the max. Averaging 26 and 15 while shooting 42% from the three is mind blowing.

[StillUnknown]

Is Love a FA in 2012? I like him but I don't know if he'd come here and not sure he's worth the max.

He is absolutely worth a max contract, but I can't see Minnesota letting him go. They'll match any offer thats made. Only way to get him would be by trade.

[Warhead36]

Wow I did not realize his #s this year were so good. Do we have enough cap room to max Love while giving McGee $10 Mil+(that's what it would take to keep him)? I'm guessing we would have to amnesty Shard first. Ultimately it's all moot because Ted seems obsessed with building only through the draft because he struck gold with the Caps...

[No Excuses]

Wow I did not realize his #s this year were so good. Do we have enough cap room to max Love while giving McGee $10 Mil+(that's what it would take to keep him)? I'm guessing we would have to amnesty Shard first. Ultimately it's all moot because Ted seems obsessed with building only through the draft because he struck gold with the Caps...

I'm pretty sure we will, losing Rashard is about 22+ freed in cap space. We will be able to bring back both McGee and Love but probably lose Young which I'm ok with.

It's a major pipe dream but it would be nice. If the T-Wolves are too cheap to match a max offer, we could sign Love, resign McGee and probably draft Jeremy Lamb. That is an AWESOME lineup lol but probably realistic only in NBA 2k12.

[Destino]

He is absolutely worth a max contract, but I can't see Minnesota letting him go. They'll match any offer thats made. Only way to get him would be by trade.

I'd trade Blatche and our draft pick for Love. It speeds up the process of making this team good. Minny doesn't want to have to pay him do they can get the next big man in the draft am pay him a rookies price. Love doesn't want to wait for Rubio and Williams to turn into real players do he'd join Wall in year three. We'd be a player away.

[The Robert Griffin Experience]

How does Vesely help that right now? Does offer hope for scoring at the three or four long term? Doubt it. What's his ceiling realistically? What was the plan in drafting him? "Dammit, everyone else decent got taken before we could pick because we got ****ed by the lottery once again..."

I actually like Vesely a LOT. He'll probably never be a good #1 option offensively, but there's stuff he does that translate well - he's an excellent finisher, he could be a decent shooter if he works at it, passable ballhandling with a good first step for his size, and decent passing. He's not Dirk coming into the league, but he has good to great tools, outside post moves.

I agree Grunfeld has no plan and just drafted the most athletic guy on the board, but Vesely is actually a good prospect.

My dream scenario is we land Drummond while getting solid value for McGee. In particular, I want a veteran shooter like Martin for Javale McGee, as well as a decent shooting SF/SG behind Singleton and a veteran backup PG.

Imagine this lineup:

Drummond/Seraphin
Vesely/Booker
Singleton/veteran swingman
Martin/veteran backup swingman
Wall/vet backup PG

Or, assuming McGee keeps up his current numbers and we resign him

McGee/Seraphin
Vesely/Booker
Singleton/veteran swingman
draft pick/swingman
Wall/backup PG

[Chachie]

I actually like Vesely a LOT. He'll probably never be a good #1 option offensively, but there's stuff he does that translate well - he's an excellent finisher, he could be a decent shooter if he works at it, passable ballhandling with a good first step for his size, and decent passing. He's not Dirk coming into the league, but he has good to great tools, outside post moves.

I really hope Vesely establishes a role in the future of this team because he can very well be a 6th man from Hell (at 3 and at 4) if his ability to finish holds true in the NBA.

Seraphin seems to lack size at the 5 but I'm not condemning him. He plays hard despite getting caught sleeping too much. It's the lack of experience there, not lack of effort.

[stevemcqueen1]

I'd trade Blatche and our draft pick for Love. It speeds up the process of making this team good. Minny doesn't want to have to pay him do they can get the next big man in the draft am pay him a rookies price. Love doesn't want to wait for Rubio and Williams to turn into real players do he'd join Wall in year three. We'd be a player away.

I wouldn't make that deal. Love will hit the market when push comes to shove unless they trade him to another team. Derrick Williams is their PF of the future and Darko is a better fit at C if Williams is your PF. Can't have two slow, short players for your front court. Michael Beasley and Wesley Johnson are their 2 & 3 plus they still have Anthony Randolph floating around. They're loaded at both F spots and can't afford to keep Love.

I'm also not sure you can win a championship with a player like Love as your best player.

And trading what you offer for him would cripple our ability to get that one player we'd need to be a contender: a scoring wing. We'd be up against the cap with him, Wall, and McGee and have no draft resources for finding that wing on the cheap nor the cap flexibility to lure one here in FA.

I'd only sign him as a FA or offer players for him.

[RonArtest15]

You can make a case for Kevin Love being the best PF CURRENTLY in the NBA right now. Yea, I know he has an impending free agency decision looming, but if anyone is expendable on the Minnesota roster, it's Derrick Williams (in comparison to Love). No way he's going to be dealt unless he makes it 100% clear that he has ZERO intentions of re-signing.