The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Thinking Skins]

No, I'll admit up front that of the "big four" basketball is a clear 4th for me in terms of my interest, it kind of rotates with hockey. Football and baseball are a clear 1 and 2 for my interest. I understand and enjoy basketball, even was a referee for a few years, but I have a hard time watching the Wizards ongoing calamity. I catch a few games here and there, but mostly I just read the box scores the next day, so I admit that I'm not seeing whatever nuance or flow was happening in most games. All I know is that Crawfords box scores (from a field goal percentage standpoint) frequently looks atrocious, that he's a chucker who doesn't hit nearly often enough to be playing that sort of game, and that he ought to defer a little more often; I took a quick look at his game log from last season and didn't see any high-assist type games.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I dislike players who appear to shoot a ton and miss so many of them. The games I have tuned into have done little to persuade me otherwise.

What you need to look at is how that developed. He was consistently looking good all game. His numbers went out of wack in the 4th when he was trying to win the game for us and took two late 3s. 4/11 is better than 4/13 and even that has to take into account that he basically (was told to) put this team on his back in the third and brought us back from a 16 point deficit by finding people under the basket, driving hte ball inside and dishing it back out and doing the things you'd expect from a point guard. Maybe we can be biased from last year based on what he did, but this game was not typical Crawford, at least not IMO.

[nuposse87]

yah for all the flak crawford get...he was instrument in our comeback. It isn't his fault no one else was able to finish. Wittman should have left beal on the bench

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

First step? Each time Beal tried to blow by someone he lost the ball. No handles. Waiters took his lunch money tonight (stole it from beal twice) and scored 17 points. Very disappointed in Beal tonight. He can and must do better.

No. I was saying that Waiters has a quicker first step than Beal.

[RonArtest15]

Beal looked like a deer in headlights. I'm glad he got his first real NBA action tonight so he'll now what to expect from here on out.

All in all, I'm not that disappointed. Team was beyond flat for 3 quarters...showed some fight/resiliency, and made it a game in the 4th. I loved the fact that they didn't lay down. Pargo/Price were awful, Craw shot horribly (even though he did some good things as far as playmaking), Booker looked like that dude at the gym who takes inaccurate shots after a heavy biceps workout, etc. Considering we were missing 2 starters and 1 key bench player, I don't see why people can't be somewhat optimistic that this squad can win 35+ games. We'll have our horses back in a few weeks. The other guys have to stay balanced and keep the team near .500 in their absence. It can be done.

[Thinking Skins]

Both statements are correct. A lot of factors went into the loss tonight. Great effort to make a run to take the lead against the 2nd stringers but their 1st team were just too much for us. I can' wait to judge this team in December or so when everyone is healthy and have a few weeks of playing with each other.

I'm not waiting until December, I'm going game by game. For tonight's game, I give Barron and Crawford high marks and everybody else gets low marks. Crawford's the only person who got us into some type of flow on offense, which got us back in the game. Price got us a lead early, but it was fools gold because it was based on three point shooting and not getting points in the paint or a 16 ft jumper or pic and rolls etc.

Hopefully we'll correct this stuff by next game. What we need from game 1 to game 2 is to work within the flow of the offense. Crawford has shown me that he can do that, and I'd still want Webster in there starting. To me Crawford's earned that starting PG spot until Wall comes back. He's just BETTER than Price and Pargo.

The only thing that needs to change about Crawford is that he needs to take less threes. I was so happy with him today driving into the lane and he'd have an opportunity for one of those crazy shots, but he'd dish it out to somebody open and they'd hit it. That was execution. And I don't think Pargo and Price can create anything like that.

[Destino]

Ariza and Webster are miles better than the Singleton/Vesely/Lewis disaster that was the SF position last year. We haven't seem production from that position in a while.

Okafor defensively had some impressive moments. I'm eager to see what the interior production looks like with Nene on the floor at the same time. Seraphin added to the rotation... We might actually have a strong front court. What?! Did I just say that?

[endzone_dave]

8 for 32 from three point land says a lot. Lots of guys with very little talent just chucking the ball up there. I was surprised at Crawford passing the ball on the break, that was nice to see.

Waiters looked pretty good. I know it's just one game but I have that gut feeling EG screwed up again.

[Renegade7]

All this talk about the wizards having better bigs and we let one guy get 23 rebounds? 60 from the line isn't going to cut it either. At school during the game, but was able to keep up with the run on gamecast with the android. Very balanced box score, but still only 84 points. That's not going to cut it. Still like the 10 turnovers, keep doing that, and we might stand a chance until Wall and Nene get back. Tired of losing, man...

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

So...how many weeks until "We're 9-20 Night?"

[Destino]

All this talk about the wizards having better bigs and we let one guy get 23 rebounds? 60 from the line isn't going to cut it either. At school during the game, but was able to keep up with the run on gamecast with the android. Very balanced box score, but still only 84 points. That's not going to cut it. Still like the 10 turnovers, keep doing that, and we might stand a chance until Wall and Nene get back. Tired of losing, man...

Two of three bigs were out. Seraphin and Nene. Randy was slow on getting Barron in be use no one expected him to pay well.

[Skin'emAlive]

I said it before, and ill say it again: With Wall out of the lineup, we should be running Crawford at the point, and Beal / Martin at SG and Ariza / Webster at SF ( with Singleton coming in as a 3rd option)

[Renegade7]

Two of three bigs were out. Seraphin and Nene. Randy was slow on getting Barron in be use no one expected him to pay well.

I understand that, but that's only two guys. Varejo is not Kevin Love. Is this what we're going to have to deal with until Nene and Seraphine come back? Vasely was the 6th pick in the draft, ya know? Guys like Singleton and Booker I was hoping for a step forward.

I gotta see more games, but the players that are healthy and have been here need to be getting better. Maybe if I got to watch it I'd feel differently, but from the box score and this thread, I'm not seeing much progress from our young big men. Am I wrong??? ( I want to be wrong here, jesus, this sucks...)

[RonArtest15]

You guys are seriously undervaluing Varajao. The guy is very good. He's an excellent rebounding big and he showed it tonight. When we sent Jamison to the Cavs a few years back, I was hoping we could have gotten AV in the return.

[StillUnknown]

You guys are seriously undervaluing Varajao. The guy is very good. He's an excellent rebounding big and he showed it tonight. When we sent Jamison to the Cavs a few years back, I was hoping we could have gotten AV in the return.

He's good, mainly because he knows his limitations. He knows his role and excels in it, although we made didn't exactly make it difficult on him. The attempts at boxing him out were almost nonexistent.

Cavs will probably get a decent haul for him around the trade deadline.

[Destino]

I understand that, but that's only two guys. Varejo is not Kevin Love. Is this what we're going to have to deal with until Nene and Seraphine come back? Vasely was the 6th pick in the draft, ya know? Guys like Singleton and Booker I was hoping for a step forward.

I gotta see more games, but the players that are healthy and have been here need to be getting better. Maybe if I got to watch it I'd feel differently, but from the box score and this thread, I'm not seeing much progress from our young big men. Am I wrong??? ( I want to be wrong here, jesus, this sucks...)

Only young big worth talking about is Seraphin. Vesely is still not strong enough for the 4 IMO and singleton isn't a power forward. Booker had a HORRIBLE night. Sideshow Bob just pushed everyone around tonight. No one was able to box him out.

The bigs were also out of position constantly because the perimeter defense kept failing and they had to rotate off their assignments to protect the rim. This is the same thing hat happened last season. People liked to point at the pick and roll defense but until this team can put some speed bumps in the lane no big is going to have much success. That happened tonight,

I think maybe Wittman is as bad a defensive coach as his record suggests.