The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

The roster isn't good but it's not as awful as people make out.

The problem is the culture.

Our FO lacks the ability to build a culture of success in this organization. That's their #1 job! And they are failures. And so we are failures.

Losing close games like last night where a superior, veteran team closes it out i n winning time is expected. Our veteran players blow. The youngest players on the team are clearly our best players. Young guys don't know how to handle winning time like vets do. But again, our vets blow, so we can't get anything out of them at any point. We're just going to have to take our lumps here and hope we start strong enough some nights to have a 4th qtr lead.

What we need to be doing is just considering the Ariza/Okafor trade a sunk cost. Bury them on the depth chart and then deal them off is something comes along. Ariza doesn't care to be here and Okafor can't play any more. Go with a rotation of your young, hungry players that have been here a few years and give them PT. that's your primary 6--four front gourt players and two guards. Mix Webster, Livingston, and Price into the rotation since they've earned PT. Cartier Martin is your 10th man. No one else need play:

PG: Crawf/Livingston/Price
SG: Beal/Crawf/Livingston
SF: Singleton/Ves/Webster
PF: Booker/Ves/Singleton
C: Seraphin/Booker

Why not?

You kind of answered your own question. Playing that team makes you the Chicago Bulls of the late 90s and early 00s. You roll out a team of college-aged guys, they get crushed night after night, and they learn how to lose. You need to have a few vets in the rotation just to prevent it from becoming an And 1 team.

The problem is this team has the wrong vets.

The only team that has ever really just sent out a bunch of kids and had it work was OKC.

(There is a way to do what you want and have it work and that's to showcase the young guys, have them improve quickly, and maybe trade a few of them for parts that fit better. Right now, this team is lacking in assets more than anything).

[Renegade7]

The roster isn't good but it's not as awful as people make out.

The problem is the culture.

Our FO lacks the ability to build a culture of success in this organization. That's their #1 job! And they are failures. And so we are failures.

Losing close games like last night where a superior, veteran team closes it out i n winning time is expected. Our veteran players blow. The youngest players on the team are clearly our best players. Young guys don't know how to handle winning time like vets do. But again, our vets blow, so we can't get anything out of them at any point. We're just going to have to take our lumps here and hope we start strong enough some nights to have a 4th qtr lead.

What we need to be doing is just considering the Ariza/Okafor trade a sunk cost. Bury them on the depth chart and then deal them off is something comes along. Ariza doesn't care to be here and Okafor can't play any more. Go with a rotation of your young, hungry players that have been here a few years and give them PT. that's your primary 6--four front gourt players and two guards. Mix Webster, Livingston, and Price into the rotation since they've earned PT. Cartier Martin is your 10th man. No one else need play:

PG: Crawf/Livingston/Price
SG: Beal/Crawf/Livingston
SF: Singleton/Ves/Webster
PF: Booker/Ves/Singleton
C: Seraphin/Booker

Why not?

That's kinda what I thought we were going to do with Ariza and Okafor coming off the bench. I don't understand how we can be 0-9 and still giving older players that couldn't make it on other teams more minutes then players we are trying to develop. We can't even lose correctly right now, don't lose and leave your future on the f'n bench.

Throw Wall in there and I can live with us having a rotation like that, even if we aren't winning right away. Right now, it's like we have absolutely no idea what we're trying to do, and other teams are just playing us, getting the win, and getting on with there season. Times I see the wizards try to do something, but then they turn around and just look so unprofessional.

We're having to many busted draft picks, bad trades and free agent additions, and hiring incompetent coaches. At some point, are fans going to start going after Ernie during the games? I wish I could, but I'm in Norfolk right now...

[StillUnknown]

http://sulia.com/channel/basketball/...source=twitter

Look for Nene to make season debut on Wednesday
Nene went through a full two-hour workout today and while it remains to be seen how he responds tomorrow, there's a good chance he could go vs. the Hawks. Happy Thanksgiving to the Wizards, indeed.

[Sticksboi05]

Great, now we'll win two games and Ted will think everything is okay.

[StillUnknown]

Great, now we'll win two games and Ted will think everything is okay.

Those were my first thoughts.

[Sticksboi05]

I will have zero excitement about this franchise until I wake up to Grunfeld's dismissal.

[StillUnknown]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...or-consistency

After Dwane Casey was fired in Minnesota in the 2006-07 season, Wittman moved down the bench and was given a chance to try his head coaching pants on once again. It didn't work out. The team went 12-30 the rest of the season, 22-60 the next season when he was allowed to continue, and he was fired after the Wolves began the 2008-09 season 4-15.

During that 2008-09 season, Wittman told his rookie big man Kevin Love that he wasn't allowed to shoot 3-pointers. How does that strategy look in today's NBA? (You know... when Love isn't breaking his hand.)

Wittman has often been the cheap replacement for failed coaches around the league. Owners and management move him down the bench and he's a stopgap until they can figure out where to go. For some reason, it happened in again in Washington despite a career winning percentage of 32.5 percent heading into his Wizards' stint.

[Renegade7]

http://sulia.com/channel/basketball/...source=twitter

That will be interesting. Hoepfully he's actually healthy and not trying to rush back to salvage the season. Hopefully it helps on the boards and finishing in the paint.

[StillUnknown]

That will be interesting. Hoepfully he's actually healthy and not trying to rush back to salvage the season. Hopefully it helps on the boards and finishing in the paint.

The beat reporters seemed kinda shocked by the news, the fact that Bucher got the scoop before them doesn't exactly make me feel better about Nene's health.

[Buford]

I will have zero excitement about this franchise until I wake up to Grunfeld's dismissal.

Can't just fire Ernie. Need to hire somebody with a dominating personality who takes over everything. The franchise needs to be rebranded and has needed that for a LONG time. Changing the colors back isn't enough. New GM, new scouts, new trainers, new coaches, new players, new (old) name.

As far as a coach, they need a guy who has worked with young players....developed young players....and isn't there to be their buddy or to just blame them. Last few years, Flip didn't know how to develop anybody. Randy is Randy....nobody expected this to work.

[Fight4RGIII]

I still think Ernie is Cerratto with a fake moustache, just wanting to **** with all of us Skins fans.

[Sticksboi05]

Can't just fire Ernie. Need to hire somebody with a dominating personality who takes over everything. The franchise needs to be rebranded and has needed that for a LONG time. Changing the colors back isn't enough. New GM, new scouts, new trainers, new coaches, new players, new (old) name.

As far as a coach, they need a guy who has worked with young players....developed young players....and isn't there to be their buddy or to just blame them. Last few years, Flip didn't know how to develop anybody. Randy is Randy....nobody expected this to work.

Ernie is the #1 person who needs to go.

[Buford]

Ernie is the #1 person who needs to go.

Yes. He should have been let go this morning. But on a bigger scale, either give the further dwindling fanbase something of a plan. Or get ready for the few season ticket holders to drop their plans for Nats tix.

[stevemcqueen1]

http://sulia.com/channel/basketball/...source=twitter

God we need him back so bad. Seraphin is our only true big man worth a crap right now. We need Nene not only for his rebounding, but for the bump in rebounding the entire team sees when he's on the court. He boxes out.

Go figure a team that didn't have its big man and didn't have its PG would blow.

---------- Post added November-20th-2012 at 03:55 PM ----------

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...or-consistency

I'd take Dwane Casey in a heartbeat over Wittman.

---------- Post added November-20th-2012 at 04:18 PM ----------

Shabazz is on TV tonight, 7:30 on ESPNU.

[Destino]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/blog/ey...or-consistency

Like I said earlier in this thread. Wittman is poison to big men. All bigs are on a short leash and they get yanked if they take a bad shot and yelled (excuse me, "coached") when thy rotate to protect the rim and the man they rotate off gets the pass and the easy finish. I couldn't tell you what Wittman does well, now that I think about it.