The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Hersh]

We are 5 games behind Teds goal of not being one of the three worst teams. Got to have goals in life.

Now that is funny.

[stevemcqueen1]

I believe it. I saw him do some Arenas mess where he just blew by everybody for the layup when we needed it, but he's even faster. And that last block then damn near running away from everyone to effectivly end the game, Jesus. I find it interesting people saying he won't be elite. From what I'm seeing, then only thing really holding him back from being in that conversation is his jump shot (which he's young enough to believe he'll eventually get that right, too).

The J isn't going to keep him from being elite. He's a force even if he never shoots further than a foot from the rim. The biggest thing he needs to work on is defense and game management IMO. Fewer turnovers and getting to where he can consistently play lockdown D like LeBron did.

His shooting mechanics are solid. He'll start making more of his jumpers once he gets better at managing the flow of the offense because he'll just know when it's time to shoot and he'll take them in rhythm.

He did a good job hitting his jumpers tonight for this very reason.

[BayouBrave86]

Ted is a douche. It'll be by luck if we ever win anything. It won't be because of him.

[Hersh]

Can't imagine how arrogant he will be if he ever wins something.

I would love to know. Him and Snyder. It would be awesome for us as well.

[stevemcqueen1]

Its amazing he just popped right back up after that play. It sounded worse than it looked.

You could tell it hurt like ****. He was writhing around on the floor, got up mad and drained them. His mechanics are pristine. When you're tired and/or in pain, you can fall back on your mechanics if they're good. He's a robot.

---------- Post added January-19th-2013 at 12:13 AM ----------

Ted is a douche. It'll be by luck if we ever win anything. It won't be because of him.

I think Ted will be good for the Wizards. Hell of a lot better than Polin anyway.

His ability to weather criticism and stick to a plan like an unfeeling stone will be an asset in the end.

There were plenty of times he could have cut bait on the Wall and Beal era and the general public would have praised him. Refusing to do so is going to be the right call when all is said and done.

He's not perfect, his conservatism has kept him from upgrading EG and Wittman. But he's an overall positive. One of the hardest things of all to do in the NBA is give a young team the proper amount of time to grow and I think Ted is proving capable of doing it.

---------- Post added January-19th-2013 at 12:15 AM ----------

When a team is 8-29, I guess all that can be done is to look for some sliver of hope.

You're a hater man. Nobody but a hater could be negative like you after a win like that.

Did you watch the game?

[BayouBrave86]

He should've fired EG. EG still needs to go. Wall and Beal are a great foundation to start with , but EG shouldn't be leading the rebuild. His teams have never amounted to anything.

[StillUnknown]

He should've fired EG. EG still needs to go. Wall and Beal are a great foundation to start with , but EG shouldn't be leading the rebuild. His teams have never amounted to anything.

He's going to be allowed to run out his contract. Its alot easier to root for the team if you pretend he doesn't exist.

[nuposse87]

If CP3 doesn't play tomorrow, I give us a legit shot to make it interesting. We struggle when teams have skilled low post men, while the clippers are athletic, I'd hardly called them skilled down low. Their 3 pt shooting will probably be our undoing.

[StillUnknown]

If CP3 doesn't play tomorrow, I give us a legit shot to make it interesting. We struggle when teams have skilled low post men, while the clippers are athletic, I'd hardly called them skilled down low. Their 3 pt shooting will probably be our undoing.

They've been playing damn good ball even without CP3, it will be tough game to win either way.

[stevemcqueen1]

Wittman's mind is unique. He always has to tinker with lineups. Good or bad he always tries to change something.

He's playing matchups at the expense of developing a consistent rotation that emphasizes the development of his young talent.

It'll yield better results in the short term more often than not. But developing young guys like Ves is still in the best interest of the team IMO.

I still think we need to consolidate our peripheral talent. Ariza + Booker + Seraphin + Crawford + Ves + Singleton + Price + Temple is having too many role players. You need five starters that have claimed their roles, which we seem to have. Then you need three to five bench players that get into the game and then no one else.

We've got 8 guys on the bench we're trying to work into the game and get minutes. Pick four. Trade what you need to get down to just four good options and then have some old guys or draft picks on cheap deals or long shots to fill out spots 10, 11, and 12 on the bench that don't see action.

That and then solidifying either the starting 3 or the 5 long term need to be our primary goals this offseason.

[Warhead36]

Could DC athletes win Rookie of the Year in three different sports?

[stevemcqueen1]

He's going to be allowed to run out his contract. Its alot easier to root for the team if you pretend he doesn't exist.

That's what I'm doing.

The Mike Miller debacle, the Caron trade. The Arenas and Blatche extensions. These were absolutely horrid mistakes that put us in such a deep hole before we even began the rebuild. Think if we hadn't gotten the ping pong balls (or David Stern benevolence) to get us Wall? We'd have no hope, trying to rebuild around Derrick Favors or Evan Turner...

He's blundered into a foundation worth building upon despite the ruinous culture he's instilled. His Wall pick, no-brainer that it seemed, should work out. Some GMs probably would have ****ed that up and taken Evan Turner. The Booker pick hasn't amounted to a ton, the Seraphin pick has been a steal. His Beal pick worked out, that wasn't really a no brainer although it seemed pretty damn intuitive. Ves hasn't worked out yet but there wasn't really a good pick to be made at 6 in that class. The no brainer then was Valanciunas and he went at 5. The Singleton pick is looking more and more like a big missed opportunity because of Faried. The Jordan Crawford trade was an uncharacteristic fleecing. That and the Arenas for Shard heist, though we didn't fully capitalize on that move IMO. The Nene trade probably ends up a big positive. The Oakariza trade goes down checkered at best. Too early to say on the Harden pass but I think it ends up being for the best because I think Beal will be as good as Harden is. Though from what I read, that decision came more from Ted than EG.

My hope is that Ted gave him the two year deal entirely because he knew changing GMs would have sunk the Wall era. He knew Wall was special and he didn't want that to happen, so he holds his nose and extends EG to ensure the Wall era grows into something stable enough that he can make a change later.

[Destino]

Could DC athletes win Rookie of the Year in three different sports?

Damian Lillard is going to be hard to catch. Even unibrow is a long shot at this point.

---------- Post added January-19th-2013 at 12:40 AM ----------

We should mention that Seraphin was huge tonight. He didn't allow any lobs to get to McGee and he hit a lot of big shots in the 4th. He looked like the guy we saw last season!

[stevemcqueen1]

Yeah Seraphin had a great game.

I said it before, worth mentioning again: his deft shooting touch will get him a ton of chances to develop. With his size and his athleticism. You don't give up on a big that can score like that until it's totally clear he's a bum.

Seraphin and Crawford are our two reliable sources of bench scoring. It'd be nice to have a third.

Shabazz... Or Zeller. This draft is going to be crucial. It could determine so much moving forward. Do we keep Nene? For how long? Do we pursue Cousins? Do we need to keep Seraphin? What do we do with Martell? What do we do with Ariza? What do we do with Ves? Singleton and Booker?

---------- Post added January-19th-2013 at 01:12 AM ----------

Denver played a close game with Portland a couple nights ago. They came back and won it despite Portland having a lead much of the way. Lillard did not look nearly as good as Beal and LaMarcus Aldridge, while incredible most of the night, did not flip the switch to beast mode in crunch time to seal the victory like Wall did. That final sequence from Wall to ice the game was incredible. He's good.

[stevemcqueen1]

We've been on a scoring binge since Wall got back. There were times when it seemed like we'd never break 100 this year but we just dropped 112 in regulation on a huge number of assists and I didn't think twice about it.

---------- Post added January-19th-2013 at 03:15 AM ----------

Best teammate for John Wall during his first two seasons that he got to play more than 9 games with?

My vote is either Kirk Hinrich or Trevor Booker.

Remember when the guys we had starting around Wall were Nick Young, Al Thornton, Andray Blatche, and JaVale McGee? Remember when we were sitting here wondering when Josh Howard was going to get right and how we could prevent Arenas from screwing with Wall's development when he got back?

Is there a single other player from the '10-'11 and '11-'12 Wizards starting for another team right now? How many of those guys who are no longer with the team are on an NBA roster right now?

My God we were terrible.