The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[Renegade7]

We're not bad, but we're not good enough to expect to beat down teams as loaded with talent as Sacramento. We're also not completely healthy. Beal and Nene are clearly playing with injuries and John still isn't playing full time minutes.

I hear you on not being 100% (who in this league is anyway), but 20 turnovers is ridiculous. We were shooting in the mid to high 50s percent from the field going into halftime. We gave them this game.

[mboyd784]

Nene was hot garbage tonight. His worst game as a Wizard. 4 pts and 6 TOs.

And Wittman bringing in Temple, cold off the bench, to guard Thomas at the end might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done.

Nice effort from Webster and Oak.

[stevemcqueen1]

The whole team, particularly Wall, Nene and Beal, better apologize to Webster and Okafor ASAP.

Disgusting play in the second half.

Wall played pretty well.

Bottom line, the turnovers and the poor ball movement in general doomed us. We couldn't get any separation all game because of it.

[StillUnknown]

Another set of DNP's for Vesely & Singleton.

[MonkFan8]

Wall played pretty well.

Bottom line, the turnovers and the poor ball movement in general doomed us. We couldn't get any separation all game because of it.

Well is a relative term. He got destroyed by Thomas and couldn't get anything done in the second half when the Kings defense tightened up.

The numbers look good, sure, but if you play good transition D Wall is a below average PG at best.

[stevemcqueen1]

Nene was hot garbage tonight. His worst game as a Wizard. 4 pts and 6 TOs.

And Wittman bringing in Temple, cold off the bench, to guard Thomas at the end might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done.

Nice effort from Webster and Oak.

Nene's got no lift right now. He can't get up on those running hooks he likes to shoot and it feels like he hasn't made one of those in forever. That thing is his money maker normally.

I have less of a problem with putting Temple on Thomas as the terrible execution. Temple got picked and nobody at all came to help him. Thomas got into the paint so easily and stopping him from doing that should have been priority #1. I'd rather him have to kick it out to an open shooter on the perimeter with only 7 seconds to run a play.

Temple actually recovered and contested Thomas's shot pretty well. You just can't let him get into the paint under any circumstances.

[Skin'emAlive]

And Wittman bringing in Temple, cold off the bench, to guard Thomas at the end might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done.

I think its kind of funny. Id like to know what was going through his head at that moment. Throwing in a guy with no minutes to guard the other team's starter with the game on the line.

[stevemcqueen1]

Well is a relative term. He got destroyed by Thomas and couldn't get anything done in the second half when the Kings defense tightened up.

The numbers look good, sure, but if you play good transition D Wall is a below average PG at best.

The numbers look good because he played pretty well. Wall certainly isn't a below average PG in the half court. His jumper was falling tonight and he's an enormous threat to get to the rim against multiple defenders. He had some dishes, only 2 TOs. Made plays in crunch time. His defense was decent. He certainly was a positive overall.

---------- Post added January-28th-2013 at 09:50 PM ----------

Another set of DNP's for Vesely & Singleton.

Might be time to get Nene some rest and get those two some burn.

[MonkFan8]

The numbers look good because he played pretty well. Wall certainly isn't a below average PG in the half court. His jumper was falling tonight and he's an enormous threat to get to the rim against multiple defenders. He had some dishes, only 2 TOs. Made plays in crunch time. His defense was decent. He certainly was a positive overall.

He was a -2, primarily because he couldn't stay in front of Thomas all game long. He was also 2-6 with his jumper today and was clearly hesitant to shoot late in the game, once leading to a 24 second violation.

Dunno what to say, I'm not trying to hate on the guy, but he needs to start getting his act together and learn how to run a team in the half court.

[Fight4RGIII]

Why don't we just draft Glenn Robinson III? Imagine what we could do with RG3 and GR3!

[Hersh]

Might be time to get Nene some rest and get those two some burn.

Didn't see the game so are Nene and Beal really struggling with their respective injuries? If so, they need to get rest rather than be pushed to play in an already lost season playoff-wise. I would rather see them healthy in a couple weeks so the team can develop as much chemistry as possible for the remainder of the season rather than them playing hurt the rest of the season.

[Destino]

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

[StillUnknown]

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

He had a horrible possession that resulted in a turnover really late in the 4th.

I've read Wittman's explanation about why Temple was in the game, still doesn't make sense. Every game he is our coach, we are essentially playing handicapped.

[stevemcqueen1]

Didn't see the game so are Nene and Beal really struggling with their respective injuries? If so, they need to get rest rather than be pushed to play in an already lost season playoff-wise. I would rather see them healthy in a couple weeks so the team can develop as much chemistry as possible for the remainder of the season rather than them playing hurt the rest of the season.

That's how I see it.

Yeah I think both are playing in pain and struggling. Beal's shot hasn't been as affected by his injury as I thought it would but it's hurting his activity level a lot and it's taken away the reliability of his shot even though he's still making open threes. And I think it effects his D.

Nene is a night to night thing. Some nights, like last night, he's going to be totally ineffective in the post. He doesn't have his same quickness or lift which takes away most of his post offense and his ability to get to the FT line. When he can't do those things, he can't thrive on offense, where most of his value comes from.

I would rest them too. As you say, the season is lost. I don't want to make their injuries worse, and with them being pretty ineffective, it's not going to be that big a deal to swap them out. I'd start Seraphin or Booker next to Okafor and start Ariza at the 2. It gives us a long lineup and keeps Crawford on the bench for his second line scoring. Not really sure who you play at the three off the bench, maybe Singleton could finally get on the court?

Play Ves at the backup 4 or 5 spot next to Booker or Seraphin.

---------- Post added January-29th-2013 at 08:10 AM ----------

He was a -2, primarily because he couldn't stay in front of Thomas all game long. He was also 2-6 with his jumper today and was clearly hesitant to shoot late in the game, once leading to a 24 second violation.

Dunno what to say, I'm not trying to hate on the guy, but he needs to start getting his act together and learn how to run a team in the half court.

+/- isn't that useful in single game samples. Beal was a +3 despite the fact he barely did anything. Wall showed up to play last night and is a good half court PG, your saying he isn't is off base. If you're looking for scapegoats for last night's loss, he doesn't qualify. Pick one of the other six guys who played poorly.

---------- Post added January-29th-2013 at 08:19 AM ----------

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

I don't think it's a statement about Wall as much as a vote of confidence in Temple as a perimeter stopper. Something I'm not sure he's earned. It made sense to go with a personnel change with no timeouts and that little time left on the clock. But what I'm wondering is why not put Ariza on Thomas? Ariza is our best defender right? Why was he playing way off the ball (and also why didn't he come help when Temple got picked?). Temple is not that fast. He did a decent job on the play recovering from the pick and contesting the shot but the battle was lost when nobody rotated to help him and Thomas got into the paint.

It should have been very clear Sacramento wasn't going to do anything but get Thomas into the lane and take a shot because that'd been the majority of their offense down the stretch. Chuck Hayes wasn't going to take a three or whoever the hell Nene was guarding way out on the perimeter.

A lot of bad D on that play.

[stevemcqueen1]

I didn't realize the Thunder had Toronto's draft pick this year. That's the seventh overall pick by record. If they stay under the tax level and are able to keep their team together while retooling with Jeremy Lamb and whoever they pick in this year's lottery, I think the Harden trade ends up being a plus. It hurt to lose him no doubt, but they're even better now because of the strides KD has made and Ibaka has made offensively. They get a bunch of cap room off of Kevin Martin's expiring deal. They got some draft picks and young players to work out. It wasn't a perfect solution but they didn't have many good options when faced with the prospect of the repeat offender tax like Miami and LA will be. They looked ahead and saw the tax coming, figured they couldn't get a better big man than Ibaka or that developing one of their own would waste a lot of the best years of KD and Russ, so chose to go ahead with Ibaka instead of Harden. Worse player no doubt, but better end result for the team unless they somehow fell into a top notch big man.