The Official Washington Wizards Thread

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Got two tickets--lower level--available for tonight's game vs the Clippers if anyone is interested. Just selling them at face value. Let me know.

See the arrow for seat location:



---------- Post added February-4th-2013 at 04:12 PM ----------

What's going on with wizardsextreme.com? I haven't been there in FOREVER and checking it out now, I can't even find the forum. Do they still have that up? Or do they just write articles now? Anyone know?

And anyone else remember hands11's infatuation with Blatche?

[Destino]

You know that guy hands11 you older members are so fond of? Dude has a fan club on RealGM apparently. His current genius plan for the team in the draft thread is to put everyone on the block, including Wall and Beal, to get four first round picks in this class so he can pick CJ McCollum, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter, and Mason Plumlee.

Was he drunk when he posted that?

[stevemcqueen1]

I love that Hands is the one poster people here universally trash. I don't think I'm going to put him on ignore. Sometimes I want to get pissed off or shake my head because it can be generative. I haven't run into the other two guys you mentioned Monk. I've been sticking mostly to the draft thread and I'll lurk in the game threads but not read them too carefully. The other threads are thousands of posts deep and I don't feel like reading through them TBH. RealGM recycles threads well, you end up with a bunch of threads like this one--years old and a million pages long.

I've actually had some good discussions so far in the draft thread. We here tend to focus only on the guys that are actually in our draft range but the guys on RealGM will spend a lot of time talking about the whole class. The flip side of that is many seem to outsmart themselves and overvalue the more marginal guys they get interested in and go waaaay off the beaten path and say things like Shabazz and McLemore are mid round picks or marginal guys. Really it could be boiled down to the reasoning of, "I'm bored with these guys because they're known quantities and any ******* can go onto nbadraft.net in 5 minutes and see they are good." That's essentially what I believe Hands11 was doing with that ridiculous plan of the four first round picks. He takes it to another level though. He is cocksure in his bizarre predictions and statements.

Nuposse, I like looking at stats and numbers too but contextualizing basketball stats properly is basically one of the hardest things about basketball. So many people just totally ignore stats altogether because of how misleading they can be when not properly contextualized. Stats are so fluid too. Take Deron Williams for example. In one situation he's pretty much a double digit assists pass first PG that scores a ton of points efficiently as the second scoring option behind guys like Boozer on a very good Utah franchise. At that point, you can see from the numbers how he was a top ten player, one of the key Olympians, the second best PG in the league etc. Then the numbers totally change when he changes his circumstances and he morphs into a highly inefficient score first PG that lost his spot in the All Star game by the numbers. You can never really get a picture of a player through just his numbers, and it's going to be a very rough sketch if you try and do it before his career is over and the numbers are changing drastically year to year.

I believe that, unless you are an incredibly gifted and flexible player that does everything well like LeBron, your level of play and really your whole style of play is subject to change whenever you make a drastic change like switching teams. That's what I think happened to Dwight, Bosh, and DWill. These guys were rock solid universally acknowledged franchise players on their original teams. DWill is a super skilled scorer with an inside out game plus he's a gifted passer and floor general that plays good defense based on who he was in Utah when he had a lot of organizational support. Boozer was an Olympian at one point! Doesn't that seem ridiculous now? Though he has quietly been very good in Chicago. Not what he was before though. I don't know. I don't think the players actually change all that much. I think if you want to recapture the level of play they reached before you need to put a similar set of structures around them as before.

Bottom line, yeah the Wizards are probably screwed when you think about our inability to put a healthy, functional organization around anybody. Will anybody we draft reach his potential? Would we screw up LeBron or Durant? That line of thinking leads to despair. The Wizards need to turn it around and build an actual good team around Wall and Beal. If the Clippers can change their ways after so long, anybody can.

[nuposse87]

Oh I agree, you have to look at some context with the stats, I mean Hasheem Thabeet was a monstrous center according to advance stats early in the season, I don't purely look at stats but I try to use them explain performance, so long as I have some knowledge of the player involved. I just think you can only go so far off qualitative assessments. I think you qualitatively assess whether a player is physically ready for the NBA, but you gotta look at numbers against analogous competition to extrapolate their future performance. It seems to me Ernie drafts more on athletic aesthetics than a player's statistical performance, which is one of the reasons we're mired in futility.

[skinfan2k]

can you guys give me a link to the real GM board? I hated hands11 with a passion and the idiot always somehow brought up the fact that he was a fan longer than anyone else so he is right regardless of how dumb the idea was

[Destino]

Basketball is hard to statistically capture at times because offense, shot clock, spacing, and other aspects aren't captured in numbers. I expect Rudy Gay to look better with the Raptors than he did with Memphis because they run a very big man focused offense that doesn't give perimeter players great possessions. Wall would have much better stats if he played for the Nuggets surrounded by a team looking to run and entirely comprised of capable scorers. Rondo would look horrible on the Bobcats.

People also forget that the most valuable asset in basketball is creating offense. A guy that scores 16 a night efficiently off the dribble is worth twice as much as a guy that puts up the same numbers on mostly assisted baskets.... but each is only worth anything in a system that fits their style of play. Creating offense for yourself is not quantified on the stat sheet however, only creating for others. Even then not all assists are created equal. Westbrook is not as talented a passer as Wall and yet he has similar assist numbers this year.

[stevemcqueen1]

Oh I agree, you have to look at some context with the stats, I mean Hasheem Thabeet was a monstrous center according to advance stats early in the season, I don't purely look at stats but I try to use them explain performance, so long as I have some knowledge of the player involved. I just think you can only go so far off qualitative assessments. I think you qualitatively assess whether a player is physically ready for the NBA, but you gotta look at numbers against analogous competition to extrapolate their future performance. It seems to me Ernie drafts more on athletic aesthetics than a player's statistical performance, which is one of the reasons we're mired in futility.

Holy ****. That was like reading a college paper. I agree with you though. Outside of Wall and Beal (who I think were no brainers), EG has difficulty finding players that could play both offense and defense.

[Destino]

Oh I agree, you have to look at some context with the stats, I mean Hasheem Thabeet was a monstrous center according to advance stats early in the season, I don't purely look at stats but I try to use them explain performance, so long as I have some knowledge of the player involved. I just think you can only go so far off qualitative assessments. I think you qualitatively assess whether a player is physically ready for the NBA, but you gotta look at numbers against analogous competition to extrapolate their future performance. It seems to me Ernie drafts more on athletic aesthetics than a player's statistical performance, which is one of the reasons we're mired in futility.

He falls in love with some aspects of athleticism but he doesn't understand the skills and physical aspects that need to be paired in order to increase the odds of success. Vesely is a great example, if he could shoot he'd be an asset. If he could shoot off the bounce all the way out to three point range he'd be a star. Without being able to shoot at all or dribble he can frankly only score using his speed, meaning assisted baskets and put backs. He has no strength to bang inside or skills to play on the perimeter... But Ernie doesn't get that.

We now get to watch Singleton be forced into a PF role instead of developed into a 3 and D perimeter player because once again the wizards brain trust doesn't understand the skill/attribute parings needed to play an nba position.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

can you guys give me a link to the real GM board? I hated hands11 with a passion and the idiot always somehow brought up the fact that he was a fan longer than anyone else so he is right regardless of how dumb the idea was

Here you go.

http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewforum.php?f=35

[MonkFan8]

I must be a masochist. There is literally nothing entertaining about watching Eric Bledsoe take his former teammate and the #1 pick to school.

With every passing game I become more and more convinced that Wall is not a player you build a team around.

[Skin'emAlive]

You know that guy hands11 you older members are so fond of? Dude has a fan club on RealGM apparently. His current genius plan for the team in the draft thread is to put everyone on the block, including Wall and Beal, to get four first round picks in this class so he can pick CJ McCollum, Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter, and Mason Plumlee.

Dude's been mucking up bulletsforever as well. I saw alot of people praising him during his first few days there.

---------- Post added February-4th-2013 at 08:46 PM ----------

I must be a masochist. There is literally nothing entertaining about watching Eric Bledsoe take his former teammate and the #1 pick to school.

With every passing game I become more and more convinced that Wall is not a player you build a team around.

We are wizards fans, and all wizards fans are pretty much masochists at this point.

[StillUnknown]

I missed the first 3 quarters, anything of note happen?

[Fight4RGIII]

How can we honestly expect to contend when our star player doesn't have a go to, consistent offensive move? I think I have to put Shabazz over Noel on my draft board. It's such a huge need

[stevemcqueen1]

What's LeBron's go to move?

What's CP3's or Durant's? Not everyone has to be Kobe or Carmelo level of skilled to produce offense for themselves.

The team is fun to watch when they play like this. Defense leads to offense.

A consideration for drafting Noel?

[Fight4RGIII]

What's LeBron's go to move?

What's CP3's or Durant's? Not everyone has to be Kobe or Carmelo level of skilled to produce offense for themselves.

The team is fun to watch when they play like this. Defense leads to offense.

A consideration for drafting Noel?

Pure jumpers for CP3 and Durant. Lebron can score in so many different ways.