G.A.C.O.L.B.

What areas do you think we should target in the draft and free agency next year? I've been thinking about this from playing NBA2K11 and having to scout college players. I've been targeting SG's just because opponents SG's absolutely kill me on defense in games. Rip almost put up 40 on me last night.

It was 6 seconds on the inbound btw. I just went back and timed it.

Game!!!!!!!!

Yup. I was right about Blatche but wrong about McGee. Pleasantly wrong.

Blatche is a ****ing loser.

I listened to the first half on the radio and got home at the start of the 3rd. Not sure if he's done anything but he's played. Every time he's come in the crowd goes insane and that's why I assume a lot of them are there for him. The last I saw him was in the middle of the 3rd when he picked up his 4th foul. EDIT: SU's right, 3 fouls.

Seems like it. Wouldn't be shocked if a lot of them are there for Greivis and cheering for the Wiz cause that's the home town team. Hopefully we pull this out and get them wanting to come back.

Wow what a make up block by McGee. That's a game changer there.

Heart. One's got it, the other doesn't.

They're going back to Bullets. Lock.

I mean there are the three years we made the playoffs with Gilbert. Went to the 2nd round of the playoffs, were #1 in the East at the all star break. Then **** fell apart but still. It was fun while it lasted. Now we have a new legitimate star in John Wall. I think basketball is a little different than football where one draft pick can change the entire state of a franchise. I guess that can apply in football where you get a Peyton Manning or luck into a Tom Brady but it's a lot rarer. Plus new ownership with Ted. Things are exciting right now. And another big difference is the fanbase. You older Wizard fans can be annoying Debbie Downers but it seems, to me anyway, that us younger fans are still optimistic and excited for the team. On the other hand, the entire Redskin fanbase across the age spectrum has lost it's ****ing mind.

Holy **** this game is ****ING KILLING ME. So many missed opportunities.

Let me know when the Braves don't choke in the playoffs 12 times in 13 years Two games away from being a more pathetic version of the Buffalo Bills. That's a shame.

We'll have to agree to disagree. But SteveM is right. Give the area a winning team and a top 3 player and the Verizon Center will be bumping and Bullets jersey's will be all over the place. And I'm not sure how you can claim that DC is a bigger baseball town than a basketball town. We had two teams and lost them. And our current one isn't exactly spurring conversations in the masses outside of the hype sideshow of Strasburg. Me personally, I'm about sick of the Redskins. I'll take a Wiz championship over a Skins Super Bowl. The whole thing is just so tainted and played out at this point. From the ownership to the media to the fanbase. The whole thlng is just one big headache. It's not fun anymore. But that's just me.

I picked Isiah because he was the last PG to star and be THE guy on a championship team. (And I agree that Payton was prob the superior PG.) But to my point, positional value is important, we agree there. But you have to look at the individual players. The top 1 isn't automatically more valueable than the top wing player. I think Durant is the next Jordan. He might not be the defender that Jordan was, yet, but the sky is the limit for him. He will be universally recognized as the best basketball player in the world in two years. And I think he is the type of player (perimeter/wing or not) to take a team to a championship. I'm taking him over everyone in the league right now. So our disagreement is that. How we view Kevin Durant. Not whether a PG is more important than a 2 or a 3. And he did carry the U.S. to the FIBA gold. They lose the game against Brazil if not for him. And I think he scored a FIBA record in the gold medal game.

Come on man. Typo. The Big Three. And the few games I was able to afford to go to back in their heyday, the Phone Booth was packed. While the home opener wasn't as empty as some made it out to be *cough*chadflukes*cough* but it wasn't filled like it should be. Strasburg's debut was insane, you'd think Wall's would be similar. I know he wasn't nearly as hyped as Jesus but the Verizon Center is a third of the size of Nats Park. I still contend that DC is a basketball town though. Wall is going to wake up that sleeping giant. Vishal, maybe I was too zoned in on Javale's breathing issues last night. He has REALLY impressed me lately though. I'm a believer. Focus on defense and rebounding and just dunk it when Wall throws it to you. He's gonna be a top 5 center. A Grunfeld steal at 18. (And he's leading my NBA2K league in blocks, 2.8 per.) And yeah, Blatche is a fat slob right now. They did a piece about it in the Post last week. Had a bum wheel and couldn't work out. Then he's got sleep problems so he just watches TV and eats junk food all night. (It's a dedication, maturity, and professionalism issue imo)

Pretty good considering he had the worst season of his career offensively and had the 5th most strikeouts among catchers. Oh and let me know when he wins a Gold Glove

Question for Caps fans: I know the Phonebooth is sold out and packed every night for the Caps. How was it when Ovechkin first got here? Before they started winning? I ask cause on TV the crowd looked absolutely horrible tonight. I know Wall was out, and the Raptors have no name players, but man. I guess that's a good thing though. Ted is a businessman first and foremost so having a ****ty team hurts the bottom line. This is gonna compel him to do whatever it takes to build a winner. I think Abe was happy with a eh crowd. Ted isn't going to be like that. I don't think it's a coincidence that after Ted got involved with Abe you saw Abe bring in Jordan (our Jagr) and then the Big Tree. Bold moves to win.

Yup. You couldn't ask for a better match up when your top player and one of your top of the rotation guys are both out. It was still encouraging to see them dominate the Raptors as they should. Kirk Henrich's best game as Wiz. He completely owned the game. I've come to the conclusion that Gilbert will never get his quickness back. Casual fans think he's a gun slinger who fires it from outside but his big thing in the past was driving and getting to the line. You used to regularly see a line from him like 30 points, 14 of 17 from the line. Not anymore. But he's still one of the top scorers in the league. He's still quick as can be getting his shot up with the littlest of space. I feel bad for Nick Young. He's the type of player that he NEEDS to be the man when he's playing. That's his game. To single-handedly take over for long stretches. But he's just barely not good enough to get those long stretches most of the time. I think he's the type of player who could go into exile some really ****ty place and be the leading scorer. But it won't be real. He'll just be the best of the bad. Not sure what was up with McGee. He STRUGGLED hard tonight. Not his game, he's really been impressing me on the boards. That's been one of the consistent knocks on him since college. He can't rebound like he should (ditto Blatche). I think he averaged only 6 or 7 boards a game at Nevada which is pathetic considering his size, athleticism and level of competition there. He's been working hard lately though. He really gets up above everyone else and fits for every contested rebound. Tonight though he looked like one of the most out of shape players I've seen. He'd have a short, short stretch where he would fight his heart out and then he'd be done, gasping for air. I know Buck and Phil talked about his asthma but I haven't seen him like that before. (He's probably got a bug or something. I know when I get sick, I can breath for ****.) Hilton Armstrong really stepped up though. He's been really, really impressing me lately. People absolutely killed the signing of him. Someone on here or over at WE even wrote an email to Ted about it. But he's playing hard. He's got more offensive moves then McGee but he's not as athletic. On a sidenote, anyone remember all those years where it was like not a single player on our team could/would dunk. Or Michael Ruffin, Darvin Ham, whatever random scrub were our best dunkers? The only ones who would dunk. Isn't it beautiful to see dunks on the regular? McGee is one of the best dunking 5's in the league. Armstrong brings it. Nick Young. Al Thorton, our PG John Wall. Hell, even Blatche is dunking every now and then. It really does get your blood pumping. Anyway, I also really like something about Seraphin. I'm not sure what. He just seems like the type of dude who will hurt you and not even blink. See that Jarret Jack illegal pick where he knocked the absolute **** out of him. I think every team needs someone like that. Hopefully he develops his skills enough to get burn and put that toughness in effect. Oh and Trevor Booker is a beast...at fouling people. He look scared out there tonight. He started to warm up as it went on though. McQueen, who would you take Isiah Thomas or Michael Jordan? In their primes of course. And BOAW, I'm in the camp that believes Jordan made Pippen. That you could have put someone else there and at least offensively they would put up similar number. I think Jordan wins with Thunder Dan at the 3. Not six, and not 72 but he would have gotten at least one. Pippen is one of the best defenders of all time, no doubt. But I think Jordan pushed him to that. And Pippen NEVER showed up in the playoffs. Never. I think he shot 40% for his career in the playoffs. And when he went to Houston and Portland, with both really good, really, really talented squads, he never could take the team to the promised land. Sorry I've been MIA. Life is hectic. End of the semester and I'm working on renting a house (BTW I got a room for rent, in Gainesville, $275 a month plus a quarter of utilities. Anyone interested or know someone, PM me) so I've been working my ass off. Plus I broke down and bought NBA2K11 (first game I've bought in almost a year.) The best sports game ever. Period. My little bit of free time is consumed by that. I have to relearn how to play basketball video games. (Of course Wall twists his ankle against Orlando in the first game of the year and is out 2-4 weeks.)

They don't win without Robertson. I never said that he was the most dominant player. The Bucks dominate the next two years (but fail to win the championship.) Then Oscar retires and with Kareem still on the team, in his prime, the Bucks finish in last place. I think my point still stands. You take away Oscar from that team, Kareem doesn't win the title with the Bucks. You take away Magic from the Lakers, Kareem doesn't win titles there. Who do you take away from Jordan that would've prevented him from winning a title? I'm about to eat, but I got you at some point SteveM.

I get what you're saying. And I agree to an extent. But we're just gonna disagree on the players. I think you might be making what I perceive to be a mistake that I see a lot of basketball fans make. They look at the stats and the positions and the skill set but they don't look at the individual. I'm talking heart, drive, desire, leadership, all of that. I'm taking Jordan over Kareem. That's just how I feel. He was a dominate player but he also had that drive. You take away Oscar Robertson and Magic from Kareem does he have any championships? Who would you take away from Jordan's teams that would deny MJ his? Scottie? Ehhh. I think they could've found someone to fill that spot. They might not have won 6 or 72 but I think MJ still gets rings. I think Durant, ultimately, is going to be on that level. And fwiw, Wall is 20 and two years removed from high school but Durant is just 22 and four years removed. I don't think that's a big enough of a difference to really even mention. And Durant is a leader too. Lead a team from Oklahoma City that played the eventual NBA champs tough for six games. Then he lead the US to their first FIBA gold medal since '94. He put that team on his back and dominated the entire world. Also, for what Durant gives you skills wise, who is a step below that right now? Are they closer to Durant than Chris Paul or Rondo or whoever is going to be (god willing) to John Wall. But still, if you haven't noticed, I'm absolutely giddy over Wall, The only person I take over him right now is Durant. I'd take him over Howard. I didn't mean to ignore you before. Friday/Saturday are my big money workdays. I love your draft stuff in the Stadium and it was bugging me that I hadn't responded yet.

I think we appreciated Haywood when he gave us a reason to appreciate him. When it was Etan vs Todd, they both sucked. Hell there was a point there where a good majority of fans thought Etan was the answer. (Remember Brenda?) But eventually Haywood moved past all of that and stepped up big time. Anyway, just finished the game. ****ty loss but whatever. Anything short of John Wall blowing out his knee isn't going to get me down this year. I'm not gonna ***** and complain, what is, is. Just as long as we show proper improvement from game 1 to game 82, I'm happy. Some thoughts on the game, in no particular order... I still got a little faith in Javale McGee. He's just so freaking athletic. I can't think of a center like him in the league. Dwight is just as athletic but he's just the ultimate power athlete. Nobody like him. Javale is long athletic. That one where he grabbed the floater out of there was a goaltend though, lol. I found it hilarious that the one time in his career that Blatche decides he wants to man up and dunk the ball the **** is straight up rejected. Then 5 seconds later he decides to do a finger roll, lol. Maybe he's had it right all along. But yeah, great game from him. Played hard. Fought on D, fought down low, fought for rebounds. That's what I want to see. Our defense is just maddening. There are points where I just close my eyes. I don't even need to watch to know what's going to happen. This is the NBA. Wide open shots are gonna be made 80% of the time. I'm not sure whether they don't understand how to play defense (yet, hopefully) or if they just can't. To me it seems different then the teams of the past few years. The past few years Gil, Caron, AJ, et al just looked slow on D. Like they couldn't. This team looks like they can but don't know how to? I don't know. Maybe that's just wishful thinking. Gil still sucks at D. One on one, Wall isn't much better at times. But he can get there. He's got the athleticism, the length and, most importantly, the energy/heart to step it up. He is aggressive (too much at times). Defense means something to him. More on Wall, he's gonna be absolutely unstoppable once he gets his shot down and builds up his confidence in it. You saw glimpses of it tonight. After the Philly game, the last two teams--the Knicks last night, the Cavs tonight--made a point of doubling him, playing off of him, shutting down his paths to the basket. Daring him to shoot. And he didn't shoot a lot tonight but when he did he drained them. I heard something on the radio about some guy on ESPN doing a study on Wall and found that his shooting has gotten better each and every game. It's coming. One gripe with Wall: he picks up his dribble way too early way too often. You see him standing there struggling to find somewhere to pass it, five feet outside the three point line. He'll learn. Here's the difference between Wall and Evan Turner. Wall has stuff to work on, no doubt. But it's stuff that anyone can get better at. Not picking up the dribble, not getting overly aggressive on D, shooting the ball (I'm a firm believer anyone can learn how to shoot. Decently anyway), not forcing passes, taking better care of the ball, etc. Really most of his issues are him trying TOO HARD and him finding himself on the biggest stage in the game. On the other hand, Turner has all of that down. He's a polished player. But he doesn't have that jaw dropping potential that Wall does. I know it's a small sample size but I saw enough Tuesday night. Sometimes you can just tell. Don't get me wrong, he'll be a nice player. But he's not a star. He's not a #1 that can lead a team to a championship. I think Wall does. (Yup, full blown man crush in effect. Biggest ever.) See Wall's coast to coast dunk to end the first half. It ultimately didn't count but still. I can't remember seeing something like that since Tyus Edney's coast to coast game winner in the NCAA Tourney way back in 1995. And Edney didn't dunk it. And I've got to give props to Kirk Hinrich. After the first three games I was starting to worry that we had gotten a washed up player. But he really put it together tonight. He is a GREAT addition. He's a hardnosed pure point guard, a decent to good shooter, and our best on ball peremiter defender. Plus he's a leader. Don't know if they showed it on TV or not but before the home opener Tuesday, they gave him the mic and he said a few words to the crowd. Basically thanking us for coming out and promising us a great season. Good guy. Also, good game from Al Thorton. He brought it tonight. I'm not sure if he's just an inconsistent player or if his opportunities game to game come inconsistently. Him not getting burn at the end after the way he played all game, I'm leaning toward the latter. I'm not gonna cry about Flip. He'll either get it done or he'll be gone. Abe (RIP) isn't here anymore. Coaches aren't gonna be sticking around because Ted likes them personally.

And then he proceeded to score six in the other three quarters. I thought for a second that I was wrong about Blatche. But maybe it's just a conditioning thing. Hopefully. Anyway, that was a disappointment. But whatever. I think we're the 4th youngest team in the league? **** is gonna happen. And the Knicks have been on fire the last two games. As far as Gil goes, I'm torn on it. In a way it felt right to see him out there in a Wiz uniform. But it also didn't seem to fit. I don't know. We'll see how it goes. Also, I'm not liking the #9 on him. That's not Gilbert. And he killed his free throw routine as well. As far as Wall goes, not his greatest game. But it was a typical rookie game. And does anyone else think that he tries too hard to be a pure PG sometimes? It's like he'll have an open lane to the basket and instead of taking it he'll force a pass that results in a turnover (what a selfish ballhog he is. I swear, I'm dropping Cowherd if I ever meet him.) Also, you can tell his jumper ****s with him. He hesitates almost every single time he takes one. You can tell he doesn't trust himself. But I think that's good in a way too. He's thinking about it. He'll fix it. And he'll be unstoppable. I still can't believe we got him. It's so surreal. Good stuff like that just doesn't happen to the Wizards. One last thing, it's one of the great travesties of history that God decided to give McGee the kind of athleticism he has. He could be such a beast--top 5 big man--if he wasn't so damn dumb about the game. It drives me crazy.

The gawd Buckhantz was just on 980. He dropped something I didn't know. A record John Wall set Tuesday night. He is the first player in NBA history to have as many as 29 points, 13 assists and 9 steals in a game. Not rookie, PLAYER. In the third game of his career. Also if he gets 10 assists tonight, he breaks Oscar Robertson's record for assists in the first four games of a career. I'm officially as hyped as I've ever been as a Wiz fan. Hopefully the Curse doesn't kick in

I made a point of watching him Tuesday night. Blatche passed the ball twice the first 12 or so times he touched it. I was calling him the Blackhole (what goes in doesn't come out) all night. And it wasn't like he wasn't passing it cause he was getting nice looks. Hardly. But hey, maybe he felt he had to as Gil and Howard were out. I just know I'm still not sold. And saying the right things means very little. Words are words. And he still doesn't go up strong. I don't care if he's fat or not. He's always done that and it drives me insane.