The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Destino]

Why couldn't we sign OJ Mayo. He's Beal if Beal actually turns out to be pretty good and he was unceremoniously devalued and abandoned by Memphis? Ariza and Okafor made no sense at the time and it makes no sense to me now. They aren't worth what was passed up to get them.

... And I know mayo isn't well loved but he's worth more then Okafor and Ariza combined IMO. Those two guys are running on fumes.

[Hersh]

Why couldn't we sign OJ Mayo. He's Beal if Beal actually turns out to be pretty good and he was unceremoniously devalued and abandoned by Memphis? Ariza and Okafor made no sense at the time and it makes no sense to me now. They aren't worth what was passed up to get them.

... And I know mayo isn't well loved but he's worth more then Okafor and Ariza combined IMO. Those two guys are running on fumes.

and we get both of them for two years!!!!! How did we not get a 1st round pick out of this trade? Just awful.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Hersh

[StillUnknown]

and we get both of them for two years!!!!! How did we not get a 1st round pick out of this trade? Just awful.

Ernie is a masterful negotiator.

It was commonly though that NO would have have to part with #10 to get rid of one of those contracts, Ernie took both and was gracious enough to allow them to keep their pick.

[Hersh]

Ernie is a masterful negotiator.

It was commonly though that NO would have have to part with #10 to get rid of one of those contracts, Ernie took both and was gracious enough to allow them to keep their pick.

On the plus side to not having another 1st round pick this year a) our coaches suck so they wouldn't get any better and I think 3 players in this draft have had any impact on games so it's not like we are missing out.

[AsiaticSkinsFan]

Just make it so they have games every day. Shorten the season if need be. It would be beneficial to fairly young teams like ours.

that would be awful.

A lot of NBA games sucked last year, a lot more than usual. Plus the injuries.

And there is no way we will ever get less than an 82 game season as the norm. The NBA would probably add more games than take away.

[Destino]

that would be awful.

A lot of NBA games sucked last year, a lot more than usual. Plus the injuries.

And there is no way we will ever get less than an 82 game season as the norm. The NBA would probably add more games than take away.

No. Never follow the horror that is baseball. Once you reach a certain point more games just makes all of them worthless. There are already way too many. Probably double what there should be to make the regular season interesting.

As for the wizards... Dion Waiters stats are making me sick.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Destino

[Skin'emAlive]

Wait...what? Waiters had 28 points, with 7 3pointers!?! God damnit.

[Thinking Skins]

Wait...what? Waiters had 28 points' date=' with 7 3pointers!?! God damnit.[/quote']

I just keep telling myself that everything's gonna be better when Wall comes back.

[SiCkSoULjA]

Nick Young worst shot ver

http://cdn2.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1285705/nicknoooo_medium.gif

What the hell was he thinking throwing up that? It's 8 seconds left on the clock, I checked the box score and he did terrible. On espn recap it said this

Young led the way for the cold-shooting Sixers, missing 11 of 15 attempts. Known as a shoot-first player, Young almost never looked for another option, and hoisted up misfire after misfire. One fan heckled him, "That's why you got a one-year deal, man!"

I thought in LA he did okay in his roll as a spot up shooter and may turn out too be a decent player. If he keep doing what he's doing he'll find himself out the league.

[Going Commando]

I'm not worried about Waiters or Beal. Waiters came in with NBA ready scoring moves, it's not surprising he's producing early. Beal doesn't have that same array already developed, so he's not going to be as productive early on. Plus Beal is younger.

Tyreke Evans also came in with a large array of scoring moves, and actually, he's a somewhat similar player to Waiters IMO. Maybe not quite as quick, but bigger and a better passer and rebounder. And then on the other hand, you had slower developers like James Harden come in and struggle to make an impact as a rookie. But today, there is no doubt who is the better player between Harden and Tyreke. Harden just "gets it." He's a wonderfully efficient and creative offensive player.

I don't think that analogy is totally complete to Beal and Waiters, but I think the dynamic of it is the same. Beal is like Harden with the IQ and measured, unselfish and efficient play. He's not the offensive talent Harden was coming out of AZ St., where Harden was a sophomore with great production. Harden is a better ball handler than Beal so he has an easier time creating his looks. But Beal is a better athlete, better rebounder, better shotblocker, a lot scrappier, with higher defensive potential in general.

Beal has higher upside than Waiters. I don't see Waiters developing into the kind of all around player that Beal should, just as Tyreke hasn't developed into the all around player Harden is.

[RonArtest15]

It's early...and A LOT can change. However, as each day passes, I'm hating this Ariza/Okafor trade more and more. As you all know, I defended the move. Both guys have contributed little to nothing on the floor. The only positive is Okafor in that he's a strong vet leader that this team needed. Ariza, on the other hand...whoa. Can't find another player in the league who looks more aloof than him. It's painstakingly obvious that he doesn't want to be here in DC. Did you all see the "advice" he gave Bradley Beal?

On what he's been told: "Trevor [booker or Ariza, not sure which] pulled me aside and said to me, 'This might not be your year. You never know. Just stay on course. [but] you play the right way, so just keep doing that for us [and things will change].'"

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2012/11/3/3597168/wizards-vs-celtics-quotes-randy-wittman

Who says that!!???!!!

Hopefully Witt does the right thing and sits Ariza (put Webster in his place). Dude is completely checked out. This is on EG. Looking more and more like we wasted a prime opportunity to do something else w/ Shard's contract.

[No Excuses]

Looking more and more like we wasted a prime opportunity to do something else w/ Shard's contract.

Numbers don't lie my friend. They painted a very ugly picture for this trade back then and we are seeing it now.

[Thinking Skins]

I don't think that analogy is totally complete to Beal and Waiters, but I think the dynamic of it is the same. Beal is like Harden with the IQ and measured, unselfish and efficient play. He's not the offensive talent Harden was coming out of AZ St., where Harden was a sophomore with great production. Harden is a better ball handler than Beal so he has an easier time creating his looks. But Beal is a better athlete, better rebounder, better shotblocker, a lot scrappier, with higher defensive potential in general.

Beal has higher upside than Waiters. I don't see Waiters developing into the kind of all around player that Beal should, just as Tyreke hasn't developed into the all around player Harden is.

I don't disagree here, but I'd definitely like to see him doing some of these other things to help assist the team. His scoring may not be the best right now, but where's the rebounding and the defense and the assists? Where's the basketball IQ? Is he still too excited by the speed of the game and the fact that he's playing around Irving and Garnett?

[Going Commando]

I don't disagree here, but I'd definitely like to see him doing some of these other things to help assist the team. His scoring may not be the best right now, but where's the rebounding and the defense and the assists? Where's the basketball IQ? Is he still too excited by the speed of the game and the fact that he's playing around Irving and Garnett?

I think it's his age. Billy Donovan said Brad went through an adjustment period at Florida and it took him a little while to fit in. He said it was from him being so young.

Beal is the second youngest player in the NBA now I'm pretty sure. I think it's going to be an even harder adjustment for him from college to the NBA, where he's just turned 19 and he's playing against grown men.

He's probably overwhelmed by the NBA right now. You watch him play in those first two games and you can tell he's just kind of watching. He's made a few plays and had a few moments, but it looks to me like he's still getting his bearings.

If you notice, MKG is going through a similar adjustment period right now, and that surprises me a little more because of how precocious he was at Kentucky. The again, he's the youngest player in the NBA.

I don't think that's a big deal for either Beal or MKG. I think Beal will settle down at some point this season and start to play his game. In a couple of years, I see Beal being a top notch two way player that can be an essential cog to a contender.

I think the offense will find it's identity at some point after Wall returns, and we'll get our rotations figured out. I don't know if that will be enough to make the playoffs this year. Injuries will make us flounder out of the gate, we're still too young and too reliant on scrub veterans like AJ Price. We'll not be a playoff team until our homegrown talent is old enough and good enough to do it on their own.

---------- Post added November-6th-2012 at 11:16 AM ----------

Who says that!!???!!!

Yeah. Maybe he meant well, but that's a cancerous thing to say. All you need to do with a rookie is uplift him and try and give him some confidence. Don't be telling him to punt the year.

[Destino]

We haven't seen enough of Beal to say much but timid players never become aggressive. They can be coached into being "more aggressive" but personalities are what they are. Dwight Howard will never be the ruthless ******* that Shaq was. Now that I think about it I've never seen Beal angry, even in the college high lights. That's saying something because I've seen Ray Allen angry and that guy, if reports can be believed, is a friendly person. I'd like to see Crawford slap Beal across the face before he gets into the game and tell him to take that anger out on the other team.

Now this isn't to say that anger and aggression are the only paths to success. One can still take the arrogant or Wile-E-Coyote route. The first is what I think Lebron does, he doesn't get mad he just tells himself that he's better than everyone (he is) and that it's time for them to accept his greatness. Perhaps King is the perfect nickname for that dude. The other requires a bit of an explanation. Remember when everyone's favorite desert predator would run off a cliff and not fall... until he realized that he shouldn't be able to run on air? There are players in the NBA that do not have the athleticism or measurables to succeed as they do... but they haven't noticed and continue to do it.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Destino

[RonArtest15]

Numbers don't lie my friend. They painted a very ugly picture for this trade back then and we are seeing it now.

I'd actually be fine w/ this trade if Ariza only looked like he gave a **** while out on the floor. Dude has horrible body language like he'd rather be anywhere else than DC. I seriously wonder if he'll orchestrate a buyout. He'll leave a lot of $ on the table, but if he's this miserable...it could happen. Webster/Singleton should be 1/2 on the depth chart at the SF spot.

If I was Witt, this is the lineup I'd start

Okafor

Seraphin

Webster

Crawford

Pargo

Bench:

Booker

Price

Ves

Singleton

Beal

Barron

Martin (DNP)

Ariza (DNP)

Bottom line, Wall & Nene need to get healthy.

[Thinking Skins]

Now this isn't to say that anger and aggression are the only paths to success. One can still take the arrogant or Wile-E-Coyote route. The first is what I think Lebron does, he doesn't get mad he just tells himself that he's better than everyone (he is) and that it's time for them to accept his greatness. Perhaps King is the perfect nickname for that dude. The other requires a bit of an explanation. Remember when everyone's favorite desert predator would run off a cliff and not fall... until he realized that he shouldn't be able to run on air? There are players in the NBA that do not have the athleticism or measurables to succeed as they do... but they haven't noticed and continue to do it.

I'll just say great analogy.

[nuposse87]

We can't be a team that digs ourselves into deep holes. We're missing our two best offensive players so we need to put our best offensive lineup to start the games IMO.

Price

Beal

Singleton

Booker

Seraphin

That lineup has the best scoring potential to start with IMO. I leave Webster out of the starting lineup for a reason. I'd like to see the bench be:

Pargo

Crawford

Webster

Jan

Okafor

The 2nd unit needs playmakers in order to be effective. While Crawford actually has been solid so far in in playmaking it just seems to be that by the end of the game it takes a toll on him. Webster has shown some ability to make the right pass, so I'd rather he stay on the bench and provide the perimeter shooting and playmaking ability. Singleton looked good enough in the preseason where he wasn't fouling every damn time, and actually making shots. I think it was a crime Ariza got the playing time he did while singleton didn't. Ariza should be benched until he clearly outplays our other forwards in practice.

[Thinking Skins]

Yeah. Maybe he meant well, but that's a cancerous thing to say. All you need to do with a rookie is uplift him and try and give him some confidence. Don't be telling him to punt the year.

Yeah, that's just an effed up thing to say. I could see if he said like "some nights its just not your night" or "sometimes your shot just isn't falling", but to say that the whole year is a wash? I don't want him anywhere near Beal or anybody else on this team. Hopefully somebody like Booker or Seraphin pulled Beal aside after reading (or hearing) that quote and told him that they went through similar problems their rookie years and just had to fight through it and make up for bad shooting nights by getting involved in other ways like playing defense or rebounding.

---------- Post added November-6th-2012 at 02:02 PM ----------

The 2nd unit needs playmakers in order to be effective. While Crawford actually has been solid so far in in playmaking it just seems to be that by the end of the game it takes a toll on him. Webster has shown some ability to make the right pass, so I'd rather he stay on the bench and provide the perimeter shooting and playmaking ability. Singleton looked good enough in the preseason where he wasn't fouling every damn time, and actually making shots. I think it was a crime Ariza got the playing time he did while singleton didn't. Ariza should be benched until he clearly outplays our other forwards in practice.

I really wonder why Singleton's not getting any minutes right now. Is it just a rotation thing where we don't have enough minutes to allocate to all our players? I can kinda understand that, I mean Martin didn't play game 1 and got a good 6 minutes in game 2 (not a lot, but something). But in my opinion Singleton should be battling or ahead of Ariza depending on the night and who's hot. At least Singleton's young and has something to prove. He's got the same talent and potential as Ariza, just without the experience. He looked good enough in preseason and summer league (though going by summer league Young and McGee would be all stars by now) that he should get some burn.

[StillUnknown]

We got the Celtics again tonight.

[Thinking Skins]

Our starters scored a FG.

Note, thats only 1 FG, adn we're now down 11-2.

---------- Post added November-7th-2012 at 07:44 PM ----------

Good defensive play by Beal recovering and getting the block.

Edited November 8, 2012 by Thinking Skins

[Thinking Skins]

Beal with the three. It seems like they're trying a lot harder to get him involved in the game. I like that.

[Forehead]

So this was going through my mind earlier and I figured I'd ask it here. What, in your opinion, is the best set of positions to constitute a "Big Three?" Which of course, means, which two positions are the least important when building a three man team (with a bunch of hanger ons).

Right off the bat, I think of the Jordan Bulls teams that had the Jordan-Pippen-Rodman trio for the second threepeat. Though Jordan handled the ball some, he was a 2 guard, Pippen was the 3, Rodman the 4. They trotted out a collection of stiff like Bill Wennington and Luc Longley to play center, and I can't remember any point guards from that time beyond BJ Armstrong. So they went with a 2-3-4 Big Three and it worked for them. The Heat most recently did the same thing, a 2-3-4 with Wade, James, and Bosh, though they also shifted to a 2-4-5 smallball lineup as well. The Celtics followed a 2-3-5 format, I identify Garnett more as a 5 than a 4 at this point, though they morphed to a 1-3-5 as Allen went to the bench and Rondo started improving so much.

I'm sure there are other examples, but I guess my question is, which three positions would you choose to make a Big Three if you were a GM.

[DallasBlowsBig]

Is AJ Price really that good? I haven't watched all the games, but I just don't see how we can't find a better back up PG to Wall. Please let me know if I am wrong because like I said I haven't watched much of the first two games.

[Thinking Skins]

Just like game 1, I feel like we're taking way too many threes.

---------- Post added November-7th-2012 at 07:51 PM ----------

Right now 4 of our 12 shots are 3s. Compare that to Boston having just 1 of their 11 shots as 3s.