The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Going Commando]

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/11/2/5058934/john-wall-injury-washington-wizards-back

Wall missed practice due to back spasms and is questionable for Sunday.

This season is not starting very well.

 

Look for him to miss games sporadically the next two weeks.  Then he'll  be out getting tests, no timetable for his return.  Then we'll find out in early December that he's actually got a herniated disc or something, out until March, just in time to round into form for Ernie's late April job saving push.

[No Excuses]

This team is royally ****ed if Walls injury is bad. Eric maynor sucks badly and was a bad signing. We gave him a contract in day 1 of FA when a player of his caliber would have been available right at the start of camp. Correct me if I'm wrong but maynor has a PLAYER option for season 2 which is attrocious if true.

[RonArtest15]

Top 12 protected pick isn't looking so bad about now LOL.  Might actually land us Wiggins w/o even trying to tank hahahahaha

[Destino]

So the 76ers just beat Chicago. MCW blew up again, 26pts 10ast. Must be nice to have a team overachieve to start a season.

... ****ing wizards.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Destino

[Going Commando]

So the 76ers just beat Chicago. MCW blew up again, 26pts 10ast. Must be nice to have a team overachieve to start a season.

... ****ing wizards.

 

That kid is unbelievable.  Every draftnik said he was the one most likely to bust.  And then right before the draft I think he or his agent said he should be the #1 pick.  They don't look so crazy now...

 

MCW's is a king sized PG.  He's got the potential to be the best defensive PG in the game IMO.  And he's a far better slasher than I think people realized.  You can stay in front of him but he just twists in midair and reaches those Stretch Armstrong arms right by you for the soft finish.

 

I honestly didn't know much about him or pay much attention to him before the draft.  I caught several Syracuse games too.  He's blown me away thus far.  A really fun and exciting player to watch.

 

And LOL at Philly's tank.  Problem is that Evan Turner is in a contract year and is killing it.  Thad Young is a good player, Hawes is serviceable, and MCW is way way better than anyone expected this early on.  Guys like Wroten and Lavoy Allen look OK and have been overachieving.

 

What sucks for Philly is this team will play with pride and win games here and there until they hit the wall.  They just aren't that great a team despite the way they've played the first three games, they're not at all a realistic bet to keep winning.  But unless people start getting hurt, they might keep winning just enough to take them out of contention for a top three pick.

 

Feels like they missed an opportunity with that Nerlens pick in hindsight.  And they definitely wasted opportunities in free agency, refusing to bring in anyone decent.  If they'd gotten a bench in FA and another difference maker from trading Jrue Holiday, they could be legitimately competitive this year.  If they had traded up just a bit earlier, they could have gotten Zeller or Len instead.  I think that would have been a nice team this season with a good long term core.

 

Right now, MCW is an improvement over Holiday, though I don't expect that to last.  The kid has impressive upside though.

[Going Commando]

Come to think of it, the market for Jrue Holiday had to have been much stronger than what Philly got in return.  He was a young PG coming off an AS appearance.  And some draft picks, neither of which are even top five picks, is all they got back in return?  They should have at least come away with a quality veteran plus draft picks.

 

They should have just picked MCW and waited to trade Jrue later in the offseason to get a 2014 pick and a good player out of it.  IMO they had to take less value to get it in on draft day.

[Going Commando]

Worst case scenario for us is finishing 9th.  We'll lose the pick and miss the playoffs, future totally uncertain.

 

If we miss the playoffs, I really don't know what the future holds.  Does it mean the rebuild is a failure?

 

If we miss it and Ernie and Wittman get extensions, then the natural move for us is to burn the Verizon Center down.  That would be utterly unacceptable.

 

So they'd get fired, naturally.  Would that mean starting the thing over?  Can we even start over?

 

I don't know if I can stomach another square one rebuild.  And I don't know if such a rebuild would even be possible with Wall and his contract in place.  **** trading him, we'll never get back a player as good and we'd probably have to eat a **** salary in return.

 

How do you rapidly rebuild around Wall?  No Ernie and no Wittman.  Let's say we get a top 12 pick and so keep our first rounder this year.  9th place is too nightmarish to talk about.

[Destino]

I don't think firing the GM and getting a new coach would necessarily require a complete rebuild. Gortat would most certainly leave or demand that we over pay for him. That's not a small problem, NBA centers are incredibly difficult to replace. The new GM could easily choose to simply build around Wall and Beal. Beal is still in year two and hasn't reached a point where anyone expects him to be consistent. He's going to improve through this season and should be even better next year.

If a rebuild is the choice, it doesn't have to take forever. If the team sends the message that they are serious about building a winner and attracts a star player they could be good instantly. One of my biggest complaints about Ernie is that he talks like a loser. He expects the Wizards to fail at attracting players here and he set his sights low. No one in their right mind would want to be a part of whatever the hell it is the Wizards are trying to build. We as fans can't even get excited listening to that clown talk about the team he manages. A change in attitude could do wonders for this club.

[Ozymandias]

Its only been 2 games guys...

[abdcskins]

I know a bad team when I see one. This is a bad team. A bunch of random players thrown together. That's the best way I can describe it. Players nobody else wants. Nene, our best big man, always injured. Wall, the savior, up and down. It's a mess.

[StillUnknown]

I don't think firing the GM and getting a new coach would necessarily require a complete rebuild. Gortat would most certainly leave or demand that we over pay for him. That's not a small problem, NBA centers are incredibly difficult to replace. The new GM could easily choose to simply build around Wall and Beal. Beal is still in year two and hasn't reached a point where anyone expects him to be consistent. He's going to improve through this season and should be even better next year.If a rebuild is the choice, it doesn't have to take forever.

If the team sends the message that they are serious about building a winner and attracts a star player they could be good instantly. One of my biggest complaints about Ernie is that he talks like a loser. He expects the Wizards to fail at attracting players here and he set his sights low. No one in their right mind would want to be a part of whatever the hell it is the Wizards are trying to build. We as fans can't even get excited listening to that clown talk about the team he manages. A change in attitude could do wonders for this club.

Thats what I hate most about Grunfeld. He has mastered the art of making people accept his faults. He's no good at drafting so he trades mid round selections and the owner nods. He can't attract prime free agents, so he trades for fragile players on bad contracts, the owner nods.

Must be nice to be in a situation where your multiple failures essentially don't count.

Edited November 3, 2013 by StillUnknown

[Destino]

Its only been 2 games guys...

Wizards dig a hole early every year and then try to improve later. If this year is to be different the first 20-30 games are crucial. I know its only been 2 games but look at the schedule:

@miami

@philly

Brooklyn

@OKC

@dallas

@san antonio

Also it's never to early to talk about firing a Ernie. That's a wizards fan tradition at this point.

[Chachie]

I know a bad team when I see one. This is a bad team. A bunch of random players thrown together. That's the best way I can describe it. Players nobody else wants. Nene, our best big man, always injured. Wall, the savior, up and down. It's a mess.

 

 

 

I want to cut them some slack because they started the season without Nene but we all know they will play the majority of the season without him on court. 2013-14 season is already over in DC. 

 

If you are serious about changing, you show it right away. Bottom line- They are losers. GM, coach, franchise player. Save yourselves the agony of wasting your time for 82 games this year, gentlemen. 35 wins is the ceiling.

[DallasBlowsBig]

Well Carter Williams is having a great impact for the Sixers so far, and our injured player is doing nothing for us, I don't think Porter would be doing much if he was healthy either, will be a bust probably

[JoeWolf990]

Well Carter Williams is having a great impact for the Sixers so far, and our injured player is doing nothing for us, I don't think Porter would be doing much if he was healthy either, will be a bust probably

Otto Porter has the same number of made field goals as Anthony Bennett.

Porter may be a bust, but at least he aint Bennett.

Edited November 3, 2013 by JoeWolf990

[Going Commando]

I don't think firing the GM and getting a new coach would necessarily require a complete rebuild. Gortat would most certainly leave or demand that we over pay for him. That's not a small problem, NBA centers are incredibly difficult to replace. The new GM could easily choose to simply build around Wall and Beal. Beal is still in year two and hasn't reached a point where anyone expects him to be consistent. He's going to improve through this season and should be even better next year.

If a rebuild is the choice, it doesn't have to take forever. If the team sends the message that they are serious about building a winner and attracts a star player they could be good instantly. One of my biggest complaints about Ernie is that he talks like a loser. He expects the Wizards to fail at attracting players here and he set his sights low. No one in their right mind would want to be a part of whatever the hell it is the Wizards are trying to build. We as fans can't even get excited listening to that clown talk about the team he manages. A change in attitude could do wonders for this club.

 

Yep, and the only way you get that change in culture is to clean out the FO.  Ernie is the man who creates the culture.  Ernie and Wittman anyway.  Ernie is the man who oversaw the lockerroom that had his franchise player take a dump in a teammate's shoe, had Javaris Crittenton playing cards in the locker room (eventually murdered a woman), and of course Gungate...  I still can't believe Ernie wasn't summarily fired for that.  And Wittman has a sub .400 career winning %.

 

I guess it makes sense to rebuild around Wall and Beal but it's clear to me that we aren't getting around the waiting time on Beal.  He got my hopes up with that unbelievable preseason.  "He's really precocious, he was good right away as an 18 year old at Florida.  Maybe he makes the leap in year two instead of three or four."  Nope.  So I don't think he's going to be ready to be a true running mate for Wall until sometime next season at the earliest, but more likely at the beginning of the season after that.

 

And we likely won't be able to expect Porter to break out until a whole year after that too.

 

Three more years of this roller coaster of uncertainty?  Wall will be in his prime years by then.

 

So say the worst happens and we miss the playoffs and end up with the 5th or 6th pick.  Ernie and Wittman are gone.   (Actually maybe this isn't the worst...).

 

What about offering Minnesota Beal, Porter, the draft pick, and ballast contract(s) for Kevin Love?  Does Minny agree?  Say they miss the playoffs too and Kevin Love is unhappy and there's a legit threat he'll opt out.  That is a load of young talent to stick with Rubio and Pekovic.

 

Then you extend Marcin Gortat and move forward with Wall and Love as your core and Gortat as the third piece.  Martell probably starts at SF.  Then you get a true 3 and D specialist and glue guy to start at SG.  A Sefalosha type maybe.  Hire someone from San Antonio to be the GM and someone like Nate McMillan to be the coach?

 

Either way, I want Marcin extended.  I love the way he plays and he seems like an awesome teammate.  He's not a loser, you can tell from his body language he cares.  He plays to win and I want a good big man at the start of my era, not force Wall to play with **** bigs on long shot teams for several years like we did before.  

 

I think that would be a way to go in very different direction and skip the rebuild process.  Probably not realistic though.  Minnesota probably wins 50 games and Kevin Love talks about retiring a Timberwolf.

 

Yeah I guess a new GM would probably have to just decide to rebuild around Wall and Beal and be patient. That isn't the worst situation, I'm sure any guy getting his first GM job would love to start out with two young potential perennial All Stars with years of team control.

[RonArtest15]

Team needs to find a way to cut ties w/ Nene. 

[Going Commando]

Team needs to find a way to cut ties w/ Nene. 

 

Yeah it's getting that way.  I don't like his attitude.  He's a whiner.  Getting paid 13 million to whine about playing too many minutes of a kid's game all of us would kill to be good enough and have the opportunity to play for money.

[Destino]

Otto Porter has the same number of made field goals as Anthony Bennett.

Porter may be a bust, but at least he aint Bennett.

I had to look that up. Wow. He's 0-12 in his first three games! That's not the start the Cavs were looking for from their 1st overall.

[Going Commando]

Supposedly John is playing tonight but I haven't seen anything official.

[Destino]

Yeah it's getting that way. I don't like his attitude. He's a whiner. Getting paid 13 million to whine about playing too many minutes of a kid's game all of us would kill to be good enough and have the opportunity to play for money.

His smiling face in a suit when the 76ers took the lead late in the game was annoying.

[Going Commando]

I had to look that up. Wow. He's 0-12 in his first three games! That's not the start the Cavs were looking for from their 1st overall.

 

Not going to lie, I'm relieved he's struggling.  I was a Bennett fan too.  I'm glad Oladipo is shooting poorly too.

[Destino]

Supposedly John is playing tonight but I haven't seen anything official.

He needs an MRI and a chiropractor but I bet Ernie is trying to save a few backs and just got an X-Ray and a prescription of pain meds. Back injuries are not something that should be downplayed.

[Going Commando]

He needs an MRI and a chiropractor but I bet Ernie is trying to save a few backs and just got an X-Ray and a prescription of pain meds. Back injuries are not something that should be downplayed.

 

I'm sure he'll play injured and make it worse.

[Metalhead]

This how is this team has started the season in years past:

 

2012: 0-12

2011: 0-8

2010: 0-2 (eventually 6-19)

2009: 1-8

2008: 1-10

 

I mean it is unbelievable that despite a **** start every year, we have made practically zero changes to the infrastructure of this team over the last 6 seasons. I really cannot state my disdain for Ted Leonsis in words.

 

That is brutal. And the thing is, they will probably start this season 0-8 as well, with or without Wall. And if that does happen, Ernie and Randy have got to go.