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The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc


BRAVEONAWARPATH

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Yeah we got lucky to get the #1 pick in the John Wall year. We know what kind of a leader Ernie is. John saved him and this franchise.

Imagine if we hadn't gotten that pick and ended up with anyone else. Evan Turner, DeMarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors, etc. are not turning this franchise around. Or imagine if we had gotten the #1 pick in a different year. Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving, as good as they are at basketball itself, are not turning this franchise around either. Blake Griffin, I don't know. But I wouldn't like who I'd have had to become, rooting for a Blake Griffin led team.

Going back as far as 2008, it was basically John or Anthony Davis or no one. Maybe Damian Lillard, but I'm not sure about that. They are the only ones who could have transformed this leaderless dumpster fire into a professional, respectable operation. We needed so much more than just a transcendent talent.

It pains me to say it, but I should also give Randy much more credit as a leader than I do. He may have been painfully lacking in the Xs and Os department, but he is a sheriff. And he's connected really well with the players on a personal level. I can't see him ever being so out of the loop and passive like Flip was during Gungate.

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The idea of Gilbert leading a team to a title seems laughable now - from a strictly leadership standpoint. I mean I knew he was a goof but the guy almost got himself killed over $1,100.

Reminds me of Back to the Future 3. "Here lies Gilbert Arenas. Shot in the back by Javaris Crittenton over a matter of 11 hundred dollars."

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Nice leadership that Ernie and Flip showed in that episode BTW. This team needed a sheriff in charge in the worst way.

 

Honestly, unless they had guns of their own, or had armed guards at the ready, I'm not sure I blame them. I suppose they could've nipped the situation in the bud, but once guns were drawn, I'd want to stay as far away from them as I could.

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Honestly, unless they had guns of their own, or had armed guards at the ready, I'm not sure I blame them. I suppose they could've nipped the situation in the bud, but once guns were drawn, I'd want to stay as far away from them as I could.

 

Coaches and GMs aren't always a players favorite people, they aren't going to want to come charging in to confront a disgruntled role player with a gun. 

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http://deadspin.com/gilbert-arenas-posts-rebuttal-to-caron-butlers-version-1735566952

 

Pretty honest reply by Arenas here. I probably believe it more than Caron's account, as dude is trying to sell a book and Gil is still a ridiculously profitable name. The basic gist of it all is that Crittenton lost a bunch of money to Mcgee in a game of cards on a plane, and Gil ragged him for being a baby. It escalated to the point he said he'd shoot him in the (surgically repaired) knee if they were on the streets. Gil wound up practical joking about it all and everything got stupid. They later brushed it aside and started playing ball like nothing happened. Stupid joke ruined his rep, broken knee ruined his career.

 

Look, Gil provided this city with possibly the most buzz since the last Redskins Superbowl. Wall is the best we've had here in a long long time and our team is way better than the trio's ever was, but he cant scratch the buzz Arenas brought night in and night out. Dropping 60-burgers with denzel swag will do that. ( not including the fact that this team still hasnt gotten any further than Gil's did, and we still have to get past Lebron; an extremely difficult task to this day). I still believe that if we could have replaced Jamison with a 4 that could play defense, we would have gone much further. (provided Gil's knee never exploded of course).

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Somehow I doubt Gil could remember that level of detail, I'm more apt to believe Caron on this one

UnWise Mike interviewed several people when this went down and honestly, most of the stories match up more or less with Gil's account.
 
I'm not saying Caron's lying per se but I do think his memory is somewhat "clouded" by his personal feelings towards Gil.
 
 
They weren't the best of friends when that "Big Three" era ended.
 
Basically, Caron got a little jealous of Gil.
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The beginning of Gil's account has been pretty consistent over the years. But I don't believe he felt it was all a joke that went awry. It was more serious than that and Gil is brushing it off. And I'm not sure I believe his account of the way it ended either, but who knows?

Gil strikes me as the type that might have a near-photographic memory and an acute eye for detail. I believe that he actually remembers the hands that caused the initial dispute. I believe he was incredibly smart, much like Wall, but that he just never really "got it," and that's the main difference between him and Wall.

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Having to root for a team with Gilbert Arenas as its star player was a burden I wouldn't wish on anybody. Those were sad, sad times.

Bah, those teams were kinda fun to watch. Agent Zero's heroics hadn't been seen in this town in decades. Dropping 60 on the Lakers, numerous buzzer beaters, good times. Didn't last long, but it was cool nonetheless.

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Brian Bosworth sucked and never achieved anything in his career. London Fletcher while one of my favorite skins of all time, barely even made the probowl as a reserve. Gil was a top 5 offensive player in the league. He was the original Harden. You can hate the man, but he had skill. No one is comparing him to Wall. They are two completely different players in every sort of way.

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Click to read the rest

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wizards-insider/wp/2015/10/08/kris-humphries-is-adapting-to-his-new-stretch-four/

 

 

 

 

Kris Humphries is adapting to his new role with the Wizards

 

 

Kris Humphries sat in front of his locker at Verizon Center Tuesday night with bags of ice wrapping both of his legs minutes after he debuted in his new role with the Washington Wizards.

 

Humphries had just performed in a regulation basketball game like he never had before. He spent nearly 20 minutes on the floor lurking at the three-point line on the offensive end, not hesitating to shoot from there in the Wizards’ 34-point exhibition win over the Philadelphia 76ers. It was a shockingly strange experience for a 6-foot-9 bruiser who has spent essentially all of his basketball career patrolling inside the arc.

 

“After three minutes, I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ ” the 11-year NBA veteran joked with a teammate.

 

Edited by BRAVEONAWARPATH
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I think the frontcourt players have been pretty cool about the changing minutes, system, and spots in the rotation. Humphries responded to getting benched for the playoffs in the best possible way--by changing his style of play 10 years into his career--and now he's probably going to start. Nene seems to have handled his benching and move to center well, although we'll have to wait and see if that lasts.

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For someone as stupid as Javaris, who joined a gang AFTER getting to the league and had no problem murdering an innocent woman, I do think he would have shot Gilbert right then and there. 

 

It may seem like Caron's story is beefed up with the point of selling books, but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

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Carmelo is fouling the **** out of Otto.

The play where Melo got his own rebound and scored he elbowed Otto hard in the face.

One of the things that makes Gortat such a good PnR finisher is he doesn't have to gather to go up after catching the ball. It's all one quick motion. Really good job catching that pass from Wall and dunking it left handed.

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