The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Going Commando]

1 minute ago, StillUnknown said:

 

I don't trust Mahinmi enough to let Gortat go.  Mahinmi seems like the type that will always be in an out of the lineup nursing some injury.  I'm not Gortat's biggest fan, but his reliability should not be overlooked

I was going to say the same thing.  You need a second starter with Mahinmi.  He's as injury prone as Nene.

 

You have to make the move to start Mahinmi next season though.  He's better than Gortat now.  I wouldn't make the change now because I don't think it's a good idea to make changes to the starting line up right before the postseason.  Gortat was also instrumental in Wall and Beal going off like they did last night.  He just wiped out Miami's weak perimeter defense.

[Llevron]

They have been calling a rematch in the finals since it ended. They won't let the Wizards mess that up. I'm sure the boys know that going in. We won't just be playing then for 7 games. 

[Going Commando]

2 hours ago, Skin'emAlive said:

Even healthy, I think we can take Cleveland and Boston straight up. The hard part is playing against Lebron's superstar calls and Al Horford's moving screens. I am more afraid of playing against a team like Miami and Milwaukee where whiteside can dominate our bigs, and the freak can put his hand in all the passing lanes. 

 

The Cavs, Warriors, Rockets, and Clippers are the only match ups where we wouldn't have the best player in the series.  I'm not ****ing worried about the Heat or the Bucks.  I don't get the trepidation that fans of the top four seeds have about those two teams.  Miami has almost completely turned over their roster from those championship teams, they have almost no post season experience. And neither does Milwaukee.  The team people should be more worried about is Indy.  Paul George is the third best player in the conference and they're fairly seasoned.  Still not scared of them though.

 

Cleveland is the only scary team in the East.  

- Scott Brooks > Tyronn Lue.  

- Morris + Gortat + Mahinmi + Bogdanovich + Oubre + Smith + Jennings >> JR Smith + Tristan Thompson + Korver + Shumpert + Jefferson + Deron Williams + Frye/Derrick Williams

But 

LeBron + Irving + Love >> Wall + Beal + Porter.  And that matters more than the other things.

 

To beat a healthy Cleveland team we'd need everything to go right.  We'd need our role players to be perfect and Wall would need to take the whole series over like he did in last night's game.

[JSSkinz]

Impressive win, to hold that 10 point lead for what seemed like the entire game was a statement, hopefully we use this to get back on track for the playoffs.

 

I'm hoping Bogo's injury is just a day to day thing.

Edited March 26, 2017 by jschuck12001

[RonArtest15]

2 hours ago, StillUnknown said:

 

I don't trust Mahinmi enough to let Gortat go.  Mahinmi seems like the type that will always be in an out of the lineup nursing some injury.  I'm not Gortat's biggest fan, but his reliability should not be overlooked

 

Gortat's durability is definitely a positive...and if Mahinmi gets his health back, I think he and Smith can give you Gortat's production and more. 

 

 

[TheItalianStallion]

9 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

I was going to say the same thing.  You need a second starter with Mahinmi.  He's as injury prone as Nene.

 

You have to make the move to start Mahinmi next season though.  He's better than Gortat now.  I wouldn't make the change now because I don't think it's a good idea to make changes to the starting line up right before the postseason.  Gortat was also instrumental in Wall and Beal going off like they did last night.  He just wiped out Miami's weak perimeter defense.

 

I hope he does that in the first round and - wait, what?

 

[Warhead36]

I still have faith in Gortat. The offense runs a lot better with him in it with those P&Rs. Defensively though he's a sieve compared to Mahimi. Too bad we can't combine the two.

[Popeman38]

On 3/25/2017 at 10:26 PM, Renegade7 said:

Cleveland defense is terrible, but we needed to get out our funk to exploit that.  That was that last box they needed to check this year, prove they can beat Cleveland.  Sky is the limit.

Don't you mean the ceiling is the roof?

[Sticksboi05]

Mahinmi is so fun to watch defensively. One of those players where just his presence makes guys think twice when they try to finish around the basket. That will be huge next month.

 

 

[Renegade7]

2 hours ago, Popeman38 said:

Don't you mean the ceiling is the roof?

Nah, I've missed maybe 10 games tops, we legit.

[TradeTheBeal!]

9 minutes ago, Sticksboi05 said:

Mahinmi is so fun to watch defensively. One of those players where just his presence makes guys think twice when they try to finish around the basket. That will be huge next month.

 

 

 

His offensive skills were underrated by most of us, too.  He does have some moves and he does have some touch around the basket.  "Professional Big Man".

[StillUnknown]

7 minutes ago, TryTheBeal! said:

 

His offensive skills were underrated by most of us, too.  He does have some moves and he does have some touch around the basket.  "Professional Big Man".

 

his best talent on offense is his ability to make a sneaky pass, he will still have to be served on a platter to score

[TradeTheBeal!]

40 minutes ago, StillUnknown said:

 

his best talent on offense is his ability to make a sneaky pass, he will still have to be served on a platter to score

 

Hes got a nice little baby hook.

[Llevron]

15 minutes ago, TryTheBeal! said:

 

Hes got a nice little baby hook.

 

He does. It surprised me. 

 

55 minutes ago, StillUnknown said:

 

...... he will still have to be served on a platter to score

 

He likely will be. The whole teams looks for the extra pass. Makes players like him look better. 

[Going Commando]

He's a pretty good PnR finisher.  Fast and aggressive when he goes to the rim.  He'd be a lot better if he was a good FT shooter because his speed gets him to the FT line.  As is typical of strong players like him, he has no touch on his FT shot.  It's a line drive to the back of the rim.

 

My other complaint about his offense is that he sometimes tries to do too much.  He'll take the ball out at the 3 pt line and start dribbling sometimes.  Or start posting up near the FT line.  The first always makes me nervous, and it usually disrupts the rhythm of the possession and takes some time away from players who actually have a snowball's chance in hell of creating something.  The second means it'll probably be a lost possession.

 

Watching him play defense is definitely fun.  He's got super quick hands.  He punishes a loose handle and gets a ton of steals for a center.  He also hits the defensive glass pretty hard when rebounding in traffic.  I like that, Gortat is much more lackadaisical about defensive rebounding.

 

A healthy Mahinmi is a top five defensive player in the NBA.  If he starts next season and plays almost every game, we can probably field a top five defense.  Especially if Kelly can handle more minutes.

[Bozo the kKklown]

So what's the playoff rotation?

 

a friend of mine said 10, but that's bonkers to me.

 

I saw 8, and have Mahimini, Bogdan, and Jennings. Oubre and Smith can come in from time to time, but that's it. 

 

Thoughts?

Edited March 27, 2017 by BenningRoadSkin

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

"When John is shooting like that, because you know he's going to get those guys involved, they're a very tough team to beat," LeBron James said. "They've got so many guys that complement one another. Great starting five, great bench and that was without (Bojan) Bogdanovic, too."

[Gamebreaker]

12 minutes ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

So what's the playoff rotation?

 

a friend of mine said 10, but that's bonkers to me.

 

I saw 8, and have Mahimini, Bogdan, and Jennings. Oubre and Smith can come in from time to time, but that's it. 

 

Thoughts?

 

I think Smith and Oubre should get some decent minutes. But playoff basketball is about matchups, so we'll see. 

[Going Commando]

I would go ten.  IMO, Wall, Beal, and Porter are the only guys capable of playing 40 MPG in the playoffs.  Kelly is going to have to play and Jason Smith might have to play too if Gortat continues to struggle.  Gortat looks worn down and I don't know that he can handle more than 20 something minutes a game.

[Renegade7]

15 minutes ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

So what's the playoff rotation?

 

a friend of mine said 10, but that's bonkers to me.

 

I saw 8, and have Mahimini, Bogdan, and Jennings. Oubre and Smith can come in from time to time, but that's it. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Gotta give Smith minutes, can see limiting Oubre since his shot is very inconsistent right now.

[Llevron]

32 minutes ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

So what's the playoff rotation?

 

a friend of mine said 10, but that's bonkers to me.

 

I saw 8, and have Mahimini, Bogdan, and Jennings. Oubre and Smith can come in from time to time, but that's it. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Wall ->Jennings

B3al ->BoBuckets/Jennings (dont like Jennings here but I take him over Sato for the playsoffs)

Porter ->BoBuckets/ Oubre (Depends on if Oubre stays consistent but I want mins for him)

Keef ->Probably our most flexable position. Otto/Smith and maybe Buckets?

Gortat ->Ian/Smith/keef

 

I can definitely see 10. And thats a benefit to us I believe. The only one on the above list I can say playing time would even slightly worry me is Oubre. And when hes on his game he is a benefit. Maybe our second best defender. 

 

As much as I want to tell people that Smith is a bad basketball player, all he does is show up and preform. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, BRAVEONAWARPATH said:

"When John is shooting like that, because you know he's going to get those guys involved, they're a very tough team to beat," LeBron James said. "They've got so many guys that complement one another. Great starting five, great bench and that was without (Bojan) Bogdanovic, too."

 

He knows. 

Edited March 27, 2017 by Llevron

[Warhead36]

I like Oubre as our playoff defensive pest. Every playoff team seems to have that one guy who comes in and does nothing but Ds up the other team's best perimeter player and make life hell on him. I remember Porter giving Derozan a lot of problems two years ago. If we play Indiana you could put Oubre on George late in games, similar to how he Dd up Lebron late. He's got the length quickness and athleticism to stay with them and he's got that bulldog mentality too.

[Going Commando]

Jennings won't have to play much.  John and Brad will be playing like 42-44 minutes a game.  That leaves like 8-12 minutes for a single reserve guard.  The front court is going to see much more rotation because those guys can't handle the kind of workload that Wall and Beal can.  Gortat, Mahinmi, Porter, Morris, Smith, and Oubre all get into foul trouble.  So they'll probably all play.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

 

[Destino]

Beal is starting to look effortless scoring the ball at times.  I don't mean spot up shots created by others, but situations where he is creating for himself.  He reads the situation and calmly gets the shot he wants without having to make a real athletic movement.  It's going to be interesting to see how high his ceiling is.