StillUnknown Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 5 hours ago, Rocky21 said: At some point you have to look at the coaching staff to come up with something to stop these late game leads from disappearing. Brooks is not inspiring any kind of confidence with me at the moment either he doesn't know how to adjust, or the players are tuning him out. neither of those situations are good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 There are bad defensive centers in this league and their teams are not surrendering big leads in the 4th regularly. The Lakers have bad defensive bigs and they came back to beat us. There is more wrong with the way this team closes out games than Gortat, and if you can't see that you're just fooling yourself. This team is not a player away from being great. These guys are playing bad team basketball late in games. On both sides of the ball. An upgrade at center would certainly help, but when would a major upgrade not help a team? Every team in the league can say the same damn thing. You think the Spurs playing with one star can't say "hey, I bet if we replace role player x with a much better player, we'd be better!" Sure they can, but they're still winning. Boston lost Avery Bradley, one of the leagues best perimeter defenders, and Jae Crowder, another terrific defender, in the off season... And they're still winning and playing great defense. Their coach found a way. The wizards problem is how they play together. At the end of games this team becomes a collection of individuals scrambling around a basketball court. A team with three max contracts can't expect to massively upgrade the roster as a solution to every weakness. The wizards need to play better team basketball. There's no way around it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Excuses Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 This team hasn't played defense since the final season Wittman coached. They regressed on defense that year and it's been downhill ever since. Which sucks because at one point, we were good on the defensive end, and the conversation was around this team taking the next step offensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillUnknown Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 4 hours ago, No Excuses said: This team hasn't played defense since the final season Wittman coached. They regressed on defense that year and it's been downhill ever since. Which sucks because at one point, we were good on the defensive end, and the conversation was around this team taking the next step offensively. Brooks is supposed to be a defensive coach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 You can not play consistently good defense when your center play is this bad. It's a point of failure on too many possessions. Scott Brooks's system works a lot better when you have a prime Ibaka defending the rim and bailing out bad switches and PnR screw ups. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 26, 2017 Share Posted November 26, 2017 1 hour ago, stevemcqueen1 said: You can not play consistently good defense when your center play is this bad. It's a point of failure on too many possessions. Scott Brooks's system works a lot better when you have a prime Ibaka defending the rim and bailing out bad switches and PnR screw ups. Who is talking about consistently good defense? We're taking about simply avoiding a metldown. Good enough defense is what you're looking for. You're right about PnR mistakes though, I'm not even sure what the wizards are trying to do on PnR defense most of the time. It often looks like wizards' primary defender and big are attempting two different strategies. Last night late in the game i remember Gortat stepped out like he was trying to hedge on a PnR. The primary defender however didn't go behind Gortat after getting around the screen, and so McCollum just dribbled around Gortat and went straight to the rim. It also seems like the wizard's bigs and perimeter defenders can be baited into unnecessary action too far away from the rim. Our center shouldn't be running up to help with a screen set 6 feet behind the three line. The primary defender should be going under that every time. If someone wants to take a 30+ foot shot, and they aren't named Steph Curry, let them take it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin'emAlive Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 We were just buried a season ago by Horford and olynyk. Horford was 95% on the series! Olynyk looked like a damn allstar. If not for their play, we make the conference finals. Absolutely nothing has changed in a year, other than our bigs getting older. So why should I believe that the reason our bigs look bad is because of the coach? Brooks ain't great... But gortat sucks now and nothing he does can hide that. We lost last year because of it, and now we are looking at a postseason with media darlings in philly. I guarantee that if we don't make a significant change there by the break, this season is over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 2 minutes ago, Skin'emAlive said: We were just buried a season ago by Horford and olynyk. Horford was 95% on the series! Olynyk looked like a damn allstar. If not for their play, we make the conference finals. Absolutely nothing has changed in a year, other than our bigs getting older. So why should I believe that the reason our bigs look bad is because of the coach? Brooks ain't great... But gortat sucks now and nothing he does can hide that. We lost last year because of it, and now we are looking at a postseason with media darlings in philly. I guarantee that if we don't make a significant change there by the break, this season is over. Our bigs look bad defensively because they are bad at playing defense. What I'm saying is that there are more problems on defense than our centers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin'emAlive Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Let's take a look at where our options are currently. 1. Demarcus Cousins: New Orleans is playing well recently and the cousins-brow combo is lethal. Rondo just might help them round into playoff form. He played pretty well with cousins in Sacramento. I think our chances for him are slim to none this year. 2. Deandre Jordan: the clips are 3 spots out of the playoff race and have lost 8 of their last 10. He's our most realistic option. 3. Marc Gasol: with Conley going down ( again) they are in free fall. They have lost 8 straight. Gasol has been benched. He's 32, but his game is solid. Maybe Memphis sees the writing on the wall? I'd love to have him here. 4. Steven Adams: According to him, OKC sucks because of him. They should trade him for gortat and a first. Also, I am dreaming. Any other trade is a waste of a draft pick and or oubre. If we can't land one of these dudes, we should suck it up and stuck with what we got, and try to scout a big in the upcoming draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 7 minutes ago, Skin'emAlive said: Any other trade is a waste of a draft pick and or oubre. If we can't land one of these dudes, we should suck it up and stuck with what we got, and try to scout a big in the upcoming draft. What is this....draft...that you speak of? How does it work? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Oubre and a 1st outside of the lottery isn't going to bring an all star center. Plus I'm not sure the team could afford three max deals and a super max contract. Maybe the wizards should try to get a better center, and not a great one, with a priority being on unloading Mahinmi's deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skin'emAlive Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 I'd rather have this 5 fouls version of Ian mahinmi than more gortat. Hes checked out, and broken, and might still be a trade asset. At least Ian doesn't just stand there and let JJ Barea beast mode him for a rebound. I'm reasonably sure if JJ tried that on mahinmi, he'd foul him 3 times in the same play just on principal. He's playing hard. Gortat is coasting. I am am also ok with trading for 1. Jahil Okafor 2. Capella 3. Noel But if it involves real assets and no long term contract again ...Hoo boy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Yeah, we disagree on Mahinmi. He's been garbage. I'm not sure you can play Wall and Beal big minutes with a center that can't play PnR. Right now the team can't trust him to set screens or finish gimmies around the basket at least half the time. Plus his fouling means he can't play starter minutes. Id be happy if the Wizards dealt both starting centers for younger mediocre centers or expiring contracts. Truth is I'm less concerned with what we get back than simply getting out of these terrible contracts at this point. 30 million for what we're getting from Gortat and Mahinmi is a crisis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Gortat is definitely tradable. Mahinmi is going to take some work. Mahinmi has been a ****ing disaster but I'd also experiment with trading Gortat and starting him, if for no other reason than he can run and jump and Gortat can't. There is at least a possibility that Mahinmi rediscovers some of that defensive prowess if he played regular minutes with the starters, whereas there is no possibility that Gortat will play good defense on a regular basis again. And my ultimate goal would be to try and resuscitate his value enough to deal him. I'm not crazy about kicking the tires on Okafor. He's a quality scorer at the position but he has no clue how to play defense. If you could find some way to unlock his potential on that side of the court, then maybe I could get on board with him. He's a draft bust with no trade value though, you can't give up anything decent for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 8 hours ago, Skin'emAlive said: Any other trade is a waste of a draft pick and or oubre. If we can't land one of these dudes, we should suck it up and stuck with what we got, and try to scout a big in the upcoming draft. I say yes to any of those options but I think Gasol is approaching his own cliff and I don't think OKC will trade Adams. He's pricey too. I think you could get a lot of what he gives you from Nerlens, and I suspect that Nerlens can be extended for 17-18 million per year this summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillUnknown Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 23 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said: Gortat is definitely tradable. Mahinmi is going to take some work. Mahinmi has been a ****ing disaster but I'd also experiment with trading Gortat and starting him, if for no other reason than he can run and jump and Gortat can't. There is at least a possibility that Mahinmi rediscovers some of that defensive prowess if he played regular minutes with the starters, whereas there is no possibility that Gortat will play good defense on a regular basis again. And my ultimate goal would be to try and resuscitate his value enough to deal him. I'm not crazy about kicking the tires on Okafor. He's a quality scorer at the position but he has no clue how to play defense. If you could find some way to unlock his potential on that side of the court, then maybe I could get on board with him. He's a draft bust with no trade value though, you can't give up anything decent for him. Mahinmi starting means he's going up against better players, which means he probably finds a way to increase his already astronomically high foul to minutes played ratio. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llevron Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Talking about this already is depressing. I mean we all knew it. But I tried to tell myself it would atleast work for the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Going Commando Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 1 hour ago, Llevron said: Talking about this already is depressing. I mean we all knew it. But I tried to tell myself it would atleast work for the season. I thought Gortat was a year or two away from his cliff and that last season's stretch performance was just him getting worn down from playing too many minutes. But he's done as a quality starting C. He's only going to give you a legit good game about one in five, and that's the sign that things are over. His offensive game is still efficient (if very limited) and he gets a lot of cheap rebounds in our system, so his numbers still look pretty good. Thus it's time to trade him while his value is still respectable. He's had a great run here and he has been one of my favorite Wizards, but the only way I can accept him remaining with the team is if he embraces a bench role and we can dump Mahinmi and acquire a young starting C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 1 hour ago, StillUnknown said: Mahinmi starting means he's going up against better players, which means he probably finds a way to increase his already astronomically high foul to minutes played ratio. 8.3 fouls per 36 minutes. That's so horrible that I can't help but laugh at it. The next closest wizard that has played significant minutes, is Morris at 4.6. Jason Smith is at 6.6 but when a player has only played a handful of minutes their stats are meaningless. Let's not forget his turnovers either. Basketball reference has this turnover % (estimate of turnovers per 100) at 30.5. That's twice as high as Gortat's (15.0). His numbers were better last season: TOV% 19.1 and 5.8 fouls per 36. So there is reason to believe he can/will improve if he gets his head right. It's not all good news though, both of those numbers placed him dead last in those categories on this team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozo the kKklown Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, StillUnknown said: Mahinmi starting means he's going up against better players, which means he probably finds a way to increase his already astronomically high foul to minutes played ratio. Mahinmi is probably the worst player to get more than 10 minutes a night in the NBA. I dont want that man on this roster, let alone starting. Edited November 27, 2017 by BenningRoadSkin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillUnknown Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 (edited) Edited November 27, 2017 by StillUnknown 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Hero ball for 7-8 minutes is good basketball, but attacking the other teams player least likely to actually play defense could be disruptive. My head hurts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozo the kKklown Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Scott Brooks is not a good coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade7 Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Weren't we trying to post up IT to death in the playoffs last year because of his height? What the hell is Scott talking about? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llevron Posted November 27, 2017 Share Posted November 27, 2017 Trying to be positive here people! Dammit!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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