The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[Going Commando]

Does James Harden tire?

[ixcuincle]

why can't they play like this most of the season...this is a PLAYOFF team that somehow was 6-12 

 

**** me man

[abdcskins]

I called on Otto to redeem himself! 

 

Wall with some huge shots.

[Chachie]

JW draws the chaaahhhge.

[Going Commando]

Harden is unbelievable.  The burden he carries on offense is ridiculous.  Like he's playing 2k with a trash team.

Their legs got tired.  They stopped hitting their perimeter jumpers and that's what did them in.

 

Hopefully Jeff Green is alright.  He's a good dude.

[StillUnknown]

release the confetti

[Chachie]

Fantastic win. Morris off the bench has been great. 

[TradeTheBeal!]

It’s almost as if not playing Mahinmi is beneficial to the team.

[CRobi21]

4 minutes ago, TryTheBeal! said:

It’s almost as if not playing Mahinmi is beneficial to the team.

 

Sensing a trend here are ya?!

 

 

[Destino]

Wizards bench outscored Houston's 45-9.  Slightly skewed because Morris came off the bench, even though he ended up playing 41 minutes. 

[Warhead36]

We're gonna play our way out of the tank. Just effing great.

[Going Commando]

21 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

We're gonna play our way out of the tank. Just effing great. 

 

Don't say you weren't warned.  We're winning 40 games and getting the 8th seed.  Brooks and Grunfeld will be back next year.

[Destino]

2 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

Don't say you weren't warned.  We're winning 40 games and getting the 8th seed.  Brooks and Grunfeld will be back next year.

The entire reason I refuse to predict 50 wins is precisely because of this crap.  The only thing this team does consistently is underachieve.  Inconsistent effort is their special move, so to speak. 

[Destino]

3 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

Harden is unbelievable.  The burden he carries on offense is ridiculous. 

He's the best one on one scoring threat I've seen since Jordan.  I doubt he can sustain it like Jordan did, and his game is nothing like Jordan's, but he simply can not be stopped from scoring.  He's the ultimate pick your poison player.  Play off him or deny him space and he has a variety of tools to win either way.  He's built like an NFL linebacker but somehow still light on his feet.

 

He's what Kobe dreamed he could be on the offensive end, but unlike Kobe, Harden is a very good and willing passer. 

[Renegade7]

Ted's other teams may be the worst thing that coulda happened to us.  The combination of content arrogance that this ship will just keep hitting icebergs and make it to shore anyway is maddening.  

 

For all we know they get hot at the right time and do damage in the playoffs.  This "should I be happy in the heat in the moment" is scarily similar to what I'm going through with the redskins right now.  I'm still going to make a "It Starts at the Top" shirt and where to the game night before the eagles game.  I'm not going to root against them, I can't do it, y'all do it for me.

2 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

We're gonna play our way out of the tank. Just effing great.

Trust the Process to whom?

[Going Commando]

6 hours ago, Destino said:

He's the best one on one scoring threat I've seen since Jordan.  I doubt he can sustain it like Jordan did, and his game is nothing like Jordan's, but he simply can not be stopped from scoring.  He's the ultimate pick your poison player.  Play off him or deny him space and he has a variety of tools to win either way.  He's built like an NFL linebacker but somehow still light on his feet. 

  

He's what Kobe dreamed he could be on the offensive end, but unlike Kobe, Harden is a very good and willing passer.  

 

His conditioning is unbelievable too.  That was Houston's third game in four nights, all on the road, and all of them were close.  The game on Friday went to OT and he played the entire second half of the game on Saturday.  Last night he played the whole third quarter and checked back in at like the 9:30 mark of the fourth.

 

41 minutes and 33 points against Detroit.  44 minutes and 40 points against Cleveland.  47 minutes and 54 points against us.

 

That is superhuman effort.  I couldn't believe how late in the game he was still driving the basket and making pull up threes.  He doesn't get tired.

[Going Commando]

6 hours ago, Renegade7 said:

For all we know they get hot at the right time and do damage in the playoffs.  This "should I be happy in the heat in the moment" is scarily similar to what I'm going through with the redskins right now.  I'm still going to make a "It Starts at the Top" shirt and where to the game night before the eagles game.  I'm not going to root against them, I can't do it, y'all do it for me.

 

Here's my take.  This is a dead end team.  They are very poorly led and very poorly coached.  They have three really good but flawed players.  I'm going to keep watching as long as they're here because I know they might not be here much longer.

 

I'm not worried about the draft pick because I know it's not going to be any good.

 

I'm not worried about good seeding or making a deep playoff run because I know they're not going to happen.

 

We're on the treadmill and we're not going to be able to get off for at least another year or two.  Brooks's contract keeps him safe for that long and Ernie is unkillable. 

 

I'm just going to watch until Ernie starts trading off the foundation pieces, after which, I will probably stop.

[Llevron]

I'm not gonna watch but if I had nothing else better to do I would. It's not a strong stance against the FO or anything for me. 

 

And it is alot like the Redskins here. The only difference for me is that you very rarely get generational talents in the draft in the NFL. You can get good players, even elite. But one player cant change your org in the NFL. Totally different in the NBA. 

 

Though I dont have any faith in a run from them that amounts to anything more than what they had in the last few seasons. They peaked in that series against Boston. It's all down hill from here. They arnt even the 3rd most talented team in the east anymore. 

 

One thing I have learned to enjoy is losing basketball though. It's often more entertaining to me than winning basketball just because I enjoy being a critic and you can learn alot from watching it if you understand what you are looking at (GFs pops is a coach so watching with him is really fun). This is probably because I didnt start watching basketball until we drafted Wall (no correlation, just good timing). So I dont mind the losing, knowing we wont win anyway. I guess that's the other difference from the Skins. Watching them lose hurts me for some reason smh. 

[StillUnknown]

2 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

That is superhuman effort.  I couldn't believe how late in the game he was still driving the basket and making pull up threes.  He doesn't get tired.

 

He was a bit more careless with the ball last night. Double digit turnovers is usually a sign of fatigue

 

Speaking of heavy workloads, Beals played 95 minutes the last two games.

[Going Commando]

1 hour ago, StillUnknown said:

 

He was a bit more careless with the ball last night. Double digit turnovers is usually a sign of fatigue 

  

Speaking of heavy workloads, Beals played 95 minutes the last two games. 

 

Also a sign of asking/allowing him to do way too much.  I've seen this game before from Wall (with pull up mid range jumpers instead of pull up threes).  Remember when he dropped 52 on Orlando and we lost?  Few things are worse than seeing a great player go off for 50 in a loss.

 

Five beats one.  Houston is starting to look like a rich man's version of us.  They had guys in that rotation last night that shouldn't be getting minutes on a team with championship aspirations.  They are way too reliant on PJ Tucker, who I'm pretty sure is old enough to qualify for Medicare.  Clint Capela is a terrific player on a reasonable contract but has a game that won't make it out of his mid 20's.  The CP3 contract is fast becoming one of the worst in the NBA.

 

They're going down the wrong path.  But they've got time to start over because Harden is locked up long term.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

 

[Going Commando]

This is why I don't want John to get traded even if we suck.  I want him to set all of our franchise records and finish his career here.  He's already the GOAT Wizard and I want to be able to make a case for him over Unseld when it's all said and done.

[StillUnknown]

I go back and forth on the issue. Its partially inconceivable to trade a star player who genuinely wants to be here. For all of Wall's faults, his committment to the city cannot be doubted

 

Then there's the elephant in the room of his contract.

[Going Commando]

6 minutes ago, StillUnknown said:

Then there's the elephant in the room of his contract. 

 

I think too much is being made of it.  It's a big deal for the ownership group that has to find the money to cut the checks and potentially pay a luxury tax bill, but not for the team builders and certainly not for the fans.

 

Is committing 30% of your cap to your franchise player instead of 25% really that much of a difference?  That's a bench role player's money in salary difference, and a lot of the time, you're at or over the cap when you're paying a franchise player max money, so you wouldn't have that money to spend on an outside guy anyway.

 

Max contracts are not a problem in and of themselves.  Every team gets three of them.  It's about making sure you have the right three guys.  John?  Worth the money.  Brad?  Worth it in the reality of a 2016 market, but he's a one time All Star in his seventh year.  If he was your third guy, you can stomach it and field a championship caliber team.  Otto?  Now you're in trouble.  Especially when your management and coaching suck and you can't consistently find worthy role players on bargain deals.

 

I'm not saying we shouldn't have matched Otto's contract, because letting him walk was the worst option.  I am saying we should have negotiated with him earlier because the market was going to be so unfavorable to us.  And I am saying the disastrous spending of 2016 totally ****ed us and put us in a position where matching Otto was our only option.

[TradeTheBeal!]

The Mahinmi contract is far, far worse than any other contract on the team.