The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[StillUnknown]

Another set of DNP's for Vesely & Singleton.

[MonkFan8]

Wall played pretty well.

Bottom line, the turnovers and the poor ball movement in general doomed us. We couldn't get any separation all game because of it.

Well is a relative term. He got destroyed by Thomas and couldn't get anything done in the second half when the Kings defense tightened up.

The numbers look good, sure, but if you play good transition D Wall is a below average PG at best.

[Going Commando]

Nene was hot garbage tonight. His worst game as a Wizard. 4 pts and 6 TOs.

And Wittman bringing in Temple, cold off the bench, to guard Thomas at the end might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done.

Nice effort from Webster and Oak.

Nene's got no lift right now. He can't get up on those running hooks he likes to shoot and it feels like he hasn't made one of those in forever. That thing is his money maker normally.

I have less of a problem with putting Temple on Thomas as the terrible execution. Temple got picked and nobody at all came to help him. Thomas got into the paint so easily and stopping him from doing that should have been priority #1. I'd rather him have to kick it out to an open shooter on the perimeter with only 7 seconds to run a play.

Temple actually recovered and contested Thomas's shot pretty well. You just can't let him get into the paint under any circumstances.

[Skin'emAlive]

And Wittman bringing in Temple, cold off the bench, to guard Thomas at the end might be the dumbest thing anyone has ever done.

I think its kind of funny. Id like to know what was going through his head at that moment. Throwing in a guy with no minutes to guard the other team's starter with the game on the line.

[Going Commando]

Well is a relative term. He got destroyed by Thomas and couldn't get anything done in the second half when the Kings defense tightened up.

The numbers look good, sure, but if you play good transition D Wall is a below average PG at best.

The numbers look good because he played pretty well. Wall certainly isn't a below average PG in the half court. His jumper was falling tonight and he's an enormous threat to get to the rim against multiple defenders. He had some dishes, only 2 TOs. Made plays in crunch time. His defense was decent. He certainly was a positive overall.

---------- Post added January-28th-2013 at 09:50 PM ----------

Another set of DNP's for Vesely & Singleton.

Might be time to get Nene some rest and get those two some burn.

[MonkFan8]

The numbers look good because he played pretty well. Wall certainly isn't a below average PG in the half court. His jumper was falling tonight and he's an enormous threat to get to the rim against multiple defenders. He had some dishes, only 2 TOs. Made plays in crunch time. His defense was decent. He certainly was a positive overall.

He was a -2, primarily because he couldn't stay in front of Thomas all game long. He was also 2-6 with his jumper today and was clearly hesitant to shoot late in the game, once leading to a 24 second violation.

Dunno what to say, I'm not trying to hate on the guy, but he needs to start getting his act together and learn how to run a team in the half court.

[SuperBash]

Why don't we just draft Glenn Robinson III? Imagine what we could do with RG3 and GR3!

[Hersh]

Might be time to get Nene some rest and get those two some burn.

Didn't see the game so are Nene and Beal really struggling with their respective injuries? If so, they need to get rest rather than be pushed to play in an already lost season playoff-wise. I would rather see them healthy in a couple weeks so the team can develop as much chemistry as possible for the remainder of the season rather than them playing hurt the rest of the season.

[Destino]

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

[StillUnknown]

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

He had a horrible possession that resulted in a turnover really late in the 4th.

I've read Wittman's explanation about why Temple was in the game, still doesn't make sense. Every game he is our coach, we are essentially playing handicapped.

[Going Commando]

Didn't see the game so are Nene and Beal really struggling with their respective injuries? If so, they need to get rest rather than be pushed to play in an already lost season playoff-wise. I would rather see them healthy in a couple weeks so the team can develop as much chemistry as possible for the remainder of the season rather than them playing hurt the rest of the season.

That's how I see it.

Yeah I think both are playing in pain and struggling. Beal's shot hasn't been as affected by his injury as I thought it would but it's hurting his activity level a lot and it's taken away the reliability of his shot even though he's still making open threes. And I think it effects his D.

Nene is a night to night thing. Some nights, like last night, he's going to be totally ineffective in the post. He doesn't have his same quickness or lift which takes away most of his post offense and his ability to get to the FT line. When he can't do those things, he can't thrive on offense, where most of his value comes from.

I would rest them too. As you say, the season is lost. I don't want to make their injuries worse, and with them being pretty ineffective, it's not going to be that big a deal to swap them out. I'd start Seraphin or Booker next to Okafor and start Ariza at the 2. It gives us a long lineup and keeps Crawford on the bench for his second line scoring. Not really sure who you play at the three off the bench, maybe Singleton could finally get on the court?

Play Ves at the backup 4 or 5 spot next to Booker or Seraphin.

---------- Post added January-29th-2013 at 08:10 AM ----------

He was a -2, primarily because he couldn't stay in front of Thomas all game long. He was also 2-6 with his jumper today and was clearly hesitant to shoot late in the game, once leading to a 24 second violation.

Dunno what to say, I'm not trying to hate on the guy, but he needs to start getting his act together and learn how to run a team in the half court.

+/- isn't that useful in single game samples. Beal was a +3 despite the fact he barely did anything. Wall showed up to play last night and is a good half court PG, your saying he isn't is off base. If you're looking for scapegoats for last night's loss, he doesn't qualify. Pick one of the other six guys who played poorly.

---------- Post added January-29th-2013 at 08:19 AM ----------

Couldn't watch the game but heard about Temple and watched the play. When it comes to X's and O's, Wittman falls on his face. How the hell are you going to bring a guy from deep on the depth chart, cold, to guard the opposing teams fastest player with the game on the line? That should have been Wall's assignment and switching him shows a lack of faith in Wall and poor coaching.

We need a coaching upgrade. Also I dont know what it looked like but Nene's stat line is brutal.

I don't think it's a statement about Wall as much as a vote of confidence in Temple as a perimeter stopper. Something I'm not sure he's earned. It made sense to go with a personnel change with no timeouts and that little time left on the clock. But what I'm wondering is why not put Ariza on Thomas? Ariza is our best defender right? Why was he playing way off the ball (and also why didn't he come help when Temple got picked?). Temple is not that fast. He did a decent job on the play recovering from the pick and contesting the shot but the battle was lost when nobody rotated to help him and Thomas got into the paint.

It should have been very clear Sacramento wasn't going to do anything but get Thomas into the lane and take a shot because that'd been the majority of their offense down the stretch. Chuck Hayes wasn't going to take a three or whoever the hell Nene was guarding way out on the perimeter.

A lot of bad D on that play.

[Going Commando]

I didn't realize the Thunder had Toronto's draft pick this year. That's the seventh overall pick by record. If they stay under the tax level and are able to keep their team together while retooling with Jeremy Lamb and whoever they pick in this year's lottery, I think the Harden trade ends up being a plus. It hurt to lose him no doubt, but they're even better now because of the strides KD has made and Ibaka has made offensively. They get a bunch of cap room off of Kevin Martin's expiring deal. They got some draft picks and young players to work out. It wasn't a perfect solution but they didn't have many good options when faced with the prospect of the repeat offender tax like Miami and LA will be. They looked ahead and saw the tax coming, figured they couldn't get a better big man than Ibaka or that developing one of their own would waste a lot of the best years of KD and Russ, so chose to go ahead with Ibaka instead of Harden. Worse player no doubt, but better end result for the team unless they somehow fell into a top notch big man.

[Rocky21]

With the Wizards' spirited play of late I was afraid we would do something like go on this incredible winning streak and screw up our lottery draft position.

It's nice to see the boys didn't let me down.

[StillUnknown]

With the Wizards' spirited play of late I was afraid we would do something like go on this incredible winning streak and screw up our lottery draft position.

It's nice to see the boys didn't let me down.

We'll finish the year not good enough to make the playoffs, and just good enough to miss out on the good prospects.

[Going Commando]

I'm thinking we'll finish upper 20s in wins depending on how Nene and Beal's injuries play out. 30 certainly isn't out of the question since I believe this team is capable of playing .500 ball or a little better.

- In 10/11 Detroit won 30 games and had the 7th worst record.

- 09/10 nine teams finished with under 30 wins

- In 08/09 seven did.

I'm thinking we end up picking in a range of 7-10. Unless we get lucky with the ping pong balls (won't happen).

[Rocky21]

We'll finish the year not good enough to make the playoffs, and just good enough to miss out on the good prospects.

I hope you're wrong but that is our specialty.

[TradeTheBeal!]

We'll finish the year not good enough to make the playoffs, and just good enough to miss out on the good prospects.

Dude, youre killin me.

[Going Commando]

I was thinking about the myth of prediction/projection when it comes to college players heading for the NBA. We give these NBA best case scenario comparisons with them, which are never totally clean, but moreover we don't really know how the players will grow.

For instance, I could say Anthony Bennett is a potential Paul Millsap. A lot of similarities there in body type, athletic profile, and skill set. But whose to say he won't make huge strides with his skills and goes to just the right team and becomes consistently dominant and becomes the next Larry Johnson?

Or I could say Shabazz looks like the next Manu Ginobli but what if he goes to the right team, flips the switch and fills out his scoring tool kit and becomes the left handed Kobe Bryant?

Nerlens looks like the next Tyson Chandler or Marcus Camby, but what if he develops an offensive game and becomes the next Pat Ewing?

You never can tell if those things are likely to happen from where we sit. All you can really do is try and identify the skill set that the players actually do have today and see what avenues for improvement they might have.

---------- Post added January-29th-2013 at 01:07 PM ----------

We'll finish the year not good enough to make the playoffs, and just good enough to miss out on the good prospects.

It depends on who comes out early, but I think we'll be able to get a good forward in the 7-12 range of the lottery.

[SuperBash]

You can find value and important pieces anywhere in the lottery to mid first round lately. I keep waiting for us to strike it big and get a Paul George, Kawai Leonard, Ty Lawson, Keneth Faried, Roy Hibbert, or Ryan Anderson type of impact out of a mid first round draft pick. It takes a little luck combined with great scouting. Maybe we get lucky this year and strike it big with a prospect that isn't super highly rated and we find something really useful in the first round.

[Destino]

I don't think it's a statement about Wall as much as a vote of confidence in Temple as a perimeter stopper. Something I'm not sure he's earned. It made sense to go with a personnel change with no timeouts and that little time left on the clock. But what I'm wondering is why not put Ariza on Thomas? Ariza is our best defender right? Why was he playing way off the ball (and also why didn't he come help when Temple got picked?). Temple is not that fast. He did a decent job on the play recovering from the pick and contesting the shot but the battle was lost when nobody rotated to help him and Thomas got into the paint.

It should have been very clear Sacramento wasn't going to do anything but get Thomas into the lane and take a shot because that'd been the majority of their offense down the stretch. Chuck Hayes wasn't going to take a three or whoever the hell Nene was guarding way out on the perimeter.

A lot of bad D on that play.

It's a statement that says "I think Temple is a better defender than John Wall". They put Wall on Jimmer. I'm not sure about this but I also suspect that there was another statement made: "the wizards don't do scouting reports". I'm pretty sure Isiah Thomas was left handed. Temple very clearly intended to force him left on that final shot.

http://www.slamonline.com/online/media/slam-tv/2013/01/isaiah-thomas-beats-wizards-on-game-winning-floater-video/

‘I had seen a guy guarding me that wasn’t in the whole game, so I felt I had an opportunity to take him,’ Thomas said. ‘And he kind of forced me to my strong (left) hand.’”

That's some mighty fine coaching and preparation Randy.

Edited January 29, 2013 by Destino

[TradeTheBeal!]

It's a statement that says "I think Temple is a better defender than John Wall". They put Wall on Jimmer. I'm not sure about this but I also suspect that there was another statement made: "the wizards don't do scouting reports". I'm pretty sure Isiah Thomas was left handed. Temple very clearly intended to force him left on that final shot.

http://www.slamonline.com/online/media/slam-tv/2013/01/isaiah-thomas-beats-wizards-on-game-winning-floater-video/

That's some mighty fine coaching and preparation Randy.

[StillUnknown]

It's a statement that says "I think Temple is a better defender than John Wall". They put Wall on Jimmer. I'm not sure about this but I also suspect that there was another statement made: "the wizards don't do scouting reports". I'm pretty sure Isiah Thomas was left handed. Temple very clearly intended to force him left on that final shot.

http://www.slamonline.com/online/media/slam-tv/2013/01/isaiah-thomas-beats-wizards-on-game-winning-floater-video/

That's some mighty fine coaching and preparation Randy.

Its really easy to see why his career winning percentage is so low.

[Skin'emAlive]

Why couldnt we have traded Rashard Lewis for Okafor and Jarrett Jack? That would have filled two roles we desperately needed in the offseason.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Well this sucks. Right when he was starting to come into his own...

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball-washington-wizards/talk/beal-might-sit-lingering-wrist-injury

Beal might sit with lingering wrist injury

January 29, 2013, 11:45 pm

Ben Standig

Following Monday's home loss against Sacramento, the Wizards start a three-game trip Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Whether Bradley Beal plays against the 76ers - or in any of the road games - is another story.

The rookie suffered a right wrist injury following a hard fall against the Nuggets on Jan. 18. Since then the 19-year-old has continued playing through pain, but after six games and enough misfired shots, toughing it out may no longer be the proper action.

"It’s all right. It’s not 100 percent, so I’m not going to force it or irritate it anymore," Beal said following Tuesday's practice, one in which he did not participate on the court. "I haven’t been the same ever since. It was just the fall. If I feel as though I’m can’t help the team like I was previously, then I’m not going even going to play and force it or irritate it even more."

With his textbook shooting combining with brimming confidence, Beal drained long shot after long shot for much of January, putting himself into the Rookie of the Year chase. During the Wizards' (11-32) first nine games this month, including the matchup against the Nuggets, Beal shot a staggering 60.4 percent (26 of 43) from beyond the arc while averaging 19.2 points.

Then the misses began piling up. Over the next six games, his averaged dipped to 8.8 points. Beal shot only 30 percent (6 of 20) on his 3-point attempts, 35.7 percent (20 of 56) overall. During Washington's last two games, the shooting guard shot 25 percent (4 of 16) from the field. In the last second 95-94 loss to the Kings, Beal scored six points in 24 minutes.

"My shot’s not even the same," said Beal, who classified his status as "day-to-day." "If you see it, it’s totally different. And I can feel it in my wrist. It bothers me. Yesterday for some reason, it wasn’t bothering me. But now, it just came back, so I’m not going to keep irritating it and making it worse."

Beal has missed only two games as rookie, both coming following another hard fall, this time when Atlanta's Josh Smith blocked his dunk.

On Tuesday, Beal sported a soft wrist brace. Wizards coach Randy Wittman also said the team's medical staff, "put a splint on there so he can't move it or anything. See if that helps overnight."

As for whether the starting guard would even play against Philadelphia (18-26), Wittman offered no definitive response.

"I don't know. I'm anticipating yes, but obviously, I think there is a chance maybe not. We'll see what tomorrow brings," the coach said.

Considering Beal's talent, his tomorrow with the Wizards and in the NBA is beyond a mere day.

"I’m a tough kid," Beal said. "I feel as though it has to be broke in order for me not to play. At the same time, I want a long career in this league and I have to take care of my body and I have to do what’s best for myself and my team."

"I like that in any of my players that want to tough through it," Wittman said. "There is a difference between an injury and being hurt. He's a tough kid. He wants to play. We also have to have an understanding that if it's affecting his play to a certain extent then you have to look at some rest."

After Philadelphia, Washington plays at Memphis on Friday before visiting San Antonio on Saturday.

Before falling into some old bad habits in the loss to Sacramento, the Wizards won 7 of 10 games.

"As I told them, it's almost like you're horseback riding and you get bucked off the horse," Wittman said. "Now we have to get up, dust ourselves off and get back on. That's what we have to do."

[StillUnknown]

Beat reporters said he's in NY to see a hand specialist now.