The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

[StillUnknown]

When will this team quit giving out huge contracts and big extensions to losers?

his contract isn't that bad one, its alot more than he deserves, but its a tradeable contract

[Going Commando]

You know what, McGee's shot blocking hurts us in the end. The fact that he needs to try to block EVERY SINGLE SHOT that's remotely close to him takes him out of position on rebounds time and time again. We get Jordan Hill killing us with put backs as a result. That coupled with the fact that Andray Blatche is a soft ***** that doesn't know how to fight for a rebound to save his life is just disastrous.

McGee's shotblocking isn't what's hurting us. It's the fact that we get no ****ing defensive presence from our PF spot that's making this an issue. The time honored formula is for your bigs to work together. One guy plays the ball, the other plays the basket. With McGee's ability to play above the rim at an elite level, our PF should be KILLING it on rebounds, piling up 15-20 a game. Instead we get Blatche, who only rebounds when he wants to, which is almost never.

The guy just doesn't have what it takes. He's a scorer and that's it. He needs a change of scenery. His head is ****ed now from being booed and he never had much heart to begin with.

We need to find a PF who is an elite rebounder a la Kevin Love. Bigs work much better when you've got two good ones. To that end, I think Jared Sullinger makes a lot of sense. He doesn't have the athletic ability to play defense like McGee. But he piles up rebounds because he's so freaking big (280ish, boxes everyone out with that fat ass of his) and he's got an elite basketball IQ so he understands positioning and is constantly in the right place at the right time. So without a ton of defensive potential, you have him troll around the rim and cherry pick rebounds and just unleash McGee to leap around without worrying about rebounding.

[adam@section118]

MIAMI -- LeBron James welcomes the New Jersey Nets and the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the NBA, and said that he never intended to advocate contraction in recent comments he made about the league's "watered down" talent level compared to the 1980s.

"That's crazy, because I had no idea what the word 'contraction' meant before I saw it on the Internet," James said after the Miami Heat's practice Monday. "I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the '80s and how it could be good again. I never said, 'Let's take some of the teams out.' "

James found himself Monday in a position of yet again having to clarify some controversial comments. On Thursday, he told reporters before the Heat's game against the Phoenix Suns that he would like to see more stars playing together instead of them being spread out throughout the league.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5960277

[Going Commando]

Contraction is a good idea. The league should go back to 28 teams like it was in my NBA Jam Tournament Edition on the Sega Genesis. Would anyone care at all if we lost the Raptors and the Grizzlies?

I'm not sure why that article cites the Nets and the T-Wolves. The Nets have been around since the 70's.

If anyone is curious, the NBA had 23 franchises in the Golden Age that Lebron referred to. In the late 80's they expanded by four teams: Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Orlando Magic. The Grizzlies and Raptors came into the league about 6 years after them. The Bobcats are the most recent expansion team.

I wonder which two teams had to move to the Western Conference after they added 3 Eastern teams. Anyone know?

EDIT: I just looked up the answer to my own question. No teams switched conference initially. The East went from having 11 teams in '87 to 14 in '89. The West went from having 12 teams to having 13.

The Hornets moved to the Western Conference when they moved to NOLA. The Bobcats replaced them, evening out the conferences for the first time in a long time.

Edited December 28, 2010 by stevemcqueen1

[adam@section118]

I disagree about contraction. I do think we could do with less teams, but the NFL has talent spread out just as much as the NBA and you would never hear talk of contraction in the NFL. The 80's was great if you were a Laker or Celtic (or fan of those teams) but I personally do not see that as better for the NBA.

As for why the article mentions those teams, I believe those are the teams LeBron talked about getting rid of....that is before he knew what the word meant *roll eyes smilie here*

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

Well now it's that we're shopping both Blatche AND McGee:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=18309#ixzz19Tm1AYbb

After suspending Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee one game for an altercation outside of a club, league sources say that the Washington Wizards will consider trading either Blatche or McGee in the coming weeks. The team will gauge interest around the league and after shopping the players, decision whether or not a trade would be the right move for the franchise.

You know, I post on a NBA/general basketball forum. It's sad to see the reputation that McGee has gotten. He's basically considered the absolute dumbest player in the league. Not by Wiz fans. But by NBA fans. A million-dollar body/physical skill set and a two-cent brain. I'm officially declaring that he'll never amount to ****. Nothing special anyway, not like he should. He's going to be one of these guys that you keep waiting for him to blow up and it never happens. Then he bounces around the league for awhile as teams take a chance on finally getting him to maximize his talents. And then he fades off into the sunset. Sad, sad.

Oh and I still believe the Gilbert, D Steezy and Co team corrupted Blatche and McGee forever with their bull****. You'd hope that Gil's work ethic would rub off on them but instead it was his dumbass, childish bull****. And don't get me started on Mr. I Can't Feel My Face. Thankfully Nick Young was saved and McGuire wasn't here long enough.

Edited December 29, 2010 by G.A.C.O.L.B.

[Shabby]

I think it's hard to compare football with other sports. Football has the easiest path to a quick turnaround. I mean you can go from last to first in a season or two. That's impossible in basketball.

What? All it takes in basketball is one star player to go from a crappy team to a playoff team. If anything, I think it would be harder for football. You can bring in a star player in football, and still be as bad if you don't have other complementary players around him. You can bring in a great QB, but he wont amount to anything if you dont have an offensive line to keep him from getting killed.

[StillUnknown]

I was (and remain) not as high on McGee as some of the people who post consistently in this thread (although I definitely respect the opinions)

when I see McGee, I see an elite athlete, but one who's basketball IQ is virtually the same as when he came into the league. he strikes me as the type who spends more time preparing for a dunk contest he'll never be in, than working on his game

i'm not saying we should trade him for peanuts, but I don't think it would be that huge a loss simply because I don't see him ever coming close to reaching his potential.

[Warhead36]

I'd keep McGee, but try to bring in some kind of a big man coach to work with him, like Kareem working with Bynum in LA or Olajuwon working with Howard in Orlando. Anyone know what David Robinson is up to these days?

I'd see what I can get for Blatche, but I wouldn't just give him away.

[MonkFan8]

This team desperately needs a real front court coach. All our big men make plays solely because of their natural talent, not because they have learned anything about how to play basketball effectively in this league.

[Metalhead]

Portland appears to be willing to deal Marcus Camby. He would be the ideal vet to teach McGee.

Maybe trade something like Blatche, Thornton and Young for Camby, Rudy Fernandez, Luke Babbit and a second rounder....sign me up. And for some reason I'll get blasted for including Young. He is as one-dimensional as they come with a low basketball IQ and right now his stock will never be higher.

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

I probably overreacted last night. I was just reading a thread about the dumbest players in the NBA. Blatche got several mentions and then somone said that McGee is the captain of the NBA All-Dumb Team. So I just started thinking, why the hell do my teams not only have to suck but suck in embarrassing fashion. Can't we just Pirates/Orioles suck where people feel sorry for us? But no, DC sports are a nation-wide joke. And Skins fans think they have it bad, they ain't got **** on the Wizards. We've been a national embarrassment for 30 years now. I'd even argue that the Clippers are more of a Pirates/Orioles suck and we're a bigger joke suck. Blah. Whatever.

---------- Post added December-29th-2010 at 01:37 PM ----------

I'd keep McGee, but try to bring in some kind of a big man coach to work with him, like Kareem working with Bynum in LA or Olajuwon working with Howard in Orlando. Anyone know what David Robinson is up to these days?

I'd see what I can get for Blatche, but I wouldn't just give him away.

See what Glenn Davis and Co said about Dwight recently? That his game hasn't evolved for ****, he's got the same two moves and he's the most predictable player in the league. I think a lot of guys like Dwight and Javale are so athletic, they're just naturally instinctive players. Now the difference between Dwight and Javale--and why Dwight is and will always be a surperior player despite both having off the charts athleticism-- is that Dwight has maturity, discipline and heart.

[No Excuses]

McGee will be fine. At worst, he'll develop into a starting center who can provide energy and effort on most nights. I've rarely seen McGee not trying out there, he's just not very bright. But we've all seen his game improve leaps and bounds over the last two years and at his age, he will continue to improve.

Blatche on the other hand is at the point where he should be a veteran leader for this squad. He's been in the league long enough. I love the guys skill set but with every passing game, I have a hard time imagining him being a starting contributor on a winning team.

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

Some more Blatche and McGee trade news.

www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=18323

(Sorry for just a link. On the phone and copy/paste and formatting a post is a *****.)

[Shabby]

The best place for Camby to go is Orlando. Orlando gets there "backup" (i dont see how you can say he's a backup) center, and Camby gets to be apart of a finals contender.

[Sticksboi05]

Thought they'd collapse again for a second.

And no way are we as big a joke as the Clippers.

---------- Post added December-29th-2010 at 09:24 PM ----------

What? All it takes in basketball is one star player to go from a crappy team to a playoff team. If anything, I think it would be harder for football. You can bring in a star player in football, and still be as bad if you don't have other complementary players around him. You can bring in a great QB, but he wont amount to anything if you dont have an offensive line to keep him from getting killed.

Yeah, 80's Bulls with MJ are an example. Cavs this decade. I'd say it's definitely harder to rebuild in football. But at the same time, the NBA is mostly first round talent and there's a massive disparity after that minus diamonds in the rough like Arenas. The NFL has stars from deep rounds like Brady and Montana and Terrell Davis etc.

[No Excuses]

Good time at the game with 2k and GAC. We gotta do this more.

Was a treat watching Blatche play tonight.

[WALL-LE]

i dont understand why some of you want to trade young, hes a great 2, why cant we keep our homegrown talent???

[Shabby]

i dont understand why some of you want to trade young, hes a great 2, why cant we keep our homegrown talent???

Yeah i think its absolutely crazy to trade young or mcgee. With blatche im kind of iffy just because of that whole triple double thing that he did. Put me on bad terms with him. But i dont trade him unless we get something really significant for him.

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

Good time at the game with 2k and GAC. We gotta do this more.

Was a treat watching Blatche play tonight.

Definitely man. Jan 11th, against the Kings, lock it in. I'm there.

And Blatche...LOL. Nothing else will do it justice.

[No Excuses]

I've got class Tuesday nights starting from the 10th. :mad:

But besides Tuesday and Thursday, I'm good for any other day!

[Hubbs]

I guess I'm still higher on McGee than most. There's no way I would trade him at this point. I'd love to see what he could do when paired with an above-average power forward.

[Going Commando]

I guess I'm still higher on McGee than most. There's no way I would trade him at this point. I'd love to see what he could do when paired with an above-average power forward.

I wouldn't trade him either. Who are we going to pick up that's better? Nobody any time soon that's for damn sure. If we want a better center, we'll have to draft one and wait years for him to develop. There won't be a better athlete coming out any time soon. Enes Kanter could be a good option this season but he's about 6'9 without shoes. Andre Drummond will be a better prospect than McGee, but lord know when he'll be available, I think he's only 17 or 18. And he'll definitely require a first overall pick.

There isn't anyone on the roster already I'd play ahead of McGee. **** no to Yi and Armstrong. N'Diaye is also older and far less polished/talented. We can't afford to trade McGee unless we get something incredible in return for him.

[RedskinsFan28]

Good time at the game with 2k and GAC. We gotta do this more.

Was a treat watching Blatche play tonight.

Yes, it wasn't bad at all.

I swear though: I'm going to kill that dancing fool for the Wizards.....so damn annoying

[Going Commando]

Brandon Knight is a beast. Louisville was able to keep the pressure on Terrence Jones today but that just left things open for Knight. I think he made something like 4 three pointers today. The kid can really shoot. If Nick Young hadn't come on so strong this season, I'd say we could look hard at drafting Knight and moving him in as an undersized shooting guard much like O.J. Mayo or Eric Gordon. He's bigger than Josh Selby is. The main problem I see though--can he defend guys like Kobe Bryant and Tyreke Evans?

Edited December 31, 2010 by stevemcqueen1