Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins
Forum Rules and Guidelines

The Official Washington Basketball Thread: Wizards, Mystics etc

BRAVEONAWARPATH

By BRAVEONAWARPATH
in The Tailgate

 Share

Recommended Posts

Destino

Destino

Posted
Posted

As for Grunfrld. He's created a situation where the team has 15 million and likely no first round pick to replace or sign

Gortat - starting center!

Ariza - 6th man

Vesely - first big off the bench

Seraphin - rotation big

Harrington - rotation player

Booker - end of the bench

Singleton - end of the bench

Yeah why not extend the genius that set up the wizards with a one year run to save his job with no means if sustaining it. The bench and team could very easily get worse next season because Ernie is a proven failure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JoeWolf990

JoeWolf990

Posted
Posted

Nah, Ernie gotta go. If you think otherwise, then you havent been paying attention. This roster is a mess and he has made some terrible moves over the last 4 seasons.

 

Knowing Ted tho, making the playoffs will please him.

 

 

As for the last few games, we need to see Wall get to the basket more and I am glad he started doing that last night.

 

The starters are excellent, altho they are the reason that lead was blown last night.

 

This team should be a playoff team, but its not because they are all that good. The East is just awful. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hersh

Hersh

Posted
Posted

You're turning this into a question of is he worth extending. I'm saying he deserves credit for doing some good moves. In particular I don't like the statements that all his moves were obvious moves because the two trades Okafur/Ariza for Lewis and then Okafur + first for Gortat were by no means obvious trades and just by the debate we're having right now they're debated. But those trades are a large part of the reason why we're in contention for a playoff spot right now. We'll see what he does with Ariza, whether it becomes another trade, an extension, or just letting him walk. But I think EG does deserve some credit for putting this team together. Yeah it took him 5 years since the Arenas fiasco to do it, but I can talk basketball in DC (and to Knicks and Lakers fans too) and hold my head up high.

 

I never said the trades were obvious moves. I said some of the draft picks were obvious picks based on the needs and who was projected to be available.

 

If he mentions extending Ariza, he should be fired on the spot.

 

As a few others have pointed out, he hasn't built this roster for sustained success. That's where no getting the extra first in the Lewis trade comes into play or trading this years first instead of something further down the line comes into play. Little things that would help create the depth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Chachie

Chachie

Posted
Posted

 

The starters are excellent, altho they are the reason that lead was blown last night.

 

This team should be a playoff team, but its not because they are all that good. The East is just awful. 

 

 

I read in the WaPost that the starters were exhausted from the recent packed schedule. Glad they held on. 

 

Yes, the East is bad but I'll take what I can get. I'm not ready to assume we make the post season. Nene has got to stay on the court or the recipe goes awry. His nagging ailments worry me.

 

Other notes- Loving what I'm seeing from JW who I was starting to become very skeptical about. He's not sulking anymore. He's fighting and he's hitting his groove. I hope he can stay hot w/o Beal. 

 

I'm starting to see what I wanted from this season in order to stay interested. Gortat has been responsible for a lot of that.  :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
G.A.C.O.L.B.

G.A.C.O.L.B.

Posted
Posted (edited)

Who would've thought on January 1st, 2013 that the Wizard would have the best year of all the pro teams? I still can't get over that. This time 2012, they were the lone remaining joke in town. Pretty depressing really. As a Wizards fan, I'm thrilled. As a Washingtonian, what...the...****?!?!

Watching the Pats/Broncos game last week, they were talking about Boston's success since the last Pats St win, a Celtics title, 3 Red Sox titles and a Bruins Stanley Cup. Why the fact are they so lucky? Is DC not on the same level as a city as Boston? I mean NYC and LA are obviously top dogs: not only in the US but in the entire world. That said, is DC not in that second tier with the likes of Boston and Chicago? So why the **** can't we get a winner?

Side note, this time a couple of years ago, who could have predicted that Ted would be the most hated owner in town?

Edited by G.A.C.O.L.B.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

You're turning this into a question of is he worth extending. I'm saying he deserves credit for doing some good moves. In particular I don't like the statements that all his moves were obvious moves because the two trades Okafur/Ariza for Lewis and then Okafur + first for Gortat were by no means obvious trades and just by the debate we're having right now they're debated. But those trades are a large part of the reason why we're in contention for a playoff spot right now. We'll see what he does with Ariza, whether it becomes another trade, an extension, or just letting him walk. But I think EG does deserve some credit for putting this team together. Yeah it took him 5 years since the Arenas fiasco to do it, but I can talk basketball in DC (and to Knicks and Lakers fans too) and hold my head up high.

His draft picks weren't no-brainers either. The Wall year, a lot of people liked Evan Turner. The Beal year a lot of people liked a bunch of different guys. MKG, Drummond, TRob, etc. This past year I would say a majority would have actually taken Noel over Porter. Others would have traded the pick for Ersan Ilyasova or something.

They were "safe" moves to pick up high floor guys and Beal and Wall worked out so they seem like no-brainers now. Not without hindsight.

I think Ernie is a run of the mill GM. I think there are several out there currently running teams that are worse than him. I don't think he's the master motivator or architect that the good GMs for the legit top teams are. I think he's OK with player personnel. He'll pick the right guys when he gets a resource as valuable as a top three pick. Easier said than done. And for the most part, he's developed them. But he's not going to nail harder picks or unearth and develop the really raw, under the radar guys like San Antonio, Chicago, or Indy. Taking a completely raw Roy Hibbert or Kawhi Leonard or Tiago Splitter or Jimmy Butler or Taj Gibson or Joakim Noah and polishing them into a terrific player that fills out your roster is a big part of why those teams are great. Somewhere along the line Ernie is failing. He's either poorly evaluating these guys, not coming up with a workable plan for building with them, and/or failing to properly facilitate their development.

Just to point out one or two failures specifically: think of how much better this team would be if Jan Vesely had been a useful young PF. Our version of an Ibaka/AK47, also completely raw foreign big men initially with no skills but tremendous athleticism, defensive talent, and energy. Or think of how much better we'd be if Seraphin had worked out and reached his initial promise. Indy develops guys like Seraphin into useful players and has had a lot of big man depth as a result.

And Ernie's biggest failing is in the organizational culture he's established here. Look at gungate and the clown college we were running before. Look at how we completely fell apart without Wall last season. Team's with good cultures don't do that. Dallas stayed alive when Dirk missed time last season for example. Hell even the Lakers are playing .500 ball without Kobe and they're not the organization they were with Dr. Buss.

That's why I think Ernie limits the potential ceiling of the team, even though we do have several really good players now. He hasn't established the kind of stable, competitive, professional culture that the best organizations have. He hasn't shown an ability to do the hard work of discovering good players later in the draft and developing their raw ability into a useful finished product. How else are we going to get ahead of the 8 ball? Can he get us to a point where we won't have to make emergency moves like the Gortat trade to salvage our season? That's not a sustainable tool for building clearly.

Also, the Foye/Miller debacle is damning IMO. That should have gotten him fired. I think it's atypical that a GM would survive that big a mistake unscathed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thinking Skins

Thinking Skins

Posted
Posted

Who would've thought on January 1st, 2013 that the Wizard would have the best year of all the pro teams? I still can't get over that. This time 2012, they were the lone remaining joke in town. Pretty depressing really. As a Wizards fan, I'm thrilled. As a Washingtonian, what...the...****?!?!

Watching the Pats/Broncos game last week, they were talking about Boston's success since the last Pats St win, a Celtics title, 3 Red Sox titles and a Bruins Stanley Cup. Why the fact are they so lucky? Is DC not on the same level as a city as Boston? I mean NYC and LA are obviously top dogs: not only in the US but in the entire world. That said, is DC not in that second tier with the likes of Boston and Chicago? So why the **** can't we get a winner?

Side note, this time a couple of years ago, who could have predicted that Ted would be the most hated owner in town?

 

 

We're just in the middle of a championship drought. Look at Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Buffalo, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta (although they've won more recently than us). There are a number of teams that are in worse droughts than us. We were spoiled with Gibbs. I think the good part is that the Caps will get us a Stanley Cup soon enough and so we won't be in this drought forever. Then there are the Nationals which seem to be like an actual well-run organization. I have no hope for the Skins doing anything serious (but then again who thought Seattle would be this good 2 years ago - the NFL is just THAT unpredictable). The Wizards I really hope can make a turn around into a playoff team, when that happens we'll see where I set my expectations (still mad about Gilbert missing those FTs against Lebron in Cleveland).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sticksboi05

Sticksboi05

Posted
Posted (edited)

Who in the west would you take over Miami or Indy? Might be terrible overall but the likely two best teams in the nba are in the east.

 

San Antonio.  Regardless, that doesn't disprove my point.  The East has 13 terrible to mediocre teams.  The West is loaded.

Edited by Sticksboi05
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

It's really hard to bust into the top echelon of true contenders in the NBA. But that's honestly changing. The CBA changes in 2011 were really far reaching and Leonsis himself was pretty instrumental in trying to change the way the league does business. We haven't come close to feeling the true impact of the cap reforms.

Within the next few years, you're going to see the specter of the repeater tax really start to influence team behavior. I think there are only three teams in the league that can realistically afford to pay substantial repeater taxes because their ownership is nuts or they've got huge TV deals--the two NY teams and the Lakers. But I think even the Lakers and Knicks will show a bit of restraint, and not try and spend up to the hard cap any more. Prokhorov and the Nets are a complete mess that have no idea what they're doing, who knows what they'll do?

The biggest result of the new CBA is that there will never be another Miami situation. Teams have tremendous ability to keep their players now with no S&T tool and tighter budgets league wide. I don't see how anyone can afford to get three 18 million dollar free agents again. I think that will make the ideal model shift more towards a Houston like build--two max players surrounded by a bunch of moderate cost role players that are actually good.

I think that, plus an authentic talent boom thanks to strong draft classes in 2008-2010, 2012, and 2014 will disperse good players better around the league.

But some other results will be that draft picks will be worth more because of the rookie salary scale.

Depth and roster balance will become more important. You'll see more teams like Chicago and Indiana and San Antonio being legit contenders than teams like Miami and Oklahoma City. The best players won't horde all of the championships like they have in the past unless they happen to also play on the best teams.

Giving out enormous cap numbers to star players who contribute some sort of flaw to your construction that you have to work around will seem less desirable. Teams will want the Paul George over the Carmelo Anthony for instance. Carmelo's crunch time scoring ability used to be worth its weight in gold. But his lack of defense and his tendency to stop the ball play out during the course of a long regular season because they make it necessary for his teams to have a good defensive C and good facilitating guards. Paul George OTOH doesn't take anything off the table.

All of this adds up to the league becoming less stratified. Probably no more real dynasties, but more competition for sure. Oklahoma City's loss will be Houston's gain for example.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

San Antonio.  Regardless, that doesn't disprove my point.  The East has 13 terrible to mediocre teams.  The West is loaded.

The West probably isn't as good as it looks right now. The conference had a home heavy schedule in the first month. They're going to start traveling soon, and traveling in the West is pretty rough because of how far flung the teams are. The East seems weak right now because two of the teams that were supposed to be powers have sucked and a third had their former MVP sustain a season ending injury.

But a couple teams in the East will emerge and balance it out a bit more. It always happens. You'll probably get about six teams that finish with good records. There are probably only 2 or 3 legitimate contenders in the West too.

And the best team in the league is still Miami.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nuposse87

nuposse87

Posted
Posted

Playing Nene the next two doesn't seem wise to me. Orl's bigs are fairly meh defensively (unless Vucivic made tremendous progress this season). I'd be ok with starting Booker and bring Jan off the bench. Less Maynor more Temple. Give GR 10 mins along with singleton. 

 

Starters should focus on pounding them early. Build lead that allows extended bench minutes. Also, if I recall correctly, hasn't Seraphin generally had good success against Orl? Maybe he can build some semblance of a rhythm today. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sticksboi05

Sticksboi05

Posted
Posted

The West probably isn't as good as it looks right now. The conference had a home heavy schedule in the first month. They're going to start traveling soon, and traveling in the West is pretty rough because of how far flung the teams are. The East seems weak right now because two of the teams that were supposed to be powers have sucked and a third had their former MVP sustain a season ending injury.

But a couple teams in the East will emerge and balance it out a bit more. It always happens. You'll probably get about six teams that finish with good records. There are probably only 2 or 3 legitimate contenders in the West too.

And the best team in the league is still Miami.

 

Right, so it's a weak conference.  You just said it there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Going Commando

Going Commando

Posted
Posted

Playing Nene the next two doesn't seem wise to me. Orl's bigs are fairly meh defensively (unless Vucivic made tremendous progress this season). I'd be ok with starting Booker and bring Jan off the bench. Less Maynor more Temple. Give GR 10 mins along with singleton. 

 

Starters should focus on pounding them early. Build lead that allows extended bench minutes. Also, if I recall correctly, hasn't Seraphin generally had good success against Orl? Maybe he can build some semblance of a rhythm today.

Play Nene if he's feeling alright. If he's not, then it's a simple decision to rest him. But we aren't good enough to take these next couple games for granted. We have to stay focused.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BRAVEONAWARPATH

BRAVEONAWARPATH

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wizards-insider/wp/2013/12/02/wizards-nene-will-sacrifice-play-against-orlando-despite-leg-injury/

 

 

 

Wizards’ Nene will “sacrifice,” play against Orlando despite leg injury

 

Nene still feels a “sharp” pain in his right Achilles’ tendon, but he won’t let it prevent him from playing against the Orlando Magic on Monday, when the Wizards (8-9) attempt to win their fifth straight home game and reach .500 for the first time in more than four years.

 

“I don’t know how good I’m going to do,” Nene said, smiling after the morning shoot-around, “but I’ll be there.”

N

ene sat out Friday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers but returned the next night against the Atlanta Hawks and recorded his second double-double with 13 points and 12 reboundsin 36 minutes and helped the Wizards get a 108-101 victory. But his availability for the next game was brought into question as he hobbled out of the locker room, dragging his ailing right leg.

 

“It’s a sacrifice,” Nene said. “Nothing is easy. The pain is sharp. It’s hard to play, but if I can do anything to help my team, I’m going to do it. Sometimes, I need to sit down. Sometimes, skip shoot-around to feel better or come early and do treatment. That’s a sacrifice to help my team.”

 

Edited by BRAVEONAWARPATH
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...