Are People Sleeping on the Wizards?

[Erick Blasco]

And your going to put that on Gilbert? How about setting the blame on the coach that got fired, Eddie Jordan and his offensive scheme, which didn't seem to pan out as planned in D.C. Arenas is our franchise player regardless, I don't understand the hatred you have for him. He's productive, averaged almost 30ppg only two years ago. He has had over a year in rehab, and now is resting over the summer. By next year, I'm sure he will be fine.

 

How was it supposed to work? Arenas and the rest of the guards broke it off to run isolations and simple screen rolls most of the time. The Wizards stayed truest to the Princeton two years ago when Arenas was out.

 

Do you have any evidence to back that up or are you going with the ignorant "well, he doesn't pass the ball so everyone must hate playing with him" route, which in and of itself is cliched and wrong? Also, Mike James isn't playing a minute for the Wizards (he's certainly not anywhere close to being a back up guard) and won't even be on the roster by the start of the season and I'd doubt that Stevenson gets much playing time over McGuire (who was effective as a starter last season), Young, and Crittenton. Although it's questionable if all five them are going to be on the roster at the start of the season, so it's hard to judge exactly where they likely finish up.

 

Did I ever say his teammates hated playing for him? I said he restricts a team from having an efficient balanced offense. Stevenson needs to play because he's the only wing besides Butler who tries on defense.

 

You're throwing out stats at me that mean absolutely nothing. I have watched the Wizards all 82 games the past 4 years, if anything is the problem, its the management and our history of coaches. Gilbert does everything for this team when healthy, he puts people in seats, he hits clutch shots, and most importantly, he is the best player on the team with the most talent, and the player opposing teams will double.

 

Being the best player on a mediocre team isn't a cause for celebration. Tracy McGrady, Stephon Marbury, Darius Miles, Zach Randolph, Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki, Stephen Jackson, Allen Iverson, and Steve Francis, for example, have done everything for their teams, put fans in seats, been the best player on their team, and been players opponents will double.

 

Like Arenas, they're also shot-happy players who need the ball in their hands, can't do anything without the ball (okay, Nowitzki and Randolph will rebound, and Jackson once in a blue moon will defend) and don't defend. For the most part, thay also have various character flaws and insecurities, in Arenas' case, a massive ego which demands that he be the guy.

 

Okay, Arenas has talent. Most NBA players do. Can he defend? Can he sacrifice for a team? Can he inspire others to play better? Can he run an offensive set where he doesn't end up with the ball in his hands? Does he make smart decisions? Is he mistake prone? Can he dominate a great team by himself? Will he attack or does he settle? What's his mindset? Is he a competitor or does he want to succeed for his own personal glory? Most of these characteristics describe Arenas.

 

Is his talent good enough to compensate? He jacks up a lot of shots and doesn't shoot a high percentage. He plays outside-in. He's not a superb playmaker.

 

In other words, he's a second tier star. But because a star is a star, he gets a free pass from fans because he puts up a lot of points.

 

 

And your going to blame us for getting swept? We played a healthy Miami Heat team that would lose in 7 games to the Pistons in the ECF. That is a Finals caliber team, with many of their pieces returning two years later to win a championship. Shaq averaged 22ppg and Wade averaged 24ppg, us losing to them in 4 games isn't strengthening your argument.

 

No, I'm not going to blame the Wizards. They weren't real good then, just like they aren't real good now.

 

Hamilton is being shopped, he is as good as done in Detroit. You're looking at one side of the court. Look on our side please. The Pistons just brought in the Cavaliers assistant coach as their new head coach, another offensive minded player. Who will guard Caron? Gilbert? Foye? Jamison? Jamison will drop 30 on Charlie V, he is much more skilled than Charlie is, even at this age. The Bad Boys are done, Detroit has made the transition to a more offensive oriented team.

 

Tayshaun is a defensive standout and Stuckey and Hamilton are both solid. Who will guard Ben Gordon off the bench? Will Miller try to defend Hamilton and get abused, or will Caron be forced to pick him up. If so, Miller will be dominated by Prince in the post. Unlike Foye and Young, Gordon is a proven scorer off the bench. The Pistons have firepower in their arsenal. If Hamilton is traded (reports say for Carlos Boozer), then Gordon will torch Miller's lack of speed, while Boozer decimates Haywood in the high post. I'm not worried about Washington's office and trust they'd score a fair amount themselves. I doubt they'd be able to slow down Detroit's offense at all.

We're the 4th best team in the East, not the Hawks whose best player JJ is marginally better than our 2nd-3rd option in Caron.

 

Offensively, no. Johnson does everything better than Butler on offense. Finish, create, pass, shoot, and especially handle.

The Heat have horrible defense on the perimeter, Washington (with the amount of perimeter players and offensive firepower), would torch them on any given night, only another acquisition for a star player would change my mind about them.

 

Dwyane Wade has single handedly won games with his defense. You're right about Miami's porous perimeter defense, but they can funnel into O'Neal and Haslem and live to tell about it.

 

Seeing as how I project them to be none lower than a 4 or 5 seed, that's totally irrelevant. I already stated that the Wizards would get killed by the the 3 seed and up.

 

 

"The kids should improve" will have no effect on this match up, the Wizards have far more star power and depth than the heat, in a 7 game series, the Wizards will be too strong to overtake.

 

So if Michael Beasley starts showing people what made him a 2nd pick of the draft and Jermaine O'Neal stays healthy, what will you say considering they'll be as much stars as Butler and Jamison.

 

 

Philly lost Andre Miller, and have not made any good acquisitions in the off season. They brought in a new head coach, who has no defensive mentality in Eddie Jordan, so who knows how this affects their game play. Iggy and butler cancel eachother out on both ends. Brand is coming off an injury as well, I hate to use injuries as a factor in my debate so I won't, but he is going up against Jamison, who in my opinion, will be hard to stop.

 

Just because the Wizards didn't want to play defense doesn't mean Jordan doesn't preach defense. Now that he has a roster that will listen, he'll quickly change that false reputation. It's no guarantee that Miller is gone, and the Sixers team defense frustrates a lot of offenses. Lazy passes and dribbles turn into steals, and bad shots turn into long rebounds and fast breaks. That team will aggravate the Wizards to no end.

 

If JJ goes down, the Hawks are a 30 win team at best. Take Iguodala off the Sixers, and they're lottery bound, same goes to Detroit, although I cannot clearly state who their star is, seeing as how their best player doesn't even fairly match up to the Wizards third best.

 

If the Sixers still have Miller and Brand, they'd survive a loss to Iggy. Atlanta will still have scorers in Jamal Crawford, plus Josh smith's acrobatics. Detroit didn't need a star to win a Finals and get back to another one.

 

The Wizards are just a run of the mill team, not some lock to be a 5th or 4th seed.

[Guest N4S]

Ya but they have a new coach and a new philosophy so you never know.

 

Things will look much different this year.

 

It may be hard though because like you said. While they were quiet last year the east got much stronger.

[JWaLL]

Honestly you can't really draw any conclusions for next season. Flip Saunders is a completely different coach than Jordan (and Tapscott... blech), and he knows how to use the big 3 along with their other weapons more efficiently. No more "Princeton offense" bull [expletive]. Saunders knows how to handle the backcourt well, and he'll make us a deadly offensive squad... or not. We have no way in telling yet.

[Erick Blasco]

Honestly you can't really draw any conclusions for next season. Flip Saunders is a completely different coach than Jordan (and Tapscott... blech), and he knows how to use the big 3 along with their other weapons more efficiently. No more "Princeton offense" bull [expletive]. Saunders knows how to handle the backcourt well, and he'll make us a deadly offensive squad... or not. We have no way in telling yet.

 

It's what foresight is for.