Washington Wizards 2012-2013 Season Thread - Thanks for a great year!

[jesusshuttlesworth34]

Ill say about 100,000

$100,000?

You right though......

 

[you big dummy]

 

[Methodical Management]

Ok,

Let me throw some things out there that would work as a quick fix

1. Start evaluating potential candidates to take over for Grunfeld IMMEDIATELY. Don't go w/ someone to be an interim GM or anything along those lines, get someone in here who has a good vision of where they'd like for this franchise to go and also how to get them out of this rut.

2. While EG is here, have him work the phones to see if some sort of potential deal can be made either as the main swapping partner for the Lakers to bring in Pau Gasol OR as the 3rd team in that deal. For the former, I have ZERO clue as to what it would take to get this deal done, but I would offer any combination of Okafor, Ariza, Crawford, Booker, Seraphin, Ves, Singleton, or a future 1st round pick to sweeten the deal. Yes, Gasol is long in the tooth at 32, but he's off the books by the end of the 13-14 season. He's a guy who could come in an IMMEDIATELY help this team by way of his b-ball IQ. This would be a good short term fix, IMO.

*I didn't mention Nene in the trade scenario b/c of his durability issues and contract. However, a nucleus of Nene/Pau/Wall would be a good stopgap until the 2014 season. This would be our best trio since Gil/Caron/Jamison were getting all-star nods. If these guys can play 90+% of the games on the schedule, the team would be in much better shape than it is right now. Of course that is all contingent on who is coaching and also who is in the FO.

Anyways, for the latter (if we're the 3rd team in a deal), offer up any combo of those players I mentioned to do something like this:

So, why not deal Gasol to the Timberwolves, as part of a three-team trade that would also include the Wizards?

Again: I have no information -- none -- that the Lakers are contemplating trading Gasol, or are entertaining or seeking offers for Gasol. This is pure speculation, not information or even rumor. This is me thinking out loud.

In this (imaginary) deal, Washington would send second-year forward Chris Singleton and former Laker Trevor Ariza to the Lakers, who would also get guards Luke Ridnour and J.J. Barea from Minnesota. The Wizards and Wolves would, essentially, swap 2011 Lottery picks about which both are quite uncertain, with Washington's Jan Vesely going to Minnesota and Minnesota's Derrick Williams going to Washington, along with center Nikola Pekovic. Guard Chris Duhon would go from the Lakers to Wizards to make the trade work cap-wise.

Link

You bring on an unknown in Williams, but you get a good big in Pek while dumping Ariza, Singleton, and Ves.

That would be a start of an actual rebuild.

I would hope that the Wizards learned something about swapping bad contracts from the Rashard Lewis debacle.

Gil for Lewis - the best of a bad situation.  One year less misery.

Lewis for "Okariza" - throwing good money after bad.  One year of ADDITIONAL misery and two fewer roster spots for worthwhile players.

Pau Gasol will make $19.2 million dollars next season.    Let's say that - somehow - Okafor gets moved.  Between Pau and Nene alone, you'd be spending $22 million on two power forwards.  

Adding Pau does not make Washington a playoff team.  We have NO shooting and Pau has zero athletic ability.  When the defense packs in - and they already do - then Pau has no choice but to kick out.  And that, as we all know, is the end of the possession with Jordan Crawford lurking out there.

An offense designed to manufacture open looks for Crawford, Beal, and AJ Price is not going to get this team anywhere.  We'd all hoped during the draft that Beal would be help address our shooting woes, but thus far he's only contributed to them.  

The second alternative you suggested, with Washington playing the role of facilitator to help Pau get to Minnesota, is slightly more palatable, but I don't think we need to bring in more underachievers like Derrick Williams.

Unfortunately, I think you just have to take your medicine with Okafor and Ariza.  If you trade them THIS year, you're going to get toxic waste back because NOBODY wants those players at that price.  If you wait until NEXT year, around All Star Weekend, at least they qualify as expiring contracts.  You might get something then from a team that's clearly stuck, like the Hawks were with Joe Johnson, and needs to retool in a hurry.  So you throw the expiring contracts and a few of your "young potential" players for an established guy who's hit the ceiling with his current, stagnant club.  That's not the type of trade we can swing this season.  

This season, the ONLY trade we could make would be one that brings in other teams' problem contracts.  

There's no sense in making a panic move to try and turn this from a 20 win season into a 30 win season at the cost of future roster flexibility.  

3. If you plan on keeping Ves around, send his *** to the d-league to figure out how to actually hoop.

In the article I linked earlier, Wittman basically calls Jan a "one dimensional player", but what "dimension" would that be?  Jan's a none trick pony.  I'm not prepared to call a guy with more fouls than points a "lockdown" defender.  Giving teams unguarded shots at the basket is the opposite of what you want from a defender.  

I've seen fewer fouls per minute in a game of Arch Rivals. 

Seriously, how in the wide world of sports are we starting the worst player on the team?  

Not to stir up a hornets' nest... but... http://jse.sagepub.com/content/13/2/130.short

I'm open to alternative explanations, but we have to venture outside the world of rational, basketball-related thought to account for Vesley's playing time. 

7. Stop jerking around Seraphin and let him start. If you're going to let Beal take his lumps while getting quality minutes, do the same for Seraphin.

See, from the standpoint of operating a "meritocracy", I would agree with you.  He's earned that title more than Okafor or Beal.  The problem with Kev, however, is that you need to call his number in order for him to be effective.  He's going to have more success as a pro in a reserve role, whereas you're grooming Beal to become a starter because you desperately NEED him to become a starter.  Otherwise, you're stuck with the mad bomber.

Okafor, as poorly as he's played, is at least the type of guy you don't have to run plays for.  He'll get his off of tip ins, etc.  He is, at least ostensibly, a garbage collector, and goodness knows our starting unit produces a lot of garbage. 

Playing Seraphin alongside Nene diminishes, rather than enhances, each player's production.  They both want the ball to run through them, whereas Okafor is content to receive a dump off pass and at least try to go up strong with it.  

Seraphin's not in great condition, either, and he struggles against the types of athleticism you're likely to find in the opposition's starting lineup.  If you bring him off the bench, he'll be more comfortable going up against second tier defenders.  

He is fatally prone to ball pressure.  He doesn't seem to recognize where the double is likely to come from and he loses the ball pretty easily in those situations.  Making him a focal point on the second unit does expose him a bit more to potential double teams, but it also gives him the opportunity to make his move quickly and shoot over a smaller player.  When he has to try and throw out a bunch of fakes etc. to put a more athletic player off balance, he just gives the defense that much more time to come around from his blind side and pick his pocket.  

You may as well just prepare him to play what's likely to be his role in the NBA.  Give him more minutes, but do so as a focal point on the second unit. 

It's better than just turning Crawford loose in the old Nick Young role. 

4. Can Wittman as long as you have another guy on deck who you could envision teaching the young guys the finer points of basketball and potentially leading this team out of the basement BACK to some sort of respectability. I absolutely will not stand for Wittman being fired JUST to bring in guy like Ed Tapscott (again). HAVE A DAMN PLAN. Meth alluded to Nate McMillian - who would be great, and so would SVG. I like Nate a little better because I'm not sure if SVG would want to be here or if he has the patience to deal with the current players on the roster.

Prevailing wisdom holds that there's also little point in making an emotional decision about coaching/management a few weeks into the year, that it's always best to bring in a new coach during the offseason so they can benefit from a full training camp.  In this case, however, I don't see the harm.  We need to get competent professionals in to begin changing the culture as quickly as possible.  

It's time to absolutely clean house - and that process begins upstairs.

Teams suffer when they try to bring in new management RIGHT before the draft.  That's chaos.  We need a new president of basketball operations starting IMMEDIATELY.  We need to improve our scouting DRAMATICALLY.  We need to completely overhaul the way that this organization evaluates opportunities and measures performance.  The sooner we can commence that process, the better.  

This season is over.  I don't expect Nate McMillan or anyone else to come in and turn things around overnight.  If, however, a full training camp gives a coach a head start - putting one in place NOW gives us the rest of the year to at least attempt to develop some better habits and save some of these young players before it's too late.  There's no advantage to waiting until next summer to make that move.  

Okay - so there's a list of things that we'd LIKE to see happen, and that's a very long and fanciful list, but what do you see ACTUALLY happening?  

Knowing this team - and rumor has it Wittman is indeed on the way out - who do you think they're bringing in to replace him?  

Be careful what you wish for.  We may be hearing the phrase "interim head coach Sam Cassell" before long...

How many Powerball tickets do you think Chris Singleton bought this year? $50,000 worth?

Still gambles less than Jan on defense...

 

[grandtheftbike]

welp. add the W back in

 

[jjs07]

Meth, you can add one "W" to the thread title

 

[joe cool23]

 

[da doc03]

FINALLY!!!!!!

 

[extraordinary swag]

 

[dt43]

Jan Vesely, SF 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The sad thing is Grunfeld probably just walked into Leonsis' office and asked for a bonus..

 

[jesusshuttlesworth34]

Noooooooooooooo

 

[airblaster503]

Portland will be their first win of the month, Blazers are terrible. A coach who is running the starters into the ground and not developing the bench

About that.... Good job Wizards, as a Lions fan I know that feeling watching a team go without a loss game after game

 

[chrispcb15]

Helll yesss!!! Wizards with a W!! Feelsgoodman

 

[pcasupreme]

Wizzz with the dub.. lets get this rolling.. WIN OUT THE REST OF THE SEASON!!!

 

[flacobey]

feelsgoodman

 

[hypebeast5]

feelsgoodman

Just 1 win but my smiling

 

[jking0821]

CHAMPIONSHIPPPP!!!!!!

But seriously...thank god we won. I was watching the game thinking of Jesusshuttlesworth. I was like well .2 seconds back on the clock.....if we can find a way to lose this game......Ball hits rim pops up i was like welp....here comes and easy tip in to send the game to OT.

But i thought we got a couple breaks finally to go our way. That Okafor "block" didn't look clean. Crawford hit some tough shots and I really think Seraphin is developing into a decent player.

Btw what was Portland doing in the last 30 seconds. Why were they rushing shots sooooo badly as if there was 1 second left. Aldrich should have isoed singleton in the post on that inboud, instead he held it kicked it to Batum who rushed a 3 for no real reason. Hickson should have kicked out to Batum for a wide open 3 on the last possession. And Nene should have been called for a foul on the last inbound the Wiz had when he just grabbed Mathews.

But whatever its a W...1-12

 

[INTLplayers]

here's the Andray Blatche interview with his attempt at trying to explain the Tweets and the rest of his history with the Wizards, it's HILARIOUS
http://washington.cbslocal.com/?pod...ue&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.WASHINGTON

my god, this is so hilarious trying to hear Andray Blatche explain himself

 

[uncalled4boy]

70-12

 

[jesusshuttlesworth34]

I was laughing when Portland went on a 16-0 run in the final minutes.......


Wes Matthews who whoever was wide open for that trey ball would have probably handed the Wizards another loss if he was passed the ball in the final seconds.




The Wizards are like watching a bad horror movie, you know when and where in the movie the killer is going to pop out and how the outcome will turn out.....but you still watch because it is entertaining.


I found myself tuning in these last few games to see how the Wizards would lose next! This one would have been the icing on the cake. Atl and Charlotte were hysterical performances.



I had that Jay-z line stuck in my head for the past few weeks "The Nets could go 0-82.....Nets could go 0-82" but it pertained to the Wizards.


No way there were 14,000+ in the stands last night, I believe those numbers are just off of tickets sold and what not. There was more like 4,000 folks in the crowd or something. The cameras never pan around the arena anymore on TV because there is no one in the damn thing.

The two games I have been to so far this year were ghost!

 

[pcasupreme]

I see more people at my old high school games..

 

[jjs07]

We gon' SHOCK THE WORLD TONIGHT. We got this vs. the Knicks. Some good team is gonna take this bum *** Wizards team for granted and get caught slippin'.

Oh yeah...this is absurd. John Feinstein suggest the Wizards hire Gary Williams

We normally don't go all Fire Joe Morgan on local columnists, mostly because that crew set such an impossibly high standard that any attempt to imitate them would fall short. We should also point out that we've enjoyed John Feinstein's work in the past (Season on the Brink, The Majors, A Good Walk Spoiled, A Season Inside, The Last Amateurs, etc.)

But this ... this needs to be nipped in the bud.

Clearly, what is going on with the Wizards isn't working. And it isn't going to start working anytime soon ... Here's the answer: Hire Gary Williams as coach.

And why, pray, does Feinstein want an abrasive 67-year-old retiree with zero (0) NBA experience to become ringmaster of this circus?

Why? Because there's no one who tolerates losing less than Williams ... Williams is a young 67 and won't really care that much if he gets fired for ruffling anyone's feathers. Randy Wittman is 53 and wants to coach a while longer, so he has to be more careful in his handling of his so-called stars in a star-driven league.

Needless to say, there is zero evidence presented to support that last sentence.

Gary Williams to coach the Wizards...WHAT???!!

 

[duba169]

Nah if you guys didn't win the other day than I would guarantee a win against the Knicks. Now I think we are fine. We always used to lose those type of games

I was soooo happy when the wiz won hahahahaha

 

[jjs07]

Nah if you guys didn't win the other day than I would guarantee a win against the Knicks. Now I think we are fine. We always used to lose those type of games
I was soooo happy when the wiz won hahahahaha

We on a win streak, doe. Knicks better be worried.

 

[nychiphophippo]

This is one of the better season threads

 

[al3xis]

We gon' SHOCK THE WORLD TONIGHT. We got this vs. the Knicks. Some good team is gonna take this bum *** Wizards team for granted and get caught slippin'.
Oh yeah...this is absurd. John Feinstein suggest the Wizards hire Gary Williams
Gary Williams to coach the Wizards...WHAT???!!

Lol. I was told in an email last February John Thompson SR had been in Leonsis' ear being a Hoya grad about hiring III if the Big East/Georgetown went south. Needless to say nothing has come of it.

What a disaster either of those would be.