What to do with Blatche

by QualityGameDC on Nov 6, 2008 2:20 PM EST

I really don't know what to do with this guy. Once again, he comes in this season "ready to step up" and come game time, he clearly isn't. What's worse is that his own teammates don't believe in him either. Antawn Jamison's comments during training camp said that loud and clear. There was also one point last night when Blatche decided to lead the break up floor himself (!) instead of slowing the pace and handing off to a guard. He promptly threw the ball 4 feet behind Caron Butler into the open arms of the 4th row of fans. The look on Butler's face said it all: "Are you serious with that $#!t?"

I had the same response sitting on my couch.

This is Blatche's 4th year in the L and he's shown me very little. Whether it was his immature play, immature attitude towards prostitutes (yeah, that happened), or his immature attitude towards practice, this kid just hasn't really gotten any better. Maybe he's been spending too much time with buddy Nick Young because his play suggests his desire to be a slashing, dribbling guard instead of a big body that can move deftly around the hoop as we so desperately need.

Nick Young has really looked good this season (through only 3 games) and my bet is that he takes DeShawn's starting spot by the midway point. It's clear that the second year player has spent some time working on his game and truely wants more than to receive a paycheck in this league while AB is content to do as little as possible to keep himself on the court. This guy needs one season under a guy like Kevin Garnett to learn some discipline. KG would be in his face so fast and often he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

Blatche getting it together is looking less and less likely to me. He may find himself on another roster very quickly if he continues to underproduce while rookie JaVale McGee continues to make the most of his floor time. Either way, he still has a lot of growing up to do.

NOTE: I WILL say that Blatche was very gracious with his time last week when signing autographs at the "Meet the Wizards" event. He stayed around long after he had to and left no sig-seeker wanting.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.

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Comments

said this before, but i'm really glad

to finally get people on here who share my frustration with blatche, or at least express it.

it’s his 4th season and he still looks like someone who they picked up off the playground and threw on the court based on his athletic potential. clueless is probably the best word i’ve heard to describe his game.

i still hope they get him to play big and play around the basket – and never dribble – and he starts producing. maybe then the light bulb will go off.

the kid obviously hasn’t grown up, so growing pains are still to be expected. we can still hope we’ll get to the other side, but i think the discipline from EJ in the meantime is warranted.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 6, 2008 3:26 PM EST reply actions

Blatche isn’t strong enough aggressive enough nor dose he have the jumping ability to be a 4 or 5 he is better suited for the 3 coming of the bench.

by Dagger!!! on Nov 6, 2008 4:07 PM EST reply actions

with his current "skills" you might be right

but he’ll never be a good 3 in the nba. that’s the problem. he’s been developing the wrong skill set.

he could be a good 4/5, but he’d have to change his ways.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 6, 2008 5:22 PM EST up reply actions

Room him with a Pit Bull

Representing DC with Wizards & Stuff - Truth About It Dot Net

by Kyle Weidie on Nov 6, 2008 4:52 PM EST reply actions

kg

you bring up a good point about KG. i wish the wizards had a leader with his attitude. dont get me wrong, jamison and butler are good leaders, but theyre lead by example types, not in your face, fire you up types

by joshp on Nov 6, 2008 6:11 PM EST reply actions

I honestly think the issue

Is that he’s not as good as everyone thinks he is. Really. I don’t think it’s for a lack of effort, and I frankly resent the whole “now he’s paid, he doesn’t care” stuff. He had his best season last year after being paid. Perhaps he doesn’t take care of himself well enough still, but it’s a whole lot better than what we saw two years ago. On the court, I see someone who is trying to do too much, trying too hard to impress everyone so down on him.

And I really disagree when people say he hasn’t gotten better since he entered the league. He’s just not as good as people have expected.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 6, 2008 6:29 PM EST reply actions

i think there's some truth in that

but i strongly feel that he’s not “playing the right way” and that he could be a hell of a lot better than he is right now if he just concentrated on playing big rather than playing out on the wing or dribbling or shooting three pointers. i don’t know if this is on the coaches, or if this is blatche being stubborn and having to learn the hard way what he does and does not do well.

i completely agree with you that he’s trying hard this year. it doesn’t look like a lack of effort to me. it’s just that he’s not playing smart. i don’t think he understands yet what he has the potential to do well and what he doesn’t.

if the light ever goes on, i think he could be good – not great, but good. he doesn’t have anything that will absolutely prevent him from being good – like kwame with his brick hands. he just has a very low basketball IQ. he’s so young that i think there is still a chance he’ll start to get it at some point, although that could just as well spell his downfall.

having good basketball instincts is a large part of being a good basketball player and i do agree that blatche isn’t that good right now. there is little to no efficiency in his game and there is nothing he does particularly well right now, yet he tries to do everything. there is still hope that could change.

antawn saying blatche is so talented we need him to average 15 a game doesn’t help.

(btw, prada, this seems like a big change in your stance towards blatche.)

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 6, 2008 7:10 PM EST up reply actions

Not exactly

I meant that the issue right now is that he’s not as good as we expected. The issue isn’t that he’s dogging it, not trying hard, not taking care of himself, etc. It angers me when people speculate as to whether Blatche “gets it.” Gets what? He’s not sleeping at the Verizon Center anymore, that’s for sure. And how do you measure that anyway? If it’s based on performance, then the problem is that he’s not playing well. Plain and simple.

It’s like you said, he’s not always playing smart. He doesn’t have a clear idea of what his role is, and if he does, then he’s not executing it very well. I’m positive there is more the dude could do to improve his own play. No question.

But how much of that is all these expectations on his shoulders? Dray’s not Kwame; he wasn’t a number one draft pick that was supposed to save the franchise. He was a project drafted in the second round, knowing full well that he needed to develop. So why is it that he’s burdened with expectations to be a star? Why is his role jerked around (first he’s a 3, then he’s a 4, then he’s a 5, first he’s starting, then he’s playing 4 minutes, etc)? Why is Eddie signaling him out when the whole team is not playing well. Why is Eddie saying “Next question,” in response to queries about Blatche, instead of saying something like “We’re very disappointed in Andray, we hoped he’d take the next step. At the same time, the rest of the team isn’t doing well, so he’s not the only problem. I do want him to pick it up though?” Why is it that when the Bucks make a major run in the fourth quarter, he’s the first one lifted instead of either AD or Stevenson? Bogut absolutely destroyed us in overtime, when Blatche actually played him pretty well most of the game.

All these things play a role and they aren’t excuses. If Eddie and others are going to give Dray the harsh treatment, then others deserve it as well. Why must Dray, a second-round pick, carry the weight of the franchise on his shoulders?

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 6, 2008 7:45 PM EST up reply actions

carrying the weight of the franchise on his shoulders?

i strongly disagree on that. i don’t think he is.

butler, jamison, and arenas are the guys that have to carry this team, and if it doesn’t do well, jamison and arenas and EJ and EG and Abe are going to get the brunt of the criticism directed toward the franchise, not blatche.

the bottom line is that EG gave him a 5 year deal, and he does have athletic talent, so watching him play basketball the way he does right now in his 4th year is legitimately frustrating. it has also been frustrating that the fans have held him in such high regard up to this point. their anger directed toward him now may be a little over the top (not that i am not happy to some degree that i’m finally seeing this), but it’s just a result of their hopes being unrealistically high before now.

some may read this and think i can’t have it both ways – being frustrated at blatche and being frustrated with the fans who are also frustrated with blatche – but i think my view on the whole here is logically consistent. furthermore, i still have hopes blatche will be a good player, but i acknowledge he’s got a long way to go – my problem is that most people were penciling him in as a contributor this year, and counting on this was a mistake on their part. still, i’m glad most people at this point aren’t just supporting him regardless of what he does on the court anymore.

what isn’t fair is the heat EJ is taking right now. he’s feeling this team out like everyone else.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 7, 2008 12:34 PM EST up reply actions

I think I phrased that subject line poorly

It seems it applies more to the fans than to the franchise. We’re expecting too much of him (though I fully admit “we” is such a generalization).

He was a major contributor last year, he should have been penciled in this year.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 1:38 PM EST up reply actions

if he was a major contributor (for the first 4 months)

then doesn’t that legitimize the fans frustration with him for playing so poorly this year? and doesn’t his play warrant negative reinforcement from both the fans and the coach? particularly if the team is likely to struggle this year without a contribution from him? i mean, you aren’t acknowledging it much, but you’ve got to be frustrated with him and not just with EJ, the teammates, or the fans riding him so hard.

i grant that there’s a huge difference between expecting him to be a star and expecting him to be a contributor. many of us are merely hoping for that latter.

right now he’s doing neither and (i’ll repeat that) since he’s in his 4th year and EG gave him a 5 year deal… this is grounds for frustration even for those of us who were hoping for a minimal – but steady – contribution.

i can’t even imagine how frustrated the people who thought he’d go big time must feel. but in the short term, while i think they should be criticized for having unrealistic hopes, they deserve some slack in terms of how they feel until they adjust to the current picture.

as for blatche, i guess i disagree with you in that i don’t think he deserves that slack right now. i didn’t think he deserved it before.

hopefully at some point in the relatively near future, blatche starts doing things that warrant positive reinforcement (and cuts out the crap that doesn’t). then he can build on that. i have a feeling we might have to bottom out before that happens though.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 7, 2008 2:08 PM EST up reply actions

I am disappointed with him

From the Bucks recap:

Dray’s making mistakes, sure. It’s disappointing to see him run the break, only to throw the ball in the third row.

But I think there are other factors at play here and they should be mentioned. It’s hard to get a rhythm when your coach has a shorter hook for you than anyone else on the team.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 3:18 PM EST up reply actions

disappointment is different from frustration

disappointment is that he’s not living up to expectations. frustration is that he makes the same mistakes over and over again and that he doesn’t seem to have improved much, if at all, from last year. (especially if, like me, you weren’t a fan of the game he brought last year to begin with.)

that blurb came in the midst of a recap strongly defending blatche on the whole, so it’s not that strong a statement.

i can understand your frustration with EJ if you’re a strong believer in blatche, which you seem to be (although you are simultaneously saying he’s not as good as we think he is), especially considering EJ’s history with BTH. but if i’m EJ and i’m seeing what blatche is doing on the court, i’m yanking him too. i wouldn’t have said the same about BTH (except during that cleveland series where we got swept, BTH’s attitude on the court deserved it then).

so i see where you’re coming from about being more patient. but our patience with blatche repeating the same mistakes is running thin, and i just don’t get the backlash at the people who are understandably really frustrated with him and are expressing it. i also don’t necessarily think it’s bad for AB to hear some of it. maybe then he’ll at least stop dribbling up the court.

people are harping on that turnover and butler’s reaction – what’s incredible is that AB does that just about every game. yet, here we are… more of the same.

i still hope this changes for the better. soon.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 7, 2008 4:28 PM EST up reply actions

It's a difference of semantics then

I don’t see the difference between disappointment and frustration. I know they mean different things, but I’m not sure why that difference is significant in this context. We all want Blatche to play better. I’m not in a position to differentiate between types of mistakes, because in the grand scale, they don’t matter much. Darius Songaila’s shortcomings may be a result of genetics. Andray Blatche’s may be because of his brain. Either way, they cost the team, which is kind of the bottom line here.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 5:33 PM EST up reply actions

right

but i highly doubt you’d be bothered by the fans if they went off about how much songaila sucks…

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 7, 2008 6:27 PM EST up reply actions

Probably not

But Songaila isn’t the one being destroyed for not trying.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 6:38 PM EST up reply actions

I disagree

and pretty strongly. Last night in the bucks game he threw a backwards pass at the rim over his shoulder when he was in the post. This when we’re down late in the fourth quarter. There’s no other way to describe this play except stupid. That’s the reason blatche gets the hook, he makes plays that are not only bad, or lazy, but they are just bad basketball, and he does it constantly! That’s what people frequently mean when they say blatche doesn’t “get it.” It’s not what we don’t see in the locker room or on the practice court, it’s what we see in the games.

I say we pack him up with a guard and ship him to golden state for harrington.

by five by five on Nov 8, 2008 11:42 AM EST up reply actions

amen to that

not a harrington fan though. probably still wouldn’t trade blatche in spite of it all.

and i think you meant the knicks game.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Nov 8, 2008 12:26 PM EST up reply actions

Right, Al Harrington

Because we need another no-rebound chucker who can’t pass and hasn’t fit in anywhere.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 8, 2008 1:22 PM EST up reply actions

Again a little unfair

Harrington was squeezed into nelson’s system where they asked him to shoot jumpers. Not the best of rebounders, but he was doing about 7pergame in atlanta.

Plus even if he is a no rebound chucker who can’t pass, but there can’t be any denying that he’s an upgrade from blatche today. If you want to talk about upside, that’s another story, one on which I think we’ll not quite agree.

You’re right DWF, i was referring to the knicks game…was probably trying to block out the memory of losing to a couple of horrible teams on the bounce.

by five by five on Nov 8, 2008 1:42 PM EST up reply actions

I see what you both mean about harrington though

I just mentioned him because he’s begging for a trade right now, and there aren’t many players of that size around.

by five by five on Nov 8, 2008 1:51 PM EST up reply actions

It wasn't Nelson's system that made him into a terrible rebounder for a PF

His career rebound percentage is 11.3. By comparison, Darius Songaila, he of the “three rebounds in four games” variety, has a career rebound percentage of 11.1.

Nellie’s system is perfect for 3/4 hybrid forwards that can’t rebound, and Harrington couldn’t succeed there.

Plus, he makes 10 million a year. Blatche makes 3 million. There’s no point.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 8, 2008 2:22 PM EST up reply actions

You're right prada

And the harrington line in my original post was just a throwaway really. he’s asking a trade and our big man situation is downright depressing, I don’t see the wiz making any big moves even next offseason with the way we’ve committed to Jamison and Gil.

My main point was simply that blatche seems to display the same intelligence and restraint on the court as off it, this more than his perceived effort is what has me worried that he’ll never put up production to match his skills.

by five by five on Nov 9, 2008 4:30 PM EST up reply actions

Okay, that's fair

I think that phrasing it in terms of “intelligence” and “restraint” is more accurate and less pejorative than saying he’s not trying hard.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 9, 2008 4:37 PM EST up reply actions

My take on Blatche

To me, Blatche looks like a guy who is trying to do too much. The kid’s got talent, we all know that, and we all see that, which is one of the reasons why we’re so frustrated with him.

Honestly, I think he’s too thin to be a full-time center. He’s more of a four, and we want him to be Jamison’s successor, right? But he’s logging most of his minutes at the 5, yet we still have him playing the perimeter and bringing the ball up. What are his goals?

I think he knows he’s supposed to have a break out year this year, and is just forcing it. He could use someone working with him and greatly simplifying his game/

The Washington Wizards: providing career scoring nights for unknown opposing bench players since 2004.

by mamemimo on Nov 7, 2008 12:12 AM EST reply actions

Trade him

After all, Ernie was able to obtain Caron Butler for Kwame Brown…. Maybe we can get Yao Ming for Blatche.

[tongue firmly in cheek]

by Rook6980 on Nov 7, 2008 8:34 AM EST reply actions

He is definitely about the cash

Nice picture of him doing it for the love of the game here.

Yes, maybe he’s just not that good but, nothing that I’ve seen of him on or off of the court suggests that he’s focused on basketball and not goofing off.

by QualityGameDC on Nov 7, 2008 9:23 AM EST reply actions

Oy, that's remarkably dumb

Seriously. Once again, the dude has his best year after signing a major contract. Perhaps he’s just not that bright off the court? DeShawn wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 11:38 AM EST up reply actions

Fine

His best year still isn’t good enough. I know I’m being hard on the guy but I’m just ready for him to step up and I’m not sure who is going to be the guy to help him focus.

And no, Deshawn is def. not the brightest bulb of the bunch but he has way more skill than Blatche and is much stronger, of mind and body, than AB.

Either way, here’s hoping that he turns it around. I know he’s an athlete and i wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility.

by QualityGameDC on Nov 7, 2008 3:11 PM EST up reply actions

We both want him to keep improving. We’re both disappointed. But saying he’s not producing because he doesn’t take the game seriously is lazy and a humongous jump in logic. None of us have any idea how hard he’s working. And frankly, when I watch him out there, he doesn’t seem like he doesn’t care. If anything, he cares too much.

Don’t confuse performance with effort.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Nov 7, 2008 3:14 PM EST up reply actions