Boiling Over

by Romans12 on Dec 26, 2008 6:18 PM EST Comment 6 comments

I have had enough.

Last night was the last straw for me. I need to voice my thoughts somewhere. Instead of forcing my friends to listen, I will put my thoughts here so that you have the option to close the window at any time.

To me, last night painted a perfect picture of how pathetic this season has become. It is not just the players at fault, although they should shoulder most of the blame. This is an organizational issue, and one that disturbs me to my core.

I maintain that I have faith in Ernie Grunfeld. I feel that his patience in regards to making deals will eventually pay off in the end. Watching the Wizards fall apart in the last minute or so of last night's game was bad enough. The fact that Roger Mason Jr. buried a game winning three at the buzzer against Phoenix made me sick. He is near the top of the league in 3pt percentage. DeShawn Stevenson is now at 27.5% from long range. We chose Stevenson over Mason. What infuriates me is that I feel like I see through this whole "Send me to the bench so I can get my swag back" routine. Bull-fucking-shit. DeShawn Stevenson got paid and has lost his motivation. Plain and simple. Deep down I believe he wanted to go to the bench so that he could coast through the rest of his contract without the pressure of being our starting SG. Most people are treating this like a selfless attempt to make the team better. I don't buy it.

So where the hell is Ernie Grunfeld?? I mean seriously. When I am at work...and I am asked to do my job, and I respond by not doing it - I get my ass chewed out. Who is getting chewed out on the Wizards? Ed Tapscott is an absolute joke. His title before somehow ending up as the head coach was Director of Player Development, correct? Now, in my industry, we would simply call this position "Lead Trainer". His JOB is to TRAIN our players to be more efficient at their craft. The fact that he is employed by a professional sports team SHOULD mean that he is better at his job than any of us would be. He should be aware of the common sense mistakes that he is making on a daily basis. Who is getting trained on this team? Someone please tell me.

We just traded for Javaris Crittenton. He is young. He is talented. He is a point guard. If I was the head coach and the former director of player development, I would see this as a great opportunity to develop a young player. We drafted JaVale McGee. He is a freak athlete. He brings energy. He is young. He is talented. I would see this as another wonderful opportunity to develop a player.

So tell me this B.F. - What statement does it make to JaVale McGee when you choose to send in Etan Thomas into a game for two minutes as opposed to giving him some burn? Is it any mystery that Etan Thomas is not in this team's future? Even if his production increased, if you handed a list of our roster and each player's contract to every Washington Wizards employee and fan and asked them to circle the player who they would most like to see traded from this team, what percentage would circle Etan Thomas? I'd like to think that it would be a fairly high number. So here we have a player with zero future on this team...and another who, IMO, is a major part of this team's future. Two minutes of playing time - who do YOU give it to? Well Eddie Tapscott felt like it would be better to let Etan Thomas get that playing time. If I was JaVale McGee I would take that as a slap to the face. A good developer of players would see that Etan Thomas is essentially a finished product. JaVale McGee, by all accounts, has limitless potential that is begging to be developed. There is a major problem here.

Both McGee and Crittenton received "DNP- Coaches decision" in the box score. If I was the director of player development, I would have seen last night as a perfect opportunity for growth for our young players. Instead, we run DeShawn Stevenson out there for 21 minutes to continue his atrocious play. I seem to remember EG and Tapscott saying that Mike James could play both the guard positions. If he is on fire and nobody else on the team who plays the two is shooting over 20%, what would it hurt to have Crittenton get in there and run the point for a few minutes and let James slip over and play the two?

My biggest problem is that all of this is happening in the arena of an obviously lost season. Unless the ping pong balls do something crazy, we are in for a top five pick this year. Ed Tapscott saying that we are still playing for a playoff spot should be grounds for his dismissal. Can we please be the first professional sports team to fire two coaches in one season? I'm sorry but your clever anecdotes and eloquent speech do not hide the fact that you are a horrible NBA coach. Earth to Eddie...if you are losing most of your games in the fourth quarter, it probably means that your best players are getting tired and are not able to adequately finish games. Perhaps playing Jamison and Butler 40 minutes a night is a poor basketball decision.

Everyone in this organization needs to start doing their fucking jobs. If you break it down, this is a vocation, a job, a career. People are being paid to do things, and they are not doing them. Players, coaches, management, everyone is dropping the ball here. At the very least, play with the realization that you represent something more than yourselves and your teammates. You represent a great city and a passionate fanbase who pay very good money to support you. Seeing you fight for a candy dish on the sidelines more fiercely than you fight for a loose ball on the court is like spitting in the faces of the people who love you the most.

I don't mind rooting for bad teams. I rooted for Rip and Courtney Alexander. I had no problem with Juwan Howard, aside from his contract, because he played his ass off every night. Tom Gugliotta and Don Maclean hustled for some pretty awful teams. You, my current Washington Wizards, are a shame. You obviously don't give a shit about us so why should we give a shit about you?

I'm still going to watch every game. I will, however, admit that for the very first time in my life, I find myself hoping that the Wizards will lose. I want to win this draft lottery and grab Blake Griffin more than anything and I'm not afraid to say it.

Sorry if this pisses anyone off.

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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Only problem with this is

We didn’t choose DeShawn over Roger. When we re-signed DeShawn, Roger was an afterthought. They weren’t free agents in the same year.

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

by Mike Prada on Dec 26, 2008 8:44 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Anyone else see Roger hit the buzzer beater on Phoenix Christmas day?

Roger is the man.

by hibachi on Dec 26, 2008 11:43 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

A Response

A well reasoned, passionate, heartfelt post obviously born of a lot of frustration. Nothing you say can be refuted. Even if someone disagrees with you, your positions are not tainted by ignorance or lack of thought so they carry a lot of weight.

Therefore my comments are merely that, comments. My take on some of the issues you raise. Perhaps my guess as to what the reasoning is behind what the franchise is doing, perhaps my different view of the same events you describe.

1) I firmly believe that if Roger Mason Jr was still a Wizard he would be playing just as badly as most everyone else on the team. The swamp the Wiz are mired in has taken hold in the psyches of most everyone in the franchise. I don’t think Mason is the kind of player that could have stopped that. I have nothing but happiness at the success I’m seeing from him. He is an excellent fit for that team and I think most readers here knew he would thrive in SA. I wish we could have kept him, but I think the team made the right choice at the time. Go Roger.

2) I don’t believe whatsoever that Stevenson is purposely tanking or coasting. First of all he’s not that kind of person from what I can see. He is competitive, a hard worker, and very prideful. I can’t imagine him doing what you suggest. I think his D has been better this year than a lot of people around here give him credit for. His shooting has been horrible. I think he’s a head case, hopefully he can get his momentum back in the right direction.

3) I’ve taken to watching McGee when he’s in. Watching closely. He seems to make things happen, both good and bad. I find that a lot of times for every good play he makes that gets us a basket out of nowhere, he has at least one missed defensive assignment, bad play, mistake etc. I look forward to the day that he gets past that stuff. At the moment I’m not sure he’s a big plus out there. I can’t fault Taps for keeping a tight leash at the moment, though I agree it’s too tight.

4) Crittendon is clearly not ready from what little I’ve seen.

5) Thomas, as horribly as he’s played, was a better matchup for two minutes. Although those minutes were an utter failure, it was worth a try to see if our banger could bang with them inside.

6) I don’t think the franchise sees this as a lost season and I agree with them. Making the playoffs is not the only goal. Getting the team back on track is hugely important. Ending the season with 10 wins (or less?) would be a blow that would extend into next season in my opinion. I think the team has to keep trying to get over the hump, even if we don’t make the playoffs (which seems extremely unlikely). Giving up on vets, especially vets under long term contracts, seems like suicide for the future, unless you trade them of course. The team needs to get itself right and show that they can do it.

7) Taps is the interim coach. That allows him to be removed at any time without loss of face for him or the franchise. If a good replacement comes along that could easily happen.

8) I don’t think fatigue is the reason we’re losing fourth quarters. Although the reason may be coaching related, I don’t think tired players has anything to do with it.

9) The idea that this team is not fighting, playing hard, and hustling is absurd to me as a close observer. They have not given up. I see a lot of hard work. Not successful, obviously, but not throwing in the towel either. I see in their faces. They care. It amazes me that you could think otherwise. Don’t you see how hard it is for the players too? They sure don’t seem like they don’t care to me. They seem like they’re about to explode out of frustration.

10) I’m surprised all this is coming out after the last game. Maybe I shouldn’t be. It was the most frustrating loss of an incredibly frustrating season. But it was a game where the Wiz played really really well. A game that showed us the light at the end of the tunnel. Good passing, good defense, good rebounding. Whether you blame the refs or our typical poor execution in the pressure moments, we fought hard and it’s a perfect example of the team not giving in. It would have been a bad game to overplay youngsters for the sake of development.

11) Of course you will keep watching every game. That’s why you’re a Wizards fan. If you gave up on the team in times like this then you’d probably be a Lakers fan or some stupid shit like that. Probably root for the Cowboys and Yankees too. We aren’t like that. We’re made of stronger stuff than that. That’s why we’re better than those fair weather fans. That’s why we’re fanatics. That’s why we’re here.

by MR on Dec 26, 2008 11:59 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

True, True

I am a close observer as well. I see their faces on the court but I also see almost an entire team of players who seem content settling for jump shots. To me, that’s not playing hard. There are bright spots, yes. McGuire played great…his production was unbelievable. I love his game, he may be the best facilitator on the squad.

Crittenton and McGee are not “ready”, you are correct there. My question is, how “ready” do you have to be to get some playing time for a team that is 4-23? It just seems like we are focused way too much on the present. Now I agree with the one game at a time approach – but at this point we should be preparing for next season when, hopefully, we can run a healthy team out there.

by Romans12 on Dec 27, 2008 8:40 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

What I'd do

If I were in charge I’d find 10 minutes a game for McGee right now. Otherwise I don’t think I’d change the rotation much from what Taps is doing. If Gil comes back soon and things don’t change or if he doesn’t come back at all, then in about mid Feb I’d start getting the young guys more time. I wouldn’t change the starting lineup, but I’d bump each of them up. That would give them a month and a half of good PT before the season ends.

by MR on Dec 27, 2008 8:54 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

McGee

Needs atleast 10 minutes a game. I agree with that. I do think that he needs to get some more run with Blatche specifically. Looking ahead, these two could be a force coming off of the bench to spell Haywood and Jamison.

I wish that our rotations would resemble Boston’s a bit more. I understand that their players are more “trustworthy” than ours, but I really do feel that it would benefit the young players to know exactly when and how long they will be going in. I had a great basketball coach in highschool. He was strict with our minutes and rarely deviated from his plan. He sat every one of us down and told us what our role would be. I knew every night that I’d be getting somewhere between 10-15 minutes of playing time and I knew exactly what I was supposed to do when I got in. Mentally, I was able to prepare myself for those minutes. We were a very good team as a result.

Look around the league at the minutes other coaches are handing out to their young guys. I was unable to find many that fluctuated as much as the Wizards’. I’m not sure that Nick Young and JaVale McGee have any idea how much they will play on a given night. It is a mistake to underestimate the power of consistency in basketball. The fact that our rotation is constantly changing, to me, means that we will not typically be the team that is dictating the type of game being played.

Set the minutes. Stick to the plan. Only make a change if a player is consistently proving that they are unable to do their job – a la DeShawn Stevenson.

by Romans12 on Dec 27, 2008 10:52 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs