There is a solid team on this roster - if they get the minutes

by zl on Jan 30, 2012 9:43 PM EST

As terrible as the Wizards look, right now, I honestly believe that they are not nearly as bad talent-wise as their record suggests. I think that Wizards players can be sorted into three tiers: the good, the solid and the bad.

Good:

JaVale McGee, C - I don't think anyone could dispute this, JaVale has proven over the past two seasons that he is a top 15 center in this league and deserves a long term contract once the season is over. Where he's shown the most improvement is his defensive rebounding, which has risen consistently since he entered the league.

Trevor Booker, PF - Book continues to be the most underrated player on this team. He scores his points efficiently, rebounds the hell out of the ball, and makes few egregious mistakes. I love Book and I think he should be given the starting job permanently.

John Wall, PG - John started off the season horribly; there were even some ridiculous whispers that he was a bust. Over the past few games, though, John has shown flashes of the superstar we think he's going to be. I think he's an above average point guard going forward.

Ronny Turiaf, C - Turiaf may be injured right now, but he is a proven high-energy impact player that works well off the bench and knows how to fit in with a team.

Solid:

Chris Singleton, SG/SF/PF - He's been essentially what we expected, but he needs to improve his shooting.

Shelvin Mack, PG - Shelvin's been a pleasant surprise, he's a good backup point guard.

Kevin Seraphin, PF/C - Seraphin has rebounded the ball well, he's still raw but I think he has a future in the league as a big man off the bench.

Jan Vesely, SF/PF - Jan is just so raw, but so promising. His aggressiveness is an asset when it comes to rebounding and defense, but it causes him to foul all of the time. Most bf readers could shoot a higher percentage from the foul line. I'll let that speak for itself.

Bad:

Nick Young, SG - Nick's strength's and weaknesses have been gone over so many times on this site that it would be pointless to list them again. To be brief, the only thing he can do is shoot, and he's not even doing that efficiently. Most overrated player on the roster.

Andray Blatche, PF - Get him off the team

Jordan Crawford, PG/SG - Plays like he's Kobe Bryant, has the skillset of Shelvin Mack.

Rashard Lewis, SF/PF - Barely resembles the player who player who was so integral to the Magic just a few years ago. Deep into his decline.

Notice how every "bad" player on the roster plays significant minutes when healthy. This is why the team is losing. If we ran a starting lineup of Wall, Young (we really have no SG's), Singleton, Booker, and Mcgee consistently, we certainly wouldn't be a playoff team, but we wouldn't be this embarrasing.

With a player like Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb, or Harrison Barnes, this roster would be drastically improved. We need another scorer and we need them bad. But the future is bright for this team, if we have a coach and GM who know what they're doing.

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

I don't think the 2012 draft will dramatically improve the roster

I think Harrison Barnes or Jared Sullinger would help us the most for next season, but the roster definitely needs some shifting around. Prada’s article about shipping off a few young guys to grab a legit player and allowing the remaining young players a guaranteed role is a good idea.
C- McGee
PF- Vesely
SF- Barnes
SG- _______
PG- Wall

PF- Booker
SF- Singleton
PG- Mack

Maybe trade Singleton/Booker, Crawford, and Blatche for a solid core player and scrub…? I love Booker and Singleton, but unless we get Lamb in the draft we are most likely adding another frontcourt player.

by DaGribb on Jan 31, 2012 3:34 AM EST reply actions

Good vision zl

Your seeing it the same way as me.Booker needs to be a starter and yes they do need another scoring threat.

by DC sportzfan on Jan 31, 2012 8:13 AM EST reply actions

Except for Mcgee and Mack (who has been surprisingly solid) the whole roster has been rather underwhelming imo

I can’t really put them in groups like Good or Solid.

- Blatche, Wall and Young have regressed, but still are our best players, along with McGee.
- Crawford has been atrocious but even if he gets better, as a player-type he just isn’t a good fit with Wall
- Booker and Singleton project to be usefull players. Not core pieces but nice to have anyway.
- Vesely, could be in that group with Book and Chris, which would have been fine if he wasn’t the #6 and supposedly a core building block in the rebuild.
- Evans, Turiaf and Mason haven’t been able to contribute anything for various reasons.
- Seraphin, the guy we traded up for is the most troubling to me. He is light years away from being a NBA player. His skill set is very limited. His bread and butter in the Euroleague was his ability to bang down low, his athleticism, agility and shot blocking. That’s why Ernie drafted him, hoping he would learn some skill and be a second coming of Nene. Ernie forgot that the ‘good’ athleticism he had in Europe is mediocre in the NBA. He also forgot that a 6’8ish bigman is good size in Europe but midget size amongst the tree’s of the NBA. He has no skills and his physical qualities deminish here.

Who won? Who lost? Who cares?! The NBA is Back! - David Aldridge

What seems to be the officer, problem? - Randy Marsh

by Dutch Hoopfan on Jan 31, 2012 9:11 AM EST reply actions 1 recs

I think EG might have given up on finding shooters in the draft

Look at some of EG’s picks.

Michael Redd wasn’t a great shooter when he came out. That’s why he didn’t get taken until the middle of the second round. Surprised everyone.

Jared Jeffries had very good shooting numbers during his last year of college, despite his funky shooting form.

Jarvis Hayes had a beautiful stroke and good shooting numbers in college, but look what happened.

We need shooters, but maybe EG is planning to fill the hole through free agency. Draft guys for reliable traits like athleticism, work ethic, bball IQ, etc. Wait and see who develops a reliable shot. After things shake out, find shooters through free agency.

by yop32 on Jan 31, 2012 10:55 AM EST reply actions

I think you're right.

Looking at the culture change that needed to happen with the Wizards, he looked for character and defense in the draft. I’m actually glad he decided to do that first.

by mogoman on Feb 1, 2012 7:56 AM EST up reply actions

Did he ever use the draft to look for shooters??

2011 – Vessely, Singleton, Mack – ummm…Mack maybe ..maybe
2010 – Wall, Booker, Seraphin, N’Daiye – none of these dudes can shoot!!
2009 – none
2008 1 18 McGee, JaVale Walker, Bill – he can shoot…but he never stepped foot in DC
2007 1 16 Young, Nick – that is all he can do!!
2007 2 47 McGuire, Dominic – Couldn’t shoot!
2006 1 18 Pecherov, Oleksiy – Veremeenko, Vladimir- These two could barely play basketball!!
2005 2 49 Blatche, Andray – I guess he can shoot..a little
2004 1 5 Harris, Devin – traded for jamison(who can shoot)
2004 2 32 Ramos, Peter John – LOL
2003 1 10 Hayes, Jarvis – sweetest missed jump shots I have every seen…oh wait Calbert Chaney has some picture perfect misses too!!
ERNIE GRUNDFELD SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!

by JeffMalone#24 on Feb 1, 2012 12:35 PM EST up reply actions

I hate the idea that "shooters" will solve everything. I hope you arent on the "let NY go" bandwagon, because he is our only good shooter.

What this team needs is better players. More talent. Our players just aren’t that good. I mean look at the above post Ronny fucking Turiaf is apparently on of our few “good” players along with Trevor fucking Booker and McGee. This team is garbage.

by tw10 on Feb 5, 2012 6:02 PM EST up reply actions

Sorry for the rant, i just want to go back to watching a decent team.

by tw10 on Feb 5, 2012 6:03 PM EST up reply actions

Space inside

All of our players (except Nick, Mack, and some of our old guys) need space inside to play their games. My guess is that some, maybe even all, of our guys are actually pretty decent, but it’s impossible to tell, because we can’t give them the necessary space for them to show their skills.

Getting to your spots, getting your shot off- basketball is a game of inches. Shooters on the perimeter can make a huge difference if they can give you those last couple of inches you need.

by yop32 on Feb 6, 2012 8:06 AM EST up reply actions

I dont think the issue is talent, its the way in which our players play the game.

Until our players learn how to make the extra pass, we’re going to keep playing terrible basketball.

by Alpha_Snail on Jan 31, 2012 1:27 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

I think talent definitely has something to do with it. Talent and intelligence.

Too many of our players are too one-dimensional or too raw to really develop into solid contributors quickly. Take Nick for example. Nick is a shooter. All he does is jack up shots. He doesn’t really have the passing or court vision “talent” of some other SGs who are more than just jackers. Vesely and Seraphin (especially Seraphin) are far too raw right now to be solid contributors. They both have little or no offensive game! While I love Jan’s dunks and his D as much as the next guy, you need your wings to have the talent to score from the perimeter and your bigs to have the touch to score down low. No amount of extra passing is going to teach Vesely how to knock own J’s consistently, or teah Seraphin a steady post move.

by Ron Carlos Jeines on Jan 31, 2012 3:15 PM EST up reply actions

intangables are talents too

They shouldn’t be named as an afterthought in a scouting report but unfortunately they often times are. They also shouldn’t be viewed in a dichotomous relation imho, like saying Vesely has no skill but he does have a great motor. Imho, intangibles skills should be viewed as just another tangible skill (if that makes any sense at all) like shooting, rebounding and ball handling.

Who won? Who lost? Who cares?! The NBA is Back! - David Aldridge

What seems to be the officer, problem? - Randy Marsh

by Dutch Hoopfan on Jan 31, 2012 6:40 PM EST up reply actions

I agree about the importance of intangibles.

I WISH a guy like McGee had the motor and the drive of Booker or Vesely. But you need BOTH intangible and intangible skill to be a good player. Too many guys on our team seem to have one or the other.

by Ron Carlos Jeines on Feb 1, 2012 1:12 PM EST up reply actions

Took the words right out of my mouth

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by Mike Prada on Feb 2, 2012 11:01 AM EST up reply actions

I agree with about 65% of what you're saying

Booker, McGee, and Wall are all playing their role and playing it well. I would also say they are “Good”. I’d probably also put Mack in the “good” because he plays his role very well. He’s a great back up to Wall. I hope these guys are around for the long haul. Singleton and Vesely are up and down, which is essentially what everyone was predicting.
I just really don’t see where the optimism about Seraphin. It’s his second year in the NBA, his 4th professionally, yet he still looks completely lost out there, on both sides of the court.
Blatche and Lewis are most definitely in the “Bad”. Get them out of here.

by Ron Carlos Jeines on Jan 31, 2012 3:10 PM EST reply actions

"...To be brief, the only thing [Nick Young] can do is shoot"

smh he’s an excellent on ball defender and doesn’t turn the ball over. As far as efficiency he has definitely been disappointing so far but what do you expect when he’s the only guy on the team that can shoot? He’s been swarmed by other teams and has had to take some bad shots. Part of his poor shot selection is also due to his terrible passing ability, but I’m not convinced that he’s still not capable of being an efficient scorer.

Looking at his percentages (http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Nick%20Young) he is still shooting very well this year at the rim (66%) and from 16-23 feet (46%). However he is shooting well below his career norms from 3-15 feet and most notably from 3 point range. Part of this I think is an anomaly but part of it is also because his percentage of assisted field goals is way down in every category except at the rim. Some of this is due to the added attention teams have been giving him but some of this I think has been a result of his teammates (esp. Wall) failing to find him for open shots. Because of this, he has been forced to take more tough, contested shots, often at the end of the shot clock.

This isn’t meant to completely excuse his struggles. I keep waiting for him to turn the corner this season, while you may just see it as evidence of his regression. However, I believe that the data show that his poor shooting has been due partially to chance and also the greater failures of the Wizards’ offense, and am optimistic that his numbers will improve.

by rgc19 on Jan 31, 2012 9:54 PM EST reply actions

I also think his assisted field goals are down from 3

because he’s not coming off screens as much as he did last year

by Llamaman on Jan 31, 2012 10:44 PM EST up reply actions

I have to disagree

On the word choice here, I think it should be:
The Solid
The Bad and then the
Let these people go

Also I don’t think Nick Young deservs too much criticism, if it wasn’t for him we would average 70 points a game

by Young Wook Lee on Jan 31, 2012 10:53 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

my take on the roster:

On offense, it lacks shooters and players that can create shots. On defense, it has some good individual defenders but overall the team hasn’t learned to play good team defense yet. The best thing going for them is they’re young, long and athletic, which isn’t insignificant, but not enough to win basketball games consistently.

by Johnnie Futbol on Feb 1, 2012 9:29 AM EST reply actions

You know you're reaching when Turiaf is in the "Good" category

Remove the curve and use a normal NBA standard, and I think you get the below. They’re are a lot of young guys, but this is where they stand now, and improvement is never guaranteed.

Good:
Wall

Solid/Good and Bad:
McGee, Booker, Young

Limited:
Turiaf, Mack, Singleton

Bad:
Crawford, Seraphin, Vesely, N’Daiye, Evans, Mason, Blatche, Lewis

by steadyhand on Feb 1, 2012 12:26 PM EST reply actions

i laughed when I saw Ronny there...

And he wants our starting frontcourt to be JaVale and Booker?

Mamma’s little bitch and a PF who is shorter than the starting SF? Sounds good.

NY shoots 37% from deep this year and shot 39% last year…2 seconds of “research” shows that last year he finished 46th in the league in 3pt percentage. Among the top 50 there were 6 players that averaged a high ppg average…Curry, Love, Rudy Gay, Danny G, Kevin Martin, and Dirk. Yeap, Fuck Nick. Let him go. Great idea. Let him go to Chicago so they can win a title.

In all honesty sometimes I wish NY would walk and go somewhere like Chicago where they desperately need a player like himself. He would tear it up…

by tw10 on Feb 5, 2012 3:40 PM EST up reply actions