On Slow Starts And The Need For A Change To Fix Them

I’m a little unsure about why he starts Lewis. I’m guessing it’s because he wants at least one veteran on the floor, but I’d be interested in seeing what Maurice Evans can do.

I’m fairly sure the reason he starts Blatche is that Blatche is the only guy on the roster who can command a double-team in the post, which opens up the offense.

might be another part of it.

not a single player (with the possible exception of JaVale) is playing even acceptably well.

Flip can’t just sit all of them for the whole game.

There are a number of problems with the Wizards right now, but by far the #1 problem is Wall.

The NBA is a star’s league. The team with the best player on the court usually wins (unless the other team has three or more guys who really play well), and so far, the other team has had the best player(s). Wall has never been close to being the best player on the court.

That’s why Nick’s points about the team lacking direction and game plan are correct. I’m sure they have a game plan. But I’m guessing those game plans are built upon Wall being the key guy, and right now, he’s not doing it. If Wall doesn’t fill that role, then the team is rudderless and has no direction.

I know Flip’s philosophy is for Wall to set up others during the first part of the game and then get his scoring later. That is a correct basketball philosophy. But in the short term, to get Wall on track, I think the gameplan should be geared towards getting Wall off early.

There were plenty of open shots. Starting a game by missing a bunch of uncontested shots and easy putbacks isn’t about game planning…unless the gameplan needs to change to "Nick Young going 1 on 5 and taking a bunch of contested shots" The awful thing is that NY prayer shots are going in at a better clip than Wall/Lewis open shots.

I think the problem is less with Saunders and more with the front office. We’ve seen coaches and players change over the years but the culture is still the same. No accountability. Whats the common factor? The front office.

but to your point….no doubt we’ll suck after Flip is gone, but if we at least look organized and coherent while we lose that’s a huge improvement

It is cheaper to keep Lewis than amnesty him because he has a $10mm buyout next year and a $20mm salary if amnestied.

But I remember a time when Amare’ Stoudemire said he would look good in a wizards uniform he was a free agent the same year we had the #1 pick which turned out to be John Wall. I honestly think we kind of missed our ship on that one. Two if we would had gotten off to the start the Knicks had got off to when Amare’ scored at lest 30 a night for like 30 games straight I think if anything it would have boosted Gil value even more. I mean you can call me crazy because this is a public forum but I think if Ernie and Ted were going to give a big contract out it should have been Amare’ and not blatche.

Is Wall a #1 guy? Or is he a #2? Far too early to tell, but I think many of us assumed that he would be a #1 guy. So far this season (six games only, without much of a training camp, let’s not forget), that assumption is starting to look slightly shaky.

You may be correct that our new big 3 will be:
Number 1 — To be determined. Perhaps the Wiz’s 2012 lottery pick.
Number 2 — Wall
Number 3 — McGee. (I’ve been very impressed with him so far this season.)

They are just rudderless. We all know the implications of this, and we continue to state them in oh so many ways.

There will be opportunities to make deals as the tight schedule takes its toll on other teams’ key players or exposes weaknesses that we might help them fill… or problems to take off their hands.

Memphis might need Blatche now. Sacramento might really need to shed Cousins. The Wolves could use a productive 2-guard and need to move Beasley to free up minutes for their younger SFs. Cleveland probably would give up Jamison to free up PF for Trey Thompson. That is all stuff for EG to evaluate.

But the first problem is getting the guys we have, especially the guys we want to keep, to play a style that fits them and to start to experience a little success that will make them enjoy the game that is their profession. Flip is not making this happen. Someone else might do better, and certainly they could not do worse.

When you consider that for all of the awful things that this franchise has done over the last 32 years, and then consider that none of the previous incarnations went 0-6 (soon I fear to be 0-7) out of the gate, the fact is that we have now reached the bottom of the barrel. We are, point blank, the worst team in the NBA. Everybody who follows this sport or reports on it knows this. They are laughing up their sleeve at us.

The legendary Beat poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, once wrote the classic line, “I am waiting for Ike to act.” Well, this old hippie is waiting for Ted to act.

i’m actually worried about what i may witness tomorrow night at VC. i can laugh at having that feeling i guess, pretty funny to be that comically bad

Ted WANTS TO LOSE AS MANY GAMES AS POSSIBLE…Saunders may be in a tough position

Who taught kevin durant how to play at OKC? Nick Collison? Please.

Thanks for watching and counting.

and did his own thing….score first for now John, and pass the Javale the ball

probably laughed at something Javale said, no longer allowed to play.

it’s not even close.

he could really pass the ball. he couldn’t jump anymore, but he certainly could pass and see the court.

But you can’t really fault any of the players imo. Ernie built this team, he decided to stock it with a bunch of low iq, extremely athletic players, with little to no ability to score.

And then you expect your franchise player to carry this load for the next four years. You expect your franchise player to remain upbeat and “smile” while the rest of his team struggles to “get it”. Then if/when they do, wall’s contract is up, he’s burnt out being here, and your left with a team full of average players and no star.

Its great and all that Ernie was able to turn over the roster to what it is now, but is anyone here truly confident in the way he’s building this team? Blatche and Young should have left with the Big 3. Then you might have possibly had a chance at a true rebuild.

There’s no way you can expect a culture change when your two oldest players derived so
much of their NBA experience from Agent Zero.

You have every right to have your own opinion but you hear it all the time when your shot’s are not falling the best way to get yourself going is at the freethrow line plus you get that attack mindframe, and when he see’s his teammates not making shots and running around with their mouths poked out because they are not shinning and now they are playing dead ball how can he play inspired. I mean really his background and the program he comes from I mean really maybe some of you have not seen it but I would advise you to go back and look at his intro at BIG BLUE Kentucky when he was a freshmen. Dude put up the same #’s Derrick Rose put up in his rookie season the only reason Rose won ROY was because he was already on a playoff bound team as to a rebuild. Honestly I think we were screwed from the jump when Wall first got here and you still had the knuckleheads around with two of them in their contract year and the other a year later. None of which were ever held accountable the whole time they were here and now they are the ones getting the bulk of criticism, then on top of the fact did you see the all out celebration we had when Wall first got here, and all the praises he was getting, come on you mean to tell me Blatche,Young,and McGee were not looking at that they should have blew this whole thing up from the jump, and now everybody playing time to get paid basketball.