For any team, a new coach brings questions of how the current crop of players will fit into the new coach's style of play. These questions can range from general (how will a defense-first coach fare with an offensive-first team?) to more specific (how will a half-court offensive coach fare with a team that pushes the ball more often than the new coach would like?), but they are always questions that eventually achieve some sort of resolution. (Unless you're the Phoenix Suns, in which case your failure with a half-court oriented coach leads you back to the 7SOL era).
The Wizards are no exception to this process. Flip Saunders and Eddie Jordan may be similar offensive-guru types, but there's still an adjustment in styles at play. In fact, doclinkin's thought-provoking comments on the Andray Blatche evaluation demonstrate that the Wizards' adjustment is even more pronounced than in most cases. The subtle differences between Eddie and Flip's offensive and defensive systems* mean the players that once fit in well with Eddie's system may not fit in well in Flip's. With lots of new players and several guys returning from injury, that'll make for an interesting training camp.
*(What are those differences? Doclinkin's comments give you a good idea, but I'll try to sum up their differences as best I can. On offense, Flip believes in the point guard doing the bulk of the handling, a multi-tooled big man who sets high screens, swings the ball, hits open jumpers and has an above-average basketball IQ, a wing who shoots without dribbling much and a big man who sets good screens and doesn't need many shots. Eddie believes in a bunch of guys who swing between positions -- in essence two guards who both can handle and pass, two forwards who can play inside and outside, and a center who can pass. Flip's big on positional specificity, Eddie is not. On defense, Eddie prefers a scrambling defense that pressures you into transition baskets, while Flip prefers having long guys who aren't necessarily quick guarding their man, but whose length allows everyone to help out in order to prevent penetration and force you to shoot over the top).
Therefore, in anticipation of what promises to be an interesting training camp, we're going to go through each player on the roster and discuss how they might fit into Flip's system. I'm going to throw out a few reasons and ways the player might fit in well and a few reasons he might not. Ultimately, we as a group will try to guess how often each player will play and in what roles we might see him.
We'll start after the weekend and continue throughout the month. In the meantime, in this thread, let's collectively brainstorm a way to sum up Flip's offensive and defensive systems so we have a common understanding. What do you guys think are the necessities in Flip's systems? How much potential do you see for Flip to adjust his system to the personnel rather than the personnel adjusting to the system?