Comments on: Training Camp Day 4 Practice 1 (only one)

By: Tom Mandel

Tom Mandel — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:18:04 +0000

Miami could be much better this year than last, but I can’t see them winning the division — now if Beasley comes out of the gates an all-star, then that improves their outlook.

Although, yes, we are world-beaters as neal says, we were last year too and won 43 games. I’d like to win a zillion and the ring, but last year is probably a better indicator than my enthusiasm of what we’ll do this year.

We haven’t changed much. We lost Roger who was a pretty reliable backup. Despite bringing in Juan, we’ll have to see very improved play from Dominic and/or Nick to make up for that loss. The return of Etan is a wild card, however. If things go well, we have a shot to be as good as we were a few years ago and get into the 2d round.

By: GrifonRacing

GrifonRacing — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:21:11 +0000

Everybody is talking about players 6 – 15 now because we finally have some talent there. It’s really nice to see how fast and systematically Ernie has upgraded us.

What I like most about our team now is I no longer have to explain why I wear a Wizards cap. In the old days I’d almost have to explain why I was a fan to people LOL.

By: GrifonRacing

GrifonRacing — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:15:34 +0000

I think the highest the writers had us ranked pre season last year was 8th in the east. Amazing how much those dudes get paid for being wrong.

Yep Tom… WE are still tied for first place

By: SportzWiz

SportzWiz — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:47:37 +0000

So I was about to get real mad with that 14th ranked prediction and then I checked out nba.com and its based off of a EA sports simulation. So basically the computer programmers of an ea sports game dont think the wizards will be good not professional writers.

As far as john hollinger i still remember when he called us the 13th best team in the east before last year started and that was with what he thought to be a healthy gil

By: neal

neal — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:20:16 +0000

Whoever predicted us to finish 14th hasn’t been reading these blogs. The more I read the more I think we are world beaters. LETS GET IT ON!

By: GlingGling

GlingGling — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:17:51 +0000

Let them naysay. They obviously haven’t been tracking the Wiz and they obviously didn’t watch us last season. I’m not here to gain the approval of people who cannot see the future. As long as our boys go out swinging for the fences I’ll be happy. When they stop trying then we’ll have something to talk about. Until then let the meteorologists do the forecasting.

By: ricklevinenyc

ricklevinenyc — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:01:47 +0000

Of course, we don’t want to end our season like the Hornets did. But we do want home court advantage!

By: ricklevinenyc

ricklevinenyc — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:01:02 +0000

It easy to give the Wizards no respect. So many losing years as the Bullets and now with Gil out, the sports writers find it easy to dismiss our chances. But I kind of like that positioning. Let us be the New Orleans of this season. Before anyone has a chance to realize how good our young players have gotten we’ll be beating all of the “top” teams in the league.

By: Reuben

Reuben — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:41:50 +0000

Im reading a lot of season previews predicting the Wizards to do very badly. Here are just two of them

NBA.com predicts The Heat to be conference champions and us to finish 14th! I dont think that is even possible for us to do. They predict us to end with a 30-52 record.

ESPN.com Predicts 36-46, 4th in Southeast Division,and 11th in Eastern Conference. I really hope that doesn’t happen.

By: Tom Mandel

Tom Mandel — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:38:47 +0000

This is such a great time of the year — the guys are back, they are all much better, every one of them, and we haven’t lost a game yet.

It is definitely interesting how the focus is kind of shifting to the young kids! A couple of years ago, anyone outside the top 6 or 7 players was kind of an afterthought. Now, we are really attending to Nick, Dray, Dom and JaVale — and Dee too, for that matter.

I guess it’s obvious that we have one of the better starting 5s in the league — even w/ Gil out. So *a lot* does depend on the bench — mostly that’s the kids.