Don Nelson is starting to rest his veterans. What he does, however, is give them a whole game off; he says that over the years he has figured out that this works best. That way, when the guy plays, he plays his normal minutes. When he gets a day off, that’s what it is.

We could try that instead of just lowering minutes — on the other hand, it doesn’t much matter what *we* think. The man who speaks in big words ain’t listening.

Btw, no one would ever accuse Don Nelson of being sophisticated or an intellectual. He sure can coach, however.

I read, gain insight from, and enjoy every word you post.

I think that AJ’s defense only appeared to improve last year because he had Brendan (who really improved) to stop some of his mistakes. While Darius has many positives, his stopping power as a last resort is not one of them. It’s probably one of the reasons why he gets a lot of fouls ; we are usually behind at the end of the first quarter, and we are fighting uphill throughout the rest of the game.

I agree with you and I really love AJ’s offensive game also. I don’t believe that he is a slackard on defense. I just think that he simply can’t compete with the quickness of the players he is supposed to defend.

To compensate for the man-to-man defensive weaknesses, the Wiz frequently play a zone. When we do play zone, our defensive rotations in the zone are poor after the second pass and then we get killed by the 3-point shot. I’d be willing to bet three (and only three) push-ups that during practice, the ball seldom gets beyond the second pass so we don’t get to practice what to do after that.

It’s no small wonder that the best coaches are the best teachers. Coaching IS teaching. Good teachers praise in public and criticize in private. Poor coaches let everyone know that a player made a mistake and the coach is going to punish that player by taking him out of the game at a point that emphasizes the mistake. (classic Tap—terrible teaching/coaching, VERY bad for team morale)

The Wiz is composed of a majority of very talented, very young, and very under-coached players. We should take advantage of the fact that there is no pressure to make the playoffs; no pressure to win, and use the opportunity to teach sound, fundamental basketball and let the young guys have some serious game-time to learn. AJ and CB know how to play the game. Give them some rest (20 minutes of playing time max per game). The fans would love it.

Our problem, of course, is that we have very few current Wiz coaches who are capable of teaching basketball fundamentals. If we don’t want to replace any coaches, fine, let’s just hire a few specialists who can augment the current staff. A big man coach (Zo comes to mind), a defensive guard specialist, a rebounding specialist, etc. Come on Abe, it can’t cost that much and we just might find a real coach.

Go Wiz!!!!!

Not to be missed!

Jamison is a maestro around the basket. I love to watch him. His shooting % down low must be the best we’ve had since Moses Malone and the shots he makes would be really tough ones for most players. And getabigboy, I completely agree with what you say about his D. I do think, however, that last year he improved that aspect a lot. He seems to have regressed this year.

The most encouraging thing about McGee is his energy level. Most guys that big aren’t that energetic. He needs to temper that energy with focus and concentration when he shoots, but that should come with experience and confidence.

Pecherov was playing for a few games and doing OK. Now he’s disappeared again. No one can get confidence and experience just playing 3-4 minutes a game. Maybe they decided he’s just too ugly to be on TV.

We now have two very large hurdles to our teams future success. We are financially strapped and won’t even be able to sign our draft picks. And now it seems we have the possibility of Tap coaching the team again next season if Ernie believes he is doing a “good job”.