Washington Wizards Blog

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time October 22, 2009 at 11:34 AM

No surprise.

Someone suggested we sign Davis to a 10-day contract (don’t those kick in later in the season?) and someone else that we sign him to a non-guaranteed (but season-long) contract, allowing us to waive him by 1/10/10 w/o his salary counting against luxury tax.

Anyone think we’ll do either of those things?

Comment from Rick
Time October 22, 2009 at 12:12 PM

I suggested a 10-day contract (or several) as an insurance policy against Antawn’s shoulder. Basically just to have another body in practice.

Comment from millie mill
Time October 22, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Letting go Vincent Grier is not a surprise. I think Paul Davis will make the team not only because Antawn’s shoulder, but because we can use another big guy. I think Davis will get a contract like Dee Brown did last season. Only part of the contract will be guaranteed. After that who knows what will happen. The few clips of training camp showed Davis having a nice jumper like Jason Smith from the Sixers. Who I thought we should have tried to work out a trade to get. I suggested J-Critt for Smith because we needed a forward/center and the Sixers need a point guard.
With Davis we have the same kind of player as Smith, I think.

Comment from Babakism
Time October 22, 2009 at 1:32 PM

I’m finally starting to understand Tom’s obsession with wages vs. wins.

I started playing pickup ball 2 weeks ago in a gym with this group of guys that I’ve never really played with.

I never score more than 1 or 2 points a game and don’t dominate any statistical category. I just hustle, move, pass, set picks, and play tough D.

The first week I played with these 4 guys who were friends and we won 4 games beating a team consisting of the 4 best players not on our team easily.

Yesterday the 4 guys I played with last week showed u with a 5th guy and wanted to play together.

I played with the 4 guys we beat last time and ended up winning 3 games and beating the team I played for the previous week.

Therefore even though I don’t fill up the stat sheet I somehow must be the determining factor on how my teams keep winning lol

myabe it was because I led all players in diving on the floor setting a new personal record of 6 in 1 day lol while I can’t recall if anyone else dove lol

So yeah, wages vs. wins. I’m all about it. lol

Comment from millie mill
Time October 22, 2009 at 1:57 PM

@ Babakism, That’s funny. lol. I guess one guy out of five that don’t score and dose everything else right can make a difference.

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time October 22, 2009 at 2:51 PM

Babakism — don’t hurt yourself with those dives just to prove me right!!

Not scoring is fine as long as you don’t shoot — it’s guys who shoot a lot and therefore score reasonably well but at a low FG percentage: those guys are over-valued by most analysts, most stat systems, and most fans.

But “filling up the stat sheet” does matter — high per minute numbers in rebounds and steals are especially important because they give your team the ball (you can’t score without the ball), and low per minute numbers in turnovers are equally important (for the same reason).

Of course, setting good screens, moving to help spacing, and all the rest matter too! Keep it up, Babakism.

Comment from Babakism
Time October 22, 2009 at 3:50 PM

sometimes you might not get a steal but just knocking a ball out of a players hands or deflecting a ball out of bounds is enough to disrupt the other teams offense. I feel like getting in front of the cutter causing the pass he had coming to him to sail out of bounds should be recorded as a steal lol cause I do that at least once per game lol

Comment from Rick
Time October 22, 2009 at 4:27 PM

i wonder if there are teams who keep stats on things like setting good screens (kind of like an assist), or tipping a pass, or even making a good pass that doesn’t happen to be an assist, or simply having good position on the floor. if anyone really did go to such a granular statistical level, then I would put more credence in the value of those models.

Comment from Babakism
Time October 23, 2009 at 2:18 AM

We had a very similar discussion a month or two ago on the board. I beleive that coaches do have some of their assistants keep hustle stats and IQ stats based on whatever the coaching staff values. I think the league officials also keep weird stat breakdowns. such as quarter by quarter and final 5 minutes and so on and so forth. For instance I always remember the Wizards anouncers speaking about how Caron Butler leads the league in 4th quarter steals averaging over 1 per 4th quarter.