Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:13 AM

Welcome home Dave and Glenn, and a good morning to you! Well I know the Wizards marketing staff had come up with Character, Committment, Connection. I think we should change it to Just Stay Healthy. Who can say what this team can be? I mean we have yet to see it, it’s almost like the Rockets with Tracy and Yao, they go stretches with them, and then stretches of the season without them.

Yes the defense has really improved with Coach Saunders, I hope that we can get the team assists number to 20 plus a game and cut down our turnovers.
Get well JCritt, Jamison, Miller, Foye, Arenas, and James

Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:35 AM

Just wanted to bring this over from the previous post and talk about it more:

Arenas, Butler, Haywood,Stevenson and Blatche all played over 38 minutes in this game, Flip this is not “acceptable”……….Young 2 min, DMAC, 8 min, McGee DNP, we needed to use all available bodies, this really must mean the coach has zero confidence in McGee, DMAC and Young!

This is very troubling to me, to see that many minutes by those guys, and McGee, Young, and DMAC playing in spot duty. NBA players ALL are talented, between the salaries, and egos, all ball players to excel at any level need to play with….CONFIDENCE…..that is what certain players on this team lack, and can easily be restored by one person, wait for it……….Coach Saunders.

I give you the best example in the NBA at this, Coach Phil Jackson. If you look at every single team he has coached, he has always believed in playing the young guys and bench players early and often in the season to give them confidence. Another example of that is Coach Pop in San Antonio, this game is also played between your ears and the best coaches can manage that fragile surfcace called CONFIDENCE. So that brings me to our coaching staff, if you really want to bring this team to Championship aspirations, I ask you to look at the minutes from the boxscore. We have a team, and all should be held accountable, meaning all the players need to get minutes especially with injuries.

We have no idea what Young, McGee or DMAC can give us because they get the hook in 5 minutes or less. If they make mistakes, so what keave them in, because if you give them the hook, dare I say it you mess with their CONFIDENCE. We are like the perfect steak with seasoning, just keep in mind that we have more than salt and pepper on the table, we have a cabinet full of spice!

What I believe this team will be as good as Gilbert will take us and we will go deep into the playoffs, if we can instill confidence in the young guys and using the bench players all season. We will need an effective bench to challenge the ELITE in the NBA. So it’s still early and no need to panic, however it is time for a plan B (bench),

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time November 11, 2009 at 9:25 AM

Look, Gilbert Arenas went 7-20 from the floor and 4-8 from the line, and he had TWELVE turnovers. We’ll never be *in* a game if he plays like that — let alone win a game.

If we’re in a position where we’re calling for Nick to get minutes so that we become a better team, we’re *really* in trouble. That’s a 3d year player, who’s had major NBA minutes, and he hasn’t shown the ability to understand the NBA game let alone to contribute.

Comment from Rick
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Gilbert needs a big time attitude adjustment. He is just not being honest with himself about where his game is at. Things are still moving too fast for him and it shows in the box score, as Tom noted. And then there are little moments like when he decides to shoot a technical free-throw after just missing one and bricks the charity shot as well. Butler needs to shoot that tech Gilbert. I appreciate the confidence, but not the lack of perspective.

Comment from Rick
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:05 AM

oh and Butler has 0 assists again? in 45+ minutes? what?

Comment from maggicman11
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:05 AM

I agree jeffmalone- Its hard for me to understand Mcgee not getting into the game lastnight or any other night. He is a better choice off the bench than oberto. he can make players think twice about going inside. the way he can block shots and the way wood has been a blocking machine its hard to imagine not goin with him off the bench in favor of oberto who’s game is limited to on the ball D. he cant really get steals or block shots or make any for that matter. we need some easy buckets with our O struggling the way it is. McGee= fast break points. its been proven that every time he is in the game we are dangerous in the fast break game. instead of gil taking that shot on the 3-on-1 situation because he didnt trust making the pass, he definitely trust mcgee going up and throwing down just about anything.

And for DOM, he played better D on wade than anyone on our team.!! why not let him play?? especially when foye went down. Dsteve is a good defender but wade has shown twice that he can do what he wants against him. not to say DOM can *stop* him but he can definitely do a better job than dsteve.

As much as i have heard flip talk about Gil’s game IQ i must say i havent seen it through these first few games. he is committing turnover after turnover. taking contested shots, driving the ball into the lane when there really is no lane, just a bunch of defenders. Its seems to me as if he has the lowest bball IQ on the floor. Or maybe that crown could go to haywood. as much as he gives us defensively and with rebounding, i think im gona loose it if i see him shoot another fade away or 15ft jumper, or some ugly hookshot that doesnt have a chance of going in. he needs to understand his own game and what he is capable of and what he is not capable of.

something needs to change about this team in a hurry. I dont want to hear that its still early in the season. the good teams dont care if its still early. (lakers, boston, heat, magic, nuggets) they are playing right NOW!

Comment from TAG FLIP
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:14 AM

I’m not sure if I’m following the steak analogy jeff but i agree what your saying.. putting the young guys in for spot duty really isn’t helping their confidence. I thought we were going to see either mcgee or paul davis last night and neither of them showed. sure, we had good games from haywood and blatche, and oberto did a lot of the intangibles as he has all season.

how about this for an analogy: its the 19th centruy during the california gold rush and your over in what is today known as san francisco. your going to dig for gold to bring back home and sell through your business, and you have a minimum amount you HAVE to come back with in order to keep your business running. you get to the surface and you find a lot of what your looking for but it’s clearly not enough to keep you running. you keep digging deeper and you find what is fresher and newer gold.

my point is, we can’t just rely on our core guys who right now consist of arenas, stevenson, haywood, butler, blatche, and oberto. we have six injured players. that means we have to go deeper and rely on mcguire, young, mcgee, and davis. if each player can just contribute 5 points in 10 minutes of play on average a night while these 6 guys are hurt (plus if gilbert gets rid of his butterfingers), we should be able to take care of business.. but then again, that’s easier said than done =\

whatever, just my thoughts… sound away

Comment from Dakota Wizard
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:26 AM

Does anyone have any updates on AJ and MM? I didn’t see Miller on the bench last night in street clothes? I know they said 7-10 days so he should be ready by Saturday? and AJ? I can’t believe the rash of injuries we’ve had. Good point is when we get everyone healthy..this team has great potential! I like the Steve Blake trade idea but who do you package to get him?

Comment from Phemy
Time November 11, 2009 at 11:51 AM

ohh the potential we have, but still…we screw up. Argh!
The offence never really was our problem, what’s going on? Give Javale some minutes, he always is a spark of the bench…

Oh and didn’t gabbo say Nick will start by game 10? If the injuries continue, he might be right after all :/

We can only get better….here’s to the future. If the games would at least be exciting to watch, but oh well.

cheers

Comment from gray16
Time November 11, 2009 at 12:32 PM

i have a question… why did the wizards pay paul davis to be on this team, if even when other players are injured he’s going to get nothing but DNP’s?

another question? if flip believes players have to play to get a rhythm, why does he sit any young guy who makes 1 mistake after 3-5 minutes of play?

and off of that question, why does he play starters 45 mins even if they make mistakes?

seems to me that flip has said stuff he isn’t necessarily showing. he’s relying on arenas (who wasn’t supposed to play last night, wound up playing 42 minutes), butler (who in 45 minutes could only get 19 points and 7 assists), and not playing young guys, even mcguire who in 8 minutes last night went 1-2, had 3 rebounds, and was doing a great job on defense.

i hate to blame problems on a coach after last year’s fiasco with ej, but things aren’t adding up. hopefully flip can use his magic tricks to transform this team into a winning one.

Comment from TAG FLIP
Time November 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM

maybe flip needs to hypnotize everyone again

Comment from M2
Time November 11, 2009 at 1:55 PM

Dom Mandel….
Every word you typed is SPOT ON!

Comment from SportzWiz
Time November 11, 2009 at 4:01 PM

just wanted to let everyone know….Tune into NBATV tonight at 7:00pm for Real NBA Washington…The show looks at Gil’s return, Flip Saunders and Randy Foye’s back story

Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 4:17 PM

@TagFlip-it was early and I think I was really hungry, lol (about the steak) it should have read a steak with NO seasoning by the way.

Remember the gold ole days with a pass first point guard? memories………

Comment from Aj
Time November 11, 2009 at 4:34 PM

Yes… A league source on NBA.com says that Antawn and Mike Miller will be back saturday. If this is true I don’t care about the 2-6 start.

Comment from datonypony
Time November 11, 2009 at 4:54 PM

Maybe we put too much expectations on the wizard team this year. In preseason, I’m pretty sure we were all expecting around 48 wins right? If Jamison and Miller come back and we start playing great ball and get on a winning streak… great you know. But, if when they come back and we are only slightly better than the shambles right now, maybe we just overestimated them. Maybe, the espn critics were right :p

Comment from Rick
Time November 11, 2009 at 5:14 PM

one of the nice things about jamison is that he has the respect of the referees and gets calls (unlike say Blatche). he should really help out on offense, as will miller, but i wouldn’t say that having antawn back will do good things for our defense.

i really think one of our biggest problems right now is Arenas trying to do too much. and maybe having antawn out there will help settle gilbert down too.

i guess i am really looking forward to jamison’s return.

Comment from TAG FLIP
Time November 11, 2009 at 5:22 PM

consider this folks.. the main reason why the celtics won it all in 2007-08 is because they went out and got 2 all-star players in kevin garnett and ray allen. did we get any all-star caliber players this offseason from another team (i’m not talking about getting a healthy gilbert back)? no.. we went out and got depth, already we’re seeing it tested, and through 8 games we’re doing really poorly on the test. we didn’t go out and get a KG or allen.. we got mike miller, randy foye, and fabricio oberto. foye, still young.. miller, former 6th man.. oberto, ok he got a ring and olympic gold. but they aren’t all-star players. you can’t expect us to right the ship at the snap of a finger like boston did, especially when we’re not healthy.

Comment from dlts20
Time November 11, 2009 at 5:48 PM

Wiz are signing Earl Boykins.

how funny is it that we of all teams have to add another guard. We were supposed to have more guards than any team in the leauge and already 8 games in we have to add someone.

Boykins is Gil’s boy from GS though so I know he signed on to this move

Comment from Phemy
Time November 11, 2009 at 5:53 PM

hes 5ft?
They should have gotten dee brown….. oh well.

Comment from TAG FLIP
Time November 11, 2009 at 6:11 PM

where did you hear we’re signing earl boykins?

Comment from Wizards4Life
Time November 11, 2009 at 6:22 PM

yeah if we are going to ink some one we should talk to A.I. what better point gard is there thats not on a team right now.. but Earl Boykins come on for real

Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:59 PM

I am so so happy that we signed a TRUE PG, this will be a great boost to our offense and defense. Boykins will give the team something we have not seen since Michael Adams, speed! And he is a great on the ball defender, look for an increase in assists and fast break points!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Ernie and Mr Pollin

Look M2 our petition worked…….

Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 9:01 PM

With Miller and Jamison back with a real PG in Boykins and Arenas moving to the off guard, love it!

Comment from jeffmalone1990
Time November 11, 2009 at 9:07 PM

I smell a roster move coming also coming with Boykins on board

Comment from Tom Mandel
Time November 11, 2009 at 10:43 PM

We’re signing Earl Boykins? I guess that means goodbye Paul Davis — has he gotten on the floor at all?

EB isn’t going to make a difference. But, Wiz4Life, acquiring Alan Iverson would be about the worst thing we could do!

Lets not forget the game we opened the season with against Dallas. I’m not understanding why we can’t play like that again once Miller returns. In fact… I have no idea why we’re playing the way we are now. I don’t get it.

Comment from datonypony
Time November 11, 2009 at 10:52 PM

Tom that is so true.